BTG 68 - Be Paranoid

Hello and welcome to another episode of Breaking the Guard. I'm your host, David Avalon, and let's get into the news. First, we have uh well, on today's segment, we're going to be doing a lot of uh MMA news because that's what's that's what's popping right now. All right. So, the first one I want to talk about is Bal uh Muhammad. He's going to be fighting for a UFC title against Leon Edwards. And he has said now that he's going to do his training camp in Dagistan with you know the the guys in Dagistan particularly with Kabib Numeri Medov. So, uh, I always find it interesting when people train at different camps cuz from a athlete standpoint, I always said this, like your relationship with your coach is going to be paramount because that person understands you. they've they're the one that has probably taught you most of what you know and um they have a more intimate relationship with you as far as knowing what's the type of things that get you hung up in training, how to get you over them, you know, uh things that when you're hitting your breaking point and when to pull back, when to push. So when you switch camps a lot, um I don't know in at least with fighters that I've had that ended up moving to another camp, there was always an adjustment period like of quite a few of them never really came back. Um and they they just struggled for the rest of their career. Uh while when they were with us, they were doing really well. A few of them had that adjustment period and then they managed to pop and they they did really well afterwards, right? But the point being like I can't imagine going from one coach to another coach and then to another coach and to uh it's kind of weird to me, you know. So, no, that that's not discrediting any other coach. is obviously someone like Khabib has a pretty good track record as an athlete and as a coach, you know. Um, so I'm sure he can do a fabulous job. To me, it's just if you haven't done that switch and you haven't worked with that particular coach before, there's always going to be an adjustment and I I don't know if I would want that adjustment for a title fight, right? Like I would have rather have done this before. And I might be speaking out of turn, you know, maybe he has trained with the Dagistan guys before, so he knows the pace and he likes it and he will probably wants to work a lot on wrestling to be able to take down Leon um and mix in some of the striking in as well. So I could be out of turn, but just, you know, I don't know, like if I have I I'm pretty diehard loyal. So I've stayed with the same coaches my whole life. You know, in this case, it was pretty easy because it was my brother, right? But we stuck by each other the whole time. Of course, we had people that we brought in like for sparring partners or whatnot or we would bring in a coach to work on a particular part of our game, but we were always, you know, at the top working with each other. Um, never changing teams or anything like that. I feel you can get a lot more results that way versus switching around so much. You know, I was talking about this u with Jake Shields as well, which is it's good to have an away team, if you will, like or you know, you have a crew that you work with that you don't train with every day, right? Because the the problem when you are only work with the people that you train with is that you get to know each other's games, right? And he we were talking about because he was having trouble passing my guard a lot. Then he had a a break the other day. He passed my guard and then uh you know it was kind of like it's that cycle, right? now. Okay, I'm going to make an adjustment based off what he did and then that might nullify that and then it's going to take a while for him to, you know, to crack that and then I'm going to have to figure something out. So, there's that process, right, where we just kind of grinding. But at the same time, uh I especially notice with leg lockers because my brother and I were pretty big leg lockers and in the gym we barely hit leg locks because we both know each other's game so well and we know that leg lock game pretty well. So, it was easy to nullify. And I've heard the same same things from other gyms like uh at New Wave, they don't do leg locks at all when they're in training, you know, because they all know each other's leg lock system so well that it's easy to nullify. But you see when they compete, then they they execute it and they make it look really easy. And you're wondering, how come they don't do it in training? It's because they they already know it so well in in training. and it's their training partners learn how to defend that and then they just stop using it. So sometimes there's a danger in that where you forget things that you have done really well and you just stop doing them because they don't work in your training partners. But they might work out, you know, in competition really well. But since you stop training it for so long, it kind of just fades out, right? I know for me there's a there's a lot of things that I have, you know, quoteunquote forgotten that I'm really good at, you know, that I just stopped doing. And uh that's the that's the danger of always training with the same people is that you kind of get the blinders on and you when you have things that just don't work on your on your home team as much, then you just stop using them. And if you stop using them for too long, it might just phase out of your memory altogether, right? Um, so having a crew that you can work with that isn't familiar with your game, that doesn't see it that often is great because then you get to do stuff that you're good at, uh, and continue to expand it. And I think probably the more valuable part is you get to get exposed to other games and other strategies and techniques that you don't see often and you can learn from those and then bring them back home, right? So, I feel like if you're just a home team, you know, and you never migrate out of that that base, then yeah, you're going to have a really specialized game uh that, you know, could work really well in competition because nobody else has really been exposed to it, but you're also going to be very vulnerable to other types of strategies and techniques that you haven't seen. If you're always going away, like I I train at one place and I train the next place and I train at the next place, then you're kind of just scattered about and I think it's hard to grow that way because there's there's lots of uh new stimuli, lots of techniques, lots of strategies, lots of different styles, and it's hard to make one of your own if you're always moving around. So, I think there's a like everything in life, there's a balance. I feel like you should probably do most of your work at home, like the 80%, right? But then maybe a 20% or even a 10% of you traveling out to different uh resources whether you're doing that by you know doing a seminar by visiting a a school you're friendly with or you know you're traveling or just getting DVDs or online courses and getting exposed to new things so then you can bring that home and work on new techniques strategy etc. I think that's a good balance, right? It's not important that you train, you know, with all these different people all the time. You just need a little bit. And if you make good use of it and you take notes and stuff, uh, like I know when I went to to New Wave, I was taking notes. I had my I would do it on my phone. So after I would take a class, I would start writing down all the things that, uh, I learned. And I was with Alvin the last time, which was great because then I filmed everything in my that I could recall with him drilling it just to make sure that it's stuck, right? Because you could be seeing a lot of new things that you're not used to and if you just try to rely on your memory, it can just fade out. So, not only did I write it, we filmed it to really make sure that it stuck. And if you've been watching the well the videos coming like a lot of this stuff that was maybe from like a year and a half ago when last time I was in Austin we were going over this high tripod series crane passes and stuff like that and now it's something that uh has become a good part of my game. Right. So uh I mean there's that. You have uh Sean Strickland in the news again. uh he got uh he got a friendly counter by Yodong Tong because he said something about China, you know, just being on brand for him. And Yang Tong was just basically saying that he should be a a good example for other athletes and not always uh you know, let me not paraphrase it poorly. I'll just grab exactly uh what they said. So Strickland said, "China's biggest exports, plastic and COVID." Yeah. And then Song said, "Hey, champ. I respect your skills as a fighter, but we should be talking facts, not based on stereotypes. As athletes, we focus on what we know best and avoid making unfounded comments. Let's set a good example. All right, that's actually pretty fair. You know, uh I wish more of them would do that, right? Most of the if you're a fighter, chances are you're probably not a political expert uh or a philosophical expert or expert of any kind other than fighting. That's why you fight. And there's nothing wrong with that. But the whole I mean obviously Sean's thing is just to rally people and get people upset, get people talking just like I am. So I rather not give it any more daylight than that. But it's nice to see someone actually say something that's very wellreasoned. Then we also I think we might have talked about this before, but now it looks like it looks more concrete now that Michael Chandler will be facing Conor McGregor at 185 pounds. Uh which is interesting. Like I said, like uh they're both not particularly tall. They're kind of on the shorter side. So that's a lot of weight, you know, for I think they're like 5'8, maybe 5'9. Um, and you know, that's like coming up to my my frame, you know, like right now I'm like 205, but if I was cutting weight, I'd have to fight at 185. I'd just be dwarfed at any other weight class. If I could get lower, I'd probably want to fight at 170 if I'd be honest. So these guys stepping up to 185 is interesting. It's kind of like I don't know like you're not going to stay at 185 if you're either of these two and you're you're expecting to continue your career. Not that I would think. Uh it is interesting the idea of moving up a weight class versus what we typically see which is people moving down weight classes, right? Um and you know there's in in grappling we see a lot of moving up on weight classes as well. I mean the most famous example is Gorder Ryan, right? He started like a 170 uh well they don't have those particular weight classes in grappling but around that range and he just kept moving up up up up up and now he's like in the 220ish club you know so it's a considerable weight bump of course he was maybe 17 so you know he grew into some of the weight but I think another way he you know he grew in other ways u but it's interesting because in the grappling it seems like a lot more people are moving up weight classes and I think this is because in grappling there's no real testing protocol for taking any type of gear or steroids or HGH or whatever that testosterone. So there is advantages to being stronger and obviously if it if there wasn't uh you wouldn't see everybody moving up weight classes, right? And trying to get as big and as strong as they can. So uh I mean the other example would be Luke went from 220 to now he was like 250 which is insane. But I mean, if you could do it, I guess it makes sense because if you're going to be a heavyweight and even by ACC standards, unless you're under, I think, 218, you're considered a heavyweight. So why would you be a small heavyweight when you could be a big heavyweight as long as you can retain the technique and the stamina and the power, there's there's obviously going to be more benefit to having more mass. And uh I can tell you firsthand as far as strength and jiu-jitsu goes, it's so much easier to do things when you're stronger, right? Uh before I got into lifting and and really focusing on getting strong, I was always generally I would say powerful in the sense that I could explode. But I I felt more of my power was based on speed uh versus raw strength through speed, right? Because power is basically the combination of speed and strength. Um, but once you're, you know, strong and you have speed and your power is significantly higher, you could do things that you can make people look silly, right? Like I can really play around a lot more uh, and have a lot more leeway for error because I have a lot more strength. And particularly uh when you're thinking about escapes, it's a lot easier to escape when you're strong, right? Uh I I usually will well I won't say usually but in the past when I was working a lot on these kimoras I would be putting myself in compromising positions a lot just so that I can kora them on the way out or from a bad position go for a kimura because I wasn't really worried about getting stuck in a position and you know even to this day sometimes I I I play a little bit where someone passes my guard and I'm not gonna freak out. I'm just going to stay there. I'm going to work my way around because I know if I really wanted to get out, I could just bench him off, right? So, uh there's in grappling a lot of benefits to being strong, right? And I mean, not like a a mindshattering uh observation, but it's just to say that uh moving up weight classes and grappling doesn't seem so silly. In MMA, it doesn't seem as uh common because you can move up a weight class, but you can't move up a height class, right? And height is a big factor in MMA because height's a big factor in striking. And it's very difficult to strike with somebody who's got significant reach advantage. And I say this to a guy who, you know, who's 5'9 and typically the just about everybody I'm fighting is taller than me, right? They're usually like at least 6 feet. I've grappled guys who are 6'5 and 67. You know, in MMA, I fought a guy I think was 6'2. That was probably the biggest height disparity. And it's always awkward. And even though I do have a surprisingly long reach, uh I have like a 73 and a half inch reach, you know, which if you were to if I'm 5'9, you would say that I should probably have like a 69 inch reach, right? Uh pretty much your height, but uh actually I'm 73 and a half, which would be like a guy who's 61 and a half. But uh I have a really broad chest and shoulders. So, it's not so much that my arms are long, cuz my arms are average, but I just have a really long torso. So, it gives me uh the appearance of a longer reach, right? But anyhow, the when you talk about foot reach like kicks and all, I'm definitely on the short side of things. So, it's it's very awkward to be able to strike with someone who's much taller than you. And I feel like that's a harder advantage to overcome. And if you're moving up weight classes, you're more than likely going to be encountering significant reach disadvantages as you move up. That being said, there are some people that have moved up weight classes that have done well because those are people I would consider that were just cutting too much weight, right? They they really should have been the weight class up, but they were just trying to fit in that weight class underneath to try to maximize their strength advantage. that there's always a compromise between uh maximizing your strength advantage versus your your conditioning and your stamina, right? When you cut too much, it's going to take away from your stamina a bit. And also, as we've learned that dehydration also makes you more susceptible to getting knocked out um pretty much because there's less fluid in your body entirely and your brain is mostly fluid, there's less barrier. So, it's more likely that your brain's going to bounce off your skull and doesn't have that fluid padding in there. So, um I feel like in those cases, right, those are just people who are cutting too much to begin with. But if you were in the a proper weight class where you felt strong, you know, you weren't gassing out, but you felt like ah, you know, I'm just tired of cutting weight and I want to try to bulk up and gain mass. That's more rare, right? And that's what seems like Chandler and uh McGregor are trying to do, which is they just want to grow. They're tired of cutting weight. They just want to, you know, bulk up and fight up a weight class. So, I feel like this is a one-off type of deal. Or maybe they're ready to coast into retirement and just get one more fight in, you know, so they don't care about putting on all this size. But I I guess we'll have to see. It is interesting though. Another one. This one bothers me which is Stipe Miocic. He's going to be getting the title bout with Jon Jones for the heavyweight title and basically skipping over Tom Aspenol who is the interim champ. So, it's very weird that you don't have the interim champ fighting the I guess the defending champ which is Jon Jones. Like how do they skip over him? But they did. And now uh Mio is saying, "Well, I'll unify the belt after that match, assuming that he wins that that fight." And it's just silly to me, you know, it seems like why would he be skipping over Aspenol, right? Like if we're going to make a title bout for the heavyweight, it should be a unification bout between the interim champ and the current champ. And this is also why their interim titles are so stupid, right? Because they're obviously worthless if they can be skipped over, you know, like just don't have it, right? But I know their whole thing is they just want to sell a title fight. So if they don't have the current champ, we'll just make an interim champ and then it doesn't matter what happens to him. We were able to sell a title fight for a pay-per-view card, right? I hate that type of stuff. I if we're gonna have a ranking system, there should be a meritocracy where like you fight by the ranks, right? So you get matched up based on your ranking. Otherwise, it's worthless if people can skip the line. But I've complained about this before. I don't want to be a broken record, but it just bothers me is and I think honestly I would much rather see an Aspenol versus a Jon Jones fight than a Miocic and a Jon Jones fight. So that's all the MMA news I have for you. The topic that I'll close with is are you self-defense minded? And what I mean by that is if you're somebody who's practiced martial arts for self-defense, which I believe a at least a majority of people are, you know, I'm sure there's people who are doing it for hobby and for weight loss, you know, and for competition, but I think especially when, you know, both men and women, you think training martial arts primarily is the practical application, which is self-defense. But if you just train martial arts at the gym, but you never think of it outside or how you would use it on the street, I feel like you're missing out on the proper preparation you're going to need to prepare yourself for a self self-defense scenario. For example, the one that I love is people who have guns and they're like, "Oh, I don't need any of that martial arts stuff. I'll just shoot you." Right? And my first question is, "Do you have a gun on you? And usually the type of people who say this don't, right? They because you're not as silly with these type of arguments if you're actually a concealed carry, right? Um, so these people like, "Oh, no." I'm like, "Well, then what good is your gun, right? So I would kick your ass right now if I if I wanted to." So, but the same thing could be said for somebody who does train martial arts but never really thinks about, you know, or has the awareness of understanding uh situations that they would be in danger and how they would use it accordingly. Right? So, for example, if you're a guy who's a a guard player and you're in a situation where you might be getting into a street fight, what's your game plan in this street fight? Right? Are you going to sit to guard and buttskoot? Right? like how are you going to get this fight to the ground? So, I feel that everybody should invest some time into actually uh visualizing different scenarios of how they would use their martial arts skills or their whatever self-defense skills that they have in practical applications. Right? If I'm getting into my car and I I see someone following me, what's my plan? If I'm walking through a parking lot and I have a couple people who seem to be following me around again, what's my plan? You know, I hear window break at night in my house. What's my plan? Right? These are the type of things that I feel everybody should have a plan for. You don't want to come up with a plan of how you're going to defend yourself at 3 in the morning when your window breaks, right? You're probably not going to be at your fastest processing speed. You're you're not exactly sure what's going on. It might be a false alarm, right? You want to have plans in advance just like you would if you were preparing for a competition. And I think men probably do this a lot more. At least the men that I hang out with have already thought of all these different situ situations. I know myself, I have visualized so many crazy scenarios. Uh, you know, I would probably seem like a lunatic if I actually verbalized them, right? But I I thought things of how I would use knives, guns, pans, how would I use a uh, you know, cups, uh, you know, just about any implement I have in my hand or around me and the different situations of what could happen and how I use it, right? So, um it's something that's important to do, I feel, especially if you are not as skilled or not as confident or don't have as much experience in combat situations, those visualizations are going to be much more important because they're going to simulate the experience that you don't have, right? Meaning that if you've never competed before in combat sports, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, martial arts, whatever, and perhaps you've never been in a street fight before, right, I would think probably most women are going to be in this category, right? You have very limited experience dealing with combat. So when it actually happens, it's going to be a lot more stressful for you than it would be for somebody who's a military veteran who's, you know, been at war or somebody who's a professional fighter who's been in lots of conflicts or somebody who grew up in a rough neighborhood and been in a lot of street fights, right? Like it's not as scary to them. They've been in this type of dance before. But if you've never been in this, you know, type of situation before, it's going to be a pressure cooker for you. So, you definitely want to have a plan in advance because at least if you've trained that plan enough, some of that muscle memory is going to kick in and you'll kind of be in instant mode where you'll be able to rely on your training to carry you through this situation. But if you haven't prepared yourself for this type of situation before, like you just train at the gym and then you come home, but you never actually think how would I use this training out in the street in this particular situation, right? Um, you know, I've taught concealed carry classes here in Nevada and I tell people this often, like you should be thinking about your daily routine and the areas where you might be vulnerable in. For example, if you have to drive and park in a parking lot and then you have to come out at night, you should know, you know, you're going to be the most vulnerable getting in and out of your car, right? And people who are good at carjacking or mugging are usually going to follow you into that parking lot. And right when you're like fumbling through your keys and opening the door and trying to step into the the car, that's where they're hit you, right? Cuz at that moment, your hands are full. You're kind of in an awkward position. You know, you got one leg getting into the car, one leg out. You're not going to be in a real good defensible spot, right? So, you're vulnerable. And uh there's many videos you can see of people getting hit in that situation, right? So if you're preparing, you would think, well, perhaps before I I enter the car, I should make sure that there's no one around me, right? Uh because someone can't just surprise you, you know, uh by being right next to you. If you're looking around and saying, "Okay, is there somebody following me?" Right? If you have a car with a lot of clearance, you might even want to look under the car, right? Make sure there's not somebody out there, right? There's been cases where people literally hide under the car and then with a knife hit you in the Achilles and pretty much disable you on the spot, right? So, uh it's might sound paranoid, but it's paranoid until it becomes true. Okay? So, there's a reason for it. But I would say in that situation, if I was going to walk to the car and I'm worried about my safety, I would have some type of weapon, you know, or implement to defend myself, whether it's a gun or it's a knife where I know I could have it at the ready if something goes down. I also wouldn't be on my phone at that time because if you're on your phone, that's a hand that's disabled and you're distracted because you're trying to follow a conversation. You're listening to that particular voice in the phone. Now, you're not listening to the environment. Right. And I would be aware of my surroundings. I would look around, make sure there's nobody uh nearby that looks suspicious. If I can, you know, see around my car, make sure there's nobody, you know, hiding somewhere around my car or behind a column if you're in a parking structure, right, before I go to enter my car. And you know, if there was someone following me, then you know, you might want to pick up your spidey senses. Maybe I don't get into my car. Maybe, you know, I'm going to get around the corner of my car, perhaps use as cover if there there's a good spot, like an engine block or something like that, and then be able to draw if I need to or just if I see there's other people around, move into a crowd, right? If there's a security officer or something, right? So you have to it's going to be a course by situation uh basis but you I hope you could see where I'm getting at which is I'm thinking of a lot of different areas of where something could go wrong where there could be danger ways I could prepare myself right ways I could protect myself and uh thinking about areas where I'll be vulnerable and if you uh I actually made a post about this which is learning how to defeat yourself right which I think I posted today. So, this is the same type of thing, right? I'm thinking uh where am I vulnerable in uh my daily routine where if I was going to be targeting me, where would I try to take me out? And so, it's no different on the mat than it would be in real life because understand criminals, they're going to think the same way, right? They're they're going to think, what are where are my best odds of successfully mugging somebody or successfully carjacking somebody? And that's what they're going to play, right? Because they're just like anybody else. They don't want to get hurt. They want to try to maximize their return on investment and their investment being, you know, kicking your ass or whatnot without getting themselves caught, you know. So, if you can uh realize where your weaknesses are, mitigate those, and prepare with plans and areas that you just can't avoid altogether, you're going to be in a much better position to be self-defense-minded where you're not going to be an easy mark. And just like anything else, if you're not the easy mark, chances are you're not going to be the mark, right? Because there's always somebody else. So, why I'm going to try to pick a fight or get into a situation uh try to attack somebody who looks very well prepared when I could just wait and grab somebody who's not. And unfortunately, there's plenty of people who are not, right? And with just the multitude of people that have their phones out on any time and any day. I mean, I have mine right here, right? So, uh it's very easy to find someone who's distracted, right? And if I was going to give someone a piece of advice and just being better prepared, don't use your phone when you're walking or you're outside, right? Because it's going to make you a lot more vulnerable. And plus, this thing is like worth over a thousand bucks, right? So this in itself it's value, right? Uh so I would say if you're walking out on the street in public or you know you're going to your car or something like that, just keep your phone in your pocket, right? Uh try not to be surfing on your phone especially right if you have to be on the phone if you can get earbuds that's going to be better at least at least you have your eyes are still useful and your hands are not busy right uh hearing a little compromised and focus a little compromised but you know got to do what you got to do right anyhow that's my talk on being self-defense minded uh hopefully that shed some light maybe you have some things that you've been neglecting or you've never even considered it. I feel it's it's healthy and it's very practical, especially if you have a family, that you be self-defense minded so that whenever you're out in public with them, you're always thinking about a worst case scenario and how you can prepare for it and how you would defend and approach that situation if it does come to be. All right.