Rocket Man

Yes, it has been “ a long, long time…” and for that we apologize. Again, real life (competing and coaching) has gotten in the way of, well, *writing* about competing and coaching.

One of the main reasons we have been devoid of new posting is that Coach Keen is, again, ‘downrange’ for some work on behalf of the USG. But, in one of our infrequent phone calls, we recently discussed his minimalist training while deployed to a country with no electrical grid, no comm grid, no internet, and thus obviously no commercial gyms. It was a great conversation, so I demanded a follow-up write-up. What a great thing the occasional sat-phone-enabled e-mail article is…

“
What I am training with down here is only as much as I wanted to carry with me. That amounts to my original version PackWeight, a JungleGym II/XT, some JumpStretch bands, and a mini double-end ball.

What anyone brings when you train on the road should depend upon what the specific goals are, as always. When I am in a place where I know there will be no facilities, and the eating will be bad, I plan accordingly. So, my goals for this 200 days is to not be any worse of a masters boxer when I return, and to weigh 180ish, leaner than I was when I left. (weighed about 195) These goals are what drove the tools I chose.

As you know, I focus on power-endurance as the “strength and conditioning” physical quality that really improves performance in the ring. Therefore, I rely on the JumpStretch bands and the PackWeight rather heavily as my conditioning tools. Also, as our GMAAC members know, I do a lot of isometrics, and so I can use varying combinations of the heavy JS bands and whatever suspension system I choose to bring for that, as well. I like to do band-based max tension isometrics, the Jay Schroeder extreme position holds, and even some fundamental static position stuff from gymnastics. The rest of it is rounded-out with strength-based bodyweight training, sort of a hybrid between the Convict Conditioning stuff and Building Gymnastic Bodies material… there are specific pieces I have taken from each of those, but about 50% of it is mine.

For boxing-specific work, luckily for me, I am an old guy. I don’t need to hit the heavy bag anymore, I just need to get my wind, and keep the hand-eye sharp. One of the benefits of globetrotting with fellow officers is there is always a few guys who have boxed before, even if it is just for the PT class at one of the service academies. Regardless, this means you can almost always find someone to do some ‘touch sparring’ with, if you don’t have gloves, and folks are always interested in learning how to do a little bit of “Mayweather mittwork,” and once I teach them the patterns then I have them feed me.

Finally, as I already mentioned, I like to use the mini double-end ball I got years ago on Ebay. I used my Google Fu to find a place where you can still buy them:
http://corporate.marketworks.com/storefrontprofiles/DeluxeSFItemDetail.aspx?sid=1&sfid=101468&c=254814&i=52695577

This thing and my ‘Joe Practice’ device have always been my favorite travel-training-tools for boxing, and that little sucker moves pretty fast, and will keep your handspeed where it needs to be. A month or two of real sparring in a canvas ring at home is all I need to be ready to fight.

In the end, the actual schedule all looks like this: Mon/Thurs AM – Roadwork and ‘Output’ Mitt Work; Tues/Fri AM – Mitt Work, Sparring, DE Ball; Mon/Thurs PM – Lower Body S&C; Tues/Fri PM – Upper S&C; Sat & Sun – light, long jog both days, with some ‘fun’ sparring
“
There you have it. Some more of Coach Keen doing “what he can, with what he has, where he is,” as he always likes to say.

Adjustable Kettlebells

Coach Keen


I pride myself on having one of the 'most diverse' (note: I did not say 'best') adjustable kettlebell collections out there.  I have accumulated these over the last few years, usually with the purpose of dragging a kettlebell with me wherever in the world our intrepid leaders have seen fit to send me, with widely varying results. (results varying on the success of the kettlebells or the trips, I will leave to you...)

We like to use these at our remaining GMAAC boxing gym locations because they provide just what we need in terms of what kettlebell training adds to boxing S&C: affordable, compact, progress-able, efficient power-endurance training.

Having fielded many questions about them from athletes, parents, friends, and e-acquaintances, we'll throw a quick review up here so that the broken record act can be over and done with:

Stop Making Excuses

As I write this, Sergio Martinez is less than 24 hours from winning another defense of his Championship and Ring Title at middleweight.  At, yes, 36 YEARS OLD.

I have been whining about rehabbing a torn achilles (that is, complete rupture, followed by 'open' surgical repair) at 35.  Yet here's a guy who spent 20 years working his way to the top and who, in his pre-fight interview with HBO talking about growing up impoverished in Argentina, said "I was 14 before I knew what 'dinner' actually was."

So, to me, and the rest of you, shut up and work.

I had a friend in the military who always told people who were bogged down in the details to "chop the wood that's in front of you," and as Rocky Balboa said, "you have to KEEP MOVING FORWARD."

Simple, almost knucklehead, advice, but mostly true nonetheless.

Lessons from Makko-Ho

Call it what you will, but Makko-Ho, or what some refer to as "meridian yoga," has a lot to teach us.  The movements themselves?  Sure.  Here is a simple graphic of the positions, and a jumping-off point for some videos online.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEJMua-bmc0

More important than the movements themselves, however, is the 'system' one uses to progress.  Unlike Western programs that focus on how to get the most calorie burn with the very least amount of effort, or training with  ridiculous circuits and intervals that actually call for tracking your movements in 15-second increments, or powerlifter v. bodybuilder arguments that get athletes totally bogged down in 'sets and reps' as the be-all and end-all of training, the Makko-Ho system worries about the none of the above and has only six fundamental 'facets' that must be used to guide your training, in order for one to reap the benefits of the system:


Determination; Withstand Minor Pain; Overcome Laziness; Patience; Spirit of Independence; Refusal to Give Up


'Nuff said.

HomeBrew Functional Movement Bar

This is a tool that is not 'necesssary' for your boxing gym or its conditioning corner, per se, but is so cheap to make that you might as well.

We use this item to do 'chops' and 'lifts' per the likes of Gray Cook and Mike Boyle.  If you are not well-versed in the movement(s), see here:
http://www.functionalmovement.com/SITE/publications/downloads/cschoplift.pdf
or here:
http://www.performbetter.com/catalog/matriarch/MultiPiecePage.asp_Q_PageID_E_186_A_PageName_E_Cookchoplift

Anyway, the functional cable bar runs around $100. [  http://www.performbetter.com/detail.aspx_Q_ID_E_4710_A_CategoryID_E_239  ]    The ones we use run around $5.  Granted, the product from Perform Better and Gray Cook is a good one, but seems to be a little more than our junior boxers need.

So what do we do?   Depending upon the size of youngsters/boxers we are going to have using this, we take a 2' or 3' long piece of 1.5" diameter PVC pipe, buy a couple of caps therefore, and then a couple of eye bolts with nuts.  Again, this raw material total is somewhere between three and five dollars.

Now, drill a hole in each one of the caps and put an eye bolt through there.  If you want it to be extra sturdy, put some Gorilla Glue or epoxy on the nut/bolt combo threads.  Then glue the caps on with epoxy or PVC glue, and voila.  You now have a 'functional movement bar' for about 1/20th the price.

What Are You In It For?

Here at GMAAC we are, first and foremost, sport-specific amateur coaches.  A lot of posts are information we pass along targeted at amateur athletes like the young men and women we coach, but the truth is that while the compliance levels of young athletes do seem to be getting worse by the year, being an athlete is one of the easier pieces of the equation.

All you have to do is make sure to have the will to work, and then place yourself in the hands of an outstanding, experienced, coach.  The problem is, those *coaches* are getting harder and harder to find as well, so this New Year's Message goes out to all the new, and even future, coaches out there.

Think hard about what it is you are doing, and why you are doing it.

There are a lot of 'coaches' out there who are actually just shepherding his or her son or daughter through the system in order to live vicariously through him or her; this is often either to somehow compensate for the coach's failed sporting career, or simply to make the child "a star" and/or earn him or her a scholarship. 

Bad reasons to be a coach.  Period. 

Coaching, in this era, is often unrewarding.  There are many parents who *would* fit into the demographic in the above paragraph, only they are too lazy.  These are the first people to willfully embarrass their children and berate them at a wrestling meet, and then yell at you for not coaching their otherworldly-gifted child with the necessary high-level tactics.  By the way, this parent never wrestled. 

So, what to focus on?  That kid who was berated by his or her misguided parent.  In today's society, amateur sports is still the best way to teach a child, adolescent or even adult discipline in a rewarding fashion, to educate them on the cycle of hard work/reward, and maybe most important instill a lifelong 'plan' for fitness.  So keep your eye on the ball, so to speak.  Winning bouts, matches, races and meets is fun, but be sure to teach your athletes the fundamentals, encourage them when things go poorly but provide honest feedback, point out what they have done right when things are going well, reward hard work, and most importantly help them to build healthy habits and turn themselves into fit, bulletproof adults.