RingoOk, So this is for bohurt fighters, but we all know the adage everyone eats dirt right? Well It may be true, but some people in the sport sure eat dirt less. And I don’t know about you but I certainly want to be one of them. In fact that’s pretty much the most important stat I look at when I do stats breakdowns. My opinion the most important isn’t even takedowns per fall(T/F) but falls per round(F/R). I want to know I can count on you to be up at the end cause it doesn’t matter how dangerous you are on your feet if I can’t count on you to be on them when it’s all on the line. To that end I’ve always focused on a few supplementals in my personal training that I’d like to share, hoping it will improve your survivability. Also I’m gonna workshop some potential training techniques and fight strategies that will hopefully get your F/R to near zero.
The first and most important thing is your balance. Balance is in fact based on multiple senses, such as your equilibrium via your inner ear, your vision, and most importantly your Proprioception, or sense of yourself in space. This sense is what lets you touch your nose with your finger when your eyes are closed or how you can walk backwards. It lets you know where all your limbs are in relation to each other and your torso. This is of crucial importance for our sport because as soon as your center of balance moves, you become incredibly easy to take down. This provides you with the feedback to fix that.
This leads right into the next point. How do you fix it? Well that comes from being in good control of your body and having a sense of what movement will put things back in place. It’s why I stress animal walks and similar movement work. The only way to really get that sense and build the muscles and flexibility to move in ways to catch yourself is to practice weird body transitions. One important aspect is changing up and trying new positions, not just one type back and forth. That is great for building stabilizing muscles and unlocking one type of movement, but you want to be able to do anything. Shit like this.
It looks goofy as fuck but trust me, when your bracing yourself on your neck, with your helm on the bottom rail all that’s keeping you up, or on one foot, the other hooked under the rail, you’ll thank me that I told you to look like an asshole in your yard. Some other good practices are yoga, Rock and Tree Climbing, Gymnastics and FreeRunning/Parkour.
A specific tool I suggest is the Bosu Ball.
I love these, though they can be expensive. They are great for all sorts of balance work. My favorite thing to do is in between sets of my heavy work, stand on the ball and practice throwing blows, really trying to focus on form and muscle engagement. In general I like standing on the platform side as I find it closer to mimicking the ground we fight on, but either works. Stand on it and real focus on driving through your foot and hip. Go slow and reach full extension, as you will find that it pulls you off center. Play with all your weapons forms, especially polearm, for best results.
I also highly recommend squats and LIGHT deadlifts on the ball. Changing your level will drastically change your weight distribution. Go slow and work up to it to prevent injury. The last bosu ball movement I suggest is standing on one leg and slowly extending your other leg forward or rotating the hip out. Moving through your full range of motion with your free leg to practice supporting yourself and catching yourself on one leg.
These movements will stress muscles in your feet, ankle, and core primarily that are responsible for keeping you steady. It will also create a better signal from those nerves to your brain so that you can make adjustments quicker and easier. Between Animal walk style movement work and these standing balance works your are covering alot of bases. But you can still do more. One of my favorite exercises that used to live in my daily work was balance beam. In particular I would take a step, perform a single leg deadlift, then take another step. Simple and easy way to really test and improve balance and core. You don’t even need a real beam if you are bad at woodworking. Buy a 6ft long 4×4 and you’re probably good to go. To go the extra mile, add a partner throwing a ball or stick to your while you walk. Or if you don’t have one, just try and throw and catch a ball while walking. This will help make the balance part more subconscious which is the goal.
Ok, this is getting long and we haven’t talked about perhaps the most important part, quick feet. For now I will leave this say, look up ladder drills. I have another video I’m working on for foot agility in armor that I will put out soon, so look for that and I’ll add the link in here when I finish it. We’ve now talked about how to get in better shape for balance but we’ve left out tools of staying up that are inherent to the sport. How do you use the rail to keep yourself up?
In HMB this is more simple as you can just wrap your armor around it, and it becomes less about your balance but a specific type of grappling utilizing one arm and the list for torque. I do not have the experience in that rule set to speak on it, so I’m gonna speak on it for IMCF. Now a straight read of the rules suggests you should never grab the rail at all…but since they give you a 3 count thats stupid. How much to use it and when becomes a bit confusing because its unclear when a yellow will be thrown. I’d argue there are only two times then. 1 when you feel you are falling near the rail and 2 whenever you throw someone near the rail.
Far too often falls are the result of throwing your opponent too hard or them holding on. Being ready to let go and quickly grab the rail as soon as you feel you’re winning the battle, will guarantee your survival. Similarly when you are falling reach for the rail. This may sound obvious but a real heads up play on a check is to jump at the rail and try to catch it. The ring awareness to be able to reach out and grab stability and even put yourself in a shittier position to get it takes quick thinking. We all know though that we get way dumber when the helm goes on. So how to get this ingrained?
Ideally you’ll have a fence, rail, or other object that is similar you can practice on. But if you don’t, a simple answers is a saw horse. It will be short and less sturdy but the point is to get mental gains so it should work. Start with the throw practice. Grab a heavy boxing bag, throw dummy, or a partner if you have one. Do the snap of the throw and leg go and throw your arm over your barrier, draping your wait and going loose. Do this 100 times once a week for a few weeks and it’ll get in pretty quick. Now how to handle knowing to reach when your equilibrium is scrambled and you don’t have much thought? This one is goofy as hell. Get a partner to call or some sort of app that will go over between 3-5 seconds. Close your eyes and spin. When your hear the call, reach for the barrier. Don’t go crazy and spin as fast as you can, spin for 20 seconds, or lunge for the barrier. You’ll fall down and it will be hilarious, but the point is not actually to catch the barrier or see how well you handle being dizzy. Its to get you to associate safety and balance with the rail.
My first few months in armor we drilled running and turning our backs to rail every practice. I always know where the rail is and retreat to it because of that. That type of ingrained is what we want. You realize shit is going bad? Get to to rail.
Last few wild theories.
-Whenever someone is trying to throw you, the safest place you can be is close to them. It makes it harder for them to work around and destabilize you but more importantly when they do, you are ready to use them as leverage and climb your way back up. I’ve survived more throws than I can count by hanging onto the person in a half back bend and them pulling my way up and scooting my feet under me. So practic your back bends and if you have something you can dangle off of, practice that too.
-The under side of the rail is under utilized. You can grip that with your hand without your opponent noticing alot easier. And you can also use your foot to catch the bottom and pull yourself back up.
-Running out of checks is about getting your feet back under you. That’s partially fast feet but also being comfortable with your weight being out in front of you. I think This comes from good flexibility in the hamstrings and low back, as well as a strong core used to holding weight out there. Do some straight leg deadlifts. Practice standing bend over with your head forward. Lean Forward till you feel yourself about to fall, come back. Do it again. Push your limits.
-Balance is equal parts having a sturdy unmovable base and being able to be as light as possible when your base is moved. Sturdy base comes from squats, deads, and similar strengthening exercises and being comfortable getting low. Being light and able to move comes from…jumping, bouncing, spinning. Looking like a dork basically. Also falling alot. So get to tumbling and make sure you’re practicing your hopscotch.
Ok thats enough of me pretending I know what I’m talking about. Have a good day and I’ll see you in the list