My first day back and it was Plyometrics. 8 exercises that were lung busting, nothing out of the ordinary but hard none the less. One of the exercises was very simple but very daunting. 3 boxes stacked on top of each other. The idea is to jump on top of the boxes and land with both feet together and as lightly as you can. I couldn’t get my head round it, why couldn’t I do it ? It wasn’t as if it was 5 feet tall the boxes were up to about my groin. It was all my head, a standing start, explosive movement to land on top of the boxes. I jumped into the air and landed on the box’s, I had to tuck my feet under my arse. I was in the squat passion but I was on the box all I had to do now was stand up tall. I needed more arm movement and a much better drive from my legs.
5 jumps onto the box doesn’t sound like much but after all the other exercises and the third time round it was proving to be a night mare. I still had the farmers walk and my old mate the Kettle Bell to go and a set of Viking Warrior sit ups.
My lungs were at bursting point and my legs were like jelly, I was having problems walking and the Kettle Bell was about to destroy me. “That’s it, well done, good effort mate”. I could hear coaches voice but I couldn’t think. I wanted to drink but I couldn’t swallow, the sweat was running into my eyes and dripping off the end of my nose. How the hell did I get through that ?
It was an explosive start to the tour and just the way I wanted it to continue, I wanted to make good gains this tour and work as hard as I could. I knew the harder I pushed the harder coach would push me. I hadn’t gone mad on leave so I had only put on a couple of pounds and besides I wasn’t worried about my weight. I knew that in a few days I would be in the swing of things and a few pounds would be gone very quickly. My goal this tour was to put muscle on and double my strength.
We hit the weights very hard in the first few weeks and we greased the grove with a lot of pull ups. My press ups are really good now and I’m making great gains in most of my exercises. Circumstances have changed and we have lost the area we used for our MMA training. So our ground game has taken a bit of a back seat for now but we are working on making another area. In the meantime we have been hitting the pads and working on our kicks and knees. I’ve finally got some real power in my hooks and elbows.
It’s taken a long time but my foot work is getting there. I’ve always known that foot work is very important, where they are in relation to your hands and keeping your balance throughout a move and when you are struck. The difference in power from a hook thrown from the waist and a hook thrown using your feet, i.e. twisting the foot and following through is unbelievable. The difference in power really is the difference between hurting your opponent and putting him on the floor. Even my kicks are stronger because of good feet positioning, I’m still having problems working out my distance. I like to be close, I don’t know why it puts me in range of coach and he lets me know. I have a good jab and I don’t use it to its best because I’m too close and because of that I’m making my own kicks hard for myself.
It’s been a great start to the tour and with coach’s help I want to start making big improvements to my strength. There’s only one way to do that and that’s with hard work every day and watching what I eat.
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