WOW Opportunity, Training, Strategy and Execution. That's how it went for Frank Saturday night. It was very very exciting to watch this unfold from behind the scenes and then in action. About a month before the fight Frank called me and asked me to come out for some Ground n Pound & HIGH GEAR review. We had done a lot of the basics on the TUF show, but that was months ago when the fight was a date, now it was around the corner.
What a great night :-)
Heading up to Frank's room I'll post more about the night and experience when I get back to Virginia.
Here are some pics;
Right after the fight we went up to Frank's room to celebrate with his family. WEC champ Miguel Torres was part of the celebration.
Arrived in Vegas wed night went right to Striking Unlimited to see Frank. He had already finished training and was just stretching. Frank looked good, relaxed. Im often asked about pre-fight rituals and have written on the subject before. In truth, every fighter prepares differently for their fight. In the last 17 years of being around professional MMA fighters, I've seen everything...extreme nervousness, cockiness, intensity, pacing (all of the above). One of my favorites stories is of Maurice Smith, who was totally relaxed, you wouldn't know he was about to fight. I asked him once if he felt fear before a fight.... He paused, then asked me if I was afraid to go to work - "no", I replied. "me neither", he answered and smiled. "fighting is my job". Of course that mind-set and approach would get a lot of fighters stopped in the first round. Pre-fight rituals should resonate with the fighter's personality and of course, they must support the outcome... In other words, if the athlete isn't 'also' winning, then something is askew with the mix. The mind truly navigates the body and the pro athlete must find a coach and ritual to help access the skills forged in the weeks, hours, minutes leading up to their test. I'll check in later Tony
Life on the road. Over the years I've had the honor and privaledge to meet, train, and get to know some of the greatest fighters of our era. Its an awesome experience. While some may see this as social, I draw a lot of input, insight and feedback from my talks and drills with some of these warriors and inject that into our mind-set and training portions of our PDR & SPEAR System classes.
How many watched TUF on Spike this season? Who are you rooting for December 27th? Mir or Nog? When it comes to prize fighting, I always want to see a great war or a dominating strategy. I never want to see the athletes injured (pain and hurt are temporary). As example, I'm a huge DeLaHoya fan, I didn't know much about Pacquiao...that fight was amazing. It was like Bruce Lee vs 'us' :-) 'Enter the Dragon' in the ring. Anyhow, can you guess who I'm rooting for?
Ping ya'll from Vegas Tony
All I did was type, read, type, read, type read... I didn't even train, but today was a rest day for my conditioning CrossFit WOD. I did workout my eyes and fingers though...worked on training contracts, and training logistics. We have courses coming up in Virginia Beach, Ft Benning, Ft. Belvoir, Minnesota, Michigan and more.
Two Vegas PD at one of our BMF courses
I did a test with my iPhone to see if I could enter posts on the fly but had no luck. Will continue to trbl shoot it as it would be very cool to share my experiences with you all in real-time.
Check in later
Tony
Well this is my first post on the blog...kinda cool. Ive got a couple days of work before I take off to Vegas to go see Frank's fight. I'm very excited by this. Frank had played with the SPEAR for years as a doorman at a popular club in Vegas and was familiar with its principles and application when I first met him last year.
The first time we met 'live' was at STRIKING UNLIMITED where I worked with Ken Hahn, Frank's main coach and of course Frank Mir.
Frank Mir Working Ground & Pound
It was during those few days Frank invited me back as a guest coach on the TUF show. That was a great experience and it was very cool to work with his team.
A few weeks ago Frank called me and invited me back to work Ground n Pound, SPEAR & review HIGH GEAR applications for MMA. Training went awesome. I can honestly say that Frank picked up the tactical aspects of the SPEAR Tactic faster than any other martial arts athlete I've worked with. As a coach, I can tell you a lot had to do with his past street & Octagon experience...when you've fought in those venues, and mastered the management of fear, its easy to focus on the kinematics of a tactic :-) *Frank is also a very coordinated athlete. Anyhow, we arrive in Vegas Wednesday and will post from the road if I can get my Iphone synced up to post in real time. Enjoy the blog, I'm going to try to stay more connected to all our students and coaches all over the world thru this technology. Tony
TONY BLAUER
My name is Tony Blauer, I am a personal defense & combatives consultant. I travel internationally sharing my research with military & law enforcement training units. As well, I work closely with professional self-defense experts & protection specialists. I'm enjoying using social media like Stumble, Twitter & FaceBook to connect with people all over the world. I look forward to connecting with you through the internet or in person at one of our courses.
Tony
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