RingoI will not be fighting in Scotland this year. After a disappointing Denmark performance, injuries, some financial setbacks, and other more personal reasons, it’s just not in the cards. With that event out of the way I’m looking at this year as a building and growing year. In particular I want this to be a year I find my own feet as a leader in the Steel community, both in and out of the list. I also want to use this year to grow personally as a fighter. To spend more deliberate focused effort on reducing the big weakness in my game, while extending my strengths. To that end, I’m going to try a project. I will attempt to document my goals, training, and measurement, in blog form. Hopefully this will provide value in terms of focus for me and inspiration for others. I offer my usual caveat, that like most projects this one will likely fall off before completion. Hopefully before that point though something useful comes of it.
Today I will document my goals, how I plan to measure against them, and my training training plan to get there. In the future I will update with how the journey is going, but also with discussion on why I chose the goals I did, thoughts on other training and measurement methods, and whatever else pops up in my brainpan. I will also tighten down on the training process and the metrics I’m using to measure against. There will be more depth in those post and likely a higher priority for conceptual thoughts over explicit practical steps. For now though I simply want to get started. I’ve already gone over alot of the why so time to get to the how and what. Don’t worry, I’ll circle back and bring anyone who bothers to follow along up to speed later.
My personal goals are not particularly complex. The basic idea, become a take down monster. To quote Brian Juranty, Legs and Core are what keep you up, but upper body is what gets takedowns. So to that end, I will be building a strength program for my arms, chest, back, and shoulders. I also need to improve my weapon work, particularly my axe work. I need one shot drops. Pell work, PellWork, PELLWORK. Lastly, My offensive grappling is terrible. I can survive against some of the best…but can’t take down people without bodies. I need to learn fast take-downs and if they don’t work I need to have a disengage ready to chain after that.
On singles I have zero training goals right now. I didn’t fight singles at either national tournament this year. Instead my plan is just to make sure I fight a singles match at least once a month.
Upper body work. This will likely(garunted) change within the next month as I gather more resources and talk to better equipped people, but for now
Training 2 strength days a week, both targeting upper body. Monday morning- Dumbell Curls, Chin ups, Push ups, chest Flys, Skull Crushers, dumb bell press.
Friday night- Clean and Press, Renegade Row, Pull ups, Dips, Reverse flys, Lateral Raise, Sledge and Weighted mace swings.
Execution on goal- Don’t miss work outs. Talk with those who know more to develop better more targeted workout
Ongoing Measurements- Improve lift numbers in at least half of movements every month.
Final Metric– Able to over power at least 50% of fighters on the field and able to not be over power by 80% of field. Pick 3 targets for each. Be able to over power or not be over powered by those 6 fighters
Upper body strength though is a part, but probably a small part. Strength is a check box. Once you’ve checked off strong, there’s diminishing returns. Maybe you can check very strong, but I probably never will and even if, there’s not really any return after that. So I need that force multiplier. Enter weapon skills. Primarily my axe work getting up to dangerous levels, but I will not neglect single handers as I’m often called to play that role.
Training- Axe pell work every day. 20 minutes most mornings split equally between long and short axe. With one 30-60 minute session once a week, that includes falchion work.
Executioner drills before knight fit class. Cross check running drills once a week on Mondays before class.
Execution on Goal-Use an axe as primary weapon every fight. Check in with Jaye for form check at least once a month. Add time on target, multi strike, and odd angle drills to long session.
Ongoing Measurements- Fewer swings to drop people. Able to swing more get tired less
Final Metric- A min of one, one shot drop a match.
Lastly for melee, I need to step up my grappling and also be aware that I’m not winning a grapple and therefore leave.
Training-Add an extra day of grappling drills to whatever knight fit classes are offering once a week. Watch wrestling, judo, aikido, and BJJ matches and training videos at least once a month. Visualization exercises once a week, think about counting, 1,2,3, now break. Every morning work on stretching and movement drills to increase proprioception.
Execution on Goal- Work towards never grappling for more than 3 seconds. Actively think about counting and then breaking free. Use singles matches, profights, and mercing matches to work on offensive take downs.
Ongoing Measurements-Rewatch tape and average the overall time spend in grapples. Should constantly be decreasing.
Make sure I can finish take downs against mid and low level opponents in under 5 seconds.
Final Metric- At least one fast takedown a match. Average grapple time of under 4 seconds.
The hardest goals for me to achieve will be the leadership ones. I only have 2, but they are vague nebulous ideas, hard to put metrics too, even harder to design training around. Beware, incoming garbage corporate speak. 1- Ensure I have provided an environment that will always ensure my team members are performing at their optimum ability. 2- Build a team synergy that makes the whole of team far greater than the sum of its parts.
These are difficult goals to train for and document, far harder to achieve. I will be revisiting this plan often to see if I need to update and assume I will. For the moment though number 1 is about knowing what makes each fighter I have tick. Learning what motivates them both on and off the field. What makes them fight, what makes them want to win, what makes them ok with losing. I need to learn their goals and work to make them my priority as well. I need to provide them with guidance, tools, and motivation to reach those goals. I can ensure proper body and mind state then. I can make sure they are skilled where they need to be. I can make sure they are ready to hit the levels they are aiming for(which is far more important than the level someone else wants for them).
Training wise- I need to talk to a different fighter every week, whether mine or not. Learn their habits, learn how they felt before they were successful, how they felt before they weren’t. Every week, try to gain fight brain insight.
Execution on goal- I need to talk with my team, build training plans for those who want them, and work with those who don’t to figure out what their goals in the sport are(even if that goal is just show up and fight). I need to learn what they are currently doing and what they are willing/want to do. I need to build my own plan that takes these into account.
Ongoing Measurement-Every fight check on mental and physical state. Have a goal for the fight. Meet after to discuss whether everyone met the goal or not. Re-adjust goals and plans to take in new data.
Final metric-At the end of the season everyone on the team feels they have improved and are fighting at the level they want to be.
Number 2 basically just build off of that. Know my fighters. Know their skills and minds. Build plans that work them together. Build a hierarchy so when I’m not leading someone else can step up. Build a communication framework so we can easily figure out what each other is doing and needs.
Training wise-Team practice on communication and similar drills once a month
Execution on goal-Every fight push to use plays and communication skills. Build new plays as new knowledge comes in. Change jargon and communication strategy as we find what works and what doesn’t.
Ongoing measurement-Every fight should increase the number of times communication is used and the number of successful plays(as measured by achieving the play’s goal, not just achieving a beneficial position).
Final metric-Team is communicating every round. Plays are executed continually through fights so there is never a round that doesn’t have at least one moment that was pre-scripted. Everyone on the team participates in plays at least once a match. Everyone on the team understand commands and issues them.
This leaves my overall team/personal goals and metrics. For the Monarchs my goal is to be the best team in the league. Metrics are take the next two season, with a winning record and at least one win against every team we fight. Its aggressive, but doable.
For me personally it’s (re)establish my place as one of the elites in this sport and become a hero fighter, one of those guys who can pull out a victory when it comes down to just them. The guy that can carry a team. Metrics are, in an informal poll of fighter be rated amongst top 10. For hero, in 2 v1 fights where I’m the last man standing, win more than lose. Lead my team in Points, per takedown/assist ranking. Win more rounds than Lose when I’m on the field.
This is a work in progress, with large sections that will be torn out before even a month is up. However the basics of it are a good framework to work from. Looking forward to what this year brings.