Here is a short interview which I recently did with one of my clients who is completing a sports science degree regarding mental toughness and mental preparation in combat sports. How do you define “mental toughness”? I would define mental toughness in sports as ability to reproduce an athletes best performance under adverse & unfavourable […]
All Jiu-Jitsu Students want to improve their skill level and reach their full potential. Everyone has different goals and ambitions, they might aspire to be world champions, achieve a black belt or maybe just to land a submission on one particularly tough training partner. BJJ is a very efficient form of martial art so […]
Throughout my martial arts training and especially since I’ve been coaching I’ve been interested in investigating more efficient ways of training. I’ve never been convinced by people who say ‘this is the way they’ve trained in Japan/Thailand/Brazil etc. for 100’s of years’. Interestingly this doesn’t happen in other sports. Golf coaches don’t stick to the […]
The Growth of MMA I have been involved in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts for around 20 years. First as a spectator, then as a competitor & now as a trainer of fighters. Since the early days there was a push within the MMA community to make the sport more mainstream & more appealing […]
One reason why some people become derailed along the way in their Martial Arts training is due to a condition known as ‘Blue-belt-itis’. This condition was first explained to me by my former training partner Simon Hayes who is probably the only person to be a multiple black belt in BJJ, Judo & Tae-kwon-do and […]
Why do some people succeed with their Martial Arts training while others never get anywhere? Over the years of running our gym I’ve seen lots of different students coming through the doors. Many have gone on to be really skilled & some have been successful as competitors & fighters. Others have turned up trained regularly […]
Unlike many others in the MMA world it wasn’t the Tap out t-shirts and scary tattoos that first attracted me to the sport. It was the realistic way of testing martial arts and fighting skills against a resisting opponent. I wasn’t convinced that the techniques used in my Karate point sparring would work in real […]
MMA is more popular than ever. There are lots of new gyms popping up everywhere. How do you choose the right one for you? Firstly it depends on your goals. If you are doing it for fun or to lose weight, the most important thing is to find a gym in a convenient location where […]
I’ve been at more fight shows than anyone I know. From MMA shows to Boxing fight nights and everything in between. I’ve attended fight shows in the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Japan, Hong Kong & Thailand. I’ve also been lucky enough to attend these events in a variety of roles. First off as […]
Ever since I first started training in martial arts I’ve been interested to find out why some people succeed in their training and become very skilful and others start off with the best of intentions but just never achieve the same results and then eventually give up. When I sit down and think back on […]