Freddy

I posted elsewhere here. Darina and I met up in Berlin last weekend. I'll drive up there next week again, we'll post some pics then!

Heyho, just wanted to let you know this forum isnt just web based, just as Sylvie and Emma established it and knew each other. Darina and I met through this forum and last weekend we were able to meet up in Berlin/ Germany for the first time for some sparring! Darina just moved to Berlin from Thailand and we are almost exactly the same height and weight, what coincidence! Keep this forum going, good things happen!

There are a few exercises whcih helped me a lot getting this aggression out, the bite you need. Im not natural in this. This is what my old coach did and still does, no atter whether beginning fighter or world champion. The first exersice is the bat cave. A bunch of people get in the ring or form a big circle, ideally everyone is around the same size. the fighter in question is in the middle and will now get attacked by every person standing on the outside, one of the other. Each attack from the outside lasts about 10-30 seconds and its important to not have a break in between the changes, the guys outside attack straight away, no hand shaking, nodding or waiting, just straight attacking, whatever angle they are on. Since Im a girl and all the boys are usually above my size and weight I was always allowed to attack and the the others werent allowed to attack back, they just had to defend. It is important (since it is such short rounds) that you keep going, literally no break whatsoever. You continue this until you reached the goal time (lets say 3 min) than its a minute break and afterwards it starts all over. The next exercise is a mix of padwork and sparring. There is your padholder and next to him a sparring partner about your size (ideally) now the pads start, all full on, not single strikes, but long combos, lots of kicking, full force, at a signal it is a direct change to sparring and your sparring partner attacks, whether you are ready or not, you have to keep going, keep attacking, no stopping, at the next signal it is straight away to padwork. How long each pads and sparring lasts is due to the one giving the signal, maybe 10 seconds, maybe 30 or 40 seconds. Again make it a round of 3 mins, than break and than all over again. This really badly teaches you to keep going forward. However this is obviously not daily routine since you still need to focus on light sparring etc, but its one thing to think about keep going and the other thing about actually having to do it. Always do those exercises under supervision so it doesnt get out of hand or is too aggressive. Another exercise is body punches only. Pretty simple. you are allowed to punch only, and only to the head. If you want to learn to stay grounded you and your partner leave the front feet right in front each other, like touching toes and you dont move those feet away anymore. Now punch, create openings, but dont wait, as soon as you wait your opponnend will attack. so its your turn to attack. I know most coaches dislike this exercise since it easily teaches you to drop your hands and have them in front of your body. This one can be done with your feet standing in a circle or even with moving around. This last exercise made me continue to punch without being afraid to actually getting hit to the head. the next thing we did in sparring is sparring at 10, 30, 50, 70...% First you go light, look for openings etc. aslowly (through the course of an hour) it builds up to intense sparring in which there are seconds as called out by the coach when you are not allowed to stop and wait, but to keep attacking. Another coach of mine would drill us combinations which are really really long. Like attack, counter attack, counter to counter, again counter etc, until you hardly recall the whole combination, but you just keep going and counter and counter and counter always with 3-5 hands and kicks. I can only speak for my own experience here, this is what helped me getting this aggression going, and not stopping too much, waiting etc

Hi, Im struggling a lot over self-confidence and being emotional run down. For most parts of my life Im a really self-confident person. I travelled all over the world and never had anyone telling me what I can or can't do. I just went my own way and if things didn't add up any more I quit, moved somewhere else or tried to work it out. It was never in particular running away, but probably a little. When I took up training I did it for the sake of fun, never with the intention to start fighting. I have never been a sporty person in particulary, though I always did all sorts of outdoor sports, Im just too heavy to be athletic by nature. My will to fight changed when I started training in a professional gym n whcih I got pushed hard and I started believing in myself. My coaches would never praise me, but they would train you in a way that you trust yourself. Though I always went through daily emtional highs and lows, usually crying after training coz I felt so bad. However I always felt safe with my coach, if he would say run, I run, if he would say jump out that window I would have jumped, that much I trusted him. After I left that gym I put matters in my own hands, training in different places, training a lot for myself additionally. I felt good and quite self-confident, as long as my fitness was up and running. However lately I started doubting myself again heavily. Last summer I trained with a different coach (due to yet another move) and he is quite technical coming from a boxing background, I was never good enough for anything and it slowly got myself down again. Before entering the ring before a fight he would tell ne how slow I am and that I needed to twist this and that anymore, than I started thinking about it, because I want to please and make it right, thats when I lost. again again, but always in my mind first, because I wanted to get my technique right, he completely tried to changed my fight style. I did take a lot out of it, but it is not the way I fight. It all led to cancelling a fight 2 weeks ago because I didnt get all the training in I wanted, though deep down I know I could have easily stepped into the ring even without having worked on the bags or did any sparring. My fitness was ok and I could have done it. Only my head led me down. After my last loss in February I took up mental training, one Emma recommended in one of her blog posts, but this is a much deeper issue. I always needed someone in my back to trust in me, not to necessarily to tell me, but to cover up my back. I adore people who dont need that, who can just jump into a fight without the preperation Im used to. are there more people out there like this?

sorry for the late reply. as darina said You can get oats everywhere in Germany, though most people dont eat it warm as in an oatmeal. It is as Darina said part of any muesli. the traditional oat meal with milk would be called 'Haferbrei' and with water 'Haferschleim' Really Really poor people used to eat it, or when you were sick as a child its therefore not regarded as the best thing to eat, I think it just starts to make its way into the diets again. as for chia seeds, in the beginning I hated them, the consistency is disgusting! But I somehow got used to it and I usually soak a few teaspoons chiaseeds, oats and flaxseed over night, stir in a bit protein powder or vanilla and cinnamon for the taste and add quark (or yogurt). However, chia seeds dont fill me that nicely in order to have them as a pre fight food.

Carina,I absolutely love magerquark,I love on this together with eggs and harzer cheese. Because I east it every day I thought about cutting it down and substituting, seeing how vegan works. Apart from being freaking expensive if you eg buy soy yogurt it is nearly impossible to find something which that many proteins and is still healthy. You might be right I might just stay with that!

I know people easily tell you you overtrain and I came along different coaches telling me different things. My first coach in the UK is from Bosnia, trains martial arts since the age of 4 and served the army as a sniper for many years. I'm sure the word overtraining doesn't exist for him. I started out training a little and in the end trained 6 times a week twice a day, no one would tell me I overtrain, he would rather pay further and tell me I can go further. Again as it was said above I believe this is more about mental toughness, pushing through than actual physical fitness. I was fucking strong both mental and physical. Now here comes the interesting point, when I left that gym I still trained as much as I could, pushing myself. Because I trained in 3-4 different places I had no single coach telling me I'm overtraining, no one cared. Then I moved again and just trained with a single coach and with him I didn't train twice a day any more, 4 times a week, plus 2 easy fitness sessions. Coming from always pushing through I felt like I lost the lion heart. I kept loosing in fights, because I didn't push through any more, not because of fitness. Fitness is no problem at all. This coach would tell me to rest. My old coach would have told me to get down the gym and I would have done easy technique, shadowing and a short run for rest day. I never had any problems with training a lot, yes I was constantly tired, bruised everywhere, but no where near overtrained. I truly think it is mostly a mental state, since we all have the luxury that we can train around injury and pain. Most sports, such as running are simply not able to train around as much as we do. We can always do technique, use just legs or arms, do just strength, leave out running or sparring if needed. Because of this huge variety in training tools I also think we don't get 'bored' that easily which could lead into a mental depression like state much more easy. That's at least my own experience.

Just when I wrote that blog post of yours I thought about it again how meaningless those world titles are. I attended two open amateur world championships. One in London organised by K1, the other one in China organised by the WKU. For both of the tournaments I ended up having just one opponnent, in China I even fought a German girl ( I am German too). The organisation initially wanted to put together weight classes which would have meant me not only giving a away over 10kg but also 80+ fights experience. Our coaches didnt go through with this, luckily. I didnt mind having just one opponnent, as long as I get to fight I am happy. But everything around is just crazy. I try to not tell people that I went to a world championship becaus eI think its embarrassing. Not enough fighters and world championships every other week anyway. It is really good for your own marketing, I have to admit that, but Id rather market myself through me fighting and not through a medal I got somewhere for which Im not even proud. I also know that any of this titles are worked for too, they had to fight for it. But still, why cant they call it a normal tournament...? The WAKO holds World Cups and Open Championships all the time, the same counts for so many other organisations. I dont think those titles arent worth that much. At least not if you know on how many fights you actually had to get there. I think if you have an organisation who holds real qualifying tournaments and then you end up in the world championship, different countries are present and you have to work your way up the pool than this has a different significance (and there are organisations who do it that way) It also seems that in light contact kickboxing there are way more fighters and they usually have to work their way up in order to win. I think the most important aspect of any world title, either a world title shot or any championship is the marketing you get, positive adverts for yourself and your gym, also given the fact that for some fights you might have to travel far and you need sponsors to support you, so telling them that you are going to a world championships means getting support much more easy than if you'd go to any other tournament. This topic speaks right out my heart, and it is such a sensitive topic since the fights are still real (most of the time) and you still prepared for those fights.

Hi all, what diets are you on? Like your normal diets and your diet during training camp (if you do) and weight cut. And more important, are there any vegans out there? Is there anyone doing low carb and vegan, if so Id like to hear any experiences. Im trying to tweek my diet a lot. I hardly every east stuff like bread and pasta, I cook for myself and avoid all processed foods. I have carbs such as oats, fruits or a little rice in the morning or before training, but have veggies and proteins for the rest of the day. When I have to go on a diet to make weight there is usually a point in time when I start deleting off any carbs, usually starting out with fruits and afterwards cutting out oats and rice. So its basically protein and fat left. However this is just a very short amount of time, like weeks and I take supplements like minerals and vitamins in addition. Lately i find myself thinking about how low carb and vegan works with training. I am sourrounded by vegans, but they all eat a crazy amount of pasta, rice and other stuff I simply dont want to eat. Going vegetarian is not a problem at all. Im just such an egg and yogurt addict, I wouldnt know how to deal without it, hence I thought of doing a month trial and see how it goes - vegan and law carb. Whats your ideas on that topic... whats your diets look like?

In the end it is always a question of dedication, isn't it? How much are you willing to sacrifice in order to become better. Sacrifice in terms of eg social life. Either your social life evolves around the gym, your friends train aswell, or you simply dont have any other committments. As soon as committments like friends and family are gone it is fairly easy. I moved back to where I am right at this moment about 5 months ago. up until last month training, work and training afterwards didnt bother me because I didnt have an active job (due to the winter months) and consequently there was not much outside to do eg gardening and housework... It changed now, summer is coming and work keeps rolling in (I love my job) and it gets a little harder. Some of my friends don't train, or wouldnt come close a gym. Im from a horse riding background, so some of my friends are basically out in the yards every single minute. Everyone who owns horses knows how much work this is, and it it much more time consuming than training 2 or 3 times a day. So those friends are a little left behind. All those not horsey people seem to have adopted fairly good, they visit me after training sessions, or even come to training with me (even my dad started kikboxing!!!) Its just that the last 3 or 4 weeks I was almost out of motivation. You seem to need to love training and fightig and I reached the point where I missed hanging around after work, having breakfast with friends before work. things like this. For my birthday my dad didnt buy me presents, but cans of tuna, which is sweet, I wouldnt have eaten chocolate anyway, but those are times when I really really badly ask myself whether I am still ok. I just find it hard at time to juggle everything. I think Sylvie gets the motivation question asked a lot, how do you keep motovating yourself to give up so much 'just' because to get better. We dont perform a sport in which an awful lot of money is made like soccer or football. So it all boils down to our own motivation and how much we want to put in in order to reach our goals and progress. Isnt it?

In case you work and train for fights- how do you balance out work and training? In my case I find it easy to train twice a day around work when I work away from home. I tend to move around a lot and live in different places, at those times training is my social life and keeps me sane. ( I work in tourism so I work 7 days a week during summer time and a little less in off season) At the moment I'm working home and I have friends who tend to be pissed of I don't say hallo from time to time, I have a house to take care of and my gym is 40k away, plus work finishes late so I miss class and have to train for myself. I find all of that hard in order to get enough sparring and partner work in. Fitness is not a problem, just the rest is. How do you balance it out?

On fight day I always have oats with honey, yogurt and banana. The night before I have rice with veggies and protein like chicken. But I love the oats! :)