Nutrition

I am asked about proper nutrition every single day. It's actually got to the point where I almost don't want to be asked anymore. So, without further ado, these are a few of the things I recommend. (I am not a doctor, nor a nutritionist, but I have consulted both of them in my research. Don't take my word for the following nutritional guidelines. Check with your doctor).

You should eat from three groups: Carbohydrates, protein, and fat.

Good Carbohydrates:

Brown rice
Sweet potato
All fruits
All vegetables
Yams
Whole-wheat pasta
Brown rice pasta
Soba noodles
Beans
Lentils
Whole wheat bread
Whole grain bread
Whole wheat couscous
Quinoa

Good Proteins:

Lean beef
Poultry
Fish
Beans
Lentils
Legumes
Broccoli
Low-fat cottage cheese
Low-fat yogurt
Eggs

Good Fats:

Avocado
Olive oil
Canola oil
Salmon
Sea bass
Nuts
Nut butters
Tofu

I hope that helps. Now quit bugging me.

Finding Jiu-Jitsu

This was previously published on the 4th of July, 2009. I received a few favorable comments about it and decided to repost it with a few adjustments.

I hate stew. I don't know if it's because I was forced to eat it as a child, or if I came out of the womb with an aversion to it. Still, I hate stew. It's chunky, thick, and messy. I guess what I truly dislike about it is that it tries to be too many things at one time. It's got broth, meat, corn, potatoes, etc. It contains whatever the "chef" decides to toss in. You don't know what you're getting. I'd rather just eat everything separately, not as a huge lump of garbage.

Many jiu-jitsu instructors seem to like stew. I mean, at least the few who are open to different ways of doing things. Some of them will throw in some sambo and judo. Those who teach MMA fighters will usually toss in some muay Thai, sprinkle in some boxing, and mix in a whole lot of wrestling. What you end up with is a mosaic of styles, none of them assimilated into the whole. You end up with a stew.

My goal has always been to find jiu-jitsu, not add to it. What I mean by that is, I try to find the jiu-jitsu in other styles. I look for the jiu-jitsu in boxing, wrestling, muay Thai, sambo, judo, karate, etc. Jiu-jitsu is all about efficiency. It's about not using strength, weight, or size. It's about finding the essence of everything and having things fit that essence. I do it with everything, or at least try to. I try to find the jiu-jitsu in poetry, relationships, working out, kayaking, art, and everything else that interests me.

Jiu-jitsu is the "smooth art." It isn't a block of wood onto which you can tack anything you like. Not everything fits into it smoothly. Only jiu-jitsu fits into jiu-jitsu. You have to find the right puzzle pieces, or else the picture will come out all wrong. That's why you have to find the jiu-jitsu in everything if you're going to join those pieces.

I hate stew. But I think a lot of people are creating stews out of jiu-jitsu. Go to their websites and you'll see "this art" added to "that art" in their jiu-jitsu. You can actually see where the various arts join. Almost as if they were badly welded together and you can see their hideous fault lines. They end up looking like those half men/half beast creatures of Greek mythology. But if enough time was taken to find the jiu-jitsu in the other arts, they would simply absorb smoothly without effort. I can't really tell you how to do this. I think it comes with time. It comes with an intimate knowledge of one's jiu-jitsu. You have to understand what jiu-jitsu is before you can find it elsewhere. But if we're to avoid making yet another stew, we need to know our jiu-jitsu, then find it in everything we do.

Bushido - Erik Paulson

When it comes to lack of respect in the mixed martial arts, I'm a broken record. I have been harping for years that MMA needs a huge injection of respect, honor, humanity. I have gone on endlessly about MMA being a sport mostly made up of thugs, trash talkers, punks, immature kids. I know, I've become a bore; an old man pining for the old days. Oh well. But I ran across an interview with Erik Paulson recently. It was refreshing to see I'm not alone in my concerns. Below is an excerpt of the interview.

Kaplowitz: Do you think that having a traditional martial arts background helps you in mma?

Paulson: I think it’s good if you’re going to promote martial arts; if you’re going to promote the fighting. A lot of guys go, "I’m just a fighter." Well what’s your history? What’s the Bushido code? The Bushido code has been lost a lot in fighting because guys just talk smack, get tattoos, and simply train hard. That’s great for publicity, for TV, for show, but in the end what are you passing on? What are you passing on to the youth? What are you passing on to all the other people out there? What’s the message that you’re bringing? You have to pass it on. You have to have information, not just be tough. You have to have an art behind you that you’re teaching and passing on, otherwise it just gets completely lost. The respect factor, the discipline, is about showing up on time and being at the gym when you say you will be. It's about being accountable for what you say. The moral code is also about how you conduct yourself outside of the gym, and I think all of that needs to be emphasized. You know, don’t talk, be the one talked about. That’s the biggest goal — don’t talk, be the one talked about.

Kaplowitz: So do you think that the moral code is what’s missing from some fighters today?

Paulson: Absolutely. 100%. And who is to blame? The coaches! Their coaches are to blame. Hey, so you're a good fighter, you’re tough. But these guys are getting on the Internet and blabbing; just talking, talking, talking. But to their coaches it's like "No problem. It's okay." They don’t respect their elders at all. They don’t respect guys that were in the game before, and "Oh I can beat them up so therefore I don’t have to learn from them." Hey, could Mike Tyson beat up his boxing coach? Of course! But guess what? That guy made him a great boxer and he taught him a lot about life. You know, who’s your idol? "I want to be like this guy." Yeah, well, you’re a role model, and if you’re a role model you better act like a role model. Don’t flip off the crowd, don’t swear in front of everybody, don’t do bad things, don’t get in trouble and then laugh about it. Be ashamed of it! If you get in trouble be ashamed and show the public that you’re ashamed. "I’m sorry, I apologize.”

Wow. Nicely said.

An Often Asked Question

I get a lot of questions from prospective clients. Some of them are the result of not thoroughly checking out the website, others are because I didn't explain things well enough. Whatever the reason, I get one question a lot: Do I have to be a fighter or have aspirations of fighting if I want to join your gym? Good question.

You do not have to be a fighter. Nor do you have to have plans of one day becoming a fighter. But ... and here is the big but ... you are going to train with fighters. You are going to train with aspiring fighters. In other words, you're going to train like a fighter.

When I say that, I get a lot of wide-eyed expressions. Let me be clear. I'm not going to throw you in with Yosmany. I'm not going to toss you in against someone who is going to hand you your ass. I would be an irresponsible instructor if I did that; liable for malpractice even. In other words, I know the beginners from the intermediates from the advanced. This doesn't mean you won't be pushed beyond your comfort zone, but that we'll do it progressively, intelligently, safely.

The one thing that separates us from other gyms, I think, is the way we train. We don't sink money and extras into the facility. If we did, we would have to charge more. Instead, we concentrate on the training. We get to know everybody very well ... their weaknesses, strengths, personalities. We're not a big gym, so we can tailor our training to your particular proclivities. And we're able to be as safe as a full-contact sport can be.

You're going to train like a professional fighter, with professional fighters. But it will be more than worth it.

Activating Good Nutrition

When I began teaching at the gym, I was over 200 pounds. A lot of my clients can't seem to remember that, because it was only a few weeks later (maybe just over a month) that I was down to 170 pounds. But it's true. I wasn't 200 pounds of muscle, either. I was out of shape. So when I talk about this with others, how I lost over 30 pounds in just a handful of weeks, people want to know what I did. They tend to assume I radically changed my diet. Wrong.

What I did was quite simple, but it seems to escape a lot of people. Instead of going on some radical diet, cutting out carbs, eating soy bean soup, or whatever, I simply increased my activity. "Output must equal input." It's really that simple. If I'm eating 10 lbs of food a day, I need to burn 10 lbs of food a day. It really is that simple.

Now don't get me wrong. Eating right is VITAL. But I think a lot of people put the cart before the horse. Or at least they try to do too many things at once. A friend of mine, who seems to lose weight at will, but puts it right back on, is one of those types. She will cut out carbs, watch EVERYTHING that goes into her stomach, throws herself into a rigorous gym routine, looks great for a month, and then balloons back out a month later. There are many reasons for this, but one of them is simply: too much too soon.

Here's my point. Get up and start doing things. In the beginning, forget all about your nutrition. (I know that many of you personal trainers will disagree with this. But you're wrong). Anyhow ... eat whatever you want. McDonalds? Arby's? Wendy's? Sure. At least in the beginning. The reason I say this is because activity has a way of putting things in perspective and giving rise to better habits. If you walk everyday, or do some other form of activity, more than you used to, you will see improvements in endurance and weight loss very quickly. Why? Because your output is getting closer to your input.

I don't recommend that you keep eating crap. But let's begin small. Eat what you want, but get outside and do something. After you do something long enough, you'll begin to become inspired to make additional modifications. But little ones. And slowly. For instance ... I began jogging. And then, slowly, I started to cut out the crap food little by little. But it was almost effortless. That's why I recommend starting with some form of activity ... and THEN eating right comes almost naturally.

But before you go out and say I know nothing about training because I recommend that you eat fast-food, let's be clear on something. Proper nutrition is extremely important. If you continue to eat poorly, you're going to continue performing poorly. And feeling poorly. I don't recommend bad eating habits. At some point you're going to have to cut out the crap. However, I feel that proper nutrition has a way of working its way into your life simply by getting up and doing things. Jogging? Walking? CrossFit? CageFit? (Of course I recommend THIS one). Sure. Just get up and get going. Better nutrition choices will come to you a lot more easily. But if I'm wrong, at least you got off your duff and actually did something. Right?

Get Real

If you think you're going to be a professional fighter in only a couple of months, think again. It's very insultive when people come in here thinking that. Do they actually think what we have dedicated our lives to can be picked up by just anybody off the street? Ain't gonna happen. Would you go up to the coach of an NFL football team and say "Look, I've never even once thrown the pigskin before, and I've never even played flag football, but in three months I want you to make me a pro football player." Right. You would be laughed out of there, or maybe they'd call a psychiatrist for you. In other words, you would never do that. And you should never expect to be so foolish with MMA.

The problem is, every guy thinks he can already fight. Many of them come in here and think they just to need to brush up on a few things. They think their schoolyard exploits entitle them to some kind of fighter status. (Kimbo Slice anyone?) It's probably in every guy's makeup to think he is is a badass, but only a handful of us really are. That hurts, I guess, when it's realized. The moment you realize you aren't as badass as you thought, you get discouraged. I see it all the time in the gym. And then you start wondering "Will I EVER be as tough as MMA demands?" Probably not. Sad but true.

The sooner you realize what you are, and what you are not, and what you may never be, you can get on with your life. Make the best of it. But please, don't fall apart when you meet the harsh reality of training. It slows down class, and it keeps the rest of us from learning time. Work your ass off, but don't crumble when you discover you don't have much ass to actually work off.

Sleep On It

I was asked the other day how to become properly conditioned. Well, the simple answer is: train with us at the Spartan Gym. But I know what the inquirer was getting at. My answer may be helpful to others ...

Getting in shape requires three things: exercise, nutrition, and rest. A lot of people understand the exercise part, fewer seem to grasp the nutrition part, and almost no one seems to get the rest part. Getting into shape is not just about working your ass off to exhaustion. You have to have a smart conditioning program, you have to eat right, and you have to sleep! Working out consistently after only a few hours sleep each night is foolishness, but it seems to be a trend.

Working out does not build you up. It tears you down. After the body tears down, it goes "Holy shit! What was that? I better prepare myself to deal with that if it happens again." And then it craves rest. In other words, working out rips you down; rest builds you back up. Without rest, all you're doing is tearing yourself apart. Rest means recovery. And not only recovery, but recovery with a vengeance.

If you want to know what exercises you should be doing, come in and we'll set you along a strong path. And I really need to list a nutritional plan for my fighters. (You guys persistently ask me for it). I hope to have that up soon. But until then, workout, don't eat shit, get plenty of water and ... REST!

A Spartan Creed

Take the following for whatever it's worth. I wrote it a while back.


Let it not be said that we
Winced in fear of men's words;
Nor in fear of their might or madness.

Let it not be said that we
Lived by the instruments of war;
But that, if forced, could wield them.

Let it not be said that we
Battled for the glory of our pride;
But for the defeat of our weaknesses.

Yet let it be said that we were
Men who lived willingly, and died gladly,
By one simple yet iron code:

In battle, victory;
In defeat, dignity;
But above all else, the tireless forging
Of character.

Let this be our lasting legacy.

The Real Deal

Seventy percent of those who say they want to fight are lying to themselves. It takes a special (or should I say, insane) person to want to fight. There are posers everywhere. And many of them don't realize they're posers. They may truly believe they want to fight, but they don't. These are the guys who tell everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) about their upcoming fight; worry more about their posed picture on a website than actual training; and seldom show up to class. And when they do show up, they stay little more than an hour. It takes more than that to fight professionally.

Before you come in here telling me you want to fight, be honest with yourself. You might be a great guy who is very sincere. But do you know what you're getting yourself into? Fighting is a lot more than having your friends drive from Miami to watch you step into a cage. It's more than posting your training pictures on MySpace for your family to see. It's more than going to the gym and pressing some weight around, grunting and groaning for all to see and hear. It's about working your ass off each and every day. It's about pushing through your limitations, not whining about the occasional discomforts of sparring or drillwork. It's about bonding as a team. And how can you be part of a team if your teammates seldom see you in the gym? Fighting is about getting bloody; getting sweaty; feeling sore beyond belief. It's the hardest fucking thing you will ever do, and if you don't realize that, you're gonna get hurt. Bad.

It is my job to make sure you're training. And training hard. It's my responsibility to call off a fight if you aren't laying it on the line each and every day. Many of us have other jobs, so we have to miss a few classes here and there. But come on people! It's called a phone! Call your trainer and tell him something came up. Keep your gym in the loop. It's disrespectful beyond belief to think you can just do what you want, whenever you want, and never be held accountable. Your girlfriend can wait. And if she doesn't understand your need to train, dump her. She's a bitch.

I tell my guys that we don't train to BE fighters, we train because we ARE fighters. We all have our personal fights. Trust me, sometimes it's a fight just to get up in the morning. But we all have to push through and make sacrifices. No sacrifice? No success. It's that simple. Don't come in the gym and waste your time, or mine, if your blood isn't black and gold. (Our Spartan colors). Don't waste your talents on fighting if there's something else out there your heart is set on. Not everyone can fight. Wake up. But be delusional on your own time. My time is too important to me. I have to get fighters ready for the cage. Are you a fighter or a poser? Decide now ... and get the hell out of my way.

Pay Attention

"Vegas" and "vegan" mean two entirely different things, but they're only separated by a single letter. This is the divide between doing a technique almost right and exactly right. A small adjustment can mean the difference between victory or defeat. Or in the real world, between life and death.

The guillotine choke. It's a very popular submission, and many people seem to know it. But if you look closely, many people just perform a front head lock, sit back into guard, and yank. Numerous opponents have lost to this crude method, but it doesn't make it a properly performed technique. I won't go into all of the details, but if you lean slightly in the direction of your choking arm, you will have applied a lot more efficient pressure. Arm strength will be far less necessary.

The rear choke. Here's another good example. How many times have I seen a student in class loop his arm around his training partner's neck and just squeeze? Then I show them proper positioning, how to close off both carotid sheaths, how to roll the shoulders, press with the chest, and inhale all at the same time. They're amazed at how much faster and easier their choke is. There's other details to the rear choke of course, but that should give you an idea.

Jiu-jitsu is all about efficiency. A good way to know if you're doing a technique right or not is the amount of muscular effort you use. If you're using strength, find a way to use less of it. The less strength you use, the closer you're getting to the ideal. Take for example the armbar. If you're much stronger than your opponent, you might get the armbar through sheer force. But what if you fight someone stronger than you? When rolling with people in class who are lighter, weaker, or less skilled, always spar them as if they have the weight, strength, and skills. This way you'll always focus on technique, rather than athleticism. If going for that armbar you're grasping his arm wrong, you'll need strength to finish it. But if you're grabbing in all the right places, and have put everything where it needs to be, the armbar shouldn't require much effort.

Details. Jiu-jitsu is a very technical art. There's no way around that. That's why jiu-jitsu can be practiced for an entire lifetime without becoming a bore. MMA tends to be far less technical (though I think that's slowly changing). But jiu-jitsu is all about efficiency, and in order to achieve that ideal you have to do things right, not NEARLY right. Again, it's like the difference between "laughter" and "daughter." Pay attention to the details.

Drills!!!

Last night, during a light end-of-class rolling session, one of my new students tapped another student. Big deal, who cares, I know. But this specific incident illustrates something I've been trying to impress upon my students for a long time now.

Just under three minutes into the round, the student pulled off a perfectly executed triangle choke. It came fast and unexpected. The submitted student admitted that he never saw it coming. The student who did it said he didn't think he had the skill to do it, and was amazed he pulled it off so smoothly. The only one who wasn't surprised, I guess, was me.

The student who pulled off the submission has trained the triangle for two days. That's it. So he didn't know he had it in him. But I didn't understand why he didn't understand. We had been working that technique for two days straight. And I consistently tell my students that "drills breed skills." Everyone wants to spar. There's too much sparring in a lot of the MMA gyms. You need to spar, don't get me wrong. But if you're sparring without first having skills, then you're practicing bad habits. It's that simple. (A lot of gyms use sparring as a filler. They don't want to lose students so they keep them active. Or even worse, the instructor doesn't know the fundamentals himself).

If you take the triangle and drill it for two whole classes, you'll have a fairly decent triangle. You really will. I know it's boring, but "it's through the corridor of boredom that we reach the room of skill." (Corny, I know). I've visited a lot of gyms where students don't grasp the fundamentals. (And the triangle is THE fundamental). That's because they've been spoiled with the more exciting aspects, such as sparring and learning technique upon technique. That's too bad. They should really drill, drill, drill.

If I haven't got my point across yet, I never will. I've harped on this for years. But let me say this: Drill the triangle from the guard for two or three days. Then drill the armbar from the guard for two or three days. Then drill the omoplata for two or three days. After that, drill them together for about a week. Then, and ONLY then, spar. You will be amazed at your submission abilities. Then, go back and do it again. Two or three days on the triangle, etc. Then mix them back up. And I don't mean work a thousand setups for each, I'm talking about just sticking to the basic triangle, armbar, and omoplata, with the basic setups. Nothing fancy. If you do this, despite the boredom, your game will jump exponentially. And then sparring will be much more enjoyable when you get to it.

Base

Everyone should have a base, a foundation upon which his MMA game rests. Wrestling is a very popular base. As is Muay Thai. But for me, Jiu-Jitsu is my base, and it's what I try to instill into all of my fighters. But I will never try to replace a person's base if they come from a different background. If a wrestler comes in, we will work on his wrestling skills in an MMA context ... and build-out from there. If a boxer comes in, we'll maximize his hand skills while rounding him out. As is the case with any other base.

The Jiu-Jitsu guys seem fewer and far between. When someone comes in to be a fighter, I seldom find them with a Jiu-Jitsu background. I don't know why this is, but it's happening a lot lately. I get a lot of high school wrestlers, just like a lot of other gyms get. And next in line are the Muay Thai guys. But where have the JJ guys gone? Maybe they're sticking with NAGA, or other such submission tournaments. Or maybe there are so few good JJ schools out there that the exposure is minimal. But I find that hard to believe in a way. I thought JJ was taking over?

Everything has to have roots. Wrestling is a decent root, but I've found very few wrestlers who could fight from their backs. Muay Thai is a good root, but there has to be a lot of mat time to make up for the lack of grappling experience. To ME, and this is just opinion, give me a guy who can fight from his back, and we're already three quarters the way there. This is why Jiu-Jitsu is so important to me. I feel it's better to learn the guard and then build from there. Of course this is just my opinion, but it's based on a lot of observation.

I like to give my guys a solid Jiu-Jitsu base first. Those who come in without ANY background tend to be my best learners. I start them at Jiu-Jitsu then work our way up. They tend to be the best fighters. But I still spend a lot of time on Jiu-Jitsu with the guys rooted in other arts. And usually when a guy comes in with "jiu-jitsu" skills, I have to spend weeks and months breaking him of his sport jiu-jitsu habits. They're often shocked to find out their no-gi grappling, no matter how badass it is, is greatly compromised under the heat of striking. (When I say I teach Jiu-Jitsu, it's the jiu-jitsu that's designed to handle everything. Sport Jiu-Jitsu is one thing, Jiu-Jitsu for MMA and the street is another).

Have a base. I prefer Jiu-Jitsu. But if you can't get that, get wrestling, Muay Thai, boxing, sambo, maybe judo. (For God's sake don't come in here relying on your tae kwon do). But what's better than coming in with a base at all is starting from the ground up. In other words, Jiu-Jitsu. Just my opinion.

The Most Difficult Thing

This isn't about boxing, so bear with me ... A boxer only has a few skills. He's got the jab, cross, hook, uppercut, overhand, footwork and body movement. That's it. But look at a good boxer and he'll seem to have hundreds of options. That's because he's spent time with these fundamentals. He knows the ins and outs of them. His intimate knowledge of them allows him his own personal variations and on-the-spot adaptations. He hasn't spent years piling on layers of techniques; he spent those years refining the nuances of each technique. That old adage "Less is more" rings most true.

I tell my students from day one that "The slower you go the faster you will learn." I'm trying to stress taking time with the fundamentals. But for whatever reason, call it youth, testosterone, or performance anxiety, few students heed the advice. Too few. Three years later they look back and think, "Geesh, Bill is still harping on slowing down." Can you imagine their progress three years later if they actually heeded my caution?

MMA is (rather you want to admit or not) a fairly simple sport. Of course there are more things you have to worry about (punching, kicking, clinch, ground and pound, submissions), but if your instructor has taken his time and really considered the whole art, MMA can be boiled down to just a few moves. Once this is done, each student can work on these few techniques just like a boxer works on his.

The other night I was teaching the evening Jiu-Jitsu class. I showed the students that just like a boxer uses one stance, the groundfighter can use just one "stance" for everything. Once this "stance" has been worked out and used in a variety of situations, you will seldom be caught with your "guard" down. Just as a boxer shouldn't drop his hands, a groundfighter should never drop this multipurpose/adaptive position. I was trying to show that you don't need a lot of things. You just need to get really good at a few things.

Surgical precision. Airtight technicality. Call it what you want, but it's important to stay focused on a select group of techniques so you can gain depth and range of understanding. As Royce Gracie said "I'd rather you be 100% good with 20 techniques than 20% good with a hundred techniques." (This might be a slight paraphrase).

The hard part is knowing what should be concentrated on; knowing what the highest-percentage techniques are. (Good thing that hard work has been done already). The easier part is slowing the hell down, concentrating on each technique as if you aren't going to learn any more. This is easier said than done, but it's vital. I read an article recently that read: "You shouldn't practice something until you get it right, you should practice it until you can't get it wrong." A subtle shift in thinking, but a huge change in results.

The most difficult thing is convincing students to slow down and work on precision. But as instructors, this is our most important goal. However you need to do it, do it. Focus on a core of related yet comprehensive techniques. Make sure each student has a firm grasp on them. And rather than show flying armbars, scissor leg takedowns, and all that twister stuff, how about focus on things like replacing the guard, escaping from all positions, escaping from all major submissions, dealing with ground and pound, breaking the opponent's posture, and a series of simple yet highly effective submssions? Ten or twelve techniques is all anyone really needs. If you haven't been able to boil your teaching into this small arsenal, you don't grasp the material yourself. Krishnamurti said "Simplicity is the height of perfection." Until you make things precise, how can you expect your students to?

Convincing students to work on the fundamentals is the most difficult thing. But it's the most important thing. No excuses. Drill the fundamentals even at the risk of having your students leave you for a more "exciting" school. A school that teaches a handful of different techniques each night doesn't truly understand the art. Each and every night a lot of review is necessary. Don't stray from the core.

MMA and Values

Don't get me wrong, I love MMA. I really do. It's how I make my living, and I have no intention to bite the hand that feeds me. But the red flags are going up a lot more lately. Tell me I'm not the only one who fears that the sport of MMA is seriously lacking in the traditional principles of humility, respect, and self control. Everywhere I turn there's that brash, immature, in-your-face garbage that undermines what I think the martial arts are all about. For instance: fighters talking crap about their opponents; The Ultimate Fighter television show (just mentioning the name conjures images of young punks getting drunk and vandalizing property); and forums full of bickering kids overflowing with misguided angst, most of them clueless.

MMA has shown the world, hopefully, that you have to be an integrated fighter if you're going to be as effective as you can possibly be. Hopefully MMA has woken people up from their dreams of kata and dead routines. In this respect, MMA has done wonders. But when we strive for effectiveness, is it truly necessary to jettison tradition? When we throw out every last visage of tradition, don't we throw the baby out with the bathwater? Why can't we have combat effectiveness while retaining the principles upon which the martial arts have stood? I'm not saying we should all bow, speak Japanese, and eat rice with chopsticks. But come on people. I see students in MMA gyms all the time being discourteous, unsanitary, and just plain rude. And the instructors just go on like it's business as usual. Sad thing is, it IS just business as usual.

Maybe I'm just getting old. Maybe I'm just pining for a past that's long gone. Maybe martial evolution has no place for the concerns of yesterday. But I hope I'm wrong. I hope we can reduce the mud-slinging and take a higher road. Quit turning to violence (or the threat of violence) just because someone pissed you off. We should be more than just fighters. Fighters fight for themselves, warriors fight for a higher good. Well don't they? Shouldn't we work toward becoming warriors and not merely fighters? Anyone can fight. Fighting doesn't take a special person.

I hope someone can find a balance between function and tradition. It's got to be out there somewhere. I just haven't found anyone who seems to get it yet.

Why We Fight

"We survive on adversity and perish in ease and comfort." - Livy (The Roman historian).

That's one of my favorite phrases. The reason I love it so much is because it captures the essence of why I teach people how to fight. Fighting in the cage is just a metaphor for fighting in life. I tell my guys that "We don't fight to prove ourselves; we fight to test ourselves." We fight to face our fears, and become better people in the process. Winning or losing isn't nearly as important as fighting itself.

I often tell my guys "We don't train to become fighters; We train because we ARE fighters." It takes guts and heart to come to class each and every day. It takes effort. It takes discipline. Maybe it takes a dose of insanity. Training to fight is a fight unto itself. Just as we need to fight back the urge to pull over and beat the guy senseless who just cut us off. Just as we need to fight to get out of bed some mornings. Just as we need to fight the urge to just give up when the weight of the world seems to be crushing us. Going to the gym each and every day is fighting. It's not just training for it. It breeds spirit. It builds determination. It's fighting.

People ask me why I teach people to fight. I tell them I'm just making fighters better. I'm not making fighters. I'm sharpening them. Fighting in the cage is just another lesson. It's just another place where we can discover our weaknesses. Cage fighting is nothing more than a mirror in which we can see ourselves. A mirror in which we can see what we have in us. And what we don't have in us. It's not about conquering our opponents, it's about conquering ourselves. Cage fighting is the Philosopher's Stone that transforms us.

A good friend of mine told me once that the best way to take over a group of people is to give them all they want, all they believe they should have. To spoil them. Once they are spoiled, they go soft. When a people have something to fight against, they dig deep. They become ferocious. They discover their true depths. But when the enemy doesn't fight them, they soften. They perish in comfort.

We fight because we are fighters. We fight because conflict brings out who we are. We fight because the struggle reveals us. We fight not to prove ourselves, but to temper ourselves. We fight because life is in the struggle, not the complacency.

"The present is where the past and the future collide. It's where they battle each other. Only fighters can thrive in the subsequent melee."

Kyle Maynard

I hope to keep this one brief. Otherwise my intentions will be misunderstood. But I've had a lot of guys ask me about it, so I figured I'd write it and get it over with.

Kyle Maynard's recent MMA "fight" was an embarassment to MMA. That's just the way it is. It wasn't a fight, it was a staged event. When rules have to be manipulated to such a degree as to change the face of MMA for one person, it's no longer MMA. I have nothing against Kyle himself. He seems like a genuine guy who truly believes he has a right to participate in MMA. Maybe he does, but not against someone with ... um ... limbs. What weight class did he fight in? What restrictions were placed on his opponent so as to not send Kyle to the morgue?

Look, we all have the right to aspire to whatever makes us happy. But let's not delude ourselves. And for God's sake let's not keep playing this political correct bullshit. Somethings some people just can't do. Period. And lowering standards isn't a viable option.

Look ... if you allow me to sit next to the pilot of a plane, but tell me all I can do is watch him fly it, and then, after landing, the pilot tells my friends and family that I helped fly the plane, I would be embarassed. Sitting in the cockpit doesn't make me a pilot. Getting in the cage doesn't make you a fighter. Changing the standards to make someone feel like he did something is dishonest. And it dilutes the sport.