Snake Pit conditioning.

Hi Dave,

Great session on Saturday, took away a lot to think about and work on as usual.

I recently saw a programme examining the conditioning routines of the 155lb MMA fighter Sean Sherk. His regime was phenomenal, one of the best conditioned fighters I have ever seen. I remembered some time ago you mentioned that the guys in Wigan were the best conditioned fighters you had ever seen but couldn't find details of their training sessions (even though I know you've answered the question before)

What would the guys in Wigan have considered a tough work-out?


cheers

Hi Chris

Yes mate very enjoyable session on Saturday .. always nice to see the usual attendees

OK .. Catch Conditioning

I must confess I always struggled to reach any kind of level with the conditioning work in the late 60's early 1970's times.

There was always a great deal of emphasis placed on grappling conditioning, and a lot less on actual grappling sparring than you might think...

right I'll describe the one that made me throw up, as it was bloody gruesome..

7.00pm .. warm ups.
3 sets x 100 free squats done FAST
3 minutes cat stretches, done like the Hindu wrestlers
neck bridging, 100 total reps of a few varieties.

7.15pm .. phase one conditioning
Partner training on walking pulls and walking pushes, no count just a time thing usually 3 or so minutes.
Hip lifts with partner 3 sets of 20 reps swapping partners every set.
Floor shoots from all fours crouch to back supports and rolls .. 50 reps.
carries with struggling partner held in crutch hold .. 3 minutes at speed.


7.45 .. phase two conditioning
people worked on their weak points with a partner who may or may not be doing the same exercise you were, depending on what his weakness was .. mine was lifts prior to throws, so I would have to do 50-100 crutch holds lifts with bodyslams, the partner getting up as fast as he could, so I had to just quickly reach in and grab again, then lift and throw again.. my breath was hurting in my lungs by now.

8.00pm .. techniques..
we would do some throws or takedowns against a line of 3-4 partners, but their task was to get up quickly and get back to grips quickly, you just kept going through the line.. dont remember how many times.. I had to alternate between buttock, cross-buttock and flying mare

then floor work or counters to holds on the floor.. simply put someone stuck a hold on and you just did the counter over and over with instructors telling you everything that was wrong and nothing that was right.

9.00pm... rolling .. the wrestlers term for sparring.. you just rolled a bit like judo randori with whoever was next and changed every couple of minutes and just grabbed the next guy.. I once got Pete Lindop 4 times in one session and he beat me with the same hammer lock with bar every sodding time

9.30pm ... 5 mins cooldown and go home

some guys did 5 nights a week without missing..

I heard that the GREAT Billy Robinson would get in 7 or 8 of these type of sessions every week.. twice on sats and suns

Just mention Pete Lindop who once came up with and answer/comment to a question of mine that kind of summed up the experience and intensity of these guys..

I asked him .. "Pete how did you rate with the other Pros?" (Pete Lindop wrestled as Pete Linberg, and did a great strongman act before each bout)

"Me Dave?" was his response, "No I was only really a novice, after all I only had about 3000 bouts in the whole of my career".. Thats THREE THOUSAND, and he didnt consider himself experienced.

he would wrestle 5 or 6 nights a week, and sometimes twice in the same night if halls were fairly close..

so he would get in 400 bouts a year on average..

make some boxers records look a bit sick when they can fight for a British title with less than 30 fights.. thats a monthly average for most Pro wrestlers

Oh by the way Chris, I threw up twice in that session, and missed work the next day .. couldnt move

Bloody hell Dave.

I can't help thinking that people just wouldn't train like that these days with the excuse of "over-training" ever ready in the back-ground.

I half remember a session you mentioned where you'd been asked to show some of the conditioning exercises and nobody made it past the warm up stage before flagging or am I mis-remembering and being too harsh??

I just don't see any number of people being prepared to work like that! what was their diet like to be able to perform like that five times a week (in addition to bouts!)

Think the course your referring to is the Catch course Dave was asked to teach a few years ago.

Yes mate it was .. It wasnt the one at Neil Hall's place, but when former world judo champ Wayne Lakin invited me to his old place to do a 'catch'/grappling course..

there were 42 people on it.. only six survived the sodding warmups, and two of them were local MMA champs

at Neils half of them survived the warmups...

Oh .. diet? sorry Chris


"If its covered in FUR OR FEATHER, SCALES OR LEATHER .. EAT IT"
was one typical remark... to be honest experts these days would call their diet not too good, but I believe it was OK..

it wasnt really a big subject unlike a lot of 'personal trainers' and 'chrome and carpet' gyms these days who seem to bang on about diet..

no one ate Macs etc, stuff like cakes and chocolate were definite luxuries, not everyday stuff..

basically porridge and eggs for breakfast, cheese sarnies and fruit for lunch (dinner back then).. meat and 4 veg for tea (Dinner now??)...

loads of cups of tea and milk to drink.. a few bevvies once a week

John Rigby (whose probably 3 years older than GOD) still wrestles and walks miles and he's probably really about 90 or ..

they worked hard, trained hard and ate hard .. oh and played hard..

when coal miners came out of the pits after 8 hours and then went wrestling for another 3 hours.. they didnt really put emphasis on supplements etc, they would have thought in 'namby pamby'

I think someone told me that Billy Riley's motto was

"If tha wunts to larn to rassle tha mun larn to ston pain"

If you want to learn to wrestle you must learn to stand pain...

says it all really

Wow.
That about says it, really.
Thanks, Dave.

Another one to save and keep. Thanks Dave

Its still Dinner and tea in Rotherham Dave

Just reading that made me feel sick. This was definitely an experience for really tough men rather than dabblers facing demons of always having been crap at PE at school.
I've always struggled to do 20 conventional press-ups.

PS It's still dinner and tea in our family (and I'm a middle class Southerner)

Nice one

to be fair I have to mention that I 'bottled' out after a while.. I just couldnt take it any more

Iwas doing ju-jutsu back then ( and had just started with the Goshinkwai), the JJ was three times a week, so I didnt get down to the wrestllings clubs more than 3-4 times a month

some guys went every night .. now they WERE in condition

you know a slightly 'strange' phenomenom was that some of the best conditioned guys who could take just about anything, didnt look that fit.. OK the had muscles, but all the heavier weights always had a small amount of extra around their waists etc... they most ertainly didnt look like todays WWF type wrestlers who all look like a line up in the Mr Universe...

however, even though they didnt do much with the weights, they could certainly move bodies around...

once saw John Yearsley at 220lbs pick up 270lbs Bert (Hard Boiled) Haggerty and press him to full arms length over his head, walk to the ropes and toss him into the 3rd row