MMA Philippines

On training, smoking, poontang, and mental toughness

Machete — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:23:22 -0600

What is it with smoking and girls that takes the conditioning toll on us average, untalented athletes? They say smoking fucks the lungs and sex fucks the knees. To some degree, that is probably true, but in my opinion there lies a deeper psychological connection. Most people who fuck around with girls know deep down inside that they are not supposed to be doing that. Most people who smoke claim that they want to stop. But they keep it up. They don't stop. It's a vice.

They know it's bad for them, but they refuse to cease the habit. Because quitting would become an inconvenience for them. They do not want that. THEY CANT HELP IT. They have to have one more stick, one last lay.

They lack the mental toughness to make it happen.

A person who can't stop himself from doing things on impulse, rather than doing what he should be doing? What's to stop him from abandoning the gameplan when he gets hurt? What's to stop him from curling up into a ball, or going all Roberto Duran when things don't go his way? What's to stop him from stopping at 60% intensity in training, convincing himself he's too tired? What's to stop him from screwing up his diet, or not making weight? (i.e. Dawn Boyd from Oxygen's Fight Girls) NOTHING. Because he doesn't want to be inconvenienced.

Mental toughness is doing something when you don't have to. It is always easier to quit halfway. When every muscle is burning in Lactic Acid, telling you to stop NOW, when your gasping Lungs and Heart are telling you to slow down for fuck's sake, when your aching legs are screaming at you to skip the 6 am roadwork and just stay in bed, what's to stop you from ignoring your mind's nagging you to "GET THE FUCK OFF YOUR ASS, YOU PUSSY?" Mental toughness. Even your mind itself may play tricks on you. "You can do it tomorrow." or "You don't need to push harder. You're ahead of everyone else." Fuck everyone else. Mental toughness is doing something when you don't have to. Because most of the time, we all know what's right. We just lack the balls to do it. And it's not entirely our fault. Some of us are just born with pussies. It's not like we had the choice.

Mental toughness. It's strange how it goes by completely different names. Competitors and commentators and fight fans call it by that overused cliche pop-culture term: "Heart." Although 90% of them do not know shit about heart, it always becomes a topic of discussion and critique. Nonetheless, it's all the same; Heart, Mental toughness, Balls. It's how far you would go. It's how much you would give up. It's how bad you want it.

Like the body, the mind must also be constantly trained and put under stress. How do we do this? Mental resistance training. Always do what's right. Because the right choice is almost always the hard choice. Do it even if the choice will be unpopular. Yes, it means you'll become a total tool and a square. But mental toughness isn't about being cool. It's about how bad you want it.

Wake up early, do the dishes, help out with the laundry, pay your taxes and bills on time, spend time with the relatives, eat your vegetables, sit up straight, don't play ball in the house, stay in school.

Cuddle your wife, talk about her day, listen to her nagging, change the toilet paper when it runs low, flush the toilet and leave the seat down, don't pee in the shower.

It simply means constantly challenging yourself; setting new goals every day that will eventually lead to fulfillment of your long-term goals. Don't just jump from one goal to another. Develop new skills. Run one more mile. Cut 10 seconds of your 100 Burpee time. Do more pullups. Read more fucking History Books. Anything.

Strive for excellence in everything you do, every single day. Make the right choice. Grow some balls.

Excuses make us terrible citizens.

Misunderstanding Mixed Martial Arts

Machete — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:56:21 -0600

MMA. A highly technical test of almost every aspect of the human body. Strength. Speed. Intelligence. Explosiveness. Flexibility. Rhythm. Stamina. Balance. Reflex. Endurance. Quick Wit. You name it. This is competition in its rawest form: Meeting someone on open ground and even terms. Someone who is ready for you. Someone who is virtually a physical equal. A duel. Raw, pure, and fair. Because when you take everything away, all the material things and the societal constraints, it just leaves you with two individual Homo Sapiens. And all it boils down to is fighting.

It's been on ever since the beginning of time. Humans have challenged and competed against each other in mortal combat since the dawn of civilization. It is programmed in our DNA. Little boys will always wrestle, and play with guns and swords no matter what their mothers tell them. Everyone is an expert when it comes to fighting. Everyone's a fighter. That is how stupid Tapout shirt-wearing fans get the nerve to say "He should have done this, he should have done that. He has no heart." to a guy with 20 fights under his belt. What the fuck do you know about heart, you cocksucking motherfucker? But hard as it is to say this, it is not their fault. They feel so connected to the fighter they are watching that they actually feel that it's them in there. It is a genuine feeling, an honest mistake made by people whose only shortcoming is ignorance.

What we have now is actually an incredibly civilized outlet for a basic primal instinct. Our athletes agree to meet each other at a certain place and time. They agree to a set of rules and attempt to completely obliterate each other, but stop when somebody wants to stop or when one guy seems badly hurt. And the moment it is over, they instantly revert back to normal human beings, treating each other with utmost respect and dignity.

And yet people frown upon it. They describe it as brutal, misguided, primitive, and barbaric. (But if you look closely enough at the slick movements of Georges Saint-Pierre or the grace of Anderson Silva, you will think the exact opposite.) When you tell someone that you practice combat sports, you get responses like "Where you bullied as a kid?" or "But it's so dangerous." or "What's the point?"

The problem with MMA is that people who do not take the time to understand it never see the technical aspect involved, and the incredible specialization of its athletes. All they see is the blood, which is exactly what the promoters want. Promoters do not necessarily care about what kind of fans they attract. All that matters to them is ticket sales, and the easiest people to attract (and the most abundant) are the boneheads who are led as easily as zombies by any pop-culture trend set this season. That is why they market it with the glamor and the fireworks and the entrance music and the flashy lights and the celebrities. They sell the blood, not the Martial Arts. The fanbase, consisting of 98 percent numbskulls, just wants to see two bad ass tough guys desperately trying to fuck each other up. And it made MMA the greatest threat to both Boxing and Professional Wrestling. One organization with both the reality of Boxing and the brutality of Pro Wrestling.

But MMA is not about bashing the other guy into oblivion. It's not about the other guy at all. More than anything, MMA is about yourself. When you mature as a fighter and put all that male-dominance and respect-gaining and macho bullshit aside, you see competition as another step in your journey to self-improvement. In the same principle as capitalism, competition puts participants in a situation that forces the best out of every individual. The guy opposite you in the arena is not your enemy. He is a guy who agreed to give it the best of his current ability to complete this chapter of your journey. He is there to try to give you a worthwhile test of your current level. The fight completes your training and shows how well you did in your quest to better yourself. That is why fighters embrace after a bout. They have agreed to be a test for one another. They became part of something real. Something that builds character, and they now feel closer than ever. You find out a lot about a man after fighting him. You see who and how he really is. You have tested him.

Of course it all comes down to the ethics of the whole thing. I mean safety isn't exactly the issue here. It's not like you can get smashed in the face by a ball moving at 90 miles per hour or fall down a snowy mountain at incredible speed or get your throat sliced by some guy's ice skate. But it's the idea of hurting people, not putting a ball through a hoop or running fast and jumping high or sliding down a mountain as your goal. It's the aggression and the "bad intentions" in every move that gives MMA its bad reputation to those who do not understand.

credit to Sam Sheridan, author of A Fighter's Heart (2007).

View From Inside

Machete — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 16:31:19 -0600

It's been three months since my last ring appearance. I'm on a fresh new start, and I've had a lot of time to think about my former life. What I love about the ring is how it reveals character. It strips away all the masks and the lies and the bullshit, and shows who you really are, raw, straight, and true.

Are you the aggressive all-or-nothing guy? Are you the type who takes punishment and endures his way all the way through the end? Do you prefer to speed in and out, taking what you can and giving nothing back? Do you do anything that is necessary to win as long as you get away with it? Are you a pussy who falters at the first sign of difficulty? Whoever you are, whatever you are, it is revealed in the ring.

A thinking man like me usually treats a bout like a chess match, preferring strategy over blind bravado. This usually makes one relatively defensive and occasionally passive. Guard tight, head in constant motion, feet alert, waiting for that opportunity, that opening to put that bomb in.

Sometimes though, you want a win so bad, especially after you were unable to secure one four times in a row, that you just charge in. You don't give a flying, walking, or even a crawling fuck anymore, and instead of letting others (like the judges or your opponent) decide for you, you resolve to take it for yourself, even if you get your face rearranged in the process. You put the pressure on, you get as many hits in as possible, and you do the best that you can to take what he dishes out. You take some shots, but you don't mind. You can worry about that later. You're too busy trying to win. You let you guard down. You become vulnerable for a shot at the prize

The thing about opponents however, is that you never really know what they are capable of until you get hit. Some of them can put a real hurting on you. Usually it's the accumulation of hits over time that causes lasting damage, but sometimes you get clocked with one perfectly timed (or lucky) shot and you're scarred for life. In one night, one opponent can leave a mark on you forever. Just like that.

Your fight record. Much like your love life, no? You meet, you put your best foot forward (or to the rear), you get it on for a few rounds, there's sweat and heavy breathing, sometimes there's blood, and you can forget about each other after. Some may leave you satisfied, others may disappoint. But sometimes, you both experience a battle so intense that you remember each other for the rest of your lives.

Philippine MMA

Machete — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 00:40:51 -0600

I dug this up in the PinoyMMA forum. I wrote it around August last year, reflecting on the state of MMA in the Philippines. How they sat it is limited to pretty boys with scarves and popped-up collars. How they say it is monopolized by the elite Atenistas and La Sallistas. Here was my take on it. Note that I used to call it "No Holds Barred."

I have been thinking and reflecting about Philippine mixed martial artists, and trying to figure out why some do not share our enthusiasm and faith on this particular sport. mixed martial arts in the Philippines is at a very early stage of development. and i mean fetus-early. Even though we have had six years of URCC, Philippine MMA has shown but baby steps towards our international goals.

They say mixed martial arts is limited to "pretty boys," (I know, I know. What can we do? We tend to attract a lot of homosexual attention. No offense.) or those in the upper-middle class who have the spare time to know international pop culture (the mixed martial art trend), and the spare money to enroll in a local MMA gym. When they get good enough, they work for the big league. Personally, i am only aware of two major ones: URCC and Fearless. Who watches them? Those who can afford the 300+ peso minimum ticket (for URCC), or those who hang out in Metrowalk (for Fearless). Not exactly the kind of people who make up most of our population. How can we pride ourselves as a people on our no holds barred fighters when all the masses know is Pacquiao and boxing. (How many of you have been called "pacquiao/pacman/manny" by pedestrians, passers-by, bystanders, etc. during roadwork?)

Hindering further development is the conservative nature in our culture. Have any of you watched "the correspondents" when they featured no holds barred fighting? They were calling it "wrestling" for fuck's sake. They featured kids who fought for 50 pesos, trained in Luneta, and fought as if they had no choice. they showed hidden camera footage of "underground wrestling fights." (one of which was a yaw yan ardigma fighting challenge probably taken from youtube.) They featured interviews from young adults who trained in MMA gyms to compete in the so-called "wrestling," even keeping their names and faces anonymous. I was hysterical. "so ignorant..." I thought. they would say anything to sell a good story. Fucking journo bastards...

A sign of our primitive ways is our persevering belief in purity. there still exist purists who believe in the superiority and inferiority of "styles." There is still a rivalry between strikers and grapplers. We still put too much faith in our art, rather than training methods. ("muay thai ako. kayang-kaya ko 'yan. taekwondo lang 'yan eh." "striking striking pa 'yan. 'pag na ground ko 'yan, tapos. nag bjj kaya ako." "ayaw ko sa mga grappler/striker, ang yayabang." "pinakamaganda kung gusto mo mag MMA, mag bjj/muay thai/boxing ka.") Do any of the previous phrases sound familiar? point proven. American MMA is a different, evolved, yet not exactly a desirable situation. in the american scene, I have noticed that MMA has become a style to them. There is such a thing as a karate kick, a muay thai kick, and an MMA kick. The point of MMA and NHB fighting is the elimination of styles. It is pitting a person against a person, rather than determining which style is better. Like what happened to Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do, mixed martial arts became a style rather than a concept. You teach students "mixed martial arts," rather than teaching them martial arts and letting them mix it up. hence, the term mixed.

A benchmark i have seen in the evolution of Philippine MMA is the relatively new Lakay Wushu team. Full-time fighters who do not "fight using Wushu," but rather "use what they know in Wushu in fighting." They steamroll the competition not with superior style, but with superior training.

This was supposed to be a reply to the thread "Question to all pinoy MMA fighters?? ..." Yet I found it too long, and wanted to get other non-retarded people's opinions. Let us make it clear that these are nothing more than personal observations and opinions from an individual who fully supports Philippine no holds barred fighting and mixed martial arts. also, it is an attempt to compensate for my being a troll. Haha

"no style as style. no limitation as limitation." - Bruce Lee

Performance Anxiety

Machete — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 23:22:48 -0600

We've all been there. Most of us anyway. You can't hump like you usually do. You overestimate a partner's prowess that you go limp altogether. This usually happens shortly before the actual event. Fear of disappointing. Lack of confidence in your abilities. And it is usually this fear that prevents us form performing in the first place. The more hyped-up your partner is, the more performance anxiety seems to set in. It is more common in obsessive individuals who fuss over each and every detail, and what could happen.

Martial Arts. One of the current fastest-growing trends, particularly because of the recent popularity boom of so-called mixed martial arts. Like every other trend, people participate on different levels. As fans, as practitioners, as competitors, and as professionals. Yes, there are many hardcore fans who seem to know a lot about martial arts, ranging from the names of different submission holds, to fighter statistics. But only a competitor actually knows what goes on inside (and outside) that arena. Ask any fighter about competition, particularly in events with striking involved. Almost every single one will tell you that the fight itself is nothing. It's the long wait before that kills you.

Ideally, a competitor is given 2-8 weeks to prepare for a bout. One trains oneself according to the conditions in which the bout is going to take place. The scheduled opponent is usually revealed. An opponent's reputation alone may trigger performance anxiety. Some use this to their advantage though, and train harder than usual. A professional once told me that no one sleeps well before a fight. Thinking about tomorrow keeps you tossing and turning. But you know that you need to sleep, but thinking about that just keeps you awake.

Fighters are called in around two hours before the scheduled event in order to get settled. So comes the time when many a fighter goes through psychological hell. Different folk deal with this kind of stress differently. Some take a piss about 12 times. Others get lost in shadowboxing. Some just listen to music. Some even sleep it off. The main idea is to calm your nerves, and to prevent yourself from getting too worked up, wasting energy you should be using on your opponent. Here lies the logic behind the staredown. Trying to agitate the anxiety in your opponent. The first time Georges St.-Pierre faced Matt Hughes (who happened to be one of his idols), he could not look Hughes in the eyes during the staredown. He moved differently during the fight, and lacked the usual intensity and explosiveness that earned him the nickname "Rush." He was also quick to tap out, practically jumping at the first opportunity to end the bout. Note that he went on to beat him twice later.

Performance anxiety. Fear of disappointing. Disappointing your coach, your fans, your teammates, even your opponent. You know that once you step in there, there is nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide. No one has your back. You can't go running to mommy, or daddy, or your frat brothers to back you up. You can't pass the ball and relinquish responsibility to one of your teammates. You can't call a timeout. Once you're in there, you're all alone. And you're caged in with someone who most probably wants to destroy you. You better forget every single one of your problems, because your only problem is standing right in front of you. When you step into that stage, bad things do happen. You risk your safety and well being. You risk getting smashed in front of your team, and your family and friends. You risk getting hurt. You risk embarrassment. Do you know how pathetic someone who is knocked-the-fuck-out looks? Not nearly as pathetic as how he feels.

Once the bell rings however, you don't have time to be anxious. When you're in an enclosed space with another person trying to knock your head off, you don't have time to think. You don't even have time to feel pain. Your body just does what it's trained to do. That is why we should train how we fight. Because we fight how we train.

Now performance anxiety gradually disappears as you build self-confidence. This is usually a result of training, or actual experience. You believe you trained harder than the next guy, or the feeling is so familiar to you that you just go in there to take care of business. Or you just know that you are simply better than the other guy. Fedor Emelianenko (the rated number one MMA fighter in the galaxy) was once seen playing cards just before his bout, calm as a Hindu cow.

Everyone goes through this at some point. Not everyone however, knows how to deal with it. Look at it objectively. Why are you standing around, worrying about someone you have absolutely no control over? No matter what you do, you opponent is still going to be your opponent. The only factor that you control is yourself. Take advantage of that fact to increase your chances of winning. Have faith in you coach. He's been there (ideally). He's trained you to win. You should be in condition for that bout. Trust in yourself. You've trained hard for this (ideally). Win or lose, you gave it everything you've got. You know in yourself that whatever the result, nothing more could have been done on your part. No regrets. Most of all, have faith in your god. So that whatever happens, you know you're in good hands. You are competing to show him/her that putting your soul in that body was not a waste of time. That you are doing the best that you can with this piece of meat currently leased to you, and that you are making the best of the time you were given here. His/Her creation, making something out of himself. Make him/her proud.

That's what I think.

"Pain makes us make bad decisions. Fear of pain is almost as big a motivator." - House M.D.