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Thursday, March 12th, 2009Response to the Brain Scrambling Hit + Run
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009| Somehow I can’t see your wife sucker-punching you in the head! :o) -Michelle Tourville |
Thank you
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009Rich, It was a pleasure to meet you at the Arnold Classic Saturday. I am the guy that won your fight shorts in the Raffle. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me and take a picture with me. Even tho you had hundreds of people wanting to talk to you and meet you, You still took time with everyone and made them feel like they were special. As a fan, I really appreciate that.
Thanks again!
Rob Payne
Reidsville, NC
EVER HAD YOUR BRAINS SCRAMBLED?
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
Professionals like me don’t condition or strengthen our skulls, anymore than you do. Therefore, my skull should be as thick as yours. So the question is how can a fighter absorb a dozen powerful punches to the head and still get up - when just one of those punches would level a non-fighter?
Fighters are trained to see a blow coming and they know how to move their head an inch this way or that. Those tiny differences help to deflect much of the power of blows. But if you punch them off guard, the damage is equal to that being received by someone who’s never even been in a fight.
If my wife sucker punched me, it’d hurt. The same blow coming in the octagon wouldn’t faze me, because of my posture and my high level of adrenaline. This is how stunt experts can do amazing things and not get hurt. They rotate this way and that – and they come out unharmed.
Go on YouTube to the pre-fight staredown between Heath Herringand Yoshihiro Nakao. Nakao leaned into Herring and delivered a kiss on his lips. Heath didn’t appreciate this loving display, and immediately sent a moderate punch to Nakao’s jaw – knocking him flat-out! If they had been fighting, Nakao would have barely felt that strike.
An important item that experienced fighters know: a half-hearted punch delivered at a surprise is far more powerful than a forceful punch delivered to someone who sees it coming. This is why in street fights, he who hits first usually wins.
With sucker punches, all people are equal.
Love em’
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009Love these emails man. Keep them coming.
Good luck in Germany. Can’t wait to see you take out an axe murderer. -Regan
TSUNAMI RIPPLES
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009We often hear the term “ripple effect.” It creates the impression of tiny wavelets spreading out from the source – a small stone thrown into a pond. The illusion contained in this phrase is the suggestion that only small effects flow out of small causes.
In the Red River Gorge wilderness, not far from Cincinnati, two men were hiking in the high hills. Darkness began to overtake them as they descended to their campsite. Sharing a flashlight, there was enough illumination for them to stay on the narrow trail. But then the flashlight got dropped, flickered, and went out. They decided to continue on their way. Four steps later, the hiker in the lead misjudged the trail and went over, falling hundreds of feet to his death.
The daily news is filled with stunning displays of tsunami-sized waves of consequence resulting from the tiniest oversight. A moment’s inattention on the highway results in multiple lives lost. A minor miscalculation by a pilot sends a plane into the tarmac instead of onto it. So many layers of calamity resulting from something seemingly inconsequential. One tsunami ripple following another.
Most of us like to walk through life believing we have a 360 degrees perspective on how the world works. Then we get blindsided by a surprisingly large trauma resulting from the simplest bad decision or action. We realize again that, in fact, we only have about 100 degrees of visibility as to surprises lurking in the shadows.
Life’s hidden dangers keep me wary, inside and outside the octagon. I may start to relax a little bit, but then another ripple effect will take place, abruptly ending my complacency. Getting humbled pulls me back into the real world, which was waiting for me the whole time.
Most of us like to walk through life believing we have a 360 degrees perspective on how the world works. Then we get blindsided by a surprisingly large trauma resulting from the simplest bad decision or action. We realize again that, in fact, we only have about 100 degrees of visibility as to surprises lurking in the shadows.
Life’s hidden dangers keep me wary, inside and outside the octagon. I may start to relax a little bit, but then another ripple effect will take place, abruptly ending my complacency. Getting humbled pulls me back into the real world, which was waiting for me the whole time.
In the octagon, fighters know that the simplest error, which might otherwise be harmless, at the wrong time can result in serious consequences. Cause and effect can be wildly out of proportion in the heat of caged combat. Reviewing film of my adversary’s fights, I study their fighting style. But I’m also learning cautionary tales from the man they’re beating up – defeating moves I hope not to repeat.
When you’re in a fight, everything’s a blur. But each movement, each decision carries the potential for exaggerated effect. The smallest mistake or momentary distraction can be that small rock tossed into the water. The tsunami ripples that fighters worry about can largely be curbed, by remembering NBA great Bill Russell’s observation, “Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory.”
Our lives can also be made vastly better by small twists of fate - resulting in significant, unexpected benefits. These are the tsunami ripples that give us life-changing empowerment, flowing out of encounters or decisions previously considered trivial.
Although I try to move through the octagon, and my life, in a targeted and strategic way - I keep space in my head for those sly, little dynamics that contain the power for huge change.
