Coach James Poidog
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Posts posted by Coach James Poidog
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5 hours ago, Oliver said:
When the trainer says, OK sparring, find a partner. You pick the biggest, scariest looking meathead in the room, like 30kg heavier than you. 8/10 times he will be the most controlled, nicest and friendliest person there and you won't get injured.
It's the little guy with a ying yang tattoo who has problems with over-aggression in sparring.
9 outve 10 times this is dead on. Ive rarely been injured by a heavier partner but the smaller more aggressive guys can do damage almost by accident.
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Ill add that it might be good to find a partner of the same level both mentally and physically as you. If youre not hyper aggressive then sparring with one who is might be more of a challenge than you can handle right now. What Sylvie said about footwork and being able to see is dead on. Maybe find a partner you can do some live drills with before sparring. Drill mobing outve the way footwork at a slower speed to get the timing down then speed it up. Practice being at your optimal range instead of stuck inside where you have to shell. Then practice shelling and giving (shell up as partner throws a whatever number combo-2-3 then return fire). You can also spar with limitations like jab only or lead side weapons only. That helps keep things lighter and gets you to think during the exercise. The way I set up sparring is designed to create a level of comfort with it. We usually start with dutch style 3 on 3 and 4 on 4 (the shell and go type drill) to get them accustomed to the hit (make it less concerning) then we move to limited sparring like jab only, lead side etc. I start adding weapons until they are going full bore. By then theyve calmed down and they can really explore. A lot of the stress of sparring is gone. And we try and spar every class, at least twice a week. Its not for everyone but Ive had a lot of success with it especially for hobbyists. The fighters have claimed its made them less jittery before competition too.
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On 6/16/2019 at 5:01 AM, Ben640 said:
It seems that I am the odd man out on this topic. I have and still do practice the split personality.
I am a practitioner of several martial arts but I was not in competition fighting so that may make the difference. I spent many years in law enforcement and executive protection. I learned the hard way after the first time a female managed to cut me that I had to change my attitude.
I learned quickly to flip the switch. I can instantly go into a neutral mode to deal with situations. I no longer view people as male, female, friend, foe, young or old. You are just something to be dealt with without emotion or remorse. This does not mean without thinking though. I have been told that people could tell the exact moment when I went into this mode just by the way I look and present myself. I will say that sometimes it was hard to come out of this mode but with practice it just became like flipping a light switch. For me this is better than walking around being a asshat all of the time. I just don’t see how it could work any different for my position but I am sure as a fighter this is how I would operate. But that is the difference in the occupations I guess.
I actually understand this. Its similar to how I deal with things now. Going from angry person with an alter for being nice, growing into the nice and learning to have a switch for "business". It became a dimmer switch for me. I dont ever go fully emotionless, but there are levels to it.
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On 6/15/2019 at 6:06 PM, threeoaks said:
Top King are super nice. Closer to the shin than my poofy ones. I’d love to try them but I wonder about my leg length; they look short & I’m long (plus I just dropped $ on the Yokkao’s so obviously cannot). Can’t see the gloves too well. “Danger”? Gloves nice & banged up. The best. Shin guards are, sorry to be an artist about it, but they’re kind of beautiful.
Yeah Danger is an off brand made in Thailand (Id never heard of em either). The top king are actually made more for foreigners now (as opposed to Thais) so the sizes fit well. Those are mediums and they cover perfectly. Lol when I was a skater I used to put stickers on everything. Hard to steal something that personalised.
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On 6/14/2019 at 5:56 PM, threeoaks said:
Mind you I went for five years in a pair of shitty mma guards that came with a package deal at an old gym of mine, but these feel like a #^*#}} CADILLAC when compared. Comfortable, thick, color makes me happy. What are your favorites, Coach James?
This is the gear I use most at the moment. Didnt think Id like this style of glove but I really do. For shins I just love Top King. Havent found much else as good to me.
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7 hours ago, Jeremy Stewart said:
The ruminations of these great men are fascinating. You hit it in one. They have gone from journeymen to craftsmen and all the steps in between. Like everyone, as we age we don't see things or do things the way we did thirty years ago. Everything undergoes evolution.
In everything we do in life too if its going as it should. At 48 I dont train like I did at 30 or 15. My style "evolved" from a take one to give one, tank style fighter to more muay Femur out of necessity from too much damage in my youth. Seeing these fighters turn coach and evolve is like sipping fine wine. Makes me excited for all the fighters I love watching now and where they will head in the later years.
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Jeremy, do you teach a kids class? I imagine it would be a lot like teaching pre-teens and even younger. By strict (and Id get them to operationally define that) they might mean structured. So maybe 10 mins (play it by ear) warm up of basic exercises. Then maybe some balance work to help prep them, then 15 mins of stance and basic punching with focus on shifting weight. It might not hurt to find games that they can do that fit the sport. Coach Patrick feom Valor Muay Thai has a great kids program that works for everyone, he might have some suggestions. I know hes posted in the forum before. Kevin might be able to tag him.
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Name your favorite pair of shin guards, gloves, etc and why. Longevity? Fit? Comfort?
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7 hours ago, Jeremy Stewart said:
In defense of of combined classes, unless of course one has a full time premises, you generally only have an hour to get the most out of your students. I personally spend a lot of time with new students, and hold pads for them. I also teach pad holding as part classes as I firmly believe this is an art unto itself. My senior students also don't mind holding pads. All my students are welcome to come and train with me free on a Friday night in my shed. Usually only 2 take up the offer.
Some dudes and I would imagine some women would get off on that cult type thingy you mentioned. They must have some sort of deficiency in their personalities though.
All of this. Ive had huge classes and still make sure new students are taken care of as much as the advanced and fighters. Part of my culture is that fighters help with new students 1) to keep my yap dow lol 2) to give the new and younger students a different perspective on what I teach and 3) to keep the fighters humble. Doesnt hurt that it also helps them anchor in the techniques they think they know lol. Ive been guilty of yapping too much, but teaching kids class helps cure that. I try and keep the instruction informative but quick. Ill revisit it often if needed. This is all the structure I was taught and was talking about. How to keep people happy and invested while getting what I want outve it. So far its working.
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4 minutes ago, Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu said:
I think I see where you are going with this...
(I hope you don't mind my humor! I just couldn't help it, just love the Hulk too much...)
Hahaha awesome. Yeah that about sums it up.
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Oh and side note on language. I had a professor that was really known for his theories on language. He believed, and could back it up with research, that to really learn a language you had to think in it. So how do you do that if you dont understand it? He realised that people living in other countries picked up the language faster than those that were at home. He deduced that it was the immersion in the culture that really got them to be so responsive. It wasnt just that you had to learn because thats all they spoke, it was that culture shapes the brain and language is tied to culture. In essence it was really the immersion to the culture that got you thinking the right way to be able to think in the language, like a prep or lol pre workout. You became primed to learn. It really made me become more receptive to idea that culture (basically ideas) is the root of everything.
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2 hours ago, Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu said:
I do wonder why I have such an aversion to this Alter-Ego thing. An immediate thought that comes to mind is a comparison to acting. I'm a good actor, I enjoy it, I like impersonating people - I do a very good Karuhat strut. But I'm being Karuhat; it still belongs to him in a way. So I'm "performing," not identifying. I can't remember what actor it was, but someone famous enough to be profiled in a magazine I would read said that s/he liked acting because it allows one to experience very different life choices, without any of the consequences of actually having chosen those things for yourself. I find that kind of bullshit, honestly. I find actors who say they "lose themselves in the role" to be full of shit, too. You're either taking yourself into different silhouettes or you're keeping parts of those characters in yourself; or both. But in my mind, there's no such thing as without consequence. Which I think is what the whole idea of an Alter-Ego is.
I understand the notion that your fighter-persona has permissions that you, in your everyday life, don't. I don't go around trying to knee people's guts out at the supermarket. But I can't conceive of having a different set of values for in the fight and out of it. I'm all unified theory, I guess. If I need to be more merciless in the ring, then I need to be more merciless in my life. I can't hold a value in one context and not in another. There is no escaping the consequences of actions just because of context. You either live a value or you don't. And maybe because it's something that I can't quite wrap my own heart around, I am tending to assume a much larger divide than is real for those of you who do feel these alters... like, it's not so much Jekyll and Hyde as it is Big Alice and Small Alice. Big Alice can pick up the deck of cards and toss them around, Small Alice can't. I get that. But they're not separate identities to me.
This is why Ive been against it 100%. That sense of it being fake. For me because being "normal" vs my anger self (or whatever you wanna call it, hulk or something like that) felt so fake I had trouble seeing aspects that I could learn and become. Now I see it differently. I realise for me that these are things I can learn amd absorb to make my own. In doing so they become my version and 100% real. Theres this theory that everything we eat and love to eat is an acquired taste. As adults we can eat something and immediately like it, but the thought is its because we already acquired the taste as a child. As children we learned to like some things. Remember coffee the first time? Or beer? The idea then becomes that we dont really have set things in place as to who we are really and as we age and grow we collect the things we become. In that sense we can continue to become, to grow. For me to become better, I had to accept that my perspective of things being fake was limited. Now Im a different person and very much not the angry kid. I became more my "alter" than what I thought was who I was truly. And to be clear I dont mean fake it til you make it, but to really learn to walk in those shoes, to learn to become something else.
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2 hours ago, Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu said:
I think the real reason why something like Muay Thai is taught in a structured way, so much, is because of the demands on teaching itself, which is not easy. Not really because people crave structure.
This is definitely true, but I do think people do crave structure, if only subconsciously. To be clear, I mean westerners when I say people too. I cant speak to other countries and cultures, but I do believe western culture wants it to various levels. In teaching kids, I see it. Without structure to what we do they get bored and chaotic. The trick for me is to avoid the pitfalls of structure, the routine. So like I said above, I outline loosely to have an idea of what I want to teach, I plot time loosely so I know how much I have to get ideas across, then I go and see what will happen. Im not using structure as control for the uncontrollable. Im using it just to be more efficient with the time I have. And I think thats maybe where we westerners get our "crave" from. Its super time oriented here, right? Its part if why we have that rush culture, especially in LA. So, my hour class might be plotted like this: 5 min warm up, 15 mins bag work (if I have a plan for it itll be something like work jabs add movement), 15 mins partner drill (with the lesson, usually tied to bag work lesson), 15 mins spar/clinch work. Thats just an outline though. If they are vibing on the bag, we could stay there as long as they want. Just depends on the organic components you cant plan for. I think that crave of structure is just a hope of control in the uncontrollable. We like it not because we necessarily need it so much as are conditioned to it and maybe wish for more of it in lives that can be chaotic. Hopefully that explains my thoughts better. Trying not to ramble, so I might not always explain myself fully.
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5 hours ago, Jeremy Stewart said:
100%. You and I are the same age. I'd surmise even though we are from different countries our schooling and formative educational experience would be similar. I.E. everything by rote. So I truly believe structured learning like you said (a better term,
), is what we crave as it's what we respond too. However, thanks to Sylvie and something she said, I've adopted a try not to try sort of approach and just let it flow. In how I conduct a class eg. Instead of trying to plan a class down to the minute, last detail, I just let it happen as it plays out, if that makes sense,my own personal training and the way I encourage my students. As it stands at the moment, I know I teach better, I know I train better and the students are performing better. All because the aspect of self criticism has almost totally disappeared. And one thing most people are really good at is being over critical of themselves.
Yeah please dont misunderstand, the structure is loose lol. Its there in outline only. There still has to be an organic element to the class I believe. So I plan what I want to teach then see how it goes. Structure as in direction, not criticism or limitation.
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2 hours ago, Kero Tide said:
But if you're ONLY "dealing" with it in the ring and never outside of it, what happens when you can't be in the ring anymore? When you don't have your mean to escape, to let off some steam, what then?
This is a great point and something I think about with former fighters who've retired, those that stay retired and move onto other ventures and those that cant seem to stay retired even if the majority of fandom thinks they should. I feel like its part of the reason some cant retire to save their lives and others end up with major personality problems that end up on the news (like domestic disputes, etc). Its a tough subject one has to individually address. If your only outlet for certain emotions is fighting then what do you do when you cant? Personally, Ive had to deal with this aggressively. I know now that Im not completely made up of rage and aggression, but it took years of learning to deal with these emotions when they werent appropriate to the situation. Finding other outlets (like exercise) and learning dealing tools (like meditation, psychology, etc.) became invaluable. It became about finding a balance between the things that have become who I am. Not an alter so much as a blend, or a mix that has more of a percentage at the surface during specific situations. Its a work in progress, one I think Ill always be working on, but its always better the longer I live and deal with it.
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For me, its more that the persona I have when I train or fight is more the real one the one I cant let fully out in normal life. Ive had emotional issues as a kid from past abuse that left me with an unhealthy anger and no real way to deal with it...until I started training. Training let me use it and let it out to a degree that made it manageable in regular day life. If I have an alter its more the good and kind person I trained myself to become. The killer mentality has been there so long, its a part of me no matter what but it has so many detractors in regular dealings I had to learn to manage it and training helped me. Specifically in learning when and where to unleash it in training and fighting. Btw Kevin, this post is exactly why I posted earlier. I love to see how an idea expressed leads to other ideas and thoughts.
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3 hours ago, threeoaks said:
I am interested to read you understand this as a trainable quality rather than something you have innately or not. I would love to read your experience with bringing it out in people (though I know you are asking for others’ point of view).
This is ongoing for me. Ive had success and failure with this, which is why I pose the question to fish and see if theres anything I can use to be more succesful with it. Kevin gave gold in what he said above which will definitely help me with people that dont necessarily like the agression aspects of fighting (negative connotations to their past, etc). Being able to teach them how to be dominant (positive) without the aggression (negative) is an excellent skill set I can develop further because of the things you guys have said.
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3 hours ago, threeoaks said:
But I am going far afield from James' question. Sorry James. My final thought is one has to be able to use all kinds of concealed and overt aggression in life and in fighting, and not rely on just one.
No, thats the point of these actually. Just let it spill out lol. Its like round table discussions. The idea is to pose something and see what comes out. Thanks for being such a good interactive person. I for one appreciate it.
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4 hours ago, threeoaks said:
Have you had athletes you could not bring this out in? Is this why you ask the question, James?
I ask outve general curiosity because Ive actually had so many different people exhibit different responses to this. Yes, Ive definitely had people that couldnt (or maybe wouldnt) tap into this and Ive had some that tapped into it too much lol. I was the latter and more conan but had to learn to be more dexter. Im definitely someone that can scale back my aggression and domination depending on the person's needs in front of me. And thats how I see it too. From a coach's perspective, its about the needs of my students. Thats also part of why I ask these things, to be able to use what I find here for them. Currently, I have one fighter that has as close to a perfect mentality when it comes to this as Ive ever encountered. He is just that way as a human. Rarely gets overtly emotional, but can show as needed. Hes easily able to be dominant with clinical detachment. He keeps that detachment even when its not going his way. In his last fight he got his nose broken during the second round. It wasnt until the end after finishing his opponent that he then asked me "Hey coach, can you look at my nose? Is it crooked?". He knew something was wrong but just put it aside til the job was done. I find all of that, all of this psychology fascinating.
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13 hours ago, Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu said:
Maybe there's a way in like this. Most of aggression = domination comes from imposing pain, or the idea of that. But, there are so many other things. I'm not going to let you breathe (when you want to), going about taking away someone's breathing pattern. I'm not going to let you stand where you want to, moving them off their spot when you see them settle. I'm not going to let you rhythm when you want to, or on your tempo. Just three.
1. look for breathing.
2. look for standing in a spot
3. look for rhythm
Many people don't ever really LOOK for those things, they aren't trained to do so. But, if you get them to start to see it, then it can become a target, even a fun target. And then they can feel how it is domination.
I know you know all this, but just some random thoughts.
Real good thoughts, and no I dont necessarily know this either or maybe I do but its not foremost in my brain at the moment, so its great to see it written out. Its just excellent tactical training. Maybe thats it too, tactical is domination without necessarily having aggression.
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2 hours ago, Jeremy Stewart said:
For westerners and particularly beginners, I truly believe they expect a mechanised, structured and organised system of learning any martial craft. I'm only relating this to martial crafts, however it could applied to almost anything westerners engage in. I feel this it is the only way a westerner feels he/she can gauge the value of whatever they are taking part in. So it fits perfectly with your last sentence. My personal opinion is, there's not many westerners that could be taught in any other way. Of course as you gain experience, mental and physical and of course if you are inquisitive enough, your attitude will change and the sandpile will become the driving force as opposed to the sheer mechanical process.
I will quickly comment on this. Maybe the term used by westerners, instead of mechanized, is structured. I truly believe we crave structure. I had a coach teach that mentality to me from the system he used and honestly since I started using it, its been easier to teach people. Ive never taught outside the US but I have taught a lot of people from other countries that move here and they respond just as well to a structured system. I wonder if its a by product of how we a re raised and taught growing up. If it doesnt have something to do with comfort. Similarly to the essay above, we crave structure because its familiar and familiarity breeds comfort.
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5 hours ago, Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu said:
What the complexity systems theory does to this mechanistic world view is change up our expectations, and revise our concept of "error" (or non-response, null value). Error is not necessarily a feedback of a broken part. It may simply be a criticality building system under development.
Wow. Wowow. Thank you, this was an excellent essay. You put into words things Ive felt for a while. Ive got to digest before I say more, but this was really great.
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6 hours ago, Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu said:
A big variant is how Muay Thai teaches/trains domination, not aggression. You can use aggression to dominate, but only to a certain degree. You don't (often) get a "killer" mentality for this reason. It's all about controlling the other person, imposing yourself. This is really a different world than a lot of western thinking. But it's worth pointing out.
Totally agree. I think also western mentality has a lot of mix with domination and aggression. So many cant have one without the other, and that just in regular day life. The teaching of domination without aggression is such a huge aspect of martial arts.
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12 hours ago, Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu said:
I 100% get what you're getting at with the Dexter vs. Conan example, but I chafe at the serial killer comparison because I believe you have to actually be quite empathetic to be a good fighter. You have to know what fear and pain and shame feel like to be able to impart them on your opponent - and to a softer degree your partner in training scenarios. But yes, definitely not the "beast mode" of the Conan approach.
I've found that for myself, a degree of insistence is what works the best for me in training. I'm slightly pissed off, but not in a way that's directed at anyone or anything. It's just that my version of slightly pissed allows me to let go of judgement, I think. There is a kind of Hannibal Lector quality to feeling the emotional and energy state of your partner and calmly guiding them toward the deep end. Like, "you look close to quitting, let me just nudge you a bit." I've personally had a hard time learning how to have that "killer instinct," or your version of a kind of sociopathic instinct, in aiding your partner's weaknesses because it feels shitty. For a very long time, if I knew that what I was doing was putting my partner in an emotionally difficult place, I'd back off. Even though in part of my mind I know that's no favor at all. There's a fighter at my gym who is the universal little brother. He's literally the little brother of one fighter, but he's the youngest (without being the 7-8 year olds, who are kind of their own set), and he's a butterball who gives up and hates being tired, so Kru Nu is always working to toughen him up. Like, if he can't finish the morning run in 1 hour, he has to run more. A few times, he's been running on the road, all of us in the van with the doors open just kind of crawling alongside him. It's punishment, for sure, but it's not just him. If Alex comes in behind so-and-so, he has to run extra or do pushups or whatever also, and he's kind of a "star" of the gym.
So, I struggle with this because I have a compassionate impulse to get out and run with the little brother. Just so he has a partner, a friend, something to make it less all-eyes-on-you. But I also know that a lesson is being taught and by jumping out and doing that, it comes off as "motherly," which I 1 million percent do not want to associate myself with in the gym. It's that same struggle when I feel my partners wanting to quit, or having a hard time, or hitting an emotional wall. I've been there. And I've had people ease up on me - so I know that just lets me stay exactly how I am. And I've had people not ease up, and I know that helps me grow. So, it's a weird version of "serial killer compassion," as it were.
Thanks Sylvie, thats exactly the kind of personal explanation I was looking for from people when I wrote this. Ive had the same issues in training as well as being a coach. Even coaches need to exhibit this kind of mentality with fighters or people that too easily give up. Slippery slope for me as a coach. It means I have to really know the person Im pushing, what are their goals, how are they built mentally, and can I break the chains theyve developed without breaking them in the process.
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Sparring Advice: Facing a Pressure Fighter
in Muay Thai Technique, Training and Fighting Questions
Posted
Thats the beautiful duality of big guys that know their stuff. They can easily let go and be brutes but usually are so aware of their strength, they dont...unless provoked lol.