Back From Camp - Part 3

Well here it is.... Part 3 of my adventure to Xtreme Couture. For my 50th birthday, my wife sent me to a 3 day MMA Training Camp at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas. Parts 1 and 2 talk about the adventures at camp. For this part, I'm just going to tie up a few loose ends.

Wounds - Overall, I came out pretty good. You can see the bruises on my shins in the above pictures. I also split open the bottoms of my feet. I still have some nasty wounds on my feet, but they are healing up pretty good. At camp, I asked Forrest how do they take care of their feet. He laughed, pulled off his socks and showed me his feet. They were actually almost as bad as mine. He said that every time he starts a new camp, his feet get chewed up. He said that eventually they do get callused and get stronger.

Other Celebrity Coaches - The guy with me in the above picture is the infamous Junie "The Lunatic" Browning. Those of you who follow the UFC probably recognize him from the Reality TV Show The Ultimate Fighter 8. On the show, Junie demonstrated that he had some real talent as a fighter, but wasn't quite there mentally. He struggled with some anger management issues, especially when he was drinking. To put it bluntly, the guy came of as an immature jerk. After the show, Junie found a home at Xtreme Couture. I had read on the internet where he had jointed the team and how they had humbled him. That he was now growing up and maturing as a fighter and as a human being. Sooooo ..... One day, I can't remember if it was Friday or Saturday, (I know that's what happens when you get old), Mathew and I are working on some drill. Out of the corner of my eye, I see this guy walk by with a hand grenade tattooed on his hand walk by. I thought to myself, I wonder if it is Junie. I mean how many other people would choose a tattoo like that? Well, it was him. It tuns out that he had changed quite a bit. He was humbled, and even worked with me one on one. He tried really hard to be nice. Was he cocky? Oh yea. But don't you almost have to be to be a pro fighter?

The Whoops Excuse You Moment - Saturday afternoon, I was hot, tired and really sweaty from a whole day at camp. I parked my car on the 6th floor of the parking garage at the hotel and go into the elevator. I lean up against the back wall with my gear bag behind me. The elevator stops at the 5th floor, and a bunch of about 6 little old ladies start to load in. There really isn't room for them, but they squish in anyways. A little lady of about 80 years of age, starts backing in. She smashes right into me with her backside, pushing herself right into my cup. She squeals, turns and looks up at me and says "Oh my." I just smiled. She just giggled.

Randy Couture - Before camp, I received an e-mail saying that Randy would not be able to attend Camp. He was working on a movie, The Expendables, with Sylvester Stallone, and would not be able to make it back in time. We were told that Forrest would run the camp instead of Randy. I was disappointed, but Forrest did a great job. Randy did tele-conference in for a question and answer session. That was pretty cool, and Randy remains one of my heroes. For those of you who don't know about Randy, he first won the title, Heavy Weight Champion of the world in 1997, then again in 2000. Later, Randy dropped down to Light Heavyweight where he also became Champion of the World, at the age of 40. In 2006, Randy retired, but grew antsy. Randy came out of retirement and at the age of 43 again became the Heavy Weight Champion of the World. That is why he is my hero. Us old guys need to stick together.

The Reality Check Moment - I was walking into class one morning and I was talking to Gary the Kick Boxer. He asked how the Vette ran through the desert. He asked if it smoothed out at about 80, and wanted to know if I took the top off the car. I told him it did run best between 80 and 90 and that I took the roof off in Barstow and drove the rest of the way in topless. He said "Think about it.... You are driving 80 through the desert in a Corvette with the roof off, on your way to MMA Training Camp at Xtreme Couture." "Do you know how many people wish they were you?" I replied... "Yep, life is good."

Back From Camp - Part 2

Well I'm back. Back from Camp, Back to Work, and Back for Part 2 about my adventure at Xtreme Couture. I attend Training Camp and got to train with some of the best instructors and fighters in the world. In Part 1 I described the first 2 days of my adventure, and now it's time for the next part of my story.........

Saturday - I woke up Saturday morning a little bit sore. My shins were bruising up nicely and my neck had a little bit of a crick in it. I took a couple of Tylenol. One of the things after Weight Loss Surgery is you can no longer take NSAIDS like Motrin, Aspirin, or Aleve. You can still take Tylenol, but it isn't quite the same.

I jumped in the car and headed to the gym. As I was parking the car, I met a young guy named Gary. Gary was a hot shot kick boxer. He asked me what year my car was. I told him it was an 81. It turns out he used to have a 79. We talked about Corvettes being money pits. That's how you can tell a real Corvette owner. If he understands that concept, he really owned a vette and not just a pretender. Anyways..... as we were walking in, he asked me where I trained in Jiu-Jitsu. I laughed and told him that yesterday was my first day. He replied "Wow, that's pretty surprising, you seem pretty limber." That made my day. People are so nice here!!!!

Saturday Camp was broken into two parts, with both parts being taught by Coach Ron Frazier. That's Ron in the above picture with me. Ron is the head Boxing Coach at Xtreme Couture. That means he coaches the top pro fighters in the business. He coaches Randy, Forrest, Mike Pyle and a ton of other guys, and today he was coaching us!

We worked on all kinds of drills and conditioning. We hit the bags, we worked with boxing gloves, we worked with MMA gloves, man, we just plain worked. I was literally soaking wet from sweat, but it was so much fun. Ron is such a nice guy and he so wants each student to be the best they can be. He is truly an inspiring coach. He gave a couple words of wisdom to the class that I will never forget. "Getting punched in the face sucks." I guess it was his delivery, but it was hilarious.

After a tough day, it was time to head back to the Hotel. I parked the car got up to the room and soaked in the tub. I then figured I would lay down and take a little nap. I was out like a light. After awhile, I rolled over and looked at the clock. Crap.... it said it was 10:38. Class began at 10:00. I got changed, grabbed my gear, and ran through the lobby of the hotel. As I go by the pool, I notice that it is awful dark for almost 11:00. I look at my cell phone and finally realize it is still night. I go back to the room, take some more Tylenol and go back to sleep.

Sunday - I wake up feeling sore and kind of stupid for the time thing, but I'm excited for Camp. This is the final day and I've almost made it through. Today we are working on wrestling. The Coaches for today are Forrest and Ron. We worked on some take-downs and a bunch of other drills. At one point we did this cool drill. The drill required a lot of room, so two teams got to go into the Octagon.

At Xtreme Couture, not only do they have a large, matted area for working out, they also have a full size professional boxing ring, and more importantly, they have a full size, regulation Octagon, also known as a cage.

The cage is an 8 sided structure with the walls being made from metal cyclone type fencing. The fence is covered by black vinyl. The cage sits up 4 feet in the air, on a platform. It has a foam pad around the top of the fence and at the post points. Even though the fence is covered with a black vinyl coating, it still hurts. If you put your back to the fence and try and push yourself up, you feel it. I have a new appreciation for the fighters. The things that look so easy on TV are actually painful.

Whoops, back to the drill......... So we get ready to start the next drill. This one will require some room so my partner and I get to move up to the Octagon for this one. The drill starts with one partner holding the bags. The other guy kicks the bag as hard as he can. The guy holding the bag, moves the bag to let the other guy know which kick to throw. After a 5 minute round, the partners switch. The other guy now has to hold the bag. After each guy takes their turn, the next round is a wrestling round. One guy gets in the other guys guard and wrestles or uses Jiu-Jitsu to earn a submission. This part is done at full speed. Very, very cool. After this round we start over so that each guy gets to start in guard for a 5 minute round. The rest of the session is spent sweating like crazy. Wrestling is hard and it takes a lot out of you, but the experience was cool.

Training Camp ends with a photo-op session. After pictures, I head back to the Hotel. I'm soaking wet from sweat and I'm tired. I'm also kind of proud. I'm proud that I survived and that I did so well. Training Camp was the experience of a lifetime!

Tomorrow or the next day, I'll post Part 3.

Back From Camp and a Little Bit Sore

Well I did it! I survived Training Camp! I'm back and just a little bit sore, but what a blast. OK, maybe a little more than just a little bit sore. Here is a quick run-down of Thursday and Friday, with stories about Saturday and Sunday to come ....


Thursday - I jumped in the Corvette and took off. I got to Vegas in about 8 hours and the car ran great. It loves to run at 80! I checked in to the Golden Nugget and took a nap. I woke up and went down to play cards at the El Cortez. It is kind of a dumpy hotel but they usually have $3, single hand blackjack. They have changed a bit. They had remodeled and made all of the tables smoke free. That was cool, but now they have double deck blackjack. Well I played for a couple of hours and dropped $50.


Friday Morning - Up early and off to camp. Friday morning wasn't part of the official camp, however, Campers were allowed to attend any other classes while they were there, so I went to a Muay Thai class. Muay Thai is a style of fighting that originated in Thailand. The basic premise is your body consists of 8 weapons. Your legs, your knees, your hands and your elbows. Muay Thai uses all these to disable your opponent.

The trainer was a pro-fighter named Joey Varner. I'd actually taken a class with him a couple of years ago. He claims he remembers me, but he was probably just being nice. He has fought in the IFO and is one of the very nicest people you will ever meet. This was a great class. We worked on conditioning, and lots of striking.

To warm up, he has us jump rope for 5 minutes, then do 20 push ups. Then he has us go back to the jump rope for another 5 minutes, then 20 push ups, and 20 sit ups. Then back on the jump rope for 5 minutes. We finished with 20 push ups, 20 sit ups, and 20 squat jumps. Man I was starting to get tired before we even got to the good stuff.

We spent the rest of the hour working on striking drills. We worked on mostly punches and side kicks, while working on the heavy bags. We finished with ..... more conditioning! Since we weren't even tired yet, we ran lots of sprints. By the end of class, by shins were black and blue and I had bruises all over my feet. I was ready for a nap, so I headed back to the Hotel. The official Camp starts at 7:00 pm.

Friday Evening - After a nap, a soak in the hot-tub and a few runs down the water-slide, it was time to head off. When I got to camp, it was apparent I was going to be the oldest Camper. The next oldest guy was 45. He was a professional Squash player from Ontario. His wife had given the Camp to him for his 45th birthday. There were people from New Zeland, Scotland, Canada and from all over the Country. Some were already pro fighters, some were amateur fighters looking to build their skill set to go pro, and there were a couple of guys like me with a little bit of training who just wanted to learn more. The average age was probably 25 with the youngest of 16. This evening, the focus was on Jiu-Jitsu.


Jiu-Jitsu is an important part of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). When the fight goes to the ground, wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu come into play. Jiu-Jitsu is a fighting style that relies on leverage and the applying of joint-locks and choke-holds to defeat your opponent. Going into camp, I had very little Jiu-Jitsu, having only learned a few things while training with Aaron. The coaches for this evening were Head Extreme Couture Jiu-Jitsu Coach Neil Melanson and Former UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion of the World, Forrest Griffin. Neil is the man who trains Randy Couture, Forrest and all the other pro fighters at Xtreme Couture and Forrest is well, Forrest. You couldn't ask for two nicer people or better teachers. The picture above is of Forrest and I.

We started by pairing up with someone about our same sizes. I paired up with a 38 year old guy named Mathew something. Mathew was almost as tall as me, probably 20 pounds lighter, but with a lot more experience. Mathew and I stayed partners for the entire camp. He was really an interesting guy. He was a writer. His first published book was about the Showlin Monks of China. He is currently working on a book about MMA, and already has a publishing deal set up. He has been traveling around studying different types of fighting. He has been to Rio to study Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Russia to study a fighting style called Sambo, and now he was at camp to train with some pros. He was already well known to the Camp Instructors.

We spent the next 2 hours working on a choke hold called a triangle, and how to escape the triangle when you are on the wrong end of one. The triangle involves the squishing of the arteries in your opponents neck with your thighs and calf muscles. When applied correctly, the hold cuts off oxygen to the brain, causing your opponent to black out. We took turns applying the move, starting at a very slow speed and moving up faster and faster until we could do it at full speed. The guy getting choked would tap out before loosing consciousness. I actually got to work one on one with both Neil and Forrest. It was really cool. I didn't think I could bend like that but it turns out I was actually pretty good at it. After this session, I was pretty sore so it was back to the Hotel for a quick water slide and a soak in the hot tub.

If you have never been to the Golden Nugget, you have to at least check out the pool. They spent $32 million to create the pool and water slide. The slide actually goes through the middle of a shark tank. You can see sharks swimming by as you go through the tube. It is really cool. You can check it out at: http://www.goldennugget.com/amenities/pool.asp

I'll try to post tomorrow or the next day to tell about Saturday and Sunday.

Countdown to Training Camp

It's Countdown to Training Camp! On Thursday, I'm off to a Cage Fighting Training Camp in Las Vegas. What? I know it sounds kind of crazy, so let me start back a couple of years.

It was a late night, in early April, 2005. I was watching TV in bed, unable to sleep (that happens a lot when you weigh 400 pounds and can't get comfortable). As I was channel surfing, I came across some kind of weird boxing match. Two kids, Stephan Bonnar and Forest Griffin, were in the middle of a war. They were giving everything they had to a crazy fight. They were both bloody and exhausted, but they fought on. The fight was memorable, and is often called the fight that saved the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. The fight was the finale to Season 1 of a show called the Ultimate Fighter. The show is a reality based show where a group of young fighters compete against each other to become crowned the Ultimate Fighter, and earn a six figure contract in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

In December of 2005, I had my Gastric Bypass surgery. I began to loose weight quickly, and I soon looked kind of sickly. I was melting away, along with any kind of muscle I may have used to have had. Someone who didn't know I had the surgery asked my Son, Rocky, if I had cancer. I was actually starting to feel tired all the time and really felt kind of sick. I decided that it was time to break down and seek professional advice. It was time to find a trainer.

Rocky told me that his buddy Aaron was training in Mixed Martial Arts and Cage Fighting. Now I've know Aaron for years. He's had Thanksgiving with our family, been to our 4th of July bash, and my wife and I had even seen his band, Uzi Suicide, play many times. I asked Rocky if he thought he would be willing to work with me. That question led me to being in the best shape of my life.

When I first started training with Aaron, I wanted to get right to the good stuff. I wanted to get in the cage and kick some tail. The sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) combines boxing, kick-boxing, wrestling, ju-jitsu, muy thai, karate, and judo. I wanted it all right away. Aaron was smart. He made me start with the basics. Conditioning, conditioning, nutrition, and more conditioning. Did I mention he was big on conditioning? After awhile, he started to teach me the basics. We started with some basic striking. Lots of punches, elbows, and even some kicks, but always after basic conditioning.

Fast forward a couple of years. My love of MMA continued to grow, and I was in great shape. Rocky and I were headed to Vegas for Bikefest. I knew that Randy Couture had just opened up a gym in Vegas, so I looked it up on the Internet. It turns out that for a small fee, non-members can purchase a day pass to the gym and take any of their classes. Hey this was right up my alley. Randy Couture was kind of my hero. You see he had been a dominant force in the UFC. He lost a couple of fights, was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, and retired. But wait, there's more. Randy got bored, came out of retirement, moved up to the Heavy Weight division and won the Title. He was Heavy Weight Champion of the World and way past 40. The guy was a stud and a hero to everyone, not just those of us with a little grey on top.

While in Vegas, I went to his gym, Xtreme Couture. I signed up to take a striking class. When class started, I looked around. This was a regular class that met every Friday morning. I was the oldest guy in the class by at least 15 years! Now not to brag, but I wasn't the best guy there, but I was a long way from the worst. :-) I came away from that class with the biggest grin on my face. I was kind of sore, but I had so much fun. I talked about that 1 hour class for months!

I continue to monitor the gym's website, and whenever we go to Vegas, I always plan on hitting the gym, even for just a one hour class. I recently noticed that they were going to have a 3 day training camp. I mentioned it to my wife. Wouldn't that be cool. Three days of MMA and nothing to do but train and workout! Well my Wife decided to send me to the three day training camp for my 50th birthday. My birthday isn't until September, but the camp starts on June 19th, and I'm there! Wish me luck!