Cross_Trainer

Thank you for your youtube suggestion--I do indeed use it frequently, and it has some great stuff. But does anyone know if there are any vendors of higher quality tapes and DVDs with full length fights on them?

Does anyone know of companies, vendors, or websites who sell footage (preferably DVD) of the old greats--men like Oyama, Lewis, Urquidez, Geesink, Wallace, and even older films? Thanks!

I know that these are a somewhat controversial topic--many consider them to be rather useless. However, I'm curious....out of all of the face cage headgear on the market right now, which do you consider to be the best?

I wondered what you guys have found to be the softest, safest training glove available. Combatsports' MMA glove seems to be mentioned in this context several times....is it the best out there, or are there superior ones? Thanks for your help.

Although I box rather than do Eastern martial arts, board-breaking strikes me as a potentially useful method of power measurement. While I have experience in throwing punches, I have no background in breaking boards--although I intend to use bag gloves (as you see below) and handwraps to prevent hand injury. http://www.karatedepot.com/catalog/images/items/bx-bg-10.jpg I am about 150 pounds, and a somewhat harder-than-average puncher for my size. What thickness equivalent would you recommend I get? Thanks!

I am contemplating getting one of these two freestanding bags due to space limitations at my house. Has anyone had experience with either of these products? Are they reliable? Are they useful? And is BOB's lifelike shape worth the extra money? Incidentally, I would be using it solely for punches--I am not sure if this has any bearing on the reliability of the bag or its stability, but I thought I'd mention it. Thanks.

Probably the best way to be prepared would simply be a LOT of sparring. Endurance is sport-specific, so running isn't going to help you as much as sparring endurance-wise. After all, if you're training for endurance in sparring, doesn't it make more sense to train it by actually sparring? Possibly a bit of weight training as well, and definitely a sound diet regimen.

If a fighter won belts in the same/very similar weight class in both the UFC and Pride under both of their rules (Pride's in Japan, UFC's in America), would they be considered for all intents and purposes the unified world champion, since they won in the 2 major organizations under both rulesets? Or are the other organizations out there important enough that it would still be disputed? Also: 1. What do you think that would do for MMA in general? I would suspect that it would improve its popularity, especially if the winner is charismatic and a heavyweight. People seem to enjoy a sport more when there's a top person to identify it with. 2. Is it possible and/or likely in the near future? It seems that Pride's fighters have a lot more money and little to gain by going into the financially poorer UFC. I'm also not sure how much the two organizations think of each others' legitimacy. 3. Is there anyone who could pull it off at any weight class, and keep both titles for a long period of time (They'd have to fight more often than normal, though...) 4. Any other thoughts on this that I haven't addressed? Thank you for your time.

Hypothetical question: If a match could be staged with rules similar to the first few UFC's today, in which all of the heavyweight contenders and champions from all of the major tournaments (UFC, Pride, Abu Dhabi, etc.) competed, who would win the world championship? Also, do you think that there's the possibility of a unification bout between any of the larger organizations any time in the future? Do any of them have regulations allowing for the use of different rulesets (Pride's seem to be fairly good, except for the lack of elbows--maybe this changed recently but the last I heard it hadn't). Anyway, thank you for your time.

I have a somewhat involved question for you guys on setting up an MA conditioning program. I have a solid knowledge of sports training and conditioning, but there's something that I've been wanting to clear up for a while, and hoped you could help me with. It will take a little while to get through, so I appreciate your patience. It's based on two premises that I've found, which are: 1. Sports endurance is primarily sports-specific. Therefore, in order to train sports-specific endurance, it is best to perform movements closely resembling the activity. Presumably, the best way to train "skill-endurance" (ability to perform MA skills when tired) would be repetition of the technique over and over again even after you get tired. To balance this out it would be necessary to practice frequently when NOT tired in order to keep technique where it should be. 2. Technical skills are best acquired through a mixture of drills and sparring. 3. Speed-Strength (power) in sports comes from fast-twitch muscle fibers, which are developed using powerlifting protocols (very heavy weights, 1-5 reps). Therefore, a powerlifter has greater POTENTIAL for explosive strength even if his actual weightlifting speed is slow. The best way for muscles to fire quickly, on the other hand, is to use explosive lifts (generally olympic, but would also include many kettlebell lifts if you use heavier weights) 4. Another excellent method of gaining functional strength is training to lift irregular, unwieldy objects (as in "strongman" training), with some endurance component attached. THEREFORE... Is it correct to assume that one of the optimal ways of getting the correct training for martial arts would consist of (obviously not all at the same time): 1) High Weight/Low Reps powerlifting methods for pure strength development (including the three powerlifts--deadlift, squat, bench---plus a few more to round it out, i.e. bent over rows, possibly bent press, and a few others) 2) Ballistic/explosive speed-strength development through olympic lifts plus the kettlebell lifts (only using weights that you can only do a few times, for power rather than endurance) 3) Lifting of irregular objects with some endurance component for functional strength("strongman" training) 4) sparring, drills, and repetition of techniques over and over again for a combination of endurance and technical skills. Note: would have to be periodized one way or another, possibly running along westside principles The most important part of this question hinges upon whether simply repeating the skill(s) over and over is the most efficient way (or a fairly efficient way) to train specific endurance. (for instance, sparring a lot of rounds really frequently) compared to other training methods (like sprinting, running, etc.) Thank you for your time.

My mistake. I should have clarified. By jeet kune do I mean the core curriculum as was taught in many JKD schools after Bruce Lee's death, as outlined in his numerous writings. I do not mean the MMA-type philosophy of mixing and matching styles to produce an effective all-ranges personalized martial art.

If you could choose any fighters from any era to represent their respective styles in a no-holds-barred style fighting competition, who would you choose? A few of my choices would be: Mas Oyama (kyukoshin karate) Joseph Charlemont (savate) John L. Sullivan (bareknuckle pugilism) Mohammed Ali or Joe Louis (modern boxing) Bill Wallace or Joe Lewis (American 'full contact karate') Alexander Medved (Olympic freestyle wrestling) Anton Geesink (judo) Royce Gracie (Brazilian jujitsu) Bruce Lee (jun fan/jeet kune do) Any extra information you can provide about your fighter(s) would also be welcome.

What are some good drills that I could do that would improve my hand/eye and foot/eye coordination, and general perception speed? Thank you for your help

The West has virtually invented modern physical fitness, weight training, plyometrics, and so on. It has also invented boxing (almost an ideal hand art), wrestling, and savate. It has approached MA more 'scientifically' than its eastern counterparts had for centuries--although of course recently they have caught up. On the other hand, the Eastern martial arts read as almost a who's who of MA styles--Muay Thai, Jujitsu, Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Judo, and so on. So, although I realize that both are extremely important and interdependent contributions to the MA world, whose has been greater? Has there been any single nation that has made the greatest contributions? Comments?

Muay Thai is one of the few arts out there that allows full-contact use of elbows and knees, and which uses low kicks against the legs. This leads me to wonder--is Muay Thai good because of its techniques (IE how its moves work), or because it is simply able to use more weapons and kicks at a different level? In other words, if other systems simply aimed their kicks lower and were also allowed to use elbows and knees, would they have similar performance to Muay Thai? Or are there other characteristics that make Muay Thai so effective?