Update on the fighters, it's been a while

Without revealing too much, here’s an update on the progress of the guys who are going to be fighting in just 17 days.

Strength: As I’ve mentioned before, I put most of the guys through a prehab phase of strengthening and flexibility for about 5 weeks, and then moved the training up a notch in 3 week bursts. This is the last 2 full weeks of training, weeks 9 and 10, and we’re into the final notch as it were. From here the strength and conditioning training becomes more sport specific with crazy g n’p drills mixed with high intensity cardio rounds with movements like resisted shooting, lifting and so on thrown in for good measure. There’s also some secret stuff which I won’t mention in case people rob it.

Tactics: From here the sparring element takes precedence and includes stuff like game plan and the like. I’ve stayed away from game plan training early in the phase because of the changability of fight cards at the amateur level. You might put 4 weeks of training into taking a guy down only to find out 2 weeks from a show that your opponent has dropped out and his replacement is a great grappler. So the early part of training is muti faceted with some attention to weaknesses and strengths of your opponent. Now however since the opponent is almost definite, we turn our attention to where we think we can beat them, and some of the sparring reflects that. I expect to see the guys trying to put a gameplan into play every time they spar, but at the same time you can’t try to fit a square peg into a round hole and a fighter has to be comfortable with the plan himself. It’s a balance between playing to your strengths and taking your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses into account too.

Headspace: As a self doubter, (some say worrier, some say moaner) I understand what some people are going through with their training at the moment. Heads have a tendency to drop when you haven’t had a night out in 6 weeks, you can’t get laid cos you’re just too damn tired to bother after training (admit it), and you feel sore and tired all the time. In fact, if you’re anything like me, I’d bet that the only time you feel really 100% in a heavy training period is when you’re training. On the other hand there are those lucky few who bounce around no matter what, who seem to be confident all the time and couldn’t give a damn. I think they’re just pretending though, at least I like to think so. The important thing at this stage is to just keep plugging away at the training no matter what and eventually you come out of any slumps. It helps to talk to your coach and team mates too. I know it sounds a bit wussy but everyone understands, from sprinters to fighters to footballers. In any case I think the night out after this show will be mental so we’ll have to organise something good.