Spiderman pushups

I found this video on another blog earlier but unfortunately forgot the blog link. Anyway, this exercise video is short and interesting. The beginner’s lunge is very similar to an exercise my older son does called mountain climbers, basically sped up alternating lunges.

Beng Quan

I like Sifu Rudy’s videos a lot. They all have a casual feel of just a few friends training in the park. In this one he demos beng quan.

The demo reminds me of wing chun’s chain punching. I’m not sure of the difference. I think it comes down to his comment where his knee drives where his elbow goes and the rotation of the waist. Slightly more turning where wing chun would be linear. I am guessing.

It’s very clear that Sifu Rudy’s six external harmonies are always there whereas the posture and connectedness of his student are not. The cameraman keeps saying “more santi” which seems right on. It’s very visible how that is the key, I think. The bit about the tiger’s mouth is interesting. He also shows a transition from crushing to drilling but I haven’t caught the how or why here yet.

Fedor’s book

Well apparently Fedor’s book will be available soon on Amazon: Fedor: The Fighting System of the World’s Undisputed King of MMA.

Here is the

Table of Contents and

a Sample Move
from Victory Belt Publishing, who also publishes books by BJ Penn, Randy Couture, Eddie Bravo and Karo Parisyan.

Affliction vs. UFC

With the success of Affliction:Banned, Affliction is looking like a good contender to take on the UFC. So far the main hook Affliction has had is built around Fedor and a few ex-UFC heavyweight champions, basically stocking up on heavyweights - where the UFC is currently weaker. That is not really enough for sustainable, long-term success, though. Affliction will need to keep that tactic up, while looking at some other areas from financing, m&a, to innovations in the actual sport.

The AFL vs. the NFL is not exactly analogous to Affliction vs. the UFC but I’m sure Affliction has taken a look at this particular case. Clip from Wikipedia:

In 1960, after being refused entry to the NFL as an owner, Lamar Hunt led seven other men (including another snubbed by the NFL, Bud Adams) to establish the rival American Football League. Although other rival leagues had come and gone in the early years of professional football, the new AFL was able to capitalize on the ever-rising popularity of the sport. Hunt’s initial goal was to bring professional football to Texas, which was home to two of the new teams. The AFL secured a television contract with ABC and filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the NFL in 1960, but this was dismissed in 1962. The AFL led the way in sharing of television and gate revenues across its franchises, thus securing itself financially.

A number of innovations distinguished the AFL and helped it maintain its legitimate rivalry to the NFL. A stadium game clock for the spectators (the NFL relied only on time announcements from the officials on the field), players’ names on their jerseys, and a playing style geared to the attractive and flashy passing game.

Capitalizing on a growing wave of popularity is certainly happening. Geographic competition - hard to say. Two big promotions both filled many seats in two different locales on July 19th, showing some possibility here.

Creating a “flashier” and more “attractive” game could be a bigger factor to close the gap between what mainstream audiences want in actual action and the current state of things. Mma as it currently stands is not necessarily the best format just because early adopters have enjoyed it.

• Using the ring instead of the cage, despite what folks on the internets say about Octagons being “real”, is a good move. It capitalizes on some of the nostalgia long time fans have for PRIDE, supposedly favors more technical fights, and certainly differentiates by moving away from Octagon silliness and propaganda. It also makes the environment look superficially similar to that of boxing, which may have appeal to boxing fans who haven’t fully embraced mma yet.
• The thing I would like to see Affliction do differently is create new rules for a “flashier” and more “attractive” game. After recent judging controversies, I think a lot of people are frustrated by some mma rules. “Octagon control” is obviously not needed when there is no Octagon. What about throws, groundfighting, and judging criteria? I argue for some combination of IKF San Shou rules and Abu Dhabi Combat Club rules, plus the PRIDE yellow card. In addition, borrowing some kind of time limit on groundwork from combat sambo rules would also be a great idea. As much as I like practicing bjj, the bjj-oriented rules from the early days make for boring fights from a spectator view. Fans love it when the ref tells the fighters to stand back up, especially when nothing much is happening. Fans can’t really understand what’s happening on the ground anyway unless it happens fast (and even then they likely don’t follow it). Encouraging fast-paced groundwork and submissions with time limits would make for a “flashier” and more “attractive” game.  Affliction may as well define its competition to include pro wrestling and not just the UFC. If the UFC wants to propagate a brand positioning of “real’, “original” and oriented toward “hardcore” fans, they could relegate themselves to an earlier adopter niche, while other organizations capture a larger, later adopter, mainstream audience. EliteXC already had the most viewers.

In the financial and m&a areas, I think Affliction should aggressively pursue deals with EliteXC and/or Strikeforce. The financial situation for Affliction is supposedly based on a partnership with Trump, but Affliction needs to make a profit or else it cannot continue. A merger / acquisition of EliteXC, Strikeforce, or some other organization could be a smart move. Buying Strikeforce would bring in Alistair Overeem, another heavyweight star, as well as Cung Le, who could be a HUGE star. Dedicated fans saw what he did to Frank Shamrock. Buying EliteXC would bring in Gina Carano and Kimbo Slice. I say, convince the financiers to buy both organizations. They are not competitive as three separate organizations but as one, things could get interesting. EliteXC already has the network television deal. Adding up all these assets starts to mean something. Zuffa has already purchased PRIDE, owns the WEC, and is rumored to be purchasing the IFL. Affliction or maybe EliteXC needs to act quickly.

Affliction is also trying to claim better HR policies and relationships with its fighters. That hype seems centered around Couture, but who knows, maybe Tito Ortiz will now fight for Affliction as well. Maybe if they keep up this hype, other fighters will jump on this bandwagon. This tactic seems based mainly on hope, not on solid strategy, but who knows, with a little luck, if it works, it works.

As far as other auxiliary areas such as presentation, I don’t give a crap about adding some silly concert or cheerleaders but these gimmicks that Affliction and EliteXC have tried are probably a good idea to pull in more mainstream fans. Also, selling sponsorships might help some but uh, well I guess sponsorship by some other t-shirt company doesn’t seem likely.

I’m sure Affliction has thought of all these areas, except for maybe trying innovations in the rules. Right now, it probably makes sense for them to use unified rules and tie into WAMMA, to lower “switching costs” from other mma bouts to theirs. However, in the mid to long term, I still think they should look at this area as well.

Fedor vs. Former UFC Heavyweight Champion …

Looking at potential match-ups from a marketing perspective, Fedor vs. Former UFC Champion X would probably make good business sense for Affliction, at least until he’s cleaned them all out. Here is a list of the current or former UFC heavyweight champions already defeated by Fedor, edited from Wikipedia.

Result	Opponent	Method	Event	Date	Round	Time	Location
Win	SylviaTim Sylvia	Submission (rear naked choke)	Affliction: Banned	02008-07-19 19 July 2008	1	0:36	Anaheim, California, United States
Win	Coleman 2Mark Coleman	Submission (armbar)	PRIDE 32: The Real Deal	02006-10-21 21 October 2006	2	1:15	Las Vegas, United States
Win	Nogueira 3Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira	Decision (unanimous)	PRIDE Shockwave 2004	02004-12-31 31 December 2004	3	5:00	Saitama, Japan
zNC	Nogueira 2Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira	No contest (accidental headbutt)	PRIDE Final Conflict 2004	02004-08-15 15 August 2004	1	3:52	Saitama, Japan
Win	RandlemanKevin Randleman	Submission (kimura)	PRIDE Critical Countdown 2004	02004-06-20 20 June 2004	1	1:33	Saitama, Japan
Win	Coleman 1Mark Coleman	Submission (armbar)	PRIDE Total Elimination 2004	02004-04-25 25 April 2004	1	2:11	Saitama, Japan
Win	Nogueira 1Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira	Decision (unanimous)	PRIDE 25: Body Blow	02003-03-16 16 March 2003	3	5:00	Yokohama, Japan

Some of the former champions who could still face him are Arlovski, Barnett, Couture, Mir, and Ricco Rodriguez. Of course, Affliction already seems to plan for Fedor to fight Arlovski and Barnett. They’ve hinted at Fedor possibly fighting Couture. That would be quite a coup, especially if Fedor won all of those bouts. Add Mir or Rodriguez and they could promote Fedor as having beat 4 former UFC heavyweight champions under the Affliction banner, in addition to the 4 he previously defeated. Definitely good for the Affliction brand and for competition with the UFC. I’m sure that’s what Affliction executives have been thinking. Of course, it’d be even more awesome for the fans.

Looking at each one of these former champs:

• Arlovski - reportedly fighting Fedor in October. His new style does not seem dynamic enough to pose much of a challenge for Fedor. It looks like he’d stand and try to box in classic boxing range like Nog did with Fedor when he was totally dominated.
• Barnett - lost to Cro Cop 3 times and Big Nog once. Still, it seems he could get lucky and beat Fedor.
• Couture - he’s just getting too old. By the time he might be cleared from legal issues, he’ll be close to 50 while Fedor would be mid-30’s. That just doesn’t seem fair, likely, or possible, as much as people on the internets may want it.
• Mir - I like Mir a lot but he doesn’t seem like he could beat Fedor.
• Rodriguez has beat Arlovski but lost to Big Nog, Tim Sylvia, and Pedro Rizzo. It seems unlikely he would ever fight or beat Fedor.

Some other contenders, assuming no contractual issues, might be Cheick Kongo, Gabriel Gonzaga, Fabricio Werdum, Alistair Overeem (current Strikeforce HW champ), er … Ben Rothwell (not likely after getting crushed by Arlovski), or Brock Lesnar (Fedor vs. some Giant is always good). Maybe some other super heavyweight pro wrestling cross-overs. Another Mark Hunt bout would be fun to watch as Hunt is so powerful. It’s actually hard to think of good match-ups for Fedor, good meaning people who have a higher probability of beating him than the other former champs and contenders have had. It’s easy to criticize Fedor for lacking “credible” competition when there are fewer great contenders in HW than in other divisions and when he’s so much more talented than every other fighter. Theoretically, Fedor could cut 25 lbs and fight some of the great talent in LHW, though it seems really unlikely he would do that. Of course some of those guys could move up for one-off bouts (though none of them would stand much chance of winning). Some people have posed the theoretical possibility Anderson Silva could move up to LHW while Fedor moved down. Right. Less likely to happen then Fedor-Couture. It doesn’t really matter in any case. With the media exposure following Affliction:Banned, new fans will watch him fight anyone with the same excitement and awe that old fans have done for a long time.

Analysis of Fedor Sylvia

I think I must’ve watched the video two dozen times to see what exactly happened. Every Fedor fight is like that, master gamesmanship, even more so than from Randy Couture, who himself is an incredible tactician. Most people watching including 100% of journalists probably just saw an incredibly fast flurry of punches and a choke. The first and real key to Fedor’s quick win, though, was not the athleticism, the heavy hands, or immediately putting the hooks or choke in (grappling 101). After reviewing the video closely many times, it looks like Fedor proactively knocked Tim’s left arm down and out of the way using a circular punching motion to start his entry that continued with a flurry to gnp and sub.

This first punch was very smart and hard to catch. Well disguised, I think. Looks like just another punch but I’ll bet he practiced that tactic again and again as it was clearly not aimed at the head or the torso but Tim’s slightly downward slanted lead hand. No way any normal sized person could reach Tim’s body or head with that big arm there. Tim should not have dropped that guard. The entry is made to look almost like the beginning of brawling (the reason everyone is fooled into thinking Fedor initiated with a left) but the southpaw - oops, not southpaw - cross - against the long lead left worked perfectly. In the interview with Big John Fedor simply said he always tries to end his fights early and did everything he wanted to do. Probably one of the only clues the whole thing may have been his planned tactic to get to gnp and sub. He is too intelligent (possibly the most) a fighter for that punch to have been random. I also read on a blog that Fedor thought Tim has weaknesses but couldn’t talk about them. Others have commented clearing the lead hand is a sambo move. Clearly there was some plan about the long jab and probably the kind of plodding speed Tim would use. The amazing thing is, like any magician, he doesn’t reveal how the trick worked. He simply smiled that Cheshire Cat grin afterwards and said very little. I think that was the trick (plus flawless execution of every element afterward). I almost feel guilty analyzing the magic trick but it’s just one of countless genius things he does and no one is going to be able to stop his execution regardless. I will probably try to analyze every one of his fights as well as Randy’s now. They are the only two fighters with this kind of mental chessmaster “ring generalship” in every bout, only Fedor’s tricks are much harder to spot and tell if it was practiced or spontaneous genius. This one trick is one I plan to use as I learn some real striking.

Fedor is the only pro fighter I’ve seen do anything resembling JKD’s HIA (hand immobilization attack) or trapping. I’ve been wondering why HIA is missing in MMA but this is the second time I’ve seen Fedor use it (each time a fleeting fraction of a second). It happens so fast it doesn’t look like HIA but that’s what cleared some space. By the time Tim is nailed by Fedor’s left he doesn’t realize his left hand was moved downward out of way of Fedor’s right hand coming in and grabbing behind his neck. He is too rocked. It must be a feeling of “wtf just happened?” which is pretty much summed up by Tim’s quote afterward that he’s not sure Fedor is human. I don’t think any other fighter or camp even thinks to try this method. Just one of many small details hard to catch even after reviewing Fedor’s fights many times that separate him from every other elite mma fighter, and make him the greatest. Other fighters need to go review everything in the JKD body of knowledge. Sambo is known for its pragmatic take on whatever works (sounds like “accept what is useful” straight from Bruce). Happens a few seconds after Big John says “this is the kind of fight you live for” (dang right) at about 4:48. It’s clear poor Big Tim didn’t land anything.

Just amazing. The mental game is as amazing or more amazing than the incredible physical abilities and execution. I’m not sure what was better, this win or Tiger Wood’s US Open win earlier in the year. Probably this one because I like mma much better than I like golf. But same kind of amazing mental and physical feat.

OMFG Fedor is GOD!!!

OMFG. Forget Anderson Silva, BJ Penn, and GSP. They are but minor gods in a world owned by Fedor.

Fedor is for certain the Michael Jordan of MMA. Best pound for pound, best heavyweight, best EVER. Even the total f*&^kin moron casual fan haters must realize it now. Fedor will surely win over some new fans in the US after this fight.

Fight of the night. Even better than Silva’s stunning ko (what a night for mma). Fight of the past few years. Sub in round 1 as many predicted but not exactly how I thought it would go (Hong Man Choi fight as template). The incredible lightning speed knockdown was unexpected. Fedor pounced on Tim like a big cat. I think everyone watching was stunned. Highlight reel should be everywhere soon. Temporarily on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2oWSfVaexc. Update now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE2ZpL2-5BQ. Another one: http://thegrip.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/fedor-emelianenko-vs-tim-sylvia-video/

Tim shook his head in disbelief, and I think awe right afterward - as if he just played 1:1 basketball with Jordan and couldn’t understand how Jordan just dunked on him but was also amazed at it. Congrats to Fedor. Good job Affliction. Hope the promotion is here to stay.

Great interview with Fedor and Randy Couture by Big John at the end after Fedor answered the question of who he’d like to fight next and the only English I could follow was “Randy”. “It would be a great honor to meet Randy in the ring one day” said the translator. Nice shaking of hands by Fedor and Randy. Two classy dudes. The humble attitude on top of it all is amazing. Afer this one, I can’t see Randy beating Fedor but, still, gotta wish for this fight. Maybe Barnett would be a good (ok) match-up.

Wow. Unbelievable.

Some write-ups of the Affliction fights at:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=dm-afflictionlive071908&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Sherdog

New York Times video on Sambo

Great video story about sambo on the NY Times site. Includes some good training footage and brief interviews with coaches.

Sambo Rules

With two former Sambo champions, Fedor Emelianenko and Andrei Arlovski, fighting on the Affliction:Banned card (three if Aleksander Emelianenko were still on the card), I was wondering about sambo rules and found this list from this page. Not sure what body sanctions these rules and it appears the sanctioning body split at the tail end of the Cold War. An excerpt:

The rules for combat sambo are basically the same as sport sambo; though striking is permitted while standing, no points are awarded for the strikes. There is no striking permitted on the ground.

In sport Sambo a uniform jacket (kurtka) is worn with shorts. The Kurtka is similar to a Judo Gi and includes slots for the belt and amulets on the shoulders. Additionally sambo shoes must be worn (similar to wrestling shoes, but sole consists of smooth suede rather than rubber traction material) I have attached pictures of the various uniform components. Competitors who lack a component can purchase what is needed at the event. Additional equipment required for combat sambo matches include; headgear, hand and foot protection and a mouthpiece. Uniform as outlined above is required as well.

Scoring: A clean throw, or one in which the “thrower” remains standing and the person being thrown lands completely on their back results in immediate victory. A submission, such as an arm or straight leg lock, which causes an opponent to “tap out, or submit”, will also result in victory.

There are no ground positional points awarded in sambo. Points are only accumulated by executing throws and the number of points awarded is based on the positioning of both the person executing the technique and the landing position of the person being thrown. In cases of a tie either a sudden death round may be implemented or superiority may be granted upon the sole discretion of the head judge.

There is a 12 point superiority ruling in that once there is a 12 point difference between the opponents’ scores, the match is over. There are 2 points awarded for each ten second pin (hold down) with a maximum allowable of 4 hold down points during one match.

Elimination methodology is determined by the amount of competitors in a particular division. Smaller divisions may utilize a round robin format, as opposed to single or double elimination.

Unlike Jui [sic] Jutsu there is a limited amount of time for ground work and if submission is not obtained quickly, the opponents are stood up, makes for exciting matches! In each ring there is a head judge, timekeeper, center referee and two corner judges.

Adult matches are 6 minutes in length.

I like how submission must be quick and there is some striking allowed, but can’t tell what the role of striking is if there are no points awarded for strikes. Anyway, this format seems like a great sparring format for recreational students.

The End of Theory

This fascinating article by Chris Anderson (of Long Tail fame) in Wired talks about the End of Theory. The End of Models. The End of Hypotheses. The End of Science. There is no need for a theory because the data reveal the story. Some excerpts:

“All models are wrong, but some are useful.”

So proclaimed statistician George Box 30 years ago, and he was right. But what choice did we have? Only models, from cosmological equations to theories of human behavior, seemed to be able to consistently, if imperfectly, explain the world around us. Until now. Today companies like Google, which have grown up in an era of massively abundant data, don’t have to settle for wrong models. Indeed, they don’t have to settle for models at all.

…

At the petabyte scale, information is not a matter of simple three- and four-dimensional taxonomy and order but of dimensionally agnostic statistics. It calls for an entirely different approach, one that requires us to lose the tether of data as something that can be visualized in its totality. It forces us to view data mathematically first and establish a context for it later. For instance, Google conquered the advertising world with nothing more than applied mathematics. It didn’t pretend to know anything about the culture and conventions of advertising — it just assumed that better data, with better analytical tools, would win the day. And Google was right.

Google’s founding philosophy is that we don’t know why this page is better than that one: If the statistics of incoming links say it is, that’s good enough. No semantic or causal analysis is required.

…

Speaking at the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference this past March, Peter Norvig, Google’s research director, offered an update to George Box’s maxim: “All models are wrong, and increasingly you can succeed without them.”

This is a world where massive amounts of data and applied mathematics replace every other tool that might be brought to bear. Out with every theory of human behavior, from linguistics to sociology. Forget taxonomy, ontology, and psychology. Who knows why people do what they do? The point is they do it, and we can track and measure it with unprecedented fidelity. With enough data, the numbers speak for themselves.
…
There is now a better way. Petabytes allow us to say: “Correlation is enough.” We can stop looking for models. We can analyze the data without hypotheses about what it might show.

What does this have to do with martial arts or sports? Every style is founded on a model with hypotheses, assumptions, observations, that eventually turn into beliefs that are clung to, ridiculed, whatever. For example, all fights go to the ground so let’s just cut to the chase and focus there. By analyzing video data, jiujitsu365, who admittedly prefers bjj, was able to look at the data and let it tell the real story. With more and more data, especially video data, more interesting findings will emerge in arts, sports, any kind of human behavior. What will that do to the simple models, the simple boxes we draw around reality to make sense of it, and use to focus on training specific areas?