 Obviously, we're going to do a little bit of a different episode today given the state of things as they are currently Everybody's thinking precautions first and foremost I hope all of you out there. Okay, and that you're staying safe and that you're watching from the safety of your own home If you're able to do that so far, you know, we're okay at the moment You know Zach and I and our families were kind of hunkering down and we're doing the same thing We're trying to be proactive and preventive. We are in South Florida, which is unfortunately a hot spot right now So we are trying to take the extra precautions to be extra safe and this is why I'm filming this episode for my home office I just want to do a little bit of a discussion And I know a lot of you are facing the same problem that we are is that you know schools are closing right now Now what I don't want to do today is just give you a list of drills that you can practice while you're at home I mean there's already a ton of that material out there as it is To be honest, I see Mike and since they and though they've got lots of great tips that they always put out And even just the end camp just put out some really cool Simple drills that you can do in practice, especially if you're at home and it can find space So check out those channels. They've got a lot of great tips What I want to talk about today is more along the lines of the overall big picture of ah, my school clothes are Oh, I can't train right now. So it's not so much specific drills But how do you approach training on your own whether this this lasts a month a week? You know multiple months. We don't know we don't know how long this is gonna last right now So in the meantime, let's look at the big picture of how you would approach this this challenge now before we get into this I do want to dress one thing and Whether you're training at home by yourself or if you've got a partner that you train with at home or sibling or you're outside In condition to work on pads regardless of how you train be extremely careful Don't go too hard. You know, don't put yourself in unnecessary risk Keep this in the back your mind that you want to stay safe. Do not get injured now is not the time for you to injure yourself You know hospitals and health care workers are already over staff and overworked and there's actually a good chance if your injury is not that Threatening it might not be tended to right away. So please please please be careful This is not the time to hurt yourself. So take however safe you'd normally be bump it up If you not just just protect yourself because right now there's there's enough work out there as this a lot of schools Have opened up an online streaming program especially for the kids so that way you can still get your training at home You can still get your instruction. It's not the same as being in the live class setting But it's better than nothing now unfortunately for most schools that isn't an option or that's not set up in a lot Of schools have just you know closed for a while. So first of all, if you're an MMA student This one's a little bit tough because MMA is all about working with partners. It's pressure testing It's sparring and if you're a kickboxing class or Brazilian Jiu-jitsu class That's harder to train on your own because you do need that feedback So in the meantime, this is a good chance obviously and this shouldn't have to be said is and I'm sure you guys already know this Keep up your endurance. Keep up your cardio. Keep up your conditioning. This is a good time to just keep working out Keep moving but if you feel like challenging yourself There is one thing you can do that I would maybe suggest if you are an MMA student And you've got a mix of arts Maybe take a day or two to kind of maybe research another art or maybe look for a kick or a punch that maybe exists in a Different art and you've trained but you haven't done it before and look at it and study it and wonder and see if that's something You can implement something you can work on. This is a good chance to do some research and expand your regimen here I'm not saying you have to go out and learn a whole other art I know a lot of you know a lot of MMA practitioners don't like traditional martial arts and that's fine But that doesn't mean there's not something to offer So this might be a good chance to just do some research Just look into an art that you might not have ever given a second thought before and just see if you can pull Something from it. Maybe there's a punch a kick a block anything you might go, huh? Maybe I could work that in there. Who knows maybe you'll find something Maybe you'll find your new favorite move doing that now if you are a beginning student I'm going to give you kind of the same advice or I would suggest the same thing as the MMA Students are in that I would recommend right now you work on moving get your body going work on your conditioning work on your Cardio, especially if you're an entry-level student. You just started This is a good time to build up that endurance get your breathing tactics down get your muscle work You know do your push-ups your sit-ups get conditioning to get your calisthenics in so that way when you go back to class You're gonna be much better shape much better prepared for whatever they throw at you and even you know Whatever you have on its point review it repeat it if they only taught you one kick or one punch do it over and over And over and over and over and in condition with it you master that punch master that kick so when you go back You have a much easier time adapting the material and learning new stuff now if you're an intermediate student and this of Course can vary it by different arts. This is a good chance to challenge yourself Because now you should have a pretty good grasp on your system and a good idea at least a good hold of a lot of your curriculum So definitely work that repeat that and the same thing is with the beginners go slow break it down But now you have a chance to Really kind of dissect a little bit more maybe go slower and maybe start comparing classes to each other Or comparing techniques to each other or do a kata backwards try to take this chance to kind of Elevate your your training a little bit and some artists like I know for Kempo When you were training for your black belt you have to write a thesis and it varies by school But usually your thesis is an observation you have of the art something you would change something you would add or a pattern You found it's a personal study and you basically write a paper on it So maybe use this opportunity whether your schools do that or not maybe take this opportunity to do that Why don't you work on your own thesis kind of what can you break down of your art? What what have you seen at this point so that if you had to write a thesis now? What could you say about your art not just repeat what you were taught? But what are your observations now? Interject yourself into the system you've learned enough of it to kind of start to make it your own explore This is a good time to explore so that would be my recommendation for intermediate students now for the senior students Or for those of you out there who've been training most of your life I don't need to tell you how to run your own training program You know at this point you know your strengths. You know your weaknesses. You know what you know You know what you know, so maybe you take this chance to take a deeper dive Maybe do this maybe put together a seminar whether you intend to teach one or not This is a good chance to put together an idea that you would want to propose so say you had to take out of The bit from your system and teach it to someone else maybe of another art altogether What could you say you what could you say about your system unique to your viewpoint that you could teach somebody else and Like I said treat it as a seminar putting a seminar together Mentally is a great great way to develop because it kind of makes you look at your art through different lenses and from different perspectives So maybe sometimes you can uncover new ideas So I would suggest trying that for a little bit even if it's just a fun drill If you've got a really good grasp on your art, maybe explore other arts Maybe look at an art you might not have considered before taking a second look at and see if there's any ideas That you can take an implement into your own system. So just look around the other arts Maybe you'll find something you know, huh? I kind of like that grab or kind of like that counter Maybe I'll start playing with here and experiment mix a little bit. This is a good chance to look at other systems Yeah, I mean you might be surprised to find out what some and what moves actually can overlap with what you're already doing So that's a good time to play. It's definitely a good sandbox opportunity. So unfortunately sparring is out for most of us You know schools being closed and let's let's be honest This is not the best time to be sweating and spitting and hugging other people So this is a good chance to expand yourself Academically even if it necessarily translates to combat or your fighting art it doesn't hurt to learn something new and on that note actually I'm gonna issue a challenge or request let's let's do This is a fun drill and we'll do it together. I challenge you right now after this video Go look for a martial art that you know nothing about Maybe you maybe when you've never even heard of go scan lists your research or you know Martial arts in India or or go to Wikipedia and just do list of martial arts find something you know Nothing about you've never heard of and read about it. Let's put it out reading about it And I don't say you have to even like it You don't even have to say oh, I'm gonna use this but maybe just use this opportunity to see what someone else is doing You never know sometimes just reading about other martial arts can't spark interest in something that you want to try or you might be like Oh, wow I never I never knew that or if you're a mixed martial arts fighter Maybe pick one of the arts you might not know about you know Muay thai is really big in the MMA maybe look at the history of that Maybe there's something deep in its development history that you weren't aware of or maybe you it's a concept you can implement Or even it's just to learn something new even if you can apply it to your training is sometimes good and fun Just to learn something new so that's my challenge She was right now after this video if you're looking for something to do if you want to enhance your training Go find an art, you know nothing about and just read about a little bit Just use some rudimentary research and I'm really curious for you guys to come back and post below what you've learned Just even if it's something a fun fact just something new, you know I'm gonna do it, too, and I know I'm gonna open myself up to a lot of suggestions. Oh go check out this art Go check out that art. I'm gonna go scan and look for an art that I know absolutely nothing about and we do the same thing I'm gonna kind of look at it and just kind of I'll even report back with my first impressions Just so it might you know not a full history of up so but just kind of maybe what I liked about It's what I didn't know about and so anything I've learned so let's use this as an opportunity to share and learn with each other This is the perfect opportunity now. We've covered this before the whole topic of online training and Schools that run through the internet. Honestly right now. It's your moment to shine I've covered this before and I'm still this is an ongoing thing I'm experimenting with but I do believe that online martial arts schools have their place and they have their benefits and Positives out of it. They are missing some things that I think you get from a dojo and a dojo only So but again being in the time that we're in this is a good opportunity to take advantage of a resource like that So if you're already enrolled in the home training program then perfect continue continues you are you know, you know What you're doing some people have trouble learning from videos. It's a challenge I've met people who who could read like I can read my techniques to wake up a little structured and written I can read a manual and get a really really good idea of a technique Probes the point of 90 to 94 percent accuracy and I might need adjustment later with an instructor But not every artist like that and I know people who look at a written technique and they're like I don't get it They have to see it visually so there's definitely different ways to learn So what I think I'm going to do is I might put together my own little video for you guys on how you would learn from videos Like how would you take this material and how would you break it down? Just little tips so that you can get the most out of it because it's not always easy to just look at a TV screen and learn Something or just read about it learn something. I have some practice doing so so I feel like I have some tips I can give you so I might put that together and release that for you guys soon Just since we're all at home and if you can get your hands on any videos at the very least They could be a great supplemental tool The other thing that's gonna be really tough is sticking to a schedule even though there's a lot of downtime You know many of you are home with family, you know many of you're still working from home You know pick your days pick a couple nights a week You know if you normally would have gone to class on Tuesday or Thursday Well in that time Tuesday and Thursday work out at home if you can if you try to work that out So try to keep someone to a schedule because it's so easy and I'm telling you right now It's so easy to be like I'll train tomorrow and I'm busy today I'm gonna go I'm gonna go work on this project today since I had the time. I'll train tomorrow tomorrow becomes all do it tomorrow It's so easy to keep making tomorrow tomorrow that you lose track of it and you fall out of it It's a very slippery slope So if you are training at home now that is gonna be one of your biggest challenges keep on it Especially if you've got distractions at home. It's okay to feel frustrated. It's okay to be upset But it's important right now that you still adhere to the safety guidelines But if you have to take your frustration out on something do it on a pad Please don't take it on anybody in your house or friends or family Everybody's in the same boat. Everybody's frustrated. So find a healthy way to do it Me personally my wave master is my therapy when you know like someone my father was sick or whenever I'm feeling particularly stressed I go outside and I just wail in that thing and it just just to get that aggression out It feels good and my favorite thing of choice is honestly and I don't even go out there I don't even work technique if I'm venting if I'm letting steam out I'm going for power and my favorite thing is you know my vertical punch I like to do more uppercut or there's like tight rotation vertical punches when I'm feeling extremely upset I just go in the pad and I just shoot those vertical punches as hard as I can again I'm not even focusing on technique so much. It's just that power I just wanted as a whale and get that energy out and I actually even kind of make it a game in that I try to hit the pad in a certain way I try to rotate and push all my power into it and strike it and pull it back to the point where I want the energy to go Into the pad that the pad should actually it hops So I don't let it sway and come back. That means you're pushing but I like to focus on getting that You hit that pad so hard the pad actually pops and it just I don't know There's something satisfying about making that thing hop hop hop hop hop across the patio Just because of the power you're putting into it So once again if it's okay to be frustrated, but just take it out on the pad Not on any loved ones. As far as tools of training with the home There's a lot of options we mentioned before I'm going to put a link in the description You know gifts for martial artists, but some of them that could come in useful now or again our grappling dummies And there's various kinds. You've got the century versus ones. They're big. They're stand-up. They're very expensive But you also have MMA dummies or they're made of vinyl. They're pre-stuff Those are really cool to work with or if you want if you're on a budget You want to go on the cheaper end they do make grappling dummies that are just cloth and you fill in your own stuffing And they're there are much more economical and you can put whatever you want in them So if you're a grappler if you want to work on throws those are great for that No, I know we can't spar but maybe the closest thing you can come to it Or at least as somewhat of a off-ree style drill you can do is something I think it's really cool It's one of my favorite tools are now I did get one as a gift for Christmas And I recommend this to everybody, but it's the boxing ball or various brands of it There's no particular brand I recommend, but there's there's a ton of them and they are cheap Basically, it's a strap that you wear around your head With a ball attached on the string and you hit the ball it goes out and it comes back and you hit it again It's great for reflexes. It's great for for tracking motions and targets And I'll tell you right now it is a lot harder than it looks you put that on for the first time you try it You're gonna feel like a toddler you're gonna feel like you're gonna feel like a white belt on day one It is so frustrating at first But once you start to get the hang of it when you start getting combinations down It starts to feel really good and it gets to a point where you know it might not be sparring But it's a good shadow boxing with freestyle drill at least with some somewhat of a resistance so that you can hit the ball And if you get good enough you can hit it and see people will actually let the ball come back at the face They'll do like head bobs and dodges and they'll turn around and hit it the other way So I've got a link for a few of those in the description below and on top of that one of our viewers recommended the focus ball Which is very very similar and I'll put a link to that below as well. I'm kind of curious to check those out I've never seen this before until it was suggested. It's very similar to the boxing ball But instead of you fix it on your head you put it on something in your home and there's two of them You can punch and kick them so go check that out as well and thank you so much. We're recommending that because that's kind of cool I want to look into that a little bit more. I know it sucks right now Not to be able to train in the capacity we would like to but you know, you know, we do have to stay together On this we have to support each other. This is a mental test. This is a big mental test We trained as martial artists to be better versions of ourselves and it's not just in physicality But no, it's our mentality as well. I don't mean mentality is an all we're balanced or centered This is a challenge, you know, you know, we're gonna have to get through this together So honestly treat this as a self-defense situation as you would anything else It's just now fought with more mental power the physical power So I thank you everybody again, please be sure to check out our patreon We have extra content there in the meantime and we'll be making more to go on patreon as well So anyway, thank you guys so much for watching. Please subscribe and we will see you soon and please stay safe everyone