Albert’s MMA Debut — recap
For those of you who don’t know, our very own coach Albert Cheng recently made his pro mixed martial art (MMA) debut. Albert is known at Bang for his discipline, his crazy agility and — for those who attend his conditioning classes — an abject lack of mercy.
Having designed Albert’s program and watched him carry it out to its fullest, I was very proud of his performance. While his absolute dominance in the fight was much-praised, it was apparently his conditioning that everyone was talking about. We’ve gotten a lot of questions about it so I bribed Albert with Mediterranean food and asked him to write a summary of his experience. Here it is from the man himself:
GG
—
Maaaaaaster!
So, I won my first professional mixed martial arts bout a few weeks ago. The euphoric feeling of winning something that you dream about and worked so hard to achieve has got to be one of the greatest highs one can experience in life. There are a few things that I want to share with everyone about the grueling training I endured eight weeks prior:
Albert's first shot was so powerful that it almost took his opponent out of the ring.
1. TRAIN REALLY HARD…BUT SMART. Many athletes believe that in order to reap the benefits, you have to train until the point of puking every time. Although it is great to be able to perform at this intensity, it is important to understand that training in this manner will quickly result in overtraining. The goal is to reap maximal benefits with the minimal amount of work. This will allow the athlete to get to their actual sport workout in the freshest possible state. There were a few times where Geoff had to pull the plug on my workouts in fear that I would not recover for my next training sessions. In some cases, MORE is not necessarily better.
A full roud of ground and pound
2. IF THE COACH CANNOT RATIONALIZE THE WORKOUT, THEN DON’T DO IT. I will liken this to cooking. Any chef can gain access to all the ingredients of a particular dish. However, only a true master will be able to cook the ingredients in the proper order. Likewise, the internet and other resources have now provided coach’s access to an encyclopaedia of unique exercises. A good coach will be able to partition the workouts in a specific order that scientifically makes sense. If the coach cannot explain why things are, it is generally a bad sign. When I first saw the program that Geoff had prescribed for me, I had a few concerned questions. Things were easily explained to me in a very scientific manner and everything began to click as to why certain exercises were done first and at certain intensities. The results speak for themselves.
Robin Black interviews Robin post-fight
3. HAVING FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS HELPS IN STAYING POSITIVE. When it comes to staying disciplined, there is no doubt that willpower is far greater than the physical aspect. The psychological and physiological stresses that accumulate over the lack of a social life and many hours of hard training, lack of social life, and sacrifices are immense. There were a couple times during the training camp where the mental stress wore me down to the point where I was actually crying. Simple problems are magnified. Training becomes less fun. Your mind is just beaten down. However, I am blessed to be surrounded by many great people that helped me stay positive and focused during such tough times. I learned that immersing yourself in a happy and positive environment can only result in fantastic outcomes. Again, I would like to thank EVERYBODY that helped me (be it physically or morally) for this fight. You know who you are!
And finally, for those interested, this was my workout schedule for the final 6 weeks before the fight:
| Monday | 11am – 1pm: Strength & Conditioning | 7pm – 9pm: Grappling |
| Tuesday | 9:00-9:45am: Striking | 4pm – 6pm: MMA |
| Wednesday | 11am – 11:45am: Conditioning | 7pm – 9pm: Striking & Grappling |
| Thursday | 9:00-9:45am: Striking | 4pm – 6pm: MMA |
| Friday | 11am – 1pm: Strength & Conditioning |
7pm – 9pm: Striking & Grappling |
| Saturday | 11am – 11:45am: Striking | 3pm – 5pm: Striking & Grappling |
| Sunday | OFF | OFF |
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3 Responses to “Albert’s MMA Debut — recap”
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Awesome Job Albert! You worked very hard for this fight, I can attest to first hand. Well deserved win. Look forward to the next one.
Scott Schilling – Schilling BJJ
p.s. Now let’s see if we can get those vertical jumps a bit higher. lol
10.05.2010, 3:10 pmI like Scott’s idea of making the vertical jumps higher. To really make it challenging, how about leaping over the building in a single bound?
11.05.2010, 7:39 amI agree about the verticial jump. I say we drive a truck towards Albert to see if he can clear it..
11.05.2010, 11:47 am