January 23, 2008 by jleeger.

Hi all,

Since today is a GPP day, you know what to do.  Pullup burpees, five sets of 1 minute, or five minutes continuous - try to beat your previous best.

That being said, I wanted to add a few words about training, and Bagua.   Conditioning your muscles to be stronger will lend to your effectiveness at Bagua, but only if you’re practicing.  The opposite is also true.

If you are only practicing, and not working out, you might come to some difficulties.  If your body isn’t prepared for motion in a certain direction, or the forces that you (and your partner) generate during practice, you’re not far away from some kind of tear, pull, strain, etc.

Similarly, if you’re working out, and not practicing, you’re going to get your butt whipped on spar-nights.  I said before that the stronger of two equally-trained competitors will always win.  I still believe that.  However, if you aren’t equally trained, it’s anyone’s game.  Anyone who has ever watched UFC has seen the fights where the big strong guy stomps the less-conditioned well-trained martial artist (remember Tank Abbot anyone?).  We’ve also seen the well-trained artist crush the big strong dude who looks like a tank.

As UFC goes on, it’s becoming more and more serious.  You don’t see too many guys getting into the ring who are flabby anymore.  Not unless they’re dumb.  The more seriously the majority takes it, the more seriously the minority has to take it, in order to survive.

That being said - Practice!  Condition!  I’ll introduce some workouts next week (conditioning workouts) that only take fifteen minutes (a la the 5-minute pullup-burpee challenges).  If you’ don’t have fifteen minutes in your day to workout, something is seriously wrong.

Leeger, out!

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January 23, 2008 by george.

One of my pet reading areas is in sports psychology. I find that especially after studying something like the internal arts, you get an even greater appreciation for what goes on in your head with regards to the various facets of training.

I recently found a blog on sports psychology and combat sports. I haven’t yet had a chance to read through the whole thing, actually I only read the first couple paragraphs so far, but I’m guessing some of you might want to check it out.

There’s a lot of good books out there on the subject. Actually, I’ve also heard that GSP recently credited his visits with a sports psychologist for preparing him so well for his latest fight with Matt Hughes.

Anyways, here’s the link:

http://combatsportpsychology.blogspot.com/ 

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