Ben Edwards is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of Australia’s most exciting – and experienced – combat athletes. Few fighters are qualified to comment on MMA, boxing and Kickboxing: Ben has excelled at all three.
T.T: How did you come to striking? Was it through a traditional martial art? How were you initially taught? Did those elements of style change once you started kickboxing?
B.E: I used to punch the shit out of my punching bag when I was a teenager.
This article, originally printed in International Kickboxer Magazine, is republished here as an introduction to ‘Bangin’ Ben. He was recently interviewed for this blog on the subject of striking and the way it differs for MMA, boxing and kickboxing. Ben is a unique authority, having fought at an international level as both a boxer and a kickboxer. He also stands poised in the brink of international competition as an MMA fighter.
What’s the difference between warming up for fitness and warming up for self-defence training?
One is psychological, the other is slightly physical. When I teach, I have three-tiered mindset: scared, angry and controlled mindset. Those are the three I play with. The warm up is about getting you into that frame of mind. Visualisation, self-talk. With fitness, there’s only a little bit of self-talk in that.
Jim Armstrong, Dean of Raw Combatives, deals with the vagaries of combat described by Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman in his seminal books On Combat and On Killing.
Grossman devised a scale to chart the way in which an individual’s motor control deteriorates when the heart rate becomes accelerated by the stress of an impending human conflict. While all accelerated heart rates result in a deterioration in performance, psychological stress is a different stimulus that brings a unique set of problems.
Do you have to train for the same activity differently, depending on the stress, even if the skills you employ are the same? Grossman says you do, the US military believe him and this is what Jim Armstrong thinks about it.
Shihan Cameron Quinn regales the Tyger with insights into why – and how – a rock climber comes to qualify as a warrior.
“Discomfort is the price of admission to a meaningful life.”
Susan David,
During her TED talk entitled, ‘The Gift and Power of Emotional Courage.’
There’s a problem with ‘modern’ gym training: you’re expected to leave your brain at the door. In reality, whether this is a good or bad thing is irrelevant; it’s not actually possible. Your mind has a habit of following you everywhere and demands to be involved in everything.
Blitz Magazine, Volume 31, No. 6 / Dec 17 – Jan 18
Okinawa is the birthplace of karate. Japan’s fifth-largest prefecture was a cauldron of conflict during the second world war and is now a bucolic territory, known to boast one of the largest populations of centenarians in the world.