Weight Training

or, Weight training is useless in MMA and UFC so we don’t do that stuff …..

Caveat: This post is mine and mine alone. I the author of this post assure you, the reader, that any of the opinions expressed here are my own and are a result of the way in which my meandering mind interprets a particular situation and/or concept. The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of other martial arts and/or conflict/violence professionals or authors of source materials. It should be quite obvious that the sources I used herein have not approved, endorsed, embraced, friended, liked, tweeted or authorized this post. (Everything I think and write is true, within the limits of my knowledge and understanding.)

When you work out with weights in the weight room what is your goal? It possible is the need to build muscle strength, to create stronger and more resilient tendons and cartilage and it also is about building a powerful body. In addition, for me, it is about building up the body’s defenses, the natural ones nature gave to us. In addition, for me, it is about bulk or mass for it is our ability to move mass that generates power and force. This becomes critical especially if you are being attacked by a much larger, stronger, meaner and aggressive person. You need all the tools you can build and develop that come a bit from your fitness program, like weight lifting.

Now, when you life weights you are building, developing and gaining health, fitness and well-being. The actual exercises you use with weights and any other gym equipment don’t provide you any techniques or combinations you might use in a fight or for defense, right? Yet, when you use weights you don’t even consider the martial arts applications you might assume would come from the activity of weight lifting. Yes, there are many underlying benefits of weight lifting that you know will be useful in your martial arts self-defense training.

Endurance of the body comes from circuit weight training along with a certain amount of aerobic/anaerobic benefit and that does not translate into any type of self-defense techniques or goals, right? Yet, you don’t quit weight training because it does not directly benefit your practice, training and use, especially those self-defense strategies and tactics, application of martial arts, right? You might even consider your weight training program, much like your running regimen, as an underlying principle that benefits your use of self-defense martial arts. 

Then, why oh why do folks consider karate and kata useless in self-defense or competitive tournaments like UFC, MMA and general martial arts point tournaments? They assume that because they cannot “see” how they benefit those endeavors they assume that they are unnecessary and worthless and so on. This is not true. 

Any Martial Art, like karate, along with the art forms, kata or juru, etc., have many benefits that may not directly or even indirectly apply in the fight or in self-defense but you have to agree that the principles that underly those systems will benefit a fighter regardless of the distinction of sport, combative or defense. 

Would you agree that your structure is important in the fight or defense of your body against death or great bodily harm? Would you agree that breathing, posture, spinal alignment along with the shoulder and waist girdle, centeredness, centripetal and centrifugal forces, etc., are all necessary or even critical in a fight or self-defense? Much like strength gained from weight training it all makes a difference and adds benefits to the practice, training, and application of martial arts for sport, combatives and self-defense. 

So, stop dissing all those martial styles and systems, stop dissing the arts as to whether you can see or not see benefits to increasing your master of what ever discipline you are in such as MMA or UFC, etc. Stop dissing traditional, classical or modern karate or any other system or style you cannot or will not see as beneficial. Remember, regardless of the style or system it is actually the underlying principles as described briefly above that actually give you your martial edge in the fight or defense and, like weight lifting, the benefits are there for the taking and you have to admit, if you can see any benefit that would give you that “edge” over your adversary, wouldn’t you want to know it, learn it, practice it, and apply it when needed? 

Those principles to which I write about are as follows and will be presented with more in the book, “The Modern Martial Arts Instruction Manual: A Modern Bubishi.” (Note: the original principles are listed as ONE, TWO, THREE and FOUR while the additions are ones I am working on for a more well-rounded self-defense set. 

PRINCIPLE ONE: PRINCIPLES OF THEORY (Universality, Control, Efficiency, Lengthen Our Line, Percentage Principle, Std of Infinite Measure, Power Paradox, Ratio, Simplicity, Natural Action, Michelangelo Principle, Reciprocity, Opponents as Illusions, Reflexive Action, Training Truth, Imperception and Deception.)

PRINCIPLE TWO: PHYSIOKINETIC PRINCIPLES (Breathing, posture, triangle guard, centerline, primary gate, spinal alignment, axis, minor axis, structure, heaviness, relaxation, wave energy, convergence, centeredness, triangulation point, the dynamic sphere, body-mind, void, centripetal force, centrifugal force, sequential locking and sequential relaxation, peripheral vision, tactile sensitivity, rooting, attack hubs, attack posture, possibly the chemical cocktail???see below)

PRINCIPLE THREE: PRINCIPLES OF TECHNIQUE (techniques vs. technique, equal rights, compliment, economical motion, active movement, positioning, angling, leading control, complex force, indirect pressure, live energy and dead energy, torsion and pinning, speed, timing, rhythm, balance, reactive control, natural and unnatural motion, weak link, non-telegraphing, extension and penetration, Uke.)

PRINCIPLE FOUR: PRINCIPLES OF PHILOSOPHY (Mind, mushin, kime, non-intention, yin-yang, oneness, zanshin and being, non-action, character, the empty cup.)

Principle’s One through Four: 

Pearlman, Steven J. "The Book of Martial Power." Overlook Press. N.Y. 2006.

PRINCIPLE FIVE: PRINCIPLES OF SELF-DEFENSE (“Conflict communications; Emotional Intelligence; Lines/square/circle of SD, Three brains (human, monkey, lizard), JAM/AOJ and five stages, Adrenal stress (stress induced reality based), Violence (Social and Asocial), Pre-Attack indicators, Weapons, Predator process and predator resource, Force levels, Repercussions (medical, legal, civil, personal), Go-NoGo, Win-Loss Ratio, etc. (still working on the core sub-principles for this one)”Attitude, Socio-emotional, Diplomacy, Speed [get-er done fast], Redirected aggression, Dual Time Clocks, Awareness, Initiative, Permission, )

Principle Five: 

MacYoung, Marc. "In the Name of Self-Defense: What It Costs. When It’s Worth It." Marc MacYoung. 2014.

Goleman, Daniel. "Emotional Intelligence: 10th Anniversary Edition [Kindle Edition]." Bantam. January 11, 2012.

Miller, Rory. "ConCom: Conflict Communications A New Paradigm in Conscious Communication." Amazon Digital Services, Inc. 2014. 

Miller, Rory and Kane, Lawrence A. "Scaling Force: Dynamic Decision-making under Threat of Violence." YMAA Publisher. New Hampshire. 2012

Miller, Rory. "Force Decisions: A Citizen's Guide." YMAA Publications. NH. 2012.

Miller, Rory Sgt. "Meditations of Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence" YMAA Publishing. 2008.

Miller, Rory Sgt. "Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected." YMAA Publishing. 2011.

Elgin, Suzette. "The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense" Barnes & Noble. 1993.

Morris, Desmond. “Manwatching: A Field Guide to Human Behavior.” Harry N. Abrams. April 1979. 

PRINCIPLE SIX: CHEMICAL COCKTAIL: (Attacked Mind, Train It, Breath It Away, Visualize It Away, Sparring vs. Fighting, Degradation of Technique/skills, Peripheral Vision Loss, Tunnel Vision, Depth Perception Loss/Altered, Auditory Exclusion, Weakened legs/arms, Loss of Extremity Feeling, Loss of Fine Motor Skills, Distorted Memory/perceptions, Tachypsychia (time slows), Freeze, Perception of Slow Motion, Irrelevant Thought Intrusion, Behavioral Looping, Pain Blocked, Male vs. Female Adrenaline Curve, Victim vs. Predator, The Professional, Levels of Hormonal Stimulation, ???)