Half Caged 1 - MMA Blog

2013-01-11T03:37:00.006-08:00

Half Caged - MMA Blog

Fight Day.

Forgive the delayed nature of this blog.

This is the weekend. The moment is now approaching where all of that hard work and sacrifice is put to the test. The cage doors will soon be locked behind you and it will be you and your foe, locked in a primal and most pure sport of sanctioned violence. It is now, fight day weekend.

The experience of fight day naturally varies from fighter to fighter. We are all unique and distinct in our approaches to this sport, not to mention that as individuals we have different mindsets, experiences and views on combat. I can only speak from my own perspective, certainly it will relate to other fighters but I am not so arrogant to assume or to declare that it is a true for all or even simply another fighter other than myself. This is merely what I go through and do on this day of battle.

The trip to the fight for the out of State fighter usually involves an early AM visit to the sauna for those who have to drop some kilograms. This is most often needed because a lot of shows will not provide a sauna before the weigh in after you land. In recent years it has been the opposite to this but I can assure you that there is nothing worse than not only starving yourself but drying yourself out in a sauna several hours before you need to leap on to those scales.

The weigh in is part one of the weekends journey. You are focused on making weight. The fight is a distant priority at this stage, especially if it has been a hard cut. Your body may not have been stripping down like it usually does or you may even be fighting at a catch weight, a weight where your not use to making it to. What ever the case your objective on this first night is to get from the Airport, hope that the promoter has organised a capable driver (some times you can spend hours waiting for some one to come and grab you), dart to the place of the weigh in and wait until the other fighters assemble.
Fight weekend is most certainly a lot of hurry up and wait. You have to get from one place to the other so that you simply can wait around for hours at times. At the weigh in I like to get something into me after I have spent that time dehydrated, I prefer coconut water and then water in general. I have tried other liquids but for myself these seem to work best. You need to not only replace your water levels but also the electrolytes which you have depleted in the starching process.

From here we tend to wait around passing over medicals, getting corner passes, meeting our opponent and listening to our stomachs rumble as we hope that the official place of food consumption that the promoter has arranged is not that far away and has decent meal portions. It is then, that you are driven by hunger and desire to force feed yourself back to normal weight. But you need to stay disciplined so that you only eat good food. In the past I have forced anything decadent down my throat. BUT it has only been in recent times that I have discovered that what you eat really does matter. Find out what works best for you and utilise it as best as you can.

After the meal you will need some supplies to sustain you over the night and to take with you to the venue as you can guarantee that there will be a long wait leading up to your bout. I am fortunate to have a very capable corner man who does basically all of this for me. Replacing the items that I always forget to grab he will either preempt my lack of fore sight or simply get them for me when I need them.

As selfish and some times counter to masculine instincts as this seems, you really need to be lazy during this period. Relinquish your independence and allow them to look after you. You need to allow your corner crew to fuss over you and take care of you. You need to let them to do what ever it is that you need them to do in order to limit your stress and to satisfy your pre fight ritual. I have no real demands besides sleep. As boring and tedious as this is to the lads, allowing me to sleep is something that they have all grown to accommodate. Whether at the venue or during the day of the fight in the motel they will do their best to be quiet and to let me sleep.

It is some what perplexing to me that I sleep best on the day of the fight. I very rarely sleep well any other time and struggle to sleep for long stints at a time ordinarily. Though on fight day I am able to succumb to a deep and delicious sleep which serves to quicken lead up time but also to completely relax me and to conserve me for the fight. Some fighters I have noted are full of nervous energy before their fight. I personally am not. I have simply accepted that I will walk in their and potentially face painful violence. Should I not do what it is that I have trained and prepared for, I may not only face humiliation and defeat but also injury. Inside of this acceptance is a perfect tranquility. If you remove the fear of what potential possibilities may bring, you are simply left with a calming acceptance and this for me is perfectly peaceful.

The promoter will usually let you know when a vehicle will take you to the venue, so I try to wake up usually an hour before this. It is then that I try to get my game mode in focus. I now slip into the focus that I will slowly need to bring into play in some hours time when it comes down to me and that man standing across from me. I usually like to get my bag packed with all of those bits of attire needed for the fight. I then like to shower, to not only wake myself up but in some way this is a symbolic bridge from my sleepy motel room state to the emerging fighter which will need to emerge soon.

It is when we arrive at the venue that you slowly begin to draw in the electricity from the Arena, the cuing crowd, the officials and of course the Cage or Ring. The platform in which you will soon perform. It is often best to get inside the ring-cage so as to feel it, to get to know it as best as you can before your next entrance into it. After which I like to set up camp in the change rooms.

The corner crew will begin to do their thing making everything as easy as possible for you. Sam will get his magic cut and wrap kit set up, placing every item around the place with perfect surgical design that only one with OCD could appreciate. Trent and Tim will anxiously move about marking our territory sourcing pads or mitts should we need it, awaiting the warm up phase. And I...I simply sleep. They will watch over me like a Lioness watching over a lame cub. Any queries or issues that an official will have it is usually one of them that buffers me from it.

After perhaps an hour or three of sleep I will slowly emerge to the roar of a crowd an MCs voice and the generic hype up music that is often selected. The fights have begun and I now must slowly warm and limber my body up for this encounter. The warm up is very important, it not only physically readies you but it also mentally gets you prepared. The physical is the easy part. It is the mental that is the hardest. This is where Tim and Trent will come into play. After Sam has wrapped my hands and the gloves are fitted and taped, I will take turns working with the boys getting my sweet on and drilling what it is that I may need for the fight.

What you are about to do is unlike anything else you may have done, it is over time as you gain more experience that you become more aware of the process but also more adept at controlling it and understanding it all. Unlike other sports you have played in the past where you feel pre game nerves here you know that you will soon be going into physical combat with another trained professional fighter. Unlike climbing up onto stage where you may merely forget the lines in some show of fiction, here a stumble or er may cost you more than embarrassment it may mean suffering a KO. Because of all this you slowly bring your mind into focus.

I begin to visualise. More so than I have in the weeks, days and hours before this moment. Now the visualisation almost feels real. You can not help to feel a surge of excitement, a bubble of joy merged with apprehension as you can not wait to get in there. It is not that you wish to harm this fellow competitor or that you feel any animosity towards him. You simply want to show case your abilities, to justify the hard work but for me most importantly you wish to fight with an honour that no longer makes sense to many in this age of populist bluster, but to myself and no doubt those few that feel what that word means it makes all of the sense in the World.
As you continue to visualise you feel as you see your every motion and movement , you anticipate their intention and conduct. You know that their ultimate aim is to dominate you, to best you, perhaps even to destroy you. How they intend to do this is soon to be determined. Unlike any movie that you may have watched , this is very real and does not have the comfort of rehearsal. There is no dramatic narrative. This is going to be instantaneous moments wherein lies your victory so determined by what you do or do not do. It is a beautiful terror to realise this. It is all up to you. There is no greater liberation other than knowing that what hangs in the balance is yours and yours alone.

It now nears your fight, the under card has dwindled away slowly working its way to you. You have seen the smiles and tears, the jubilation and pain of those who you share the room with. You are all brothers and sisters here, strangers unified by one common craft. You high five, hug and shake hands but unlike else where these physical gestures of comradeship are shared with a mutual merging of concern, respect and honour. You do your best to stay focused as those around you go through their own post fight routine, depending on the out come of their fight.

An official will tell you its time. You look to your crew who have helped you all this time. They will form around you, as you take those lonely steps into that cage. You may see your opponent. Whether by thought or simply by instinct you will size one another up, physically assessing one another, looking for tells, seeing what he does or does not do. You search for weakness. Because it is in this game that our weaknesses are our undoings. Some times you will see doubt in your opponent, other times an exchange of friendly smiles.

Pete Hickmont and I before our fight nearly had to cuddle in an attempt to avoid the rain and storm that was tearing up the open air stadium in which we fought. Matty Knight and I often giggled like excited school boys before we fought one another and before I re matched Dave Frendin who I had previously defeated, I saw a man who I had admired and respected. A man who I knew I would beat but who I felt a deep level of compassion for. We will no doubt see and experience different things before we face our opponents from fight to fight and that is why you must try to remain focused through out.

As you climb inside of that cage you will make your place in the corner. It is home for now. You wait and watch them as the referee draws you both near. Everything now is a calculation made in fast fragments of thought coupled with high speed bursts of physical activity. You touch gloves, show one another respect and now it is up to a mental and physical battle. Not much has changed since the Ancients first built stadiums or flattened the Earth so that warriors could match their abilities against one another. Despite the HD packaging, social media marketing, pop culture eccentrictities and the advances in knowledge the pure fundamentals remain. Two people fight. One emerges the victor. It is as simple as that.

The next blog will be on those moments we experience inside of the fight.

Thank you again and I hope to see you next time with one foot inside the Cage and the other on the outside.

2012-12-04T21:03:00.000-08:00

Half Caged 1.4

So you fight in a few days, how do you feel ?

For those who fight and no doubt for those who under take any athletic endeavour, especially those who do not play a team sport. The process leading up to the event is both interesting and character testing. I can only personally speak from my own experiences when it comes to this pre fight process though I suspect that certain consistent truths exist for others. So I figure that as I am nearing a bout of my own I can share what goes through a fighters mind and how they feel on the cusp of sanctioned battle.

Ideally a fighter would prefer around six to twelve weeks time to prepare themselves for a fight. Unless you are at an elite level or favoured by certain promotions this is a luxury that many seldom have. And it is because of this that with experience and certain degree of professional pride, one must keep themselves in or near fight shape all year round. Though ideally we would prefer a good build up to prepare our mind and body for the fight we some times do not have this and have to take fights on days to a few weeks notice while our opponent may have had far longer to ready himself for such. I have had three weeks to prepare for this fight, not the most ideal preparation but I feel that I have made the most of it. Though I am giving up a considerable weight difference I feel that I have certain attributes that will work in my favour as soon as the bout commences.

Now why do we need so long to prepare for a fight ? That is a good question. For me six to eight weeks is ideal. Because I do not have to make a large drop in weight, when I fight at Light Heavyweight, I do not need any real extra time to trim up. But what I do need to do is prepare reflexes, specifics and improve my timing so that when I get in their things go my way. You need this time to get your diet right so that your body responds to the extreme exertions that you may have to place it under, not to mention what it experiences during the training process. When you have a man who is consumed with your destruction, who is spending weeks, months or maybe years preparing to best you in front of friends, family and strangers you must take what you do very seriously and you need to refine and drill with a determined discipline your craft so that when the cage doors close you are as ready as you will ever be. This time is also needed to help refine and practice the game plan. Having an idea of what you want to do is all well and good BUT to implement it you need to drill drill drill it and really turn the gym into a practice hall.
This takes time and requires a process to get to the point of readiness.

When you start out fighting as a rookie naive ignorance protects your mind from the potential dangers that lurk within the Arena and provided that your coach or the promoter has not thrown you to the wolves then you should be nice and evenly matched with another fighter who is around your level. It is when you are starting out that you begin to learn about yourself, how you respond to the hard training (should you be smart enough to do it), how you deal with the count down to the event and then how you deal with the event itself from the making weight, the ceremony of it all and then the actual fight. You begin to familiarise yourself with the process and in some ways it does become easy but as you become a veteran at it you truly start to take it all a lot more serious than when you innocently started out.

When you are inside that week a way from the fight period you are tapering down, resting your body, eating good and mostly staying active enough so as to keep 'warm' and 'simmering' so that come the game day you can explode perfectly with all the pent up hard work you have put into your training and prep. This is a hard period because you can be tempted to either take it too easy or go too hard. It is a fine line at just what you are suppose to do this close to a fight and tipping the balance in either direction can effect how you feel on fight day and should you need to make weight, how well you fare at weigh in.

Ideally when you start fighting at higher levels and your craft is in some ways your profession, you need to take what you do some what more serious than when you may have fought as a hobby. You have to stay focused and attempt to surround yourself with those who are like minded, experienced in it all or who under stand the game. You can lose a lot of energy being around the wrong people in this period. Whether they be those hanger on's that some fighters attract that treat the fight event as an ego trip, a means to getting to the 'party' without themselves risking anything. Those smaller scavenger fish that follow a shark around comes to mind when I some times observe these types draining the fighter of their energy and potential. Except the Shark benefits from its scavengers, where as a fighter very seldom does from his parasitic hanger on's. I have been fortunate enough to be surrounded by a good crew and supporters. However I have noted that many other fighters both great and not so great have had entourages full of moochers that no doubt harm their performances as well as legacy.

All that the fighter needs to do and should be doing is focusing on the fight. The stress that one experiences during this period is hard enough and having to deal with other dramas, all too often they are minor, is a dangerous distraction that the fighter does not need. The fighters job is to get inside that ring or cage and to best that other combatant. The trouble is many hanger on's forget this and they fail to realise that unlike in other sports, the combat athlete is simulating human battle where the consequence is very dire if they do not prepare and focus well enough.

During the training leading up to the fight often the fighter can get robbed mentally and physically by being in the wrong gym culture. Now imagine if you will a field of kick ball players training for their sport. They have a big game on the weekend or perhaps in coming week and for that team of players this is their profession. If they lose they will slide down the ladder and lose their chance at being the premiers in their league. Would you as a fan or spectator walk out onto the field and begin to have a conversation with one or many of those players as they are training? Would you break their flow as they get in conditioning training or drill their ball kicking abilities? I doubt it. Would you expect an A level team to train at the same time as say a junior team or with a group of mates that want to simply play marks up and drink piss?

Yet the fighter, an Individual, who has to enter a confined space with another person who wants to bring them physical harm under the most intense of circumstances does not get this consideration. They are always approachable to a fault and no matter how hard they are training or how specific that they are working, non fight team members in many a gym will approach them and open up with conversation or ask questions on this or that. As sincere as this may be, it is in fact a negative for the fighter. It does not in any way help their training, as it would not help the players on the kick ball field. Yet the combat athlete, who risks more and gains less heraldry in this State compared to kickballers must endure this during their trainings in many a gym.

I often find that for me, having taken a fight, however far from the event I feel a ticking clock inside of my chest. It is a count down that reminds me that soon I have to do what it is that I have invested so much time in. The beating pressure grows more intense as they show nears and with each ticking hand you feel the need to train harder, eat smarter and do those things you need to that is important to winning. As the event nears and the ticking grows louder, your focus goes from being a cheap flash light scattered with some direction to an industrial strength laser with intense focus and a seemingly single beam.

Contrary to popular myth fighting is not a mere physical activity, it is not something that brutish men of muscled violence naturally do well at and it is not something that requires our reptile brain to kick in and solve those fast and furious moments. For myself and no doubt many others fighting is more of a mental exercise than a physical one. The preparation leading up to it is testament to this. You need to incorporate the mind and body into one uniformed entity that can function at high speed under the most dire of stresses ranging from pain to exhaustion. This is where those who sit idle and condemn the athlete as being a mindless physical animal fail to see past their own ignorance.
Athletic intelligence is one area that is often ignored and under appreciated, it is something that in a demanding sport like 'fighting' that one must truly master their craft and forge their physical weapons perfectly. It is when you prepare for a fight that you must truly appreciate this and know yourself and your opponent intimately, at least for that period leading up to the fight.

How does a fighter feel leading up to the fight ? Well this is a personal experience and unless you have done it a few times at least you can never under stand it. You are both apprehensive and excited. Though I personally have never been scared, or frightened leading up to a fight. This is not bravado or bluster. As I am fully aware of the dangers I face in their. But I do not fear them. I accept them. And in accepting potential fates one finds a certain degree of liberation from fear. I am however like anyone who has to perform, you get performance anxiety, where you fear that you may let yourself and others down by performing poorly. All it takes is one mistake or one misguided gamble in their for you to lose. And that disappointment is horrible. It is a realisation that if this was life and death, that you would have been destroyed by that man. It is both confronting and very personal.

In those moments before the fight I find that I am some what excited, at least lately, while also being focused. The fight has already happened, the out come is a foregone conclusion. I simply have to play my part and see where it ends up. I may come out unharmed or I may be battered and near death. It is my choice and that is the pure beauty of it. I do not have to be in their and I do not have to risk everything in those moments. It is perhaps one of the only pure forms of liberty one can experience. That knowledge that we do not have to be there but despite it all, there we stand willing to do it. It is hard to describe but so simply complicated for me that it can not be narrated but only experienced.

For me personally I do enjoy winning, but it is not the great ecstatic triumph that others seem to get. I often feel disappointed after I win. Not because of anything that I have done but in some ways because that moment of purpose is over. I have never been excited or joyous in victory, sure I am happy, but I have never lost control in celebration. My intention was to win, so why should I be suprised like I won the lottery, when I am victorious. I enjoy victory because it is the opposite to losing. I fight not to win as so much as I fight so that I am not defeated. Because for me personally losing is one of the most disappointing and horrible experiences. It is both a realisation and a blow to your every element. You have failed and have been bested. In those moments of defeat you drop into a very deep and cold place of personal resentment and self hate that in the instant that you re-emerge from those low feelings, a relief sets in. BUT in your mind you know you were beaten by another man. He was better than you and had that fight really mattered in the fields of life, you would have failed as a man.

The feel of defeat for me is so dire that after I lose I go through a many of feelings and states of mind that I meander and contemplate what I should do with myself as a competitor. I do not seek excuses, those you care about will find them for you and offer them as a comfort. Instead you refind purpose and a determination to make sure it never happens again. You remember your losses well. Nearly every moment of those fights. The victories, they are all one in the same. The wins are almost Meaningless you find it hard to differentiate from fight to fight but those ones you lost they never leave your mind. They haunt you. Your losses in both life and the cage fuel your determination.

While it is merely a sport and a competition. I fight for different reasons. I do not fight so much for the competitive nature of the sport, not for titles or a career. To me fighting is about doing something that keeps my mind and body active, it is about testing my character, will and ability as best as I can under the pressure cooker that is the arena. It is about KNOWING that I can defeat most threats that should stand before me, but most importantly about beating those threats that should risk those I love and care about. Professional competition is simply that to me. So in many ways the stakes are higher for myself than maybe those that seek world titles. They may be better athletes and competitors but I would still be doing this if it was on a remote farm in some barn or in the swamps of desolation. Whereas I doubt many of them would dare enter such an arena. But don't tell any promoters that, as they may pay me even less ;)

So now I sit ready to head to do another light training only days before the fight, I feel relaxed and ready. A coiled spring in many ways. Though while the potential lays within me like a spring, it is about the utility of the moment that matters. So long as the timing is right then that potential will not go to waste.

So I shall no doubt see you either half in or half out of the cage.

Kym Robinson, 5 December 2012

2012-11-15T18:04:00.002-08:00

Half Caged 1.3 - MMA Blog

Half Caged 1.3
Coaches, Trainers and Instructors...Oh My.

I think in many ways my most important role in the Combat Sports is being that of 'Coach.' It is however one that I have observed that many seem to under take with a degree of arrogance or complete idiocy. Whether you call yourself trainer, coach or instructor you have a very crucial and sacred role in the life, career and sporting experiences of a great many individuals.
I do not profess to being a 'great' coach or even a good one. I am however as true and honest to the role as I can be. For Me personally I have never had a coach for my own fighting profession. It has been a case of trial and error and a great degree of self reliance and the reliance on my good and trusted friends. Those few who I can go to with questions, doubts and queries on complex things such as technique and game plan to diet and training. This is often with other fighters, both those who I have competed against or who I train with to those who I have been close friends with since the very start. Without them I would have found it hard to walk through those cage gates, if I could even do it at all.

It is with those voices and caring hands on my shoulder that I look deep within myself as a competitor and appreciate the importance of the 'coach.' They are some one who the athlete can look to in their most dire moment of physical and mental exhaustion and trust with absolute confidence the advice and words that they speak. They are some one who is their from the very first day of that camp to the very end of the night. They are some one who not only serves to motivate and support but who also is their to give sincere advice on how to do things and when to attempt them. The coach is their to have a relationship with the fighter and a relationship that goes both ways. It is something that should be catered for each specific fighter and coach, for each specific fight and event. And not merely be a stock standard title that some one gives themself in front of a class of hope full fighters.

I have noted that MMA as well as some other combat sports has bred its fair share of individuals who have no place in being trusted with such a role. Yet it is because a void exists that these people have either taken it upon themselves to fill it or worse they have decided that they know what is best and do so at the expense of the fighter because they seek some form of glory of their own. To me this is the worse kind of 'coach' or trainer. These arrogant selfish individuals who merely 'train' fighters because it is considered cool or fashionable. They train fighters however poorly because it is a good ticket for them to be seen around in the sport and to get free access to events and the likes.

It takes a special sort of person to assume this role, with limited knowledge and experience, to take some one from zero abilities and to get them inside the dangerous arena with what ever invented or clustered bits and pieces that this trainer has garbled up. This serves to put the athlete at risk but it also damages the sports credibility. This is still a spectator driven sport, where spectators wish to see the best that is on offer and not some lads standing awkwardly throwing down as best as ill prepared competitors can do. People pay good money for a ticket at most shows and when they are greeted by thug like conduct from those in the corner or poorly prepared athletes in the Arena it does not help ti inspire repeat viewing.

The other sort of coach that is some what dangerous is the one that enters MMA with only knowledge derived from a singular puritan sport. Whether that be a boxing trainer or BJJ instructor or what have you. They are some one that has determined that they can suddenly teach 'MMA'. Now I am fully aware that I am perhaps stepping into hypocritical territory here as I have been working with puritans myself... but I shall get to that in a moment.

It is when GENERALLY speaking people come from a pure back ground, with no doubt excellent knowledge in their own sport that they assume that the fundamentals of their background would naturally work in the CAGE. Where they assume that all 'fighting'is much the same so that entering a sport as complex and unique as MMA is easy so long as you work that puritan aspect. To me this is dangerous because the trainer and athlete enter with not only an incomplete game plan but because what works for them in their sport all too often does not work inside the cage. And they sadly will learn with unfortunate results what we have already learned thanks to the early UFC's , lessons which sadly too many still have not yet absorbed.

Yes I am working with some Muay Thai fighters and kick boxers as well as wrestlers and boxers. I am aware that I have never competed in these arenas and I have no desire to. I am however taking on a role in their camp which is very much shared. Shared in that I am not taking them from scratch and training them for the arena. I am working with very experienced individuals and doing my best to help them find refinement in their game. I learn from them as much as they do I. I have not once ever declared that I am a 'Muay Thai trainer.' In fact IF I was to fight Muay Thai I would go to a Myles Simpson and have him as MY coach for such a fight. Despite me being his chief second for his recent fights. I think personally he and many other fighters know more about their own sport and how best to prepare for it than many of the 'trainers' out there who believe that being a coach is merely holding pads or telling an athlete to 'get fit and go for a run.' If only it were that easy...

Now why do I take coaching so serious? Because that athlete is trusting you with all of that hard work that they put into the gym. You are the guy that at those most crucial moments can help to influence victory and defeat. You are the guy that they want to share some of their doubts with, who has the ability to listen to them with sincerity and to some times help brush them doubts aside. You are the guy that they need to understand them when they are hungry, hurting or even scared. You are the guy that they need to discuss the every aspect of the game with. You are the guy that simply needs to speak their language. And unless you ever been there you truly will never appreciate that.

Fighting is not about flipping tyres and talking up Portuguese named techniques it is about mindset and the subtle nuances that the non fighter over looks and often does not see. A big KO is not merely a violent swing of flesh and bone but is months to years of set up and refinement. It is picking up on the subtle and working the fundamentals perfectly that help one to get to the upper echelons of the fight game. How does one do this if their coach or trainer does not even know how to spell such things, let alone look for them.

It often pains me a great degree when I see athletes take fights who are in my opinion far from ready or who should not be competing at such a level. The outcome is all too often the same and sadly it is the trainer who smugly stands safe from the side lines shouting at a battered fighter with stupidity ranging from 'Why did you not do what I said 'He just got lucky.' It is usually these sort of trainers that use fighters as a ticket to be seen on a show as a vehicle for their own egos and it is usually these type of trainers that are the worse kind of parasites found to infest the waters of the fight game.
It is the role of the coach to say to an aspiring fighter 'No you are not ready' when they ask to fight just as it is their role to honestly agree with them when that fighter desires a bout. The final and honest decision lays with you as the coach. Throwing fighters into the mix for the sake of it is dangerous, inconsiderate and in my opinion disgusting.

If you do not know it. Do not speak it. If you don't know something then why would you teach it or pretend to ? I have never under stood this. Perhaps I am fortunate in that I have a network of elite level puritans at hand that I can ask varying questions of. I can have them show me how they would do something or ask them what they would suggest and this has helped me both as a coach and as a fighter. I also have my own experience to draw upon which helps me to gauge the legitimacy and effectiveness of certain things so as to help me appreciate matters of human combat some what. Yet I see trainers who simply make junk up that is less than combat effective, worse than that it is counter to be being effective in the arena. Yet they teach it with an absolute disgusting arrogance and charge money for it that one can only shake their heads in both disgust and pity. The fighter generally knows best. If you are working on something together and to them it does not feel right. Drop it. Do not force something on them because you want to say down the road 'I showed them that.' Let them work what is best for THEM and not for YOU.

One of the worse things one should have to experience is being both coach and fighter on the same night. It is a drain that I wish upon no one. Where by you have to focus on your fighter, help them warm up, help them stay ready and then corner them for better or worse. If it is a victory then you can in ways draw from that energy as you refocus for yourself,but if it is a defeat especially something like a vicious KO then it can take your mind away from your fight and have you lingering with concern regarding them. The worse experiences I have ever had was when a friend and brother combatant was defeated or KO'd and sadly I had to fight soon after on both occasions. It is something I would never advise a trainer-coach to do.

Because I take coaching so serious I put it in many ways ahead of my own fight career. I have a some what care free attitude to my own fights. I know the risk and I know the dangers, I have my share of demons and doubts but they are mine and mine alone. Why I fight is no doubt far from being the stock standard reason for most other fighters. So to me it is unique, but when I am working some ones corner I find I am the most nervous. I can hardly sleep and I spend a great amount of time thinking about it. I suppose it is because I care more about their well being than I do my own. That athlete HAS to trust me and have me as a strong entity in their corner, leading up to the show down and at each training. I can not insert myself into their fight artificially because my ego demands it. I have to be there when THEY need me to be. If all has gone well in training, then they will need me the least on fight night. And that is fine by me because the fight is about them and the glory belongs to them alone.

And it is on the cusp of cornering a friend and one of the toughest men I know, Myles Simpson that I aptly write this blog on coaching. I can only offer what I know and have experienced to him as a fighter but he is a resourceful character and fighter who needs less a coach and more a brother of battle. He needs some one who he can bounce ideas against, some one who he can move around with in the gym and occasionally some one who can pick on him just that bit to sharpen his tool box. But by no mean he does not need a 'coach' like many other fighters do, he does not need some one to be the boss or to dominate his every thought. He simply needs a trusted advisor...and I am happy to be that friend and advisor to the best of my abilities. So on the night of his next fight you will see the performance put on by a tough kid who has for the most part done it from day one on his own who is pretty much self taught and who I have had the pleasure of being a TEAMMATE with. Nothing more and nothing less.

So whether you are a fan, gym regular, athlete or 'coach' bear in mind that the relationship between athlete and coach is one that is both sacred and crucial it is also one that is seldom realised on either level. If you are either coach or athlete then I do suggest that you honestly ask yourself whether the coach has your best interests in mind, or their own. And remember often in victory with the wrong crowd it is 'we' and in defeat it is 'you'.

Be well and I hope to see you next time with one foot in the cage and the other in reality.

2012-11-04T18:07:00.000-08:00

Half Caged 1.2 - MMA blog.

I often find it interesting as well as some what irritating that so many people seek to pretend to be a prize fighter. They will adopt some living avatar incorporating all of the tid bits that they have observed from the media and perhaps in real life, they do this as a means of social and general currency. Whether this makes them feel more secure in their day to day lives or gives them a false set of confidence I am uncertain. But what ever the reason these guys give us real fighters a bad image.

It is a peculiar thing that seems most often reserved for the combat sports, the more in vogue a sport is and the more guys it has walking about professing to be a competitor in it. I have often come across such people whether they tell me directly that they are a 'fighter' because they are in training or because they had some obscure sparring match some where once and this should be considered a 'pro fight'. And it is then should they dip their toes into the shark tank of a fight gym away from the ego feeding posts of social media and the drunken declarations at a night club, they perform all the more poorly than what their boasts at first advertised.

This is in no way an aggressive condemnation of such people nor is it really a written slap down to them it is how ever a tired shake of the head. In so much that I know personally how hard it is to get to any levels of regular athletic competition, how hard it is to continuously ply it, to suffer the pains of injury, to walk the corridors of doubt, to look past the cheering crowds and to see the ugly emptiness of either victory or defeat. And it is with such ignorant and arrogant disregard that they wipe over all of this with their dilution of the sacrifice and risk, all for the self service of their own egos. All because they wish to big note themselves among some local faces all because they want to get laid all because...they are cowards.

In one incidence I was shopping one afternoon and had the pleasure of listening to some young lads hold a conversation about one of them having an approaching 'Cage fight'. No doubt a music festival was coming up and having just left the local 24 hr gym they were now bloated and pulsing with what ever course had helped them inflate their show muscles, so their deluded self worth was very high. One of the guys said to his friends that his strength training that his PT mate (apparently combat sport coaching is a two week course of certified bull shit these days) had him doing was going to improve his 'ground and pound' so much so that he was unsure if he could 'legally fight.'

I just walked past them my ears both throbbing from the caulis that were reopened from the previous nights training (something that none of them would ever hope to know how painful it is to suffer) and because an aerial turd sandwich whisked by. The thing that got me the most though was just how easily the others believed the toy 'fighter'. He was so secure in his platform of self serving bunk that he knew no one was going to knock him down from it. Now I know that if I was with some one who had more of a hair trigger (ie my brother) then this guy would have been on the floor with his jaw liquidised. But alas it did not illicit such a response from me. Just a need to vomit a little stirred my insides.

This punk was just one in many that uses the hard work and talents of others to help promote a self delusion-illusion of themselves. Past all of the cosmetic lifting that they do, the generic tattoos and the lies to women that they pull to 'get some.' In the end they are scared. They are scared of the truths and realities that one finds inside of that arena. Not just the actual cage itself but the process one goes into getting there.

To those who say to me that they want to be a fighter. Please do not tell me. Walk it day to day. Show me it. No matter how loud your proclamations of future glories may be, it is in your silent effort that leads to this that I am interested in. It is not the clever slander that you throw around about those who are doing, but it is in the litres of sweat that fall with humble exertion that takes you far. And most of all it is not the creation of a persona that you think matters. It is simply what you do and have done that does.

Being a fighter especially by profession is not something you hold on to as a sword to wield aggressively at a social occasion, it is not something you have as a trump card to intimidate others and it most certainly is not something that you profess well before the fact. I would never pretend to be an Olympic swimmer just because I like to splash at waves in the beach waters, I would be deluding myself that, the realities of a competitive pool and wading in knee high sea water were much the same. Just as is the difference between fighting an elite competition differs from play fighting with your mates or getting into a drunken burst of violence at what ever watering hole you may happen to pollute. One does not make the other.

I suspect this goes for all things in life. And I suspect that these sorts lurk in every part of the World both here and and in great distant pasts. You will always have Beta males attempting to poorly imitate the Alpha's so much so that they deceive all others in their appearance and their mating calls. But it is when the challenge is thrown up. It is when the drums of battle begin and stop that it matters. That is when the toys are put down and the weapons of war come out.

Being a fighter is not about looking a part or even acting it. It is about working hard to that means. It is about being CONSISTENT and learning your craft with honest intent. Some of the most violent and dangerous men that I have ever come across wear the most sincere smile, they dress to blend in, not to stand out. They know nothing about acting tough and its fashions, they simply know what it is like to be tough and to get through tough situations. A peacock may be proud of how it looks and rely solely on its looks, high above soars an eagle or owl watching unimpressed with talons that will tear feather and flesh to shreds with ease. Though no doubt saying what I have here in this blog may have rustled some feathers. So please do not try to walk a path because it is fashionable but do so because it is who you are, it is what you are.

And most importantly, this does not go for all but I should hope that it does for most. When you do attain what ever it is you are looking for in your training, what ever you learn from the process and who ever you find in yourself when you enter that arena. Please should you return again and again conduct yourself with honour and principle. It is a far greater legacy than what you should ever hope to leave inside any ring or cage. Though to those who I mentioned above in this rambling I suspect such words do not exist.

So this rant like blog is not so much an 'I am' as opposed to merely stating to those out there who can read and who are on the cusp of interest in entering this sport. The best advice I can give to you is this. Don't say it. Simply do it. This was in no way directed into the direction of any one, but is more meant as a general observation. It is also an opinion of one who has DONE to those who have not. And rest assured my opinion is for the most part, from what I have ascertained, shared by those others that have Done about those who have not or who have perhaps yet to.

Train smart and be well.

PS - I am sorry for the delay I had some dramas in getting this uploaded earlier.

2012-10-15T19:45:00.000-07:00

Half Caged - by Kym Robinson

HC 1 - MMA Journeyman's blog 1.

For those who do not know it, I am a Cage Fighting man (some times in a ring also, though 'Ring Fighting Man' has well...less ring to it), such a profession holds a bit of stigma and exceptional ism to it. Perhaps in some cases it is well deserved, then again some people are also easily impressed. In any case it is what a relative few ACTUALLY do, yet what many claim to do or simply claim to aspire to become. So I have decided to start this blog to share what it is that one of such 'reputation' experiences in their journeys as that fighter next door.

When I first started to fight professionally in 2003 it was all very much a part time natural progression from all the years that I had spent in training in 'martial arts'. To actually fight 'No Holds Barred' as it was called then was a true test that one could ever hope to put their abilities to. I soon became a regular exponent on the national scene, never however being allowed to fight in my home State. My performances were as inconsistent as was my focus and ability to properly train. I would seemingly lose the 'big ones' or the important fights always falling short as a competitor when and where it counted. Perhaps I could find a wealth of excuses as to why I failed at this level but in the end none of them would ever matter. The reality is that next to my name it would still always say 'L' for loser.

It was during the death throes of the family business that I soon found myself needing to refocus my training so that I could try and reinvent myself as a serious competitor. This was in part due to me needing to find a focus and purpose in my life so as to avoid the downward spiral of failure thanks in part to my lack of success in 'the real world.' I decided that I would ATTEMPT to train as properly as I could and focus on fighting in a way that I had not done up until that point.

Previously fighting professionally was merely a way to test and learn what is best suited for unarmed combat should I ever have to put those skills and attributes to the test in a truly violent life and death struggle whereby I would need to defend those I loved. It was the ultimate training session and process for that reality training I had always been so dedicated to. Now I looked at fighting professionally more as competition than simply hard sparring sessions where I got a little money and a great deal of experience.

The field of combat athletes certainly had changed since the earlier generation that I had both grown up on and had found myself competing against. While before it was a field of tough guys, martial artists and in your face warriors, now it seemed that the sport had bred purpose built combat athletes whose sole function in life was to operate inside the arena of violence. This new animal of fighter needed proper focus and a full time dedication in order for me to become competitive against them.
Attempting to do this when you live in a State that struggled to understand let alone support most combat sports was far from an easy task. So in order to do this one had to become a student of combat, more so than what I already had been, I would need to accept my short comings and find strengths that I could develop despite the South Australian curse.

I determined that I would need to become the smarter man inside the cage, this was simply however a clever theory to have, it was harder to implement. Not being a natural athlete or one gifted with superior physical genetics I had to apply myself as best as I could so that I not only under stood the fundamentals but I could apply them under the heat of violent stress when and where it mattered most.

Still after all this I found myself more a man from another continent on Safari in a land of dangers and peril whereby doing my best to hunt down the great big game. I was no matter how hard I tried to be otherwise, a foreigner to the cage. Though I survived its harsh realities, it is neither home nor alien to be but merely a place I visit from time to time so as to face the conditions I would other wise be denied.

So now near a decade into my prize fighting 'career' with twenty pro bouts to my name I ask myself with honest intrigue, 'what next?'

I can not answer this question with any truth. I can however record and share with you the rest of this journey. Instead of having aspirations or goals that other athletes may have in their fields of endeavour, I am more an interested adventurer. A man who entered with his own honour and pride to be trialed and a man who merely ignored the glory of the great heights of excellence but who instead said 'yes, I would fight that man across from me, whoever he should be.'

I have never felt as though I was a fighter, while at the same time I have never been merely a fan. Instead I am an active observer one who does and absorbs while participating as he watched. This has perhaps seen me become lost in a limbo of my own ambition less meanderings and it is because of this that I have decided to share with you what I have witnessed, experienced and feel about this sport. This will perhaps help you to understand what it is that a fighter really does and experiences. While also letting you under stand perhaps the most important aspect of fighting, the process that leads one to the ultimate climax of fury inside that arena.

So it is with one foot in the cage and the other foot outside that I find myself,it is while being Half Caged that I shall share with you in this blog all that I can. I have nothing to lose and nothing to gain as I express it is what I know. Welcome to this MMA journeyman's pathway to nowhere as he seeks no real prize or claims to ultimate glory.

10 Oct 2012.
Kym Robinson.