My road to becoming a professional fighter
May 27, 2018 1:41:38 GMT -5
kristhegreasedpig, floater, and 4 more like this
Post by TheStorm on May 27, 2018 1:41:38 GMT -5
Already posted about this in Premier's random MMA thread, but as suggested by HumanAgent, I'm creating a thread of it's own for anyone who is interested to follow.
This thread is going to be about my backstory, and what my goals/plans are as far as fighting professionally is concerned.
I'm 29 years old right now and have been training in Muay Thai, BJJ, and boxing in private sessions, as well as group sessions at various gyms since the end of January this year (2018). I have always dreamt of being a famous boxer as a young boy, after watching Tyson and Holyfield fight. As I got older, I got more interested in Muay Thai, and then eventually MMA. I always had this dream of being a McGregor, or a Mayweather, and becoming a dominant superstar, and as I grew older, I accepted the fact that it wasn't going to happen (justified being a pussy, and letting my dreams slip). Now that I am older, I have 100% belief that I can still chase my dream, maybe I will not be at McGregor status, but I want to see how far I can go, and what I can achieve in this dream of mine, even if it means just becoming a great sparring partner to a pro fighter, and one day a trainer.
I joined the Marines at 18 years old, and at 23 years old I switched my specialty into the EOD field, which is the military bomb squad. I have always had a desire to push myself to my limits, and perform to my full potential, but from about the age of 11 to 25, I had a very bad drinking problem. Even as a heavy drinker, I was always able to perform in whatever it was I needed to do. At 25 I quit drinking and smoking, and focused on becoming a good dad. My wife and I became competitive bodybuilders, and eventually I shifted my focus to powerlifting, as I preferred performance rather than aesthetics. My wife always saw my passion for fighting, and saw how much it weighed down on me that I wasn't chasing my dream, so one day in late January, she pushed me into signing up at a local gym to begin my training. Shortly after, I hired some coaches to come to my gym (we are both independent personal trainers, and bodybuilding coaches) and train me and I hit the ground running.
A couple weeks later, we decided that moving to Thailand to really get off to a great start would help me a lot, and at worst, just be a great life experience for my family and I, so we committed to it, packed up our belongings in a storage, and arrived here in Phuket on the 25th of May. We are able to train online clients to afford to live out here, and I also get VA benefits monthly (immune system issue, not crippling disability), so we could handle the move.
Another little bit of info, as I started my training, I quit TRT (had been prescribed since 26 years old, and I believe it was due to heavy drinking) and that was a huge discouragement at the time, because my testosterone dipped to below female levels, and I was sterile from my system shutting down. Fast forward to May and I am performing better than I ever have, and after some recovery, my wife is now seven weeks pregnant. I understand now, why getting off TRT hurts so many fighters, and thats why I decided to get that struggle out of the way in the beginning of my journey, as opposed to having to do it when I am possibly afforded an opportunity that I cannot accept because of it.
Why do I think I can make it? Well, over the past few years, I have discovered that as long as I am fearless in pursuing my goals, I can achieve anything, as long as it is important enough to me. Things I used to fear, have become easy to me. I believe this is why few people follow their dreams, they do not realize how easy their goals are once they actually put forth some effort into achieving them. My goal is to commit to this more than I have committed to anything in my life, and give it until I'm 35 years old. Once I get there, I will re-assess. Am I declining? Maybe then I will decide to train people in what I have learned. Am I a pro and still progressing? Well then, my age at that point means nothing.
What my current training regiment looks like:
6 days a week I warm up with 800 kicks on the heavy bag (100 teeps with each leg, 100 skip knees, 100 low kicks each leg, and 100 high kicks each leg). Following this warm up, ill do 3 rounds of jumping rope with a 14oz rope, 3 rounds of shadow boxing, and then 1-1.5 hours of pad work with my muay thai coach, or my boxing coach. I typically train Muay Thai 80% of the time and boxing 20%. I try to hit bjj at least twice a week. I had to stop that for a while though because I suffered contusion to my quad from a leg kick, and cant control the pressure of someone pinning my leg down, like I can control it when I train striking. Great reality check, and a glimpse of what is to come. I will also perform strength training workouts 2-3 times a week, and a 3-5 mile run 2-3 times a week as well as core work every other day. All in all, its safe to say that I train for about 3.5-4 hours a day, 6 days a week. On my 7th day, I do low impact training, shadow boxing and coordination training. At first, even at my level of athleticism, this was very strenuous work, now my body is conditioned nicely, and I always train at a pace, where I am gassing each and every round, and sometimes throwing up, however, my recovery is adapted to where I can complete another round with 1 minute of rest in between, usually 30 seconds when boxing, so I am very proud of how far I have come in a short amount of time, and it boosts my confidence as well.
I am very humble, but also very confident and realistic. When it comes to bjj, I've only trained about 8 or 9 sessions. That being said, when I roll with other white belts, it almost always ends in me submitting them from guard or mount. When I roll with a blue belt, unless they outweigh me by about 30 pounds or more (im 190 now, was 215 when I started) it usually results in me dominating in positions, and often times, I'm told to roll with purple belts, which again, if they do not outweigh me by a bit, its fairly competitive. My technique lacks though, so I still get caught by purple belts in slick submissions, and when I get a blue belt in a good position, I rarely can complete a sub, so my technique definitely needs a LOT of work, but my explosiveness, along with my strength and just overall speed really does me wonders at this point in my career. As far as boxing and Muay Thai, I've had about 5 months of good hard training now, and when I goto the gyms to train, I'm typically on the same level with those who have a few years of training. So overall, I believe I am off to a promising start.
I have some videos uploading to YouTube right now, so I can show you guys a bit of my training. Definitely interested in all critique, feedback, and suggestions. A simple "yeah right" or "you have no chance" wont do much, because over the past few years, we (wife and I) have had doubters, but now most everyone who follows our journey believes we are capable of whatever it is we say we are going to do. I have learned to push past the doubt, and overcome adversity. Thanks for reading, I know that was long. I have very little work out here in Phuket other than to train my hear out, so I will likely update frequently.
This thread is going to be about my backstory, and what my goals/plans are as far as fighting professionally is concerned.
I'm 29 years old right now and have been training in Muay Thai, BJJ, and boxing in private sessions, as well as group sessions at various gyms since the end of January this year (2018). I have always dreamt of being a famous boxer as a young boy, after watching Tyson and Holyfield fight. As I got older, I got more interested in Muay Thai, and then eventually MMA. I always had this dream of being a McGregor, or a Mayweather, and becoming a dominant superstar, and as I grew older, I accepted the fact that it wasn't going to happen (justified being a pussy, and letting my dreams slip). Now that I am older, I have 100% belief that I can still chase my dream, maybe I will not be at McGregor status, but I want to see how far I can go, and what I can achieve in this dream of mine, even if it means just becoming a great sparring partner to a pro fighter, and one day a trainer.
I joined the Marines at 18 years old, and at 23 years old I switched my specialty into the EOD field, which is the military bomb squad. I have always had a desire to push myself to my limits, and perform to my full potential, but from about the age of 11 to 25, I had a very bad drinking problem. Even as a heavy drinker, I was always able to perform in whatever it was I needed to do. At 25 I quit drinking and smoking, and focused on becoming a good dad. My wife and I became competitive bodybuilders, and eventually I shifted my focus to powerlifting, as I preferred performance rather than aesthetics. My wife always saw my passion for fighting, and saw how much it weighed down on me that I wasn't chasing my dream, so one day in late January, she pushed me into signing up at a local gym to begin my training. Shortly after, I hired some coaches to come to my gym (we are both independent personal trainers, and bodybuilding coaches) and train me and I hit the ground running.
A couple weeks later, we decided that moving to Thailand to really get off to a great start would help me a lot, and at worst, just be a great life experience for my family and I, so we committed to it, packed up our belongings in a storage, and arrived here in Phuket on the 25th of May. We are able to train online clients to afford to live out here, and I also get VA benefits monthly (immune system issue, not crippling disability), so we could handle the move.
Another little bit of info, as I started my training, I quit TRT (had been prescribed since 26 years old, and I believe it was due to heavy drinking) and that was a huge discouragement at the time, because my testosterone dipped to below female levels, and I was sterile from my system shutting down. Fast forward to May and I am performing better than I ever have, and after some recovery, my wife is now seven weeks pregnant. I understand now, why getting off TRT hurts so many fighters, and thats why I decided to get that struggle out of the way in the beginning of my journey, as opposed to having to do it when I am possibly afforded an opportunity that I cannot accept because of it.
Why do I think I can make it? Well, over the past few years, I have discovered that as long as I am fearless in pursuing my goals, I can achieve anything, as long as it is important enough to me. Things I used to fear, have become easy to me. I believe this is why few people follow their dreams, they do not realize how easy their goals are once they actually put forth some effort into achieving them. My goal is to commit to this more than I have committed to anything in my life, and give it until I'm 35 years old. Once I get there, I will re-assess. Am I declining? Maybe then I will decide to train people in what I have learned. Am I a pro and still progressing? Well then, my age at that point means nothing.
What my current training regiment looks like:
6 days a week I warm up with 800 kicks on the heavy bag (100 teeps with each leg, 100 skip knees, 100 low kicks each leg, and 100 high kicks each leg). Following this warm up, ill do 3 rounds of jumping rope with a 14oz rope, 3 rounds of shadow boxing, and then 1-1.5 hours of pad work with my muay thai coach, or my boxing coach. I typically train Muay Thai 80% of the time and boxing 20%. I try to hit bjj at least twice a week. I had to stop that for a while though because I suffered contusion to my quad from a leg kick, and cant control the pressure of someone pinning my leg down, like I can control it when I train striking. Great reality check, and a glimpse of what is to come. I will also perform strength training workouts 2-3 times a week, and a 3-5 mile run 2-3 times a week as well as core work every other day. All in all, its safe to say that I train for about 3.5-4 hours a day, 6 days a week. On my 7th day, I do low impact training, shadow boxing and coordination training. At first, even at my level of athleticism, this was very strenuous work, now my body is conditioned nicely, and I always train at a pace, where I am gassing each and every round, and sometimes throwing up, however, my recovery is adapted to where I can complete another round with 1 minute of rest in between, usually 30 seconds when boxing, so I am very proud of how far I have come in a short amount of time, and it boosts my confidence as well.
I am very humble, but also very confident and realistic. When it comes to bjj, I've only trained about 8 or 9 sessions. That being said, when I roll with other white belts, it almost always ends in me submitting them from guard or mount. When I roll with a blue belt, unless they outweigh me by about 30 pounds or more (im 190 now, was 215 when I started) it usually results in me dominating in positions, and often times, I'm told to roll with purple belts, which again, if they do not outweigh me by a bit, its fairly competitive. My technique lacks though, so I still get caught by purple belts in slick submissions, and when I get a blue belt in a good position, I rarely can complete a sub, so my technique definitely needs a LOT of work, but my explosiveness, along with my strength and just overall speed really does me wonders at this point in my career. As far as boxing and Muay Thai, I've had about 5 months of good hard training now, and when I goto the gyms to train, I'm typically on the same level with those who have a few years of training. So overall, I believe I am off to a promising start.
I have some videos uploading to YouTube right now, so I can show you guys a bit of my training. Definitely interested in all critique, feedback, and suggestions. A simple "yeah right" or "you have no chance" wont do much, because over the past few years, we (wife and I) have had doubters, but now most everyone who follows our journey believes we are capable of whatever it is we say we are going to do. I have learned to push past the doubt, and overcome adversity. Thanks for reading, I know that was long. I have very little work out here in Phuket other than to train my hear out, so I will likely update frequently.