MMA CONDITIONING

Have you ever been to the MMA event? Watched fighters as they came to the cage? Seen their muscled physiques? Or maybe you have been in some MMA gym and seen similarly fit bodies. Well that was not exception. Almost all fighters have athletic look and most of them look better than your average fitness junkie. And that is not just "in season". I mean few of them could easily enter some fitness competitions and possibly win. All year around! Perfect examples are GSP, Tyrone Woodley and Tim Kennedy.
 

GSP

Tim Kennedy

 

Tyrone Woodley

 
Offcourse there are exemptions but they are just confirming the rule. And they are mostly heavyweight fighters that really like to eat a bit more than they should.
 

Left: Roy Nelson, Right: Mark Hunt

 
 As for others, they got really great looking bodies. If you are questioning yourself how did they got them? What they do? And what do you need to do to be more like them? First, I can tell you what you need not to do. You don't need to closely watch your carbohydrate and fat intake. Or even protein intake for that matter. You don't need to go and workout hours on end in your fancy local gym.You don't need to do endless cardio routines on treadmill, stationary bike or rowing machine. You even don't have to jog. And surely you don't need to use performance enhancing drugs! Now I can almost hear you saying: Ok Ivan, but what I need to do?!"

..................you just need to relax...........close your eyes................imagine that your body look like you want it to look.................and let the Law of Attraction do rest of the job...............
Right?

NO MAN! (or woman)  (:
You really need to put in the work and train like you are preparing for a fight. Your aim is to become stronger, faster, more explosive and more endurable version of yourself. As you do that your body kinda take care of itself. And result is athletic body that is ready for action. The easiest and safest way to obtain that kind of body is to train with MMA Conditioning coach that creates your workouts and monitor your progress. And looky look :) I happen to be the one (and maybe only) NESTA certified MMA CONDITIONING coach in Slovenia. So If you want to get busy and train like MMA fighter, you can contact me on karacic.ivan@gmail.com or on 040 300 304. I will gladly assist.

BAD INTENTIONS

It pisses me off of when I hear that someone is carelessly hurting others in training. Or when someone is trying to prove himself when he has a chance to sparr with known fighter. By going EXTRA hard on him. Injuring him in the process...

 

We train and sparr in the gym. But we fight in the ring or cage. Not the other way around! If you want to fight, sign up for a competition and fight. The diference between sparring and fighting is in BAD INTENTIONS. You see, when we sparr we do not try to hurt eachother. But we try to push eachother beyond our limits. So we can then adapt to the stimulus and become better. I am all for hard sparring. But I am also for soft technical sparring. There is time and place for both. Regardless the style of sparring, there must not be any of bad intentions. You must take care of your sparring partners and try to avoid injuries as much as possible. However, that does not mean that you should not throw hard punches and kicks. Or that you should not try hard to get that takedown, improve your position and secure a submission. It simply means that you do not go for the KO. You do not try to 100% blast your sparring partner. You do not try to subbmit him at all costs... Remember he is your training partner, not your enemy. And the aim of sparring is to learn. Not to win. 

 

PAIN IS TEMPORARY...

Well not really. If you ask me, pain is permanent. Especially if you train in competitive sport and more so in fighting sport. And especially if you are trying your best to be the best that you can be. I don't know if there is an athlete that is pain free. But for sure I know that I don't know one. Personally I can't remember time that something wasn't hurting me. It could be sore legs from low stances back in my Karate days. It could be mild pain from punching and kicking the heavy bag in Kickboxing classes. Sometimes I would wake up and my whole body would be in pain from strength and conditioning session the other day. Now I train in MMA and I can tell you that plethora of different pains haha just got a little bigger. There is always something. Muscles hurt more often because of weight lifting and sprinting. Neck is almost always sore because of all the neck wrestling. Whole body is banged up because of sparring. There is always pain, but it is almost all good pain.

"Good pain, what are you talking about Ivan?"

Yes, good pain. You see, not every pain is bad. When you push yourself to reach new levels of strength, endurance, power... Essentially you are breaking your body down to build it back up stronger. And it hurts! But it only hurts a little. Most of the time. Sometimes it really hurts like mother#uck3r  (:
But you go through it and become even stronger. Bad pain is when you injure yourself and you feel this horible sensation of pain. But even that pain is arguably good. Because it tells you that something is wrong. That you are injured and you need to rest and take care of it. You know good, old RICE protocol. But too much of the good thing can become bad thing. So don't overdoo it. I think that resting after injury is overrated and overused. And that is because as a society we are afraid of pain. And we do everything to avoid it. Even the good one! Just think about it, every time people feel something close to pain they pop the pill and hope for relief. No, I'm not saying that you should play your sport injured. But you shouldn't wait idle for all the pain to go away before you resume your activity. Last year I pulled my hamstring and it was 2nd degree tear.

I have been told that recovery after that kind of injury usualy lasts 3 to 6 months. But after only four weeks I did some deadlifts with 100kg and felt great. That is because I'm not afraid of pain so I worked through it litle by litle. Instead of just lying down and do nothing. Ok, first two days after injury was just RICE because I couldn't even walk. But then it was time to move. And I did move, first by limping around like my leg was broken. Than every day a litle bit better but all the time through pain. Pain dictated the pace and showed me reachable range of motion. And I listened.

Remember that pain is only weakness leaving the body! Or as living legend Bas Rutten once said: "It's only pain, it can't hurt you." So don't be afraid of it. Deal with it.

English

Today I decided that from now on I will write posts only in English. That is because I want to reach as many readers as possible. My grammar is not very good so I apologize in advance. Anyway, for those who do not know yet. My name is Ivan Karačić and I am MMA and strenght & conditioning coach from Slovenia. My fighter is Marko "Lionheart" Drmonjič. One among the best in Slovenia. This is link of his Sherdog profile. http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Marko-Drmonjic-25469
 

As a result of our work he won his last two fights with stoppage in first round. This is link of his last fight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6QJSuh9_PU

And this is link of some training video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6CJmK90m3A

If you happen to own MMA fighting organization and you are interested in having him on your card, please let me know.

Currently we are getting him ready for a fight that is scheduled for 29. march in Croatia.

 

PRIPRAVA 2. del

V zadnjem tednu ti gre zelo dobro. Na treningu ti nikoli ne zmanjka sape, z veliko močjo rušiš in dominiraš sparing partnerje. Vreča in fokusi pokajo pod težkimi udarci, ki jih precizno izvajaš z veliko hitrostjo... Veš, da si naredil vse kar je bilo potrebno. Veš, da v trenutni situaciji in danih okoliščinah nebi mogel biti bolje pripravljen. Nimaš poškodb, popolnoma zdrav si in komaj čakaš borbo. Pripravljen si na vse! Pa si res? Kaj  če te organizator ob koncu priprav pokliče in ti sporoči, da borba odpade? Da so odpovedali celoten dogodek. Tudi take stvari se dogajajo in na njih moraš biti pripravljen.

 

V današnjih časih ni nič gotovega zato pogosto napovedani dogodki odpadejo. Tako ves trud katerega v zadnjih 6ih do 8ih tednih vložiš v pripravo za borbo propade. Zato se postavlja vprašanje ali je sploh smiselno tempirati formo  za določen dogodek kateri se mogoče sploh ne bo zgodil? Oziroma ali je bolj smiselno trenirati tako, da si vedno pripravljen? Odgovora sta ne in da. Ne, zato ker nima smisla dva meseca natančno slediti določenemu programu vadbe, ki te bo pripeljal v najboljšo formo za dogodek ki lahko odpade. Medtem pa po možnosti odbiješ drugo ponudbo za borbo, ker seveda še nisi pripravljen. In se naprej pripravljaš za borbo, ki je ne bo. Da pa zato ker v trenutni situaciji ne moreš računati na nič. Tako je bolje biti vedno pripravljen in po možnosti sprejeti tudi druge ponudbe. Sicer na takšen način mogoče res ne boš v življenjski top formi, boš pa vedno pripravljen za fajt.

 

V glavnem Marko se ne bo boril 15ega v Sarajevu, ker je celoten dogodek odpadel. Predvidevamo, da bo imel naslednjo borbo šele konec marca. Je pa že sedaj fight ready.

PRIPRAVA

Nebom izgubljal besed o tem kako pomembna je priprava, neglede na to za kaj se pripravljaš. Kajti mislim, da se vsi strinjamo, da je zelo pomembna. Še toliko bolj ko se pripravljaš na profi borbo z enakovrednim nasprotnikom po MMA pravilih. Tega se zaveda tudi moj borec Marko "lionheart" Drmonjič, kateri se pripravlja na borbo, ki bo 15. februarja na FFC 11 v Sarajevu. Zato trenira šest dni v tednu, dvakrat na dan skoraj vsak dan. Že sedaj je v odlični formi. Močnejši, hitrejši in bolj eksploziven je kot kdajkoli prej. Do fajta pa bo formo le še stopnjeval! Tako v borbi lahko pričakujete najboljšo različico lionhearta do sedaj.

Med pripravami  ničesar ne prepuščamo naključju, zato poleg standardnega in sicer zelo obsežnega treninga z menoj (fizična priprava, moč in kondicija, stojka, parter, delo s fokusarji, rokoborba, grappling...) Marko sodeluje tudi z najboljšimi slovenskimi borci. Pomagajo mu Bor "playbor" Bratovž, Lemmy "the dog" Krušić, Uroš Jurišić, Ivan Budimir in ostali. Svoj delež k pripravi doprinese tudi Tomi Šude, eden izmed najboljših MMA trenerjev pri nas.

Večina treningov poteka v telovadnici kcikboxing kluba Center. Treniramo tudi v Rupi in v Oazi s klubom MMA Ljubljana. V glavnem za to borbo bo Marko pripravljen bolje kot kdaj koli prej. Z eno besedo SPREMAN!

V Sarajevo odhajamo polni optimizma novi zmagi naproti. In seveda po borbi na sarajevske čevape!
:) 
 



 

GO PRO OR GO HOME

Stvari, katere me zmotijo ali mi grejo na živce, sem se naučil odmisliti. Enostavno jih ignoriram in me več ne motijo. To mi večinoma zelo dobro uspeva. Npr. ko se z avtom vozim po mestu in se mi kakšen idiot "prilepi za rit" namesto, da me prehiti, če se mu že tako zelo mudi. Ali pa ko se pogovarjam z nekom in ta namesto navadnega govora uporablja mrmranje sebi v brado. Vendar če me nekaj zelo moti, moram to deliti z vami. Zato sem se odločil, da vam povem svoje mnenje o določeni zadevi, ki me zelo moti.

 

Namreč, če si trener ali pa se vsaj imaš za trenerja in si izbran za cornermana, nosiš veliko odgovornost. Predvsem skrbiš za to, da tvojemu borcu ni treba skrbeti. Zato moraš pripraviti vse kar je potrebno za pripravo borca na borbo, za tretiranje borca med rundami in po borbi. Nepopoln kratek seznam bi lahko izgledal tako: bandažni povoji, bandažni trak, vazelin, brisača, led, fokusarji itd. Žal pa se velikokrat zgodi, da imenovani trener-cornerman nima pripravljenih niti osnovnih potrebščin kot so: povoji, bandažni trak ter vazelin. Posledično leta naokrog kot kura brez glave in živčno sprašuje ostale trenerje ter borce, ali ima kdo kaj viška tistega kar on in njegov borec nujno rabita. S tem ne samo da povzroča nemir med ostalimi borci in trenerji, ampak tudi svojega borca dela živčnega. Namesto, da bi skrbel za njegov mir in zbranost pred borbo. In to se ne dogaja samo na amaterskih tekmovanjih, ampak tudi na profesionalnih borilnih prireditvah na visokem nivoju. To je seveda žalostno in nedopustno. Zato nikakor nemorem razumeti, kako se lahko take stvari dogajajo. Ko pa sem priča v takih situacijah vedno pomislim na isto. Najprej si rečem: (oprostite na grdem vendar zelo primernem izražanju) "Pa nemožeš bez kurca u svatove!" Potem pa si mislim go pro or go home!

 

Upam, da me ne boste narobe razumeli, vem da ni nihče popoln in vsakemu, pa naj bo še tako zelo velik profesionalec, se lahko zgodi, da kaj pozabi. Zato sem vsekakor pripravljen posoditi ali dati, kar pač kdo v taki situaciji potrebuje, seveda če imam. Sam pa se trudim, da imam vedno vse kar rabim in, da mojemu borcu ni treba skrbeti za nič drugega, kakor za samo borbo.