KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid

I’ve recently been given a link to the youtube section for clips from Fedor’s training team (thanks Tommo). It’s a pretty good insight into some of the practices they get up to. One very obvious thing is the simplicity of their training methods. In the clip below, Fedor’s group are doing some circuits out in the forest at a kiddies playground. Yep a kiddies playground. The greatest MMA pound for pound fighter trains in a kiddies playground making do with whatever there is around, they’re doing crunches on a park bench!

Hammer swinging and some basic exercises put into a circuit. Great. The ‘make-do’ element is continued in this clip, where they are using rocks and even a kettlebell for medicine ball slams. In an article on the benefits of hill running Ross Enamait says

……..people seem to discredit simplicity. They falsely assume that complexity trumps simplicity, when often the opposite is true……. In the words of E.F. Schumacher:

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.”

I’m a big advocate of using science to ‘get an edge’ but sometimes this approach can overcomplicate matters detracting from the real goal, improved fighting performance in Fedors case. All training should be applicable to that goal.

By taking science into account but without losing sight of simple methodologies a progressive form of trainnig can be achieved. Drawing from many sources can be inspiring but also potentially confusing. With youtube and other internet resources a massive array of training information is available but simplicity should not be ignored. Ask Fedor!

On the Fighting Arts Alliance forum, there’s a huge amount of information available on numerous topics related to martial arts training but simplicity is not ignored. People are using hammers, tyres, bulgarian bags and all sorts of similar simple, often homemade equipment to compliment punching things.

This in many ways is similar to what the Okinawans were doing with their hojo undo in the late 1800′s; using simple training equipment. This practise seems to be less prevalent in the west and with the information available on the internet could probably do with being updated and augmented. That would allow some progression in traditional karate and the like, rather than being restricted to a historical approach. My experience of the hojo undo exercises was along the lines of performing the exercises in a prescribed manner only. There was little if any innovation and as such no progression.

In the hojo undo clip the bloke is performing exercises that clearly provide decent conditioning potential, however by incorporating kettlebell exercises the ishi sashi could become a more versatile piece of equipment, for example. The trouble with being historically accurate, as karate often purports to be, is progressive training methods are negated. All down to personal preference I suppose, my preference is for progression…….

Baddest man on the planet

Both Tyson and Fedor have been dubbed ‘baddest man on the planet’ but while both were or are top of their respective games they are very different men. Last night I watched documentaries on each of the ‘Worlds baddest’ and while one rose and faded the other continues to rise and looks unlikely to fade in anything like the same way. Nevertheless there are interesting parallels.

By the time Tyson became the youngest ever World Champion he had a fantastic team around him. Cus D’Amato had taken him out of reform school and away from his troubled neighbourhood in New York and with Kevin Rooney and Teddy Atlas was guiding his boxing potential. After D’Amato died Rooney took responsibility for Tysons training, resulting in his distinctive style that brought him success and fame.

Tyson’s Peek-a-Boo style allowed him to slip and weave his way in close, avoiding his opponents punches, allowing his devastating speed, power, and aggression to wreck the other fighter. In the documentary “The Tyson Story” Kevin Rooney  time and again mentions how Tyson, right from the start threw punches with ‘Bad Intention’. That’s the phrase he uses; ‘Bad Intention’. You only have to watch him training to see that while the knockouts are dripping with bad intention.

For me this ‘Bad Intention’ is the overriding similarity between Tyson and Fedor. If you watch Fedor training the same ‘Bad Intention’ is evident and again he’s dripping with ‘Bad Intention’ in the ring. In the documentary ‘Baddest man on the planet’ Fedor says he trains “relentlessly, like an engine”. He has a strong team around him practicing with his trainer Aleksander Michkov for many years, he is comfortable with his surroundings and just gets on with it. His aggressive style re-wrote ground and pound in MMA.

Outside the arena there are similarities, both literally fought their way out of poverty, both liked to fight as kids but I can’t see Fedor fading the way Tyson faded, he just doesn’t have the distractions. Tyson faded because of those distractions and sacking Rooney was clearly a mistake, he changed his fighting style and became a beatable fighter, and then there were the frustrations boiling over with inexcusable results in and out of the ring.

Despite the inexcusable side to Tyson the ‘Bad Intention’ in the punches, training and the fights is key; besides Fedor has shown that these inexcusable outcomes are NOT inevitable. Regardless, this ‘Bad Inntention’ is the type of thing you get from Steve Morris’s assertion to ‘Watch the Fight’ take it, absorb it and use it in training. This ‘Bad Intention’ attitude can then be taken from training into the fight if you have one, in either a sporting or in self-defence setting. In essence you’re preparing properly and you will improve.

FEDOR

Fedor Emelianenko

Cool, calm and destructive, Fedor Emelianenko is considered by most to be the greatest fighter in MMA. I love how the calm approach explodes into destructive violence as he mashes opponent after opponent.

Dana White (UFC boss) offered Fedor an ‘unsignable’ contract when UFC took over Pride Championships, which effectively removed any chance of Fedor fighting Couture, which was THE fight everyone wanted to see. This was and remains a big shame.

Since then Fedor destroyed Tim Sylvia in little more than half a minute and still remains the top fighter. I’d like current UFC heavyweight Champion, Brock Lesnar to have a try with Fedor, that’d be a good fight. Lesnar is huge and quick with it, a big test for Fedor, but my money is on the Russian.

Fedor seems to train only for the fight and isn’t interested in ‘looking the part’, no tattoo’s or ripped body, just a destructively efficient body with excellent ground and stand-up skills and vicious ground and pound to go with it. He’s calm til he explodes into the opponent, wasting no energy until he has to, his attitude is spot on.

Here’s a link to an American documentary about Fedor. It’s excellent, apart from the tabloid-esque compere, who’s a little too American for my reserved English palate. This does not, however, detract from an excellent insight into a great fighter. It’s about 40 mins in total, but a well spent 40 mins; illustrating that there’s plenty to be gleaned from Fedor. Watch, enjoy and learn.

Fedor v Nogueira