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Never Say Die
You hear it all of the time “Never Say Die”. You see the athlete in competition, whether its MMA, a Grappling Match, a Track Meet or a Football game – the sport does not matter, only the actions that lead to the end result. The participant is behind and it seems as if all is lost and then the tide shifts and the athlete that appeared to be done for surges and emerges victorious.
Everyone wants to win. Wanting to win is not the hard part. Sacrificing everyday in your training, your eating habits and ignoring distractions; that is the difficult task. You need to make your training your priority – no room for excuses – make it to your workouts and push yourself to get better, stronger and faster. Excuses for failure are common, find a way to succeed.
How does this happen? How does one develop this “Never Say Die” attitude? Can it be developed? Or is it only in certain people?
There are certain people born with an innate inner toughness, but if it’s not cultivated, they burn out and lose it over time. Others seem to develop, grow tougher and more resilient over time. How is this done?
There is one sure fire way to develop this Never Say Die attitude, Train Hard. Yes, the more that you sacrifice and persevere, the more you become committed to succeed and less you are able to tolerate failure. There are many times when a combatant is in a scramble, they could easily give in and let their opponent win, yet they do not allow this to happen. The time, effort and pain endured in training comes through and they “dig deep” into their soul and put forth another effort. Training with purpose will not only harden your body, but your mind as well.
When you are training, think to yourself “What is my opponent doing? Is he training like I am? Is he sparring those extra rounds, running that additional mile and performing those few more reps? Is he pushing through the pain?” You will never be able to answer those questions, until after the contest. The best chance of success that you have is to train to your best ability and don’t make excuses for not training.
The more that you put in, the more that you will be prepared to win. Take the Samurai for example. They were in Life and Death Battles. If they lost, they were dead. In order to win, they needed to have supreme confidence. They developed this confidence through their daily training regiment and discipline. The tenants espoused by the Samurai are ones that we can base our training on to develop our Never Say Die attitude.
As Always – Train Hard & Train Often.
My Best Friend: Are you a fitness enthusiast that takes their running shoes on trips, only to feel uncomfortable road running in unfamiliar areas? Are you tired of endlessly waiting for cardio equipment to free up at your gym, only to feel like a hamster running on a wheel? Do you love to run outdoors, yet shy away from putting on five layers of under-armor and sweats on in order to brave the sub arctic temperatures?
Well, let me introduce you to my “Best Friend”, the jump rope. You can take it anywhere, you do not need much space, it does not matter what the weather is like outside, you do not need expensive equipment ($2.00 to $20.00 for a rope, my favorite costs $8.00) and you can vary the routines and movements to keep it interesting. My Grandfather was a boxing trainer in Paterson, NJ back in the 30’s, 40’s and into the 50’s. He instructed me on how to jump rope as a teenager as a means to improve my foot speed and endurance for wrestling and football. I then began to realize the incredible benefits of jumping rope.
If you jump rope at a good pace for 5 minutes, it’s equivalent to running a mile! The coordination of your hands and feet moving in rhythm with each other is essential for a fighter. All of my martial arts classes begin with 3 to 5 minutes of jumping rope. In addition to the coordination development, jumping rope is an incredible means to warm up the body.
Even if you are a beginner and you miss on your jump, keep moving your feet. To learn how to jump, here are a couple of tips:
1) Play some music that you like with a good beat. You should put together a playlist for at least the same amount of time that you want to jump for. Use your favorite, upbeat songs & make a mix. Or, for those with obsessive, manic personalities, repeat the same song as an extended version. This also helps you jump rope longer. You basically fool your self into NOT thinking that you are jumping that long.
2) To initially get your timing, watch as the rope hits the ground. That’s when you time your jump. It may take a few weeks to get your timing, but keep working, it will eventually happen.
3) If you are still having issues, try putting the rope in one hand and jump up and down while rotating your wrist. This will help you to find your timing.
4) Remember the less movement of your arms, the better. Your wrists are the primary focus of the rotation. Try also to keep them in the same spot, approximately at the level between the bottom of your chest and the top of your hips. This does not hold true when you are doing more advanced movements, like crossing the rope or double jumps.
5) You do not have to jump very high. You only need to jump high enough to allow the thin rope to pass under your feet. Get your rhythm and all else will fall into place.
If you’d like to workout the rest of your body, try performing push-ups and abdominal exercises in a rotation with jumping rope. You can start with 100 jumps, 20 push – ups and 30 abdominals. Start with 3 rotations and then increase to 5. You may also execute additional push – ups or abdominals. What a great way to start the day!
Victory Favors the Prepared!
http://www.youtube.com/edit?video_id=hr5tT44O4mM&ns=1
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach me at HYPERLINK “http://www.philross.com” www.philross.com.
What’s your motivation? (and how to keep it)
A seemingly simple question to answer, but whatever your motivation to train is, it must be more compelling than distractions that will dissuade you from your fitness commitment. Maybe you want to be the best fighter in the world, or your grandfather died of a young age due to his weight, you were mugged or picked on as a child. There could also be positive motivations: the quest to be the best that you can be, to stay in or get in great shape, for the enjoyment of training, stress relief, competition with others and yourself. Unless your motivation is harmful to others, there is no right or wrong reason to train, as long as it keeps you working out and improving yourself – it’s good.
Many of the the reasons that are our original motivation to train do not last forever. Example – let’s say you want to make the Varsity Football Team. You have to get bigger, faster, stronger and learn the skill set for your desired position. OK – you’ve made the team, now the season ends and your are graduating high school. There’s no way that you are going to play in college, yet you really enjoyed the way that you felt and how your body looked and performed when you were working out. Now you have a different motivation.
Just like rotating your workout schedule, you need to alter your motivational factors from time to time. If you start a new martial art with the goal of becoming a Black Belt and then a few months later decide to enter a triathlon. They are quite different goals, but the training for one will help the other. Keep fresh motivation, shot range goals and try different motivations.
I have plenty of clients that come in want to lose weight. They have now lost their 80 lbs (yes, this did happen), what do they do now? Just keeping the weight off as a goal may not be motivating enough. The person knows that they must keep working out – but what is the motivating factor? This person wants to be able to do a pull-up and start the martial arts. They can achieve the new goal because of their former motivation.
I’ve had other clients that wanted to get off of all of their blood pressure and cholesterol medications. Avoiding death is a reasonably strong motivator. Now that the client is off of the pills, what’s his new motivation? He now wants to be able to snatch a 24kg (53 lb) kettlebell 100 times. That’s a very respectable goal and new motivation. He had to change his motivation since his former goal to train had been met.
The point of all of this is to get you to think of new goals, new motivations and new methods to keep you inspired to continue your training. There are many excuses for failure – find the reason to succeed!
As Always: Train Hard and Train Often!
Our Lil’ Eagles Program: ages 3 to 5, is geared toward learning basic martial arts skills through games and other motivational activities. The children acquire listening skills and are instructed in exercise that develops their stabilizers, core, balance and coordination necessary for other sports and activities. Fun, Fitness and Focus are the foundation for a successful childhood!
Master Phil Ross posing with Professor Romero “Jacare” Cavalcanti. Chief Instructor, Team Alliance BJJ after the Phase 1 Certification.
August 25th & 26th, Atlanta, GA: American Eagle MMA Chief Instructor, Master Phil Ross completed his Phase 1 Instructor Training with Team Alliance BJJ. AEMMA is now a Certified Alliance BJJ School. There were 12 Instructors from many states present at the training certification. Some of the instructors present were Professor Carlos Rollyson of Miami, BJJ Black Belt David Hurley from Orlando, BJJ Black Belt Noel Danforth from Gaithersburg, MD and Danny Nolasco of El Paso, Texas Jiu Jitsu.
The Instructors were trained in the full Phase 1 Curriculum of The Team Alliance requirements. Techniques, Strategies, flow drills and class structure were all addressed.
For more information about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, call 201-612-1429 or visit our FaceBook page at American Eagle MMA & Kettlebells.
See you on the mat!
American Eagle MMA & Kettlebells: Saturday, August 11th, 2012: Andres Burgos of Waldwick and AJ Lonski of Ho Ho Kus tested for their Junior Black Belts at the American Eagle MMA Academy recently. The 12 year-old students demonstrated the skills of Kicking, blocking, striking, Grappling, Submission Wrestling (BJJ), Katas (sequential movements to simulate fighting) Traditional Weapons, heavy bag work and Kickboxing (live sparring). The test ended with several high level board breaking feats.
The students at American Eagle MMA are well rounded and the two candidates epitomized what our school is all about. They performed the techniques of Bando, Taekwondo, Jun Fan, Arnis, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Wrestling and Boxing. Thier discipline and fortitude was dsiplayed during the 90 minute ordeal. Prior to the physical test, the students completed a 3 hour meditation to prepare their minds.
Full_Schedule_2013 Double Click here to download Color Copy in PDF Format.
The East Coast Wrestling Academy opens on Sunday, May 5th.
The School will be closed for Memorial Day Weekend: May 24th – 27th. Summer Schedule Commences on June 17th. Our next Promotional Exam will be held on Saturday, June 15th. The School will be Closed the week of July 1st and re-open on July 8th.
The next Promotional Exam will be held on Saturday, June 29th, 2013.
Children at 10:15am and Adults at 1:00 pm.
Date Event
| Fri., June 21st – Sun., June 23rd | RKC Certification Workshop @ American Eagle MMA |
| Sat., June 29th, 10:30 & 1:00pm | Promotional Exam. Children at 10:30am & Adults @ 1:00pm |
| Sat., June 29th | Children’s Belt Promotion directly after the testing. |
| Sat., June 29th, BJJ @ 2:15pm | BJJ Class switched to a later time. |
| Mon-Wed., July 1, 2 & 3. 9:00am- 2:00pm | Miss Cathy’s Karate Kamp |
| Mon., July 1st – Sat., July 6th | School Closed for July 4th week. |
| Sat., July 13th | IBJJF Brazilian JiuJitsu Open, NY, NY http://www.ibjjf.org/nysummer2013home.htm |
| Saturday, July 27th 3:00pm | Black Belt Testing. Steve Levitan (possibly more) |
| Sat., August 3rd | NAGA Battle at the Beach, Wildwood, NJ. http://nagafighter.com/index.php?module=eventinformationpage/309 |
| Mon. Sept. 2nd | School Closed for Labor Day |
| Tues. Sept 3rd, | Fall Schedule Commences |
