Tues 2/22

Training these fighters has been interesting.  They have spent their entire lives on the ground wrestling - Kamal is an Olympian while Reza is the Swedish National Champion - but both are from Azerbaijan.

Kamal told me when they were little and it was cold outside all the village kids would pile into a small building and wrestle for hours.  Watching the way they move on the ground is quite an impressive sight.  Reminds me of two rams butting heads.

Watching them move in the gym is a different story.  It's awful.  A life long "gym rat" has thousands and thousands of hours moving raw iron in front of mirrors perfecting form.  These guys don't have that muscle memory, and honestly they don't need it right now.

What I have had to with Kamal and Reza is take it back to basic brute strength training.  Sandbags, Tire drags, ball slams, farmer carry, and simple barbell movements are a few we've been using.  Kamal is 4 weeks out from UFC 128.  His training time is precious.  Along with strength and conditioning he has boxing, BJJ, and wrestling all scheduled into his weekly schedule.  I can't waste his physical and mental energy teaching him how to Clean and Snatch.

That being said - keep it simple, keep it hard.

Getting strong and fast isn't rocket science, just a whole lot of hard work.

-Jake