Boxing - Mosley vs Cotto fight comment and training video

"Sugar Shane Mosley hailed conqueror Miguel Cotto as a young lion on the road to greatness after losing to the Puerto Rican at Madison Square Garden, New York on Saturday night. (November 10th, 2007)

Cotto retained his WBA Welterweight title and his unbeaten record as held off a spirited challenge from four-time former world champion Mosley with an unanimous points victory over the American.

While never truly dominating 36-year-old Mosley, Cotto, nine years his junior, did enough over 12 rounds to eke out the victory in a pulsating contest in front of 15,251.

Mosley, whose record slipped to 44-5 (37KOs) while Cotto’s improved to 31-0 (25KOs), was in good spirits despite his defeat and praised his victor.

“It was a great fight. Miguel was very strong, not only was he a powerful puncher but he can box. He mixed it up and did a hell of a good job.

“He’s a young lion on the way to greatness.

“For a guy to be fighting in the ring like that, when I was fighting him and he kept fighting me back, the guy did a great job.”

Cotto said he was satisfied that he had got his preparation for the fight spot on.

“When I was in Puerto Rico I focused on his power, movement and speed,” Cotto said. “That’s what I trained to face and I thought I did real well.

“I wanted to give my best performance for the fans and I thought I did.”

While never quite reaching the epic proportions of Cotto’s previous defence against Zab Judah in the same arena last June, the champion’s battle with Mosley was a close fought and exciting spectacle.

The contrasting styles of the two boxers showed immediately as Mosley displayed his quick hands while Cotto stalked his man, picking his moments to land telling power punches in a cagey opener.

The fight really came alive at the end of the second round when Mosley caught the champion with clubbing right, provoking an immediate response from Cotto as the rivals traded fast and furious blows over the final 30 seconds.

Mosley’s right again did damage midway through the third with two hooks to Cotto’s head before giving him a taste of his own medicine with a big right to the body, punches that momentarily subdued the large Puerto Rican contingent in the Garden.

The round closed with another furious exchange, Mosley unloading with combinations as Cotto countered with sharp, straight rights.

And so it continued, Mosley finding Cotto’s chin with a right upper cut in the fourth only to get a left hook to his cheek in exchange, with neither fighter able to truly dominate the other but Cotto just shading the contest.

The sixth round, though, belonged to Cotto as he repeatedly landed shots on Mosley’s head and chin without any significant response.

Mosley rallied in the seventh with a big right hook that knocked Cotto’s head back and his own fans found their voices in the ninth as their man took the fight to the champion, rocking Cotto back onto the ropes in the dying seconds before landing a left hook to the head to take the round.

“I was hurt,” Cotto said of that moment. “Mosley punches real hard and I had to go away for a while but I came back strong.”

Mosley stormed out of his corner at the start of the 10^th and again had Cotto in trouble on the ropes. The rivals continued to trade punches, Mosley breaching the champion’s defences with a right upper cut and Cotto landing a straight left on the challenger’s nose, rocking Mosley’s head back.

The 11^th was just as relentless, Mosley this working the body before Cotto broke out in the final 10 seconds to hurt his man at the bell.

The final round still gave both fighters everything to box for with Cotto’s fans erroneously cheering as Mosley went down in the champion’s corner but only with a slip.

Mosley again took the fight to Cotto and opened a cut on the corner of the Puerto Rican’s right eye although it appeared to be from a clash of heads.

“He caught me with some good shots but I never felt like I was going to go down,” Mosley said.

“I got a buzz but never really felt hurt.

“And I definitely hit him with some good body shots but he’s so tough.”

courtesy of Simon Lewis, New York.

Its not easy to find fight footage right now but take a look at these guys training in preparation for the fight. Fast hands!!

Industrial strength qualities

Industrial Strength London is going to start featuring different athletes, performers, fighters, professionals or amateurs, men and women, from every and any background who demonstrate that they got it.

Got industrial strength levels of athleticism, mental strength, toughness, determination........

We are looking out for sports reports, news reports, video, interviews, articles and first hand observations from around the world.

Keep checking back to see what we come up with, and make some suggestions of your own.

Jon

A strength training, kettlebell clean and jerk and bodyweight circuit session.

Thanks to a logistical problem called Cj Swaby there was some confusion about the time but for the brave who were able to make it on Saturday at 4pm rather than 2pm we had a good session. Based on first reports the training left its mark.

After establishing that energy levels were going to be slow to rise we decided begin with our focus on strength training.


This obviously followed the customary green tea ceremony and joint mobility.

STRENGTH

1. deadlift 5-8 reps/4 sets

(turned out we ended up doing a few one arm deadlfits - a good lift for reinforcing the need to stay tight for successful strength training. Thanks to James Bower for leading the way.)

2. incline dumbbell press 5-8/4

3. back or front squat 5-8/4

4. abdominal roll out using sling suspension 5-8/4

STRENGTH ENDURANCE

technique review followed:
1.Single arm clean and jerk 6 minutes

CONDITIONING CIRCUIT

just to finish off and move around a bit, a 6 minute circuit

• partner and bungee resisted run out 45 sec (well done to Nicky for holding on to James Bower even whilst bouncing down the studio on your head)

rest 45 sec

• mountain climber 45 sec

rest 45 sec

• burpee 45 sec

rest 45 sec

• bear walk 45 sec

rest 45 sec

...then it was showers and off for some Nandos...

With many thanks to SportsBeans (lemon and lime) for providing the energy and Clipper for the green tea, the antidote for all the chemicals in the Jelly Beans.

Regards,
Jon

ps. Next session is Sunday December 16th 09.30am - 12 midday at Balance

Industrial Strength session this Saturday (27th) - 4pm

The world cup is over, Chabal performed no miracles and South Africa are the Champions.

But more importantly we will be having an Industrial strength session this Saturday.

Kick off 4pm, finish at 6pm. A bit shorter than our lazy Sunday sessions. So we will be prompt to begin.

We will be indoors at Balance Performance Physiotherapy - click here for a map.

If you would like to come along but have not been before give me a call and I can give you a better idea whether it will satisfy you or not.

07960 861 267

Rugby World Cup - an outstanding French athlete

Sebastien Chabal - this guy seems to me like a true athlete/warrior. He is calm, tough and effective. He hasnt always been like this apparently, his coaches of old have suggested attitude adjustments and he has taken them on board. This must be true because i read it in The Currant Bun online:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/rugby_union/article326083.ece

The last time we put a picture on the net without permission it cost £2,000.00!! So I'm playing it safe with links now.

To see two of his most recent and devastatingly big hits take a look here - if you are a Kiwi it may not be a good idea to go here!

One:
http://www.dailymotion.com/related/3768511/video/x25oew_chabal-impact_sport

Two:
http://www.dailymotion.com/related/3624152/video/x27syt_chabal-charge-williams_sport

Here he is just scoring a try against a non-Kiwi side:
http://www.dailymotion.com/related/3768511/video/x2zxci_essai-enorme-de-chabal_extreme

He has a great beard too.

What wil this guy do to England I wonder?

Dates for upcoming Industrial Strength sessions

Take a look at the dates, put them in your diary. Hope you can make it. Locations to be confirmed nearer the time. Next session Saturday October 27th will definitely be at Balance Performance Physiotherapy, Clapham, SW4 6LE.

2007

Saturday October 27th 4-6pm

Sunday December 16th 9.30am-12 midday

2008

Saturday January 19th 4-6pm

Sunday March9th 9.30am-12 midday

Saturday April 12th 4-6pm

Sunday June 1st 9.30am-12 midday

Saturday July 5th 4-6pm

Sunday August 24th 9.30am-12 midday

Saturday September 27th 4-6pm

Sunday November 16th 9.30am-12 midday

Saturday December 20th 4-6pm CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

Rise of the kettlebell??

There is ongoing and gathering interest in Russian Kettlebells from the media and it has resulted in more than a few articles in local and national papers, men and women's lifestyle magazines and other glossy publications. You know something is serious when it gets into the guardian though!!!!!

You'd think this would be great and in one way it is, with more people knowing about kettlebells more people will train with them and reap the rewards.

The trouble is most of them miss by a large margin the whole point of using kettlebells, instead they get the pretty boy models to hold kettlebells, instead of dumbbells or being sat on a machine, and continue to mimic bodybuilding. Snatch, clean and jerk are rarely mentioned, and the swing is de-emphasized. So whats the point? I was reminded by a client to remember that these publications are only interested in distracting the reader for 5 minutes with an article that differs only slightly from the one that occupied the same pages the previous month. I don't believe this is true of all of the journalists who have compiled these articles, I have managed to get my point across recently but it admittedly took a few back and forth emails to stop my words being incorrectly edited and pared down to nothing useful. I suppose if the reader is interested they will seek out a coach and get the right idea from a more reliable source than the journalist who misunderstood and misrepresented. Unfortunately it seems many coaches in the uk are not interested in continuing to develop and so have not managed to seek out the real benefits of kbs and so do not place the correct emphasis on the use of kettlebells.

The guardian article isn't too bad by the way, at least swing and snatch are used, and I know that Tommy Matthews and Bj Rule of One Personal Training are fully aware of the correct emphasis in kettlebell training.

Its a shame that many may come to the conclusion that kettlebells are just the latest craze rather than a far more effective way to train than badly done two dimensional training/bodybuilding. But they will come to that conclusion if they are sold the concept of kettlebells as fantastic and then just end up doing press, squat, row with them, something they were already doing unsuccessfully with dumbbells and barbells.

As for what kettlebells ARE for...their design is best suited for high rep swing, snatch, clean and jerk (either single/double, long cycle or just jerk). The abilities they develop where listed very nicely by Eric Lifford on the American Kettlebell Club blog

"If you are looking for Strength-Endurance, GPP, Explosive Power, Ability to cope with stress…, Work Capacity, Grip, Coordination, Staying Power, Mental Toughness, Athleticism, Fat-Loss/Altered Body Composition, Stress Reduction, Focus, Patience, Health, Vitality, Determination, Flexibility, Joint/Tendon/Ligament/Muscle Prehab and more, I think Valery’s right when he says “Kettlebells, it’s enough”!"

The American Kettlebell Club blog and forum are well worth keeping abreast of, go to www.americankettlebellclub.com

Maybe I'm being unreasonable but if its your job to coach clients in the use of kettlebells then to me it seems logical that you research it fully and seek to improve and develop, likewise, as a journalist you should be representing the facts as they are presented to you and also doing some background research not just filling space around adverts.

Scott Sonnon being coached by Valery Federenko

Industrial Strength London – September 2nd 2007

Thanks to everyone who got themselves over to Wandsworth Common for what was a great practice session of movement, strength and conditioning. There were new faces and old, tired, haggard ones.

Cj Swaby led the warm up and joint mobility part of our session before we headed over to the monkey bars. Some were more monkey like than others but the point is we worked at our pulling and swinging abilities (if you know what I mean) both for strength and with power. Double and single arm jumps both to switch grips and swing to different bars. The greatest monkey of all was absent at this point but when James Bower managed to get his butt south of the Thames he made up for the late start.

We all contributed to perform animal moves up and down the grass. Bears, elephants, three legged dogs, komodo dragons, crabs and ducks (Phill Ireland’s ducks go slower than everyone elses but he claims they’re more hardcore – and he’s right) all made an appearance, though we all looked like donkeys!

James Bower took us to the other side of the common’s equipment area to share with us some jumping drills. We did repeated log and hurdle jumps with controlled (some) landing being demanded as well. This led nicely into some parkour derived balance work followed by some low level and introductory vaulting. Having spoken with Ez of www.urbanfreeflow.com I know that this is the only way to get into parkour (free running) i.e. slowly, learning the basics first before leaping off buildings.

We then settled down on the grass for 10s of push up variations, everyone doing there bit and putting forward a suggestion – from total body involved hindu push ups (of Kushti wrestling fame I think) to what felt like pure isolatory tricep destroying versions. Jen “new kid on the block” Swallow insisted we did far more reps than intended before we did a few sets of get up drills – BJJ getups from supine, slide get ups from prone, deck squats and burpees.

Before we got too focussed on our Sunday lunches I wanted to maintain momentum and set up a circuit to justify bringing out the kettlebells, sandbag and thick 20 metre tow rope, kindly donated by British Airways via Anjum.

1 min sets (with a bit more here and there), continuous movement from station to station, performed twice for 12min total ‘ish.

Weight, workload and intensity left to the individual. If you loafed like me it was a piece of cake.

1. Overhand tow in of partner - resisting as much as possible without halting movement.
2. kettlebell throw from 1 hand swing
3. kettlebell swing, jerk, clean and jerk, or snatch
4. sandbag suitcase walk, farmers walk, shouldered sandbag carry, or carry with sandbag in zercher hold.
5. wheel barrow
6. burpees – Phill Ireland wouldnt have been happy unless he had extremely hard so did donkey burpees, Cj followed suit, Jen Swallow kept on eye on me - the man with the stop watch and waited for time to be called!

Cj has just got his website up and running so take a look – www.cjsfitness.co.uk

Apologies for there being no pics, I will become organised one of these days.

Intention & Emphasis

In the words of DMX "The games a lot bigger than you think you know and if you think you know then I don't think you know!"

Obviously I'm no philosopher. Which is why I have quoted a hardcore and old school rapper rather than an old scholar.

It seems like you know something quite well and then someone reminds you otherwise. I've never kidded myself or pretended that I was an expert teacher or practitioner of movement. Never the less movement is my profession and it is what I specialise in: I want to see my clients and myself develop strong, fast, powerful, subtle, controlled and agile movement abilities. So when you realise that your principles and intentions are sound but some of the emphasis you have placed on drills/moves you perform is a bit misdirected it is enlightening but also frustrating.

Two things have highlighted this recently.

1. Conversing, working with and learning from Steve Cotter.

Amongst other points I have had to take on board some subtle adjustments to the rack position, to the application of relaxed tension, energy management and to the mental approach and patience of high repetition ballistic exercises. These are drills that the kettlebell is uniquely suited to and are what makes the kettlebell the superior tool when it comes to developing work capacity and athletic power output.

These subtle things, as always, make significant differences not only to kettlebell lifting but to all athletic and sporting activities.

2. Two weeks ago I had to get treatment for a rib injury (received doing excessive reps without adequate control! - short term gratification got the better of long term progress). I asked Glenn Cumiskey, who works at Balance, to treat me. Glenn is an acupuncturist with traditional Chinese training, and a teacher of chi gung and Tai Chi.

After the needling I was introduced to a chi gung movement called "cloud hands". It emphasises strong but fluid connectivity from the ground through the hips, pelvis, trunk and into the upper limbs via the shoulder girdle. Being taught this in the way Glenn did showed me that whilst my intention is always to improve my ability to move with strong and fluid stability, the subtleties I was unaware of made what I was doing much less effective and would actually hold back my progress.

My intention was good, even the principles are the same but subtle differences in emphasis when executing a move make vast differences to the experience and the outcome.

For many the subtleties appear to be unimportant; progress is progress and to what degree do I really need to improve? For those who want more from life, from their sport, for safety in their occupation the subtleties are all important: small changes make significant differences.

Simply shifting, pushing, pulling, pressing, squatting weight, whether its heavy or light, will only get you so far down the road of athletic development and a plateau of non progression awaits!

On its own running, cycling, swimming 6 days a week, whatever pace you are achieving or distance you are covering, will not take you to your full potential.

You might achieve 15 stone of lean mass, be strong in the gym with barbell, dumbbell, kettlebells etc but this doesn't mean you are going to be able to match the physical abilities of another 15 stoner who understands movement and mechanics, energy management and efficiency, internal power.

It is this internal energy development that needs to be learnt and understood if we want to move toward our potential, whatever that may be relative to existing restrictions - like being old or injured, or both!

Ultimately the idea for any practitioner or professional is that intention becomes unnecessary. This is a vision that has been held by many, including samurai, for centuries. Simply spontaneous knowledge in every situation.

Maybe its too late for me to achieve that, but its worth working towards.
Jonathan Lewis
Industrial Strength
mobile:+447960861267
tel:+442076272308

(Re)Learning to Relax by Steve Cotter

Sometimes there is no point in re-inventing the wheel - read Steve Cotters most recent blog - April 17, 2007 (Re)Learning to Relax . If you have only trained with kettlebells aggressively, sprinting with them, you will not have experienced their full potential. We need to have more than one gear - both physically and mentally. Take a read and let me know what you think......

http://www.fullkontact.com/WordPress/

Monkey laterals, January 2007

James Bower shares some of his monkey moves with us at the last Industrial Strength London meeting in January, 2007.

Steve Cotter kettlebell courses: March 2007

After 3 workshops organised by myself and Jason Dean, a days teaching for Bj Rule in London and another afternoon in Barcelona for Michael de Acevedo and Natalia Marquez, Steve Cotter has returned to San Diego. He managed to cram all of this into a 10 day trip; this guy has some serious energy!

It was an absolute pleasure to have him stay at our home for a few days and be on the road with him up to Sale and Harrogate. I got to know Steve a little better and he is a man of intelligence, passion for his family and the physical and martial arts as well as a great sense of humour.

The information and knowledge he passed onto the participants was first class. Many of us already had experience with kettlebells but as we anticipated Steve furthered our understanding by demonstrating, explaining and then letting us experience how small and subtle adjustments to our approach make significant differences to the feel and possibilities of our training. The changes were both physical, positional, postural, intellectual and psychological.

Steve focussed on the classical Russian kettlebell lifts of swing, clean, jerk and snatch; and this is where there was most to learn.

We started in London where we were lucky to have Simon Clohessy as an ally as he organised Cannons Health club in Fulham to be our host for two full days of lifting and learning.

We then moved on to Sale in Cheshire. Here Jason secured us a studio to use for a smaller workshop in Fitness First. Our accommodation was unconventional as was our evening entertainment but we had a fun time.

At Harrogate our venue was the National Centre for Combat Martial Arts, the space created by Stuart Agar, an incredibly generous and friendly man who invited Steve, Jason Dean and me into his family home and even prepared porridge for breakfast. It was at the NCCMA that we also got to try out some great bodyweight animal moves from Steve's arsenal. I have already got my eldest daughter Lucy onto the crocodile, frog and tiger!

At the end of it all we are much wiser for the experience and have had the opportunity to both draw together and widen the community of kettlebell lifters in the uk.

Much gratitude and thanks to Steve Cotter, Jason Dean, Simon Clohessy, Stuart Agar and everyone else who helped us out and attended one of the workshops.

kind regards,
Jonathan Lewis

www.fullkontact.com
www.better-body.co.uk

Sunday 21st January 2007

In Brief:
Joint Mobility

Pistols and variations 3-6 reps x 5-8 sets Kneeling Hamstring reverse curls 3-5 x 3 sets Jumps (depth/tuck/1 leg/2 leg/with rolls/precision for distance) 3 x 6 sets

Pull up and variations 4-6 reps x 5-8 sets Handstand holds (static and dynamic) and presses x 5 sets

Monkey lateral moves x 10s x 3

Partner rope tow 15m x 3 in fast succession

Alternate dead clean and press (kb chosen based on ability to just complete time) x 5 min continuous

There were 10 of us in attendance and we all....nearly all...managed to get there by 9.30....approximately. By midday we were done, and it was good..

The agenda for the day was strength training using bodyweight. Finishing off with some conditioning with a long rope and kettlebells.

Before that though as always we kicked off with a dynamic warm-up and joint mobility (essential for joint health and longevity, heightened body awarenes and improving movement quality)

Cj Swaby led the way with an upper body bias using some Qi Qong along the way and some "tea cups", Simon Clohessy was to follow but promptly delegated the rest to me! Cossack drills and variations for hip mobility and glute awakening, a few minutes of an overhead/yoga squat combo (à la Steve Maxwell) and few of the other usual suspects.

We then split into two groups and got on with it.

It was obvious that bodyweight strength training was going to involve pistols (single leg squat). We hit a variety of versions to suit everyones abilities and to kept reps in the 2-6 range.

Hamstrings were screaming with only a few sets of kneeling reverse hamstring curls. Adjusting the leverage took a bit of awareness to get the most out of this drill.

Hip snap was put into practice when to complement the strength work we got on with some jumps. Jumping with 1 and 2 legs over benches and steps in series working on effective landings and flow into the next jump and the odd roll.

We finished the leg part of our session with some precision jumps for distance from step to step under the guidance of James Bower who seemed to hang in the air in NBA style.

We traded insults with the other group whilst moving from studio to ground floor, they had started with an upper body dominance and we needed to cuckoo them away from the pull up bar.

Before he went on his way back up to the studio Michael Rook shared a version of the hindu push up with us that is inflicted upon him by his Silat instructor. It involved a praying mantis like rock onto the elbows whilst sweeping down then driving off them again into the cobra finishing position. This variation gives an extra bite into the triceps and trunk.

The upper body dominated part of our work was a combination of hand stand and pull up work.

Handstands
From walking into handstands to lateral movement in HS to handstand pressing.

Pull-ups
With pull ups the possibilities are endless to hit various parts more heavily than others. Pull up and travel along the bar, off set pulls using the Metolius Rock Rings/towel/rope, clap pull ups and pull ups from the carabina attachments. Using the carabinas forces control of the swing, the option to push the elbows wider as you pull and also gave us room to pull up then reach higher to climb up the straps. We also did some muscle ups and inverted pull ups.

Those who were still working on their pull up abilities did prolonged hangs with an emphasis on cycling the tension from grip to lats, to trunk, to glutes. They also did some inverted rows (reverse pushups) hanging from a racked Olympic bar.

Before we rejoined the other group James Bower (above with the banana) took us through some prone supported preparation work that he experienced at one of the urban freeflow get togethers( http://www.urbanfreeflow.com/ ). Spider crawls, monitor/lizard crawl (whatever name you use it is basically a creeping press up with a knee in) moving forward and back. Then some monkey laterals with legs lifted and reaching out to side. These drills were well put together and a structured combination of primate training/cossack work, bear crawling and break dancing.

A brief conditioning session followed the bodyweight work.

Hand over hand rope pull to tow a body along the runway of judo mats. Everyone got involved, some keener than others! Once towed in, the towee[!] jumped up and ran back to the start of the run way, lay down and got towed again. Its a great bit of kit. Many thanks to Anjum who recycled this from London Heathrow.

We have managed whole workouts with the rope with various pulls, drags, whipping and swinging actions. Thanks to Martin Snow of Trinity Boxing gym in New York for the whipping innovations he showed me. ( www.trinityboxing.com )

Final bit of work was a 5 minute continuous piece of kb Clean and press