Robertson Training Systems Newsletter 5.02
In This Issue:
– Robertson Training Systems Updates
– Exclusive interview with Strength Coach Dewey Nielsen
– Latest Articles
Robertson Training Systems Updates
Last chance to sign-up for the I-FAST kettlebell seminar!
January 24th is closing in on us with quickness! If you’d like to learn from Brett Jones (one of the best kettlebell instructors in the world!), you need to sign-up TODAY!
Here are the nitty gritty details to help you out:
January 24th, 2009, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training
9402 Uptown Drive, Suite 300
Indianapolis, IN 46256
Registration Fee: $175
If you’re interested in attending, please send us an e-mail at [email protected] ASAP to make sure you get in!
More Seminars Coming up as well!
The seminar schedule is heating up pretty quickly, so I thought I’d remind you all about some great stuff that’s coming up!
February 14th we have Mike Boyle’s seminar in Boston. With the like of Mike Boyle, Eric Cressey, John Pallof and Brijesh Patel speaking, it should be a great day.
After that, I’ll be traveling to Australia – the final locations include Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide. If you’re near ones of these cities, do your best to make it out!
Finally, I’ve confirmed that I’ll be speaking at the Chicago and Providence Perform Better Summits this year.
If you want to become the best athlete, trainer or coach you can, make sure to take the time out every year for continuing education! All details for these seminars can be found on my “Services” page.
New article up at FigureAthlete.com
As I mentioned before I’ve been doing a ton of writing, so here’s my latest article for FigureAthlete.com. While it may be a bit basic for many of my readers, at the very least it should provide as a nice summary/recap on how to squat properly!
Exclusive Interview: Dewey Nielsen
MR: Dewey, thanks for being with us here today! Please take a moment and tell my readers a little bit about yourself.
DN: I am a strength coach from Oregon. I am also an MMA/BJJ coach. I co-founded the Newberg Impact Jiu-jitsu and I am the co-founder of Impact Performance Training. I currently hold a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
MR: What got you into strength and conditioning? Were you an athlete yourself in the past?
DN: In High School I was actually more of a skater kid. I was really more drawn towards the extreme sports at that time. Although high school is actually where I fell in love with weightlifting. So, ever since then it has been a big passion of mine.
MR: How did you end up in your current niche of training fighters?
DN: I think the big reason is that because I am actually an MMA athlete and coach, I can really relate and understand the sport differently than many strength coaches. I know what it feels like to feel like crap by the end of the week and to have the bumps and bruises that come along with the sport. It is a great sport and some of the training demands are so much different than other traditional sports.
MR: Since MMA is the hot topic now, what challenges are there to training fighters? I train one myself and I must admit, programming is definitely a challenge!
DN: I think the first thing is that the work/rest ratio is basically reversed in comparison to other sports. In professional MMA, you are going to see a work/rest ratio of 5 to 1. A five minute fight round with one minute rest. This is insane and this is what makes MMA VERY different than other sports. These guys have to learn how to perform at a peak level for 5 minutes and also learn how to recover with minimal time.
I think another challenge can be getting these guys to train smart. I know corrective exercise is a “buzz” word but it is very important for MMA athletes. Their training reeks havoc on their body through the week so asymmetries, ugly movement patterns and muscle imbalances must be unmasked and addressed otherwise the stress is going to lead to many negative things.
Lastly, coaches and trainers need to know how to adapt and change their strength and conditioning program at a moment’s notice. You never know how an MMA athlete is going to feel when they walk through the door. Over training is so easy. This is a big mistake that many coaches make.
Communication is also very important with the MMA athlete. Constantly ask them, how are you feeling today? How many heavy sparring sessions have you had this week? Many of these guys will work until you tell them to stop. This isn’t always the best thing though.
MR: I can agree wholeheartedly with that statement. What specific challenges are there to training fighters who specialize in BJJ versus other fighting disciplines?
DN: Well, if they are purely a BJJ competitor, their fight rounds will be different depending on what belt they are. Also, the rest between matches are longer than an MMA fight. For example, a BJJ competitor in the black belt division may have a 10 minute round but may also not have another match for 30 minutes.
Another thing to look at with BJJ athletes is the amount of time that they are in lumbar flexion. So many positions require the athletes to maintain a flexed lumbar spine. With spinal flexion being the mechanism of disc herniation, this should be of some concern. I would never do a crunch or situp with a BJJ or MMA athlete. The spine only has so many cycles of flexion available before something bad happens so the athlete should choose to use those cycles in sport (they really have no choice), rather than in training with cruching and situp exercises.
MR: What mediums do you currently use to assess and train your athletes? (I.e. FMS, kettlebells, whatever).
DN: The FMS is our main assessment. Of course, we will use other assessment tools as deemed necessary.
Once we have screened an athlete, we will then put them on a basic program. The familiar saying in our gym is “brilliant at the basics”. Most MMA/BJJ athletes are new to training. I am sure you see it all the time, even if they have lifted weights for many years, most likely they have been lifting weights WRONG for many years. So we get them performing the basics as well as possible before things start getting fancy.
We will use whatever training tools we feel are the best to get a specific job accomplished. Be it a kettlebell, dumbbell, med ball, etc. I think it is ludicrous that there are coaches strictly using one tool like a kettlebell.
MR: You recently spent some time working with Stuart McGill. What kinds of things did you look at? What things did you take away from your sessions with him?
DN: Stu McGill is amazing! Not only is he brilliant but he is a great person. Stu was testing my friend Jon Chaimberg’s athletes (George st. Pierre, David Louiseau, Denis Kang, etc).
He was testing so many different things but the one that was really interesting was “the pulse”. Stu describes the pulse as a burst originating out of any contraction. It could be an isometric contraction (an athlete in the clinch) and then an explosive burst into a take down. Or during a punch, a good striking athlete would perform a pulse (to initiate the strike) followed by relaxation phase (in order for the strike to travel at a great speed), then another larger pulse when the strike makes contact. Seriously, this was some amazing stuff and Stu explains it much better than I do.
I have been playing around with some of the ideas he gave me to train for the pulse and have been very pleased. Really, the list is too long of things I learned from Stuart McGill. Anyone who talks with him can really see the passion that he has for what he does. Our industry is lucky to have him.
MR: Describe your perfect fighter for me – what skills do they possess? What physical qualities?
DN: That’s easy. Strong, powerful and quick with superior conditioning. All at the same time, relaxed. They would be great in all three ranges of fighting. The ground, standup and the clinch. I may have just described George St. Pierre.
MR: Okay Dewey, it’s time for the dreaded final question. What’s one major mistake you’ve made coaching in the past, and what have you done to remedy that now?
DN: Anthony Renna just wrote an article for strengthcoach.com called “Does your ham fit into your pot”. It was a great article and I totally relate to his point.
In the past, I have tried copying other coach’s templates and found that they don’t exactly work for my athletes. I figured if Mike Boyle and Mark Verstegan are doing it, then it must work for me. It just isn’t true. Sometimes there are too many other variables like how often an athlete can train, the facility and equipment, the environment, past injuries and so on.
I have learned how to take the things that work for me and my athletes and apply them. The more I have read, traveled and got educated, everything fell into place and I really found comfort and security in who I am as a coach.
MR: That’s a really great answer Dewey. You always have to take the components of the best and formulate those into your own philosophy.
Thanks for taking the time to be with us here today. Where can my readers find out more about you and your training?
DN: Mike, thank you very much for having me. It’s a real honor. My website is www.impact-pt.com and you can check out my blog at www.impactpt-blogspot.com.
Latest Articles
Facts and Fallacies of Corrective Exercise
© Robertson Training Systems – All Rights Reserved