CM Defense Program

noreply@blogger.com (Rodney "Chico" King) — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 06:56:00 +0000

Hi Everyone,

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noreply@blogger.com (Rodney "Chico" King) — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 07:15:00 +0000

GOING HARD IN SPARRING

Mars Cheung who trains in California posed the following question to me:

“While we're on the subject of sparring hard, Rodney, do you feel it's necessary to go hard? I wonder if we develop a false sense of security by always sparring light because the pain of contact is deescalated”.

I often get asked this question by coaches as well. I find most of them have not really thought the question through well enough and unintentionally cause more harm than good to their athletes when getting them to spar.

Several yeas ago I was adamant that everyone had to spar hard all the time or otherwise what was the point. My disdain for martial arts schools that did semi-contact sparring or no sparring at all left a bad taste in my mouth. I saw them as sellouts and us as the keepers of the truth. If I reflect back when I was in the ‘knock or be knock-out mentality’ it was the time when I found myself using what I coached nightly outside the doors of nightclubs as a bouncer. It was also my most insecure time and when I was the most afraid.

My opinion on sparring hard all the time has changed much over the years. Today I believe you need to ask yourself honestly why you are there first? There are three main categories of people seeking realistic, performance based martial art training who each require different strategies in respect to sparring. I have outlined them below:

If your career is one of danger and you would need to rely on the material coached in actual unarmed combat then absolutely yes, you have no choice but to go hard in training and especially sparring. You are going to have to a do a fare amount of full contact sparring during this period. These directives are to those in Law Enforcement, Military, VIP Protection and the sort. I would suggest that these groups of people spar relatively hard twice a week, with a further two to three sessions a month that are geared to going full out. It is very important that these personnel are adequately ‘stress inoculated’ against the rigors of unarmed combat. Training these personnel is more about getting them ‘comfortable’ while been attacked, keeping their minds clear under the stress of someone trying to beat them up or possibly kill them, been able to take a punch if needs be while ultimately been focused on getting the job done as quick as possible. For them it is not a matter of going several rounds, but rather quick explosive, full power bouts, with extra cardio required if it should take longer than expected. In fact outside of the stress inoculation during sparring sessions, equally important, if not the most important are the levels of cardio- fitness as well as conditioning of each member. Techniques taught and actually used in sparring should be kept to the minimum, but those taught must be able to be functionally applied.

If you are a competitive athlete say in Muay Thai, MMA, Boxing and the like you may need to approach this differently. How much sparring do you need? This is hard to say depending on the combative sport of your choice. I found it quit interesting in Thailand when I have gone there to learn Muay Thai that most camps do allot of work on pads and bags, boxing sparring relatively full out, actual Muay Thai sparring very light in case they become injured.They really only let loose on the weekend when they compete. The point here of course is that at least once a week they will be competing so there is the time to go full out. Over time this experience builds. My main advice here would be to find a qualified coach who knows how much time you should spend sparring for a particular combat sport.

My general guidelines would be for Boxing and Muay Thai that an active competitor should get six rounds in a day, three to four times a week. With the last sparring session of that week being the time where they go relatively hard. For MMA I would suggest four rounds a day, three times a week. With the same suggestion for the last day as for boxing and Muay Thai. How many times a month should you go full out? That’s hard to say, but I would get my guys to go harder in the last couple of rounds of each six round routine. This is important as it coaches them to push through when they are tired and their mind is playing tricks on them. The first few rounds are about using excellent technique while the last couple of rounds is just about sparring functionally.
I think the best advice would be that if you spar three times per week, to leave the last session of the week to go hard. Use the first four rounds to build up the pace, with the final couple of rounds going full out. Building pace in sparring is really important as it also teaches the athlete when and where to relax and when to really move up a gear or two.

Most classes are made up of the ‘average’ person and this is the third group. By average I mean in respect to the sport. They are typically the type of person wanting to do some sparring or realistic contact drills in case they should ever need it for self-defense. For these people I generally recommend three rounds of sparring on any given night, but no more. These people on average only train twice a week so this means that they will spar 6 rounds in a week. I also recommend having a Friday or Saturday session for those who would like to do more. How many times should they go hard? Twice a month at most. If you have a Fri/Sat session you could increase that by one more, but I feel that this is adequate based on their needs.

Conclusion
I think the most important aspect here and something that is largely overlooked is mental and emotional game. For the most part many of us spar and want to go hard because we want to see how well we would mentally cope with someone who fights back. It’s not uncommon to see someone with perfect technique on pads or the heavy back just crumble and loose all of it when he actually has to spar for real. It was not that he suddenly lost his technique, because he already had that, but rather he lost his mental and emotional game. No amount of continuing to work on this persons ‘technique’ is going to help him spar better and just making him spar thousands of rounds may not be the answer either!

Many coaches believe that if they just get there students to do tons of sparring they will eventually come right and be able to do it at a high level. I feel this is a grave mistake. It somewhat like saying that I am an addict and if I just say no enough times my addiction will cease. As one can imagine it is far more difficult than that (If you ever had to stick to a diet you know what I mean). If I look back this was also my own attitude, if they sparred long enough they would just get it. Now in retrospect, the ones I saw get it, where either athletes who where tough, attribute driven to begin with or already had excellent mental and emotional game. The later where few and far between.

With the help of Dr. Patrick Cohn, I have spent the last year working with my athletes from a whole different perspective. Outside of sparring we spend a considerable amount of time on mental and emotional game. Through a series of assessments we uncover the athletes main mental and emotional weaknesses and then map out a plan to work on it. We then superimpose our new mental and emotional ‘game plan’ onto the person when sparring and constantly spend time reflecting on what worked, what did not and which changes need to be made. The result, we now spend less time sparring but with greater results than ever before.

To conclude my suggestion would be stop worrying about how many times you spar, how much of the time is hard sparring, rather take a good look at yourself and see what is holding your game back, you will be very surprised to find out that it has nothing to do with technique.

RodneyKing©2005

Rodney is a Mental Games & Professional Martial Arts Coach. For more information on his services you can contact him at Rodney@alivenessnow.com

Take a look at our other Blogs for more information on Mental Game as well as how MMA is a way of living!
http://mma-life.blogspot.com/
http://ciaprogram.blogspot.com/

noreply@blogger.com (Rodney "Chico" King) — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 08:34:00 +0000

Combination Theory

There are tons of instructional DVD’s out on the market relating to combinations. Each one of these touting to have the ultimate combination series! Is there such a thing as an ultimate combination? Or is it merely a marketing ploy? I would vote for the later.

To be honest it would make no difference how many combinations you learn it still will not make you a better combat athlete. The reason is simple, you are not fighting a static opponent who just allows you to hit him wherever you like, nor are you fighting an opponent who has predefined moves that you are aware of. This may be true for some of the classical systems of martial arts training, but in a real performance based environment your opponent fights back and you cannot know what that will be with, unless you have the ability to predict the future.

Another reason instructors continue to coach hundreds of variations of combinations are because they want their students to need them. The more you can teach them new techniques or variations on them the longer your students will need you, this then makes you feel more important as the instructor. Why would that be any different to constantly handing out food to poor people but you never teach them how to grow their own. It is simply a method of control. The other side of this sinister ‘control theme’ propagated by many martial art instructors are the instructors who honestly don’t know better and really believe they are doing the right thing for their students.

Once you have students on the road to technique collection they then become ‘technique junkies’ always looking for the next ‘technique fix’. It is ridiculous that there are still people who argue that because they know 1000 techniques and you may only know 50, that they are better than you. Better at what? Memorizing! Just because you have a photographic memory does not make you intelligent- intelligence lies in the ability to apply, that which has been understood.

So is there any use for teaching combinations?
Yes to a certain point and definitely in the beginning. Combinations are simply there to enforce muscle memory and the learning of proper technique (Chin down, shoulder protecting chin when punching, bring your hand back to your face, etc). More importantly combinations are there to help a person understand flow.

Flow not combinations
Flow means your ability to move from one technique to another without getting confused. In the beginning when you first start learning different types of punches you still have not acquired enough muscle memory of the specific move. So sometimes you hear the coach call a cross but you jab, or you hear the call for an uppercut but you do a hook. This is because we are just thinking too much, trying to memorize and not allowing our bodies natural intelligence to take over.

Ultimately the best way to learn ‘combinations’ or what I would prefer to call ‘flow’ is just to do it. The difference in my mind is this; a combination is predetermined either by yourself or your coach where as a flow is to let what ever comes to just come out. If while flowing you see yourself creating a pattern, which means you end up doing the same flow of moves over and over simply change it. Remember the idea of flow is to allow you to move from one technique to another without confusion. This goes back to what I said in the last chapter- wanting to throw a cross but ending up with a hook. This however does not last for long as long as you stop thinking about what is the right and wrong thing to do and just do it.

Of course some moves flow together better than others and this is pretty much the reason why coaches would teach a ‘combination’ or at least I would. But I want my athletes to move away from learning combinations, which are pre-determined by myself as soon as possible and simply understand that it is not the combination that is important, but rather the ability to seamlessly flow from one technique into the other while developing timing in hitting an opening on the opponent that is. This is something no coach can teach you except yourself and in fact outside of some principles for flow no one ever has to teach you a combination either.

Predetermined combinations only work for as long as the other person is at the same level as you, (Another sinister reason many martial art schools teach specific techniques at various levels they have created, this simply keeps everyone at the same level without them knowing) once you go up against someone with good defense and better timing and say as your coach all I have done is coach you a series of combinations you will come to me anyway and say, “I can’t seem to make the combinations work!”. I then teach you some more predetermined combinations and the cycle starts all over again.

Lets say for argument sake that the new combinations which you have now been taught consist of several moves instead of the ones you already knew which consisted of say only three moves. These new combinations that you have now learnt off by heart actually begin to score on the opponent you had been having trouble with. Lets also say this has happened because this opponent was only ever taught those 3-point combinations you originally used and the relevant defense for them. What happens if you face another opponent who has been taught to counter and defend several point combinations at one time, what are you going to do now, asks the instructor to teach you combinations that consist of 14 moves in them? This whole thing sound ridiculous right? You may be laughing now but there are instructors who coach this way. What you get out of this training mindset is I know 1000 techniques and you only know 50 so I must be better than you.

What if I coached an athlete in defense not to be concerned with specific combinations but rather to understand the lines of attack and flow in defense? Simply it would matter little on how many combinations you know off by heart, as the guy I coached will just react as he should, instinctively, without thought!

Obstacles to flow
This s really subject matter for other articles and part of my Combat Intelligent Athlete program (http://ciaprogram.blogspot.com/ ). Of course the real obstacles to making flow work or if you prefer a combination is not really about the combination itself. It is rather your emotional response to the stressors of sparring and trying to apply them on an opponent who is intended on kicking your butt. So fear, anxiety, mental apprehension are all serious factors to really consider why your game is not improving or that you cannot make things work, it really has nothing to do with learning a new combination!

Loosing my job!
Here is where I loose my job☺ Once you understand the technique and you know all the little points that make it work then all you really need to know more than a bunch of combinations taught to you is combination theory. If you understand combination theory then you don’t ever need another person to coach you a combination again because you will naturally come up with what they would coach you anyway. Learn the theory, apply it in sparring and just let a combinations ‘flow’ as it is meant to.

Combination Theory
1. Flows of 3 techniques work the best. 6 are the maximum!
2. Anytime you go to the body, always come back to the head. Straight shots like jab and cross are the best to come back with.
3. Only double of the lead if the first strike is a straight line (e.g. Lead jab to lead hook. Don’t do a rear-cross to a rear hook). If you are in tight you can double of on either rear or lead but remember if you go for example; a lead hook to a lead shovel, because the last shot was a body shot return to point 2, always come back to the head.
4. Don’t start a flow with a hook first.
5. Don’t throw a single cross on its own.
6. When executing a flow that starts with straight lines and then goes to hook lines or uppercut lines always come back with straight line to the head (e.g. Jab, Cross, Hook, cross). This is also important to practice on the bag and focus mitts as most people when missing an uppercut or hook just stop and don’t continue the flow.
7. Hit off your opponents punches, that means working your flow while he is attempting his, don’t wait for him to stop flowing first before you return your own, that is only good for tennis.

There are several more principles than this, but I will leave you with those for now. Hopefully I have made my approach understandable and I hope that these principles will allow you to create your own flow- now go out and be your own creators!

RodneyKing2005.All Rights Reserved.

noreply@blogger.com (Rodney "Chico" King) — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 06:16:00 +0000

No Such Thing As ‘Non-ABT’

I feel I need to address this issue as it has made many people confused and added to this I have been seen as one who has perpetuated this notion. I know that some coaches from my past affiliation have actually included ‘Non ABT’ as part of their advertising campaign and yes one could say that I introduced that concept to them a few years ago, but I feel for the most part it has been taken out of context.

I was once asked why I was inspired to bring about the CM® Defense Program? My initial response was that I had become tired of getting hit in the head. Secondly to this and once I put some thought into it, I replied that I was essentially trying to take out all the initial attribute qualities required in most full contact combat sports to make it work. This was then interpreted as coaching a Non-attributed based program. Which realistically there is no such thing.

The way I viewed it, when looking at most pro-am boxing gyms, it was only the tough that survived and those who could not meet the requirements would be left behind. The requirements where someone who was tough even before they began training, the type of person who was fearless, didn’t mind getting hit in the face and was physically built to withstand the rigorous of hard core boxing training. As we all know not many of us are lucky enough to be endowed with such qualities. I know I was not. But because I had such a passion for boxing and MMA I was fortunate enough (Or stubborn enough) to push through several broken noses, cracked and broken ribs, dislocated and disjointed fingers, weekly headaches and the list goes on.

Because I pushed through I was able to experience the exhilaration of sparring and the many benefits of actually playing the game, from developing a tough mindset, to acquiring attributes I never had and feeling confident in my ability to defend myself. Not everyone who walks into my Gym is that stubborn! Over the years of coaching MMA and boxing I noticed a prevailing theme, everyone was happy, motivated and engaged in the process of learning these arts, until the point of sparring. Once that happened, they left!

Why? For one people don’t like to get hit in the face (Imagine that) and the way standard forms of boxing and MMA where taught, it was a given that you would get hit in the face all the time. It was not that the boxing techniques taught did not work because they do, the problem lied in that it took allot of time to be able to pull it off. This meant that people needed to be dedicated, prepared to get hurt at some level and have to really get through the mental chatter in their heads (Probably the sane part saying, “Why do you pay someone to hit you in the head”). One only has to look at international boxing today, and you will witness for the most part, two people slugging away at each other over ten rounds, constantly taking shots to the head and then doing it all over again the following week. The obvious long-term affects of this are still been debated.

Nonetheless, my students where not pro boxers and they where coming into the Gym a couple hours a week, unlike the guy at the boxing gym that was training nightly and for hours on end. Yet at some level both these individuals want the same thing. So how was I going to do this, because up until this point, none of my students would stay when sparring began?

The development of the CM® began out of this frustration and for no other reason than to allow my students a base from which they could work immediately. That meant that I now could realistically have my athletes isolating sparring skills within a few weeks, something that seemed impossible up until that point. This would afford them the confidence to build and acquire the attributes necessary to spar at a high level. If you look at it objectively, when you take someone who has limited initial attribute levels, give him the tools that will help him develop them in a safe, almost injury free environment, amazing things will begin to happen. All of a sudden everyone wanted to spar.

Given enough time working CM® and as each individuals confidence grew, they would begin to slip punches, counterpunch and use many of the skills in boxing that are so beautiful to watch, but are also inherently attribute driven. My end point to this is that the high level boxers you see in the ring on ESPN are amazing athletes with great skill and everything they use works, the difference is that unlike most people they probably had good athleticism the minute they walked into the boxing Gym, had a good jaw and where tough, they where willing to take countless beatings on the road to learning to slip and learning to counter punch. No corporate executive is willing to do that for a multitude of reasons. Why do so many fighters world wide come from under privileged areas, homes etc…it is very much a socio-economic phenomenon. They had to be tough for the environment they grew up in – for today’s average middle class person, tough is not spilling your coffee on your trousers while driving to work.

So yes you need attributes or a certain level to compete or perform well in MMA, Boxing, Muay Thai and so forth (Even BJJ- contrary to popular belief and advertising). But if you only have a couple of hours to train and are unfortunate like I was not to have great attributes (Although I did grow up poor and in a rough neighborhood- which was probably the deciding factor in my persistence in the sport), you need a program that will allow you time to develop those qualities. I don’t like the term Non Attribute Based Training- because there is no such thing- what there is Combat Intelligent Stand-Up. The intelligent part is using CM® to give you the time to develop the skill set and necessary attributes to actually fight!

Cheers,

Rodney King©2005
www.rodneyking.tv
www.stwa.info

noreply@blogger.com (Rodney "Chico" King) — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 18:45:00 +0000

Defense Vs. Offense

It’s not uncommon for many stand-up programs to focus much of its time to training striking. Of course the ability to strike an opponent with maximum power and efficiency will hopefully end the fight. That’s the obvious reason why so much time is spent on it. However through the years I have come to realize and something that I push in my gym all the time, focus first on your defense, get that right and all else will just fall into place.

Think of it is this way, unless you are what some people would consider gifted, meaning that you already from day one can take a punch, have a good strong jaw and you just a nightmare to knockout; you as an average person are not going to ever put yourself in the position to knock your opponent out if all you are concerned about is not getting knocked out yourself. In fact I would argue that the so-called “gifted” athlete is not so gifted after all. Instead I see that mindset of taking unnecessary punishment as unintelligent and not too mention unhealthy. We have all seen those aged boxers, who yes at their prime where unstoppable, but at what cost? Today they suffer from a myriad of ailments and hardly can hold a conversation. There is some truth to the critics of boxing and other full contact fighting arts, where they see it as senseless barbarism.

I will also add two other things here, I would agree only on the point that yes often attributes, such as just been tough and having a good jaw have been placed higher in importance than intelligent stand-up and of course safety. Because at the end of the day unless you happen to be George Foreman, your career does not last long in a sport that can be ultimately brutal. The reason you see so many athletes over their 30’s in MMA competition, is because there are choices. If you don’t like getting hit in the face you take it to the ground. MMA all round is far less brutal than say boxing because of these choices. My second point to the critic would be something that may be somewhat subversive; I think they criticize boxing and other full contact fighting sports, because deep down inside they are scared. There is a real part of ALL men who at some point want to prove to others that they are men and of course prove that to themselves as well. The critics for the most part seem to be the geeks who got picked on at school and just never overcame it (Outside of a higher IQ). The only way they can justify this lack of manhood, is to criticize the one thing they would love to be able to do themselves- fight! I am not suggesting for a moment that if you can fight you are a real man, what I am saying is that if there is something you really wish you could do, but feel you can’t, but don’t want to tell people that you are actually scared to death of even trying, you criticize it.

My final point on this matter would be this, in the past ten years of Rugby, especially school Rugby, there have been more serious, debilitating, life ending injuries, including numerous deaths than in all the recorded history of Boxing since the 1800’s. Yet Rugby is still allowed as a sport worldwide, gains wide coverage and sponsorship and allowed as a sport in most schools in South Africa. Go figure, there is something wrong with that logic!

Back to my original point. Realistic, effective defense is the missing component in most stand-up martial arts programs. I am still pretty amazed how many coaches still teach defense that is away from the face. Statistically speaking if you where ever attacked on the street, both the trained and untrained opponent will go for your head. Let’s put it this way, if I gave you a baseball bat and I told you to hit me, most people would immediately swing for the head. Unless of course you work for the Mafia and you are working me over because I forgot to pay up, in that case you probably would want to break my knee caps:)

The development of the CM® Defense Program not only addresses this issue by coaching people how to defend themselves by focusing defense on the head first, but also outside of easily been coachable (Many have learnt it off the available instructional DVD’s at www.streetbrawl.co.za/store) it has a psychological advantage over most defenses taught today.

Firstly anytime you lower your hands away from your face or you have your hands extended away from it and someone attacks your head you will either have an over emphasis on the flinch response which means the chances of you just covering your head, blocking your view and turning your back away from the opponent (Fetal position) is amplified. In the same vain, the chance of you extending you hands toward the person attacking you in attempts to keep him away is also amplified. Either one of these natural responses to danger are detrimental in a fight, both of them will get you seriously injured. By having your hands already covering your head, that response is minimized and you are more likely to face the opponent head on and feel comfortable doing so.

This leads to the second point, if psychologically you feel comfortable in not getting seriously injured and you are “Riding The Storm” so to speak, you are in the best position to actually use all those power strikes you have been training day in and day out.

All the arsenal in the world becomes useless, if all you do is spend your time trying not to get hurt or knocked out!

CM® is the answer for my personal game and my athletes.

Rodney King
www.rodneyking.tv

noreply@blogger.com (Rodney "Chico" King) — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 08:01:00 +0000

The creation of the name ‘Crazy Monkey’

Prior to 1999 the CM® Defense Program was not named yet. One of my students had gone away on a Safari; he returned after his trip to the gym only to proclaim, “Even the monkey’s do it!” Obviously we where both confused and interested in what he meant. It turns out that during his Safari they cam upon a troop of monkeys sitting under a tree. While they where watching them a fight ensued. The one Monkey in anticipation of the oncoming assault proceeded to defend himself by vigorously running his hands over the top of his head (A resemblance shared with the current CM® structure). Needless to say the name stuck, if not more than a joke than meant to be serious. If I had to rename it today I would call it simply the three-point defense as it protects the head with the elbow, hand and shoulder.

Rodney King
www.rodneyking.tv

noreply@blogger.com (Rodney "Chico" King) — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 07:45:00 +0000

The Crazy Monkey (CM®) Defense Program Introduction

The Crazy Monkey (CM®) Defense Program was born out of my frustration with the traditional forms of defense taught to me in boxing and other martial art styles. The aspect I was most aware of was that the first defensive moves taught in boxing to beginners where catch and parry which led the person using them to reach for punches. The obvious consequence of this was that you more often than not left your face wide open and exposed it for straight-line counterpunches and hooks. This could be avoided to some degree if one knew how to slip, duck, bob and weave punches, but we all know how difficult that skill is to acquire and is definitely not something a beginner is able to do with much confidence right away! Added to this boxing also afforded you the opportunity to use the size and padding of the glove in defense. Gloves when held to your face often made it more difficult for someone to score punches to that area. However once gloves where taken off and you where left only with your bear hands it became even more apparent that without the added protection of the glove, defenses such as catching and parrying, where ill equipped to stand the force of a bare-knuckle attack.

It became even more evident to me when I worked as a doorman in some of Johannesburg’s roughest nightclubs. The traditional defenses taught like blocking punches with forearms in traditional martial arts or catching or parrying in boxing where impossible to pull off in that environment, which at the best of times where unpredictable. I remember one night witnessing a fight outside a nightclub where one of the people involved just balled up while raising his arms and covering his hands over his head. The person punching him was having a hard time getting through! He then made a fatal mistake by turning his back; a natural instinct that I now know is almost pre-programmed in all beginners I coach at my gym. Nevertheless it gave me a glimpse, even though by pure accident of something amazing to come.

I began playing around with some covering ideas the following week in the gym. It was a slow process as I found myself reverting back into the habit of using traditional forms of defense. However I was immediately getting hit less somewhat of a contentious issue I had for a long time with traditional forms of dense that where so widely taught. Several nose breaks over the years, and a multitude of migraine headaches, made me realize that finding a way to get hit less in the head would be a good idea. Since 1998 when I first began playing around with CM® until present it has developed into a complete system of defense and attack. In the short time it has been available to the international market, martial artists, coaches, professional fighters in MMA, Muay Thai and Western boxing have all used it to great success. The unsolicited testimonials we have received from people worldwide speak for themselves.

The CM® has even progressed and evolved into applications beyond the martial arts and is now widely used by members of Law Enforcement, Special Force Military and Policing Units as well as members involved in protection details. Yet there is still allot about CM® people don’t know and this is the reason for this Blog. Added to this I will use this Blog to answer the most frequent questions relating to the CM® Defense Program as a whole, as well as latest innovations, tips and the progression of it’s past development to date. Writing allows me to define details often hard to capture on a DVD instructional. However I believe that this Blog coupled with the current DVD instructionals available at www.streetbrawl.co.za/store will enable anyone to take CM®, incorporate it into their existing arsenal and thereby elevate their game to the next level.

Enjoy!

Rodney “Chico” King
www.rodneyking.tv