The Training Process
How are we different?
Mostly its in our approach. We believe in functional training. We believe in integrating all the “ranges” (stand-up, clinch and ground). Sure, there are other places that do this too, however we de-emphasize the often hyper-competitiveness that occurs in many of those gyms. Training should be about learning, consistent improvement and growth as opposed to competition. As the old saying goes, “You learn in the gym, you win in competition”.
We have a PYP Program (Preserve Your Partner). We don’t believe in bashing each others heads in during our training sessions. We believe in leaving the gym with the same IQ that we came in with. Pugilistic Dementia is a very real concern for anyone involved in combat athletics. Function through safety is our primary concern at all levels.
This isn’t to say that we don’t train harder on occasion (at least our senior clients and members). But the emphasis isn’t on “winning” (defined as, you have to fail in some manner so that I can succeed.) Thus instead of a competitive environment, we establish a developmental environment where the pressure is off, in order to foster exploration and play. Kids learn when they play and so do adults (its fun too!).
With regard to the physical training, it’s a pretty simple process. We believe that “less equals more” and thus we take a stripped down approach to each session. We have found it’s more efficient to have a specific “theme” for each training session, focusing on 2 to 4 techniques per session. This gives us a better opportunity to isolate scenarios and train them using progressive resistance and variable intensity.
By taking this approach, with whatever it is that we’re working on (standing, clinch, ground, scenario training, etc), we can spend our training time grooving the mechanics into muscle memory instead of merely trying to memorize a bunch of stuff which will be mostly forgotten. Experience has shown us that this is a superior way of doing things.
