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Identifying how bad you really are!
02 Jan 2009 5:08PM
Training sessions should always be a learning curve. Even if you walk away from the session feeling like you’ve not performed I always think you should try and glean something from the experience. We’ve all had those sessions where perhaps you feel like you’ve been in ‘negative learning’ and you may be picking up bad habits by persevering with it. Even these situations can have a positive outcome if you accept that this is happening and learn how to cope and move on, getting yourself ‘out of the rut’. At other times you may be at the absolute opposite end of the spectrum and everything ‘clicks’ and flows and feels right. The object regardless is to leave a session knowing something that you didn’t know when you went in. There may have been little to write home about in some sessions, but provided you can identify a positive learning experience somewhere along the way you will improve.
Improvement is the key thing in any sport. Stand still too long and you’re sure to get overtaken. I was overtaken several times on Tuesday. Nathan Leverton at Leicester Shootfighters invited me over to do some training with him, Dan Hardy, Jim Wallhead and Andre Winner. Pep and Matt tagged along and Mamhood Besharate was there also. Essentially Dan, Jim and Dre all did 6 lots of 5 min rounds of ‘sprawl and brawl’ with me and Mahmood filling in alternately as the 4th man. I sparred with both Jimmy and Dre and despite my fitness being good it was a timely reminder that being fit and being ‘conditioned’ are two very different things. Two things happened that helped me learn.
One was that after Dre and Jimmy had realised how limited my kickboxing was they just picked me apart, playing around with tactics and combinations. Two, was that Nathan very, very simply took me to one side and pointed out exactly why they had found it so easy. My footwork, head movement and guard were indeed very limited. For a long time Matt, Pep and I have talked about our kickboxing and tried to improve it but with limited success. While we can happily bang the crap out of each other for hours on end I don’t think our learning curve has been anywhere near as steep as it could, or should be. The gaps in my bog standard basic skills are evidence of this. Part of the problem is we are too happy to brawl and like getting punched (except Pep). This wake up call has arrived at a good time for me as I’m about to start my preparation for my fight on February 28th. It’s given me one area to begin working on. No doubt in the next few visits to Leicester I’ll pick up some more pointers and have even more to work on.
I like learning and am looking forward to seeing how much I can improve in the next six weeks, hopefully any improvements I make can also help Jimmy, Dre and Dan… though I very much doubt they will be standing still or ever allow themselves to be overtaken. They didn’t stand still long enough for me on Tuesday that’s for sure.
What’s my point here? I mentioned at the start about positive and negative training sessions and most people would generally feel that positive sessions are the best for learning. I’m not sure I necessarily agree with that all the time. While good sessions are great for the mind, confidence and attitude I can’t help but think that those sessions that allow you to see your weaknesses and mistakes are more worthwhile in the long term. After all you only learn by making errors till you get things right. That’s how you learn… or at least that’s how I learn. So in a perverse way I’m looking forward to making plenty of mistakes over the next few weeks and seeing how bad I really am compared to these guys is what will make me a better fighter ultimately.
Dave’s next learning curve will start on Saturday morning
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