Scott Sonnon: Born to Fail - Made to Succeed

Fitness vs. Tactical Conditioning?

One of our CST nation asked a great question which deserves repeating.

“Hi. I’ve been watching with interest Coach Sonnon’s TACFIT Groundfighter workout videos recently. Clearly they are an excellent resource, whether for follow-on by the gifted or adapted for mere mortals such as myself. However, I was wondering whether it would be possible to get some more information on the thinking behind them. For instance, are they constructed to follow the 6 degrees of freedom protocol? I was also wondering why there are so few of the classic CST moves in the workouts: I thought these would feature prominently in a CST fighters’ conditioning routine?”

Great question. Basically: don’t do as I do; seek what I sought: specific personal mastery.

Begin reading My Workout Road-Map to the 2010 World Games! This is all that we’re publicly willing to disclose regarding my training, but I’m pleased to help explain the difference between fitness and sports-performance.

Sports Performance, Sport-Specific, Performance Enhancement, or “Skill Specific Preparedness” (SSP) in the vernacular of CST’s Training Hierarchy Pyramid, is entirely distinct from what people think of as “general fitness.”

General fitness doesn’t exist, as you can only ever be specifically fit for something depending upon how you train the most, but that’s a different discussion. This article introduces how we, in CST, “progress” in our fitness for a specific goal.

This specificity of sports performance is why someone wanting to be fit, should rarely if ever follow an athlete’s program.

The 3 Aspects of Skill-Specific Preparedness:

• Physiological
• Bioenergetic
• Biomechanical

Skill-Specific Preparedness (SSP) requires that you’ve developed the physiological and the (bio)energetic so that you can begin to work on the skill specific (bio)mechanical attributes of the target skills.

• The physiological aspect - which is what most people think of as “fitness” - is different because to most people means the “bodybuilding” physique. The physiological aspect of a particular sport is totally different that what people think of as physique, which is why most gym-centric enthusiasts enter a sport without specific training to discover that they’ve become “all show and no go.”
• The bioenergetic aspect enhances the target energy profile of the intended sport performance; i.e. two 3 minute rounds of burst-recover-burst in the execution of the specific tactics and techniques I will be employing in sport jiujitsu.
• The biomechanical aspect improves the firing sequence and efficiency of the muscles/fascia used in a specific skill; i.e. the timing and power of the side hip snap into slinging the casting arm in a right cross.

The physiological, biomechanical and bioenergetic aspects of SSP have little importance to the average person’s fitness. It would be like using a scalpel when you need a pickax. (And I’m counting on the fact that most martial artists will be needing a pickax; please pass them another serving of pumpkin pie and turkey!)

Most people don’t know how to train General Physical Preparedness (GPP), and think that this is another term for “general fitness” - which doesn’t exist. SAID - specific adaptation to imposed demands - is not a principle. It’s a law. Even GPP must point somewhere - to SPP: Specific Physical Preparedness.

• General Physical Prep refers to developing the physiological aspect - the target attributes of the sport or intended activity (in the case of combat operators, law enforcement agents, fire rescue personnel, etc.)
• Specific Physical Prep refers to training the bioenergetic aspect of the target sport: the energy profile of how the activity expresses itself.
• Skill Specific Prep refers to the improving the biomechanical aspect of the target skills: their precision firing and efficiency. In CST-speak, we disassemble the 7 Key Components of a skill (grip/hand config, arm lock, shoulder pack, crown-to-coccyx alignment, core activation, hip recruitment and leg drive.) Tweak the component with a particular exercise, and then reassemble the components to test the result of the “performance enhancement.”
• Mental Emotional Prep addresses the psychological aspect of exercise: the two way street of the mind affecting the technique and performance judgment affecting the mind.

The mental aspect is just as important during general preparation, as maintaining general preparation during the mental training at peaking and tapering. For example, during general training, you will encounter your first exposure to your mental and emotional limitations. You must steel yourself for these barriers and know that they will attack you at the gate. The corollary is in late training, near the event, as you prepare yourself mentally to face your opponent, you must take care that you are not losing your general preparation in favor of purely psychological drills: the conditioning must be bound together mind-body.

The CST Training Hierarchy Pyramid is interwoven top to bottom, and as I discussed in the article linked above: the model is not as clean and sequential as two-dimensional models imply.

Peaking for performance is entirely individualized. My programs are tailored to my weaknesses, as we must as error-focused coaches as we are precision-focused. We must remove the restrictive forces as much as press on the driving forces.

That doesn’t mean that I’m broken. Quite the contrary, I’m in fantastic “shape” able to outperform athletes half my age. Bit all exercises must be compensated for… and I have compensations, some of them quite strong.

• The psychological difference between boxing and grappling is cavernous, and impacts how you prepare for either.
• The biomechanical difference between the hip snap of a hip toss in Sambo is different than the hip snap in a boxing hook.
• The bioenergetic difference between the slow strength-endurance of groundfighting is different than the explosive collision of kickboxing.
• The physiological difference between the heavy legs of a stand-up grappler is different than the quick twitch of the kickboxer.

Since my primary “job” is teaching exercise, I excel at them: all exercises are skills. However, if you watch my videos, you’ll see that I use many exercises, classic and sports-performance oriented: but it’s their specific purpose which is of import.

That’s why I’m in great “shape”. But it also means that we must be very innovative in ferreting out weaknesses and errors in skill execution. Some of the techniques I will/am using are not even necessary/recommended, because of the above stated reason, and that my exercises are specifically designed to strengthen hidden weaknesses in me as I continue to pressure cook my skills over time: physiologically, biomechanically and bioenergetically.

That’s about as succinct and clear as I can make it without your participation in Level III CST certification, because the terminology, principles and strategies are vast and confusing. Just as much art as science. Hopefully, this at least serves as a good primer for those of you interested in peak performance training, whether that’s for the gold medal, for taking down the bad guys and getting home safe, or simply for plumbing the depths of your potential.

For me, there are only 263 days until I compete. Now, back to my personal laboratory and that guinea pig that my coaches love to torment so much…

www.flowcoach.tv,

Scott Sonnon

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