A Warrior's Thougts on the Martial Arts

Come Saturday I'll fight in a WKF full contact kickboxing tournament here in Austria.So, starting today, I'll post a short summary of my final preparations.

Chris, who's now also running his own school in Gaaden (www.shinergy.com/gaaden) is coaching me. Also, he's helping me out as a sparring partner. There's nothing like having a good friend when it comes to preparing for a fight. Not long ago, Chris qualified for the european championships but then tore a ligament and wasn't able to compete. Obviously, neither was he was in any condition to do sparring. That's when it became most apparent to me that having a good and reliable sparring partner is invaluable in our sport. Now, however, he's back on his feet and although he still can't kick all-out, he's probably the best training partner I can imagine.

Anyhow, without further ado, let's take a look at today's session.
First, I warmed up with my warmup routine, which I'll cover in a sepe…

In my post "Thoughts on Coaching Tools: Shadow Sparring", I mentioned my growing enthusiasm when it comes to shadow sparring.

Over the last couple of months, I've really come to love this simple yet immensely effective form of training. Not only has shadow sparring become a staple exercise in my own training (I'm currently preparing for two full-contact tournaments in november), I also have my advanced students shadow-spar a lot. The practice of shadow sparring just comes with so many benefits, it's hard to cover them all. Most important for weekend-warriors and recreational-sports types, however, is the fact that you don't really need to hit the gym in order to shadow-spar On a nice day, you can take your training to the park, on a bad day you might even just work out at home, depending on the size of your living room.

Now while shadow sparring in itself is a blast already, I feel that even more benefits can be reaped from this form of training by applying the…

What's the biggest single factor when it comes to becoming a great athlete - or martial artist, for that matter? Is there a secret ingredient in the mix of all the that factors that contribute to your success that is really making the difference? What aspect of training has the biggest influence on your results or the lack of such?
Is it the size of your gym/dojo?Top-notch equipment?The Spa area?Your training outfit?Secret training methods from the former sovjet union?The number of heavy bags?All those things contribute to your success in one way or the other, but truth be told, there's one single most important key factor that outweighs all of the above by far. Yes, there is a secret that can make the difference between victory and defeat. It's astonishingly simple, yet most people fail to implement that very concept:

Always show up, always give your best

It's as simple as that, really. All that great equipment in your gym won't take you nowhere if you don't show…

On September 29th 2011, Ronny Kokert gave a speech where he explained the theory behind Shinergy. Not much to say here - just listen and enjoy!