Training only

Training alone has always been important but today it is even more important.

Today the lifestyle, emergency situations have led people to find alternative solutions to be able to continue training and one way was the only training.

Clearly it cannot be the only way to train if you practice combat sports,martial arts or self-defense but training alone has always been a fundamental element if you want to improve and today following the problem of the Covid-19 pandemic it has become for some the only way to continue training.

Already some time ago I wrote you a post on how to train at home the Philippine Kali (FMA) as well as in the gym if you want to progress quickly.

Often you give a lot of responsibility to the teacher / coach of combat sports or martial arts that is but even if it is true that it is your coach can not do your job.

If you want to get good it all depends on you and the commitment you put in when you work out and that doesn’t just mean in the gym but remember that most of the practice time occurs outside of the dojo or gym.

Even if you train 4 hours a day when you’re out of the gym and you’re at home if you really want to improve you have to do specific workouts or watch videos, take notes of what you’ve done, schedule your workouts, etc.

So imagine if it can be enough to train 1.5 hours 2 times a week, other than the smart allies slogans, that is good for those who look in the mirror after eating weighted food,not for a fighter.

This does not mean that when you leave the gym you still have to train hours and hours but that a training that you can do on your own and done regularly as a habit is the way to progress and to develop your martial art;

When you return to class with your training partners, train with others where you’ll find out how your progression will be different and recognize that you’re going with an extra gear.

Like when you went to school, you went to class, but then when you got home you had to fix your notes, study the lesson, deepen, exercise.

This is crucial to remember what you learn but also understand what you don’t remember and request, etc.

The gym is the place where your teacher teaches you, you have many different partners to train with so you have a guide, you have a comparison with which you can understand more, try, have tips and even exchange information, etc.

As in school the real knowledge and knowledge does not happen in school where you receive information, a direction, a guide but then the key to success is in the work you do by studying, exercising, in the study alone, exercises alone, etc. then it’s the test that lets you understand how prepared you are.

Then it is clear that the confirmation of what you are doing is working is given by your master who is qualified to do so by giving you a belt and by comparing with your training partners and in tournaments or matches where you compare yourself in a competition.

Self-defense and martial arts are no different from any path to study and you can’t think that just because you’re doing a self-defense course and you know some technique gives you an “advantage” to deal with violence.

You can’t mind that once you have this “knowledge,” you’re fully equipped to deal with an attacker who’s always been an expert at fucking people and has always been committed to causing harm, etc.

Technical knowledge is not enough and also often the idea that you have violence is very far from the reality that you have to train if you want to face it.

A lot of time spent training alone beyond the gym can pay off exponentially in terms of skill development and especially basic combat/survival skills.

If I tell you this is because I know very well how most gyms work and so I know how the work that is done in the gym is slow for the progression of the student, and how it is full of gaps that only with a workout in solo you can fill.

The perception you have of yourself and your vision of where you want to go

As you see it is important because you are aware of yourself but just as important is to visualize your goal and work to achieve it, so how do you want to see yourself.

This view of you is important but only if you accompany it from a constant work to achieve the goal.

If you see yourself as a professional fighter, then even if you work, if you are not a professional but the way you will train and devote time and care to your training and preparation will be coem a professional fighter.

That doesn’t mean you’re fooling yourself by believing something you’re not but you’re developing an image of yourself, a desire for who you want to be and then you train to be that kind of person by changing the way you train, to take care of all aspects like a pro does

That discipline requires less effort than you think if the display of you is correct.

If you see yourself as an amateur you will always have excuses not to train, to mess with food, there will always be an then in your way of thinking, always excuses, you will be full of if, of but.

Now I’m not giving you a motivational speech because they are stupid, a fighter has to work and train, not just motivation but if you don’t have clear what you want to be and you don’t have a guide then you’re lost.

If you attend Boxing, Muay Thai, BJJ or MMA classes you do it because you like the sport you have seen on TV or from a friend, or because you want to do competitions in different disciplines, or you simply want to learn a combat sport of striking or fighting but how do you imagine what you want to become and what you do to achieve it is fundamental.

It is a daily and constant work.

If, on the other hand, we talk about self-defense or personal protection, these are needs that often concern practical and psychological reasons for insecurity with the search for answers to simple questions such as “what to do if someone attacks you?”, etc.

Here the work is somehow even more complex because often the personal defense courses have un practical structures and that do not give real answers to the problems you have in a real aggression.

This is a complex and delicate path for self-defence!

There are also people who practice self-defense disciplines mainly to do a fitness workout and this I find strange because professionally even if moving implicitly also has inside the training are aspects that I prefer to divide.

There are reasons why people choose to practice self-defense courses, rather than attending a combat sports lesson or just doing fitness, etc.

Today there is a lot of confusion going to mix everything as if you wanted to take everything that the user market asks for.

People are often intimidated towards certain disciplines, often recognizing fear and their own insecurity is felt as a deficit of their personality that they do not want to face.

Whatever the reason you started training in combat sports, personal defense or traditional martial arts, building a workout and practice in training only making it a habit and a daily routine will help you become the practitioner or fighter you intend to be.

Practicing at certain times of your day in just training with caravans or to deepen some movements will help you align with the way you want to see yourself and if you want to become a fighter or self-defense expert is not something you do by going twice a week to the gym for a couple of hours.

For the different situations of life, work, vacation, isolation, etc. you will not always have people to train and practice and work alone and train anyway must be part of yourself, you must always have in mind your goal and have precise focus of why you do it.

How to start training yourself

When you start training in training only, do not have unrealistic expectations of yourself but start by doing short sessions because it will not be easy to fill the time of exercises.

Even the ability to concentrate without distracting you can be a problem because the smartphone has reduced the ability to concentrate.

A boxing timer and rather than trying to fight with not looking at your smartphone, accept the limit of distracting yourself and do short but concentrated sessions with a plan of even a few exercises and drills but that you have to do focused.

Over time you increase the duration of the session and exercises.

You have to be realistic and build a habit, if you want to do long training sessions every day 7/7 twice a day and you never did do the end of those who have never trained and want to go to the gym or run every day and rest only on Sunday, after a couple of weeks starts to jump, then not to go for a week, will see the good intentions fail.

The body follows you but you have to give it time to get used to it!

At the beginning my suggestion for just training is short time but often several times in the day with a very specific focus on what to do and then over time when the habit increases increase the duration of the session.

In my home, I have a home gym for fighters that is always available to do workouts and this can be a great help to do training only, but you can also train in a park near your home or if you have a space.

Of course, the way you organize depends on the time you have in your day because it can be in the morning, or in lunch break, in the evening, it depends on your lifestyle.

It can be only one short session or multiple sessions per day.

But what seems like little but done every day with perseverance becomes a great job.

Over time you increase the duration of the sessions and clearly I remind you that the training-only work is beyond the work you do in the gym.

An example if every time you wake up in the morning you make 5 rounds of vacuum that are only 20 minutes of training means that in a week you did taking off the Sunday 30 rounds of vacuum adding a simple daily exercise of 5 rounds.

How many rounds do you make of emptiness today?

You would train a lot, without creating big changes to your daily activities and you are starting to become the person you intended to be when you first started training and fantasizing with your imagination dreaming of becoming. everyone has their own image.

Every now and then it is important to go and find in your mind “the image of the person you want to become”, that person who pushed you to start a course, it is always worth revisiting and remember it is never too late to do so.

The experience of training alone

Training in training alone can be strange at first, especially if you’ve never done it.

Doing exercises such as vacuum, engaging in a technical study of repeats or drills in only training for striking or for the fight is not for some something easy, indeed for some it is a discouraging and embarrassing effort even if no one looks at you, especially when your body is not in balance and harmony and you feel that you are doing what “does not come back”.

Often some people do not do much emptiness for example, the so-called shadow boxing, because they are afraid of this feeling this “honesty” of themselves, in some way it is a way to feel, to look at themselves from a different perspective.

Pulling good shots in the air while you’re doing footwork, dodging can initially seem awkward, but as you listen and learn to relax and move more and more fluidly, relaxed, natural, you’ll feel comfortable because your body does what it has to do as if you’re walking or just drinking a glass of water.

The feeling you have of yourself when you work alone is not the same as when you work with a partner.

But I assure you that the only training seen as a habit or if you want as the consistency of doing exercises in only training with a defined program of preparation and study or working with a drills until you feel it fluid, simple and natural, leads you to an experience that you live with yourself rewarding and without spectators.

Like everything you don’t have to expect everything to happen like magic from the first time you do it, you can’t have an expectation like that, it serves perseverance.

Humans are designed to move, to express themselves with movement.

Physically working and feeling our body move in a coordinated way and when what doesn’t happen means you’re not in balance with yourself with both your body and your mind.

Being able to find and establish this balance is a very rewarding experience and is a different job than when you train with a partner inthe gym .

Stay Tuned

Street Fight Mentality & Fight Sport

Andrea