"Two Minute Warning"

[Pete Reiff]

Hey you Old FMA Salts,

I just "swiped" this from the IBF site forum for comments and ideas on the subject from some of the dedicated folks here.

A couple weeks ago I had two back to back 2 1/2 minute continous contact fights at an exam, and I was totally fried (physically exhausted)afterwards.

The idea of two minutes "balls to the wall" for training, and this regime, really appeals to me, and might be worth examining.
It can't hurt to try.............


Start-
Hi Leo...Great topic. During the Faulklands War, the British SAS suffered a much higher casualty rate than expected in close quarters combat. The SAS soldiers that survived reported that they became exhausted very quickly (and therefore hardly able to defend themselves, much less overcome an enemy soldier) during a hand to hand encounter. Later research performed by the SAS revealed that nearly all CQC encounters last two minutes or less and are intensely physically demanding, occurring at or beyond the anaerobic threshold (the point during exercise at which all the oxygen in the muscles has been used up and the muscles must rely on less efficient anaerobic energy sources to function). The traditional conditioning regimen employed by the SAS emphasized endurance and did not prepare its soldiers to fight this intensely. As one SAS senior officer put it, "Our boys could run ten miles through mountainous terrain carrying full packs and arrive fresh to battle- they just couldn't fight worth a damn once they got there." So, the SAS changed its training regimen to include specific interval and anaerobic threshold training. The result has been very positive, with higher survival rates among its soldiers in recent CQC encounters...Boxers and stickfighters (as Steve pointed out) long ago figured out that, in order to have any chance of winning a fight, you have to specifically train yourself to fight full out for a minute or two. The way that I do this is with my stickfighting dummy (one of those freestanding punching bags on a H2O filled base to which I have added a helmeted head and arms and covered with an old field jacket) and a kitchen timer. Once a week, I do as many 2 min rounds (with 30 sec between-round rest intervals) as I can- double stick, single stick, E y D, double knife, single knife, EHs. I really try to put myself into it- to believe that I'm fighting for my life- and fight full out for the entire two minutes of each round. Try it, you'll be amazed at how hard it is at first. DO NOT FORGET TO BREATHE! Good luck, Mario
- Ende

 

[Gaucho]

Hey! How did this get here?!

Thanks, Pete, for thinking to copy this onto the FMA forum for all the stickfighters to see.

I actually started doing this type of training specifically to improve my sticksparring. Just like everyone else, when I first started fullout sparring with sticks, I found that I pooped out after just two or three rounds, even though I felt that I was in pretty decent shape overall. At the same time, serendipitously, I read the piece about the SAS and it got me to thinking about how to recreate the intensity of sticksparring in my solo training.

I can tell you that this type of training enormously improved my ability to stickfight round after round, as well as to be able to really explode during a round and still be able to recuperate and keep fighting effectively afterwards.

BTW, when I am working on my WEKAF style stickfighting (as opposed to the more gear free Dog Brothers style), I actually put on all my gear- head gear, gloves, body armor, knee pads- in order to maintain my ability to fight effectively with all that crap on .

Back to the fundamental issue of being able to fight for your life effectively for however long is necessary to put the situation down, I believe that it was GT Illustrisimo who told his students that they must train to be able to fight continuously for ten minutes. Not because they would ever have to fight one man for that long, but because they might have to fight ten men for a minute each.

Peace and Good Training,

Mario

 

[Pete Reiff]

Mario,

Glad you didn't mind the "boost", the information is just too valuable not to share.

I'd love to hear from Don Rearic, Dave Fulton, Tom Kier, and/or anybody else that has supported this forum with information on this subject.

The older and wiser I, LOL, get the more important this stuff become to me!

 

[eda-koppo]

I may not be Dave Fulton or Don Rearic, but I can verify how useful this is from my own experience. When I took the RMCAT course in '94 (in Boulder), I was in substandard shape and unused to dealing with the altitude, and often found myself drained after a scenario, most of which ran UNDER 2 minutes. I definitely learned to breathe, and by the time I took a shorter course with them four months later, had better learned to pace myself.

Those with sparring experience with an eye to "rounds" fared much better, such as my roommate during the first course. His name was Mark Hall, and he was training for the UFC at that time. If memory serves, he fought in two of them but didn't get very far--at the very least I know he didn't win.