Tacfit and Groundfighter workout videos

[MichaelR]

Hi. I've been watching with interest Coach Sonnon's Tacfit and 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 clubbell moves in the workouts: I thought these would feature prominently in a CST fighters' conditioning routine?

[Scott Sonnon]

Hi. I've been watching with interest Coach Sonnon's Tacfit and 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 Clubbell® 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.
My Workout Road-Map to the 2010 World Games! (http://www.rmaxinternational.com/forum/../flowcoach/?p=642)

Begin reading there. This is all that we're publicly willing to disclose regarding my training.

Sports Performance (or "Skill-Specific Preparedness" - SSP - in the vernacular of CST's Training Hierarchy Pyramid) is massively distinct from fitness. This is why someone wanting to be fit, should rarely if ever follow an athlete's program.

Firstly, SSP regards improving not merely the physiological, but also the biomechanical and the bioenergetic specificity of the target skills. Even the physiological aspect is different because "fitness physique" to most people means the "bodybuilding physique." The physio aspect of a particular sport is totally different.

Then there are also the aspects of the biomechanical (improving 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), and the bioenergetic (enhancing 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 physiological, biomechanical and bioenergetic aspects of SPP 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 GPP - general physical preparedness, 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/physiological preparedness.

Up the THPyramid it goes.

Secondly, peaking for performance is entirely individualized. My programs are tailored to my weaknesses, as we are error-focused coaches, as much as we are precision-focused coaches. We must remove the restrictive forces as much as press on the driving forces. And that doesn't mean that I'm broken. Quite the contrary, I'm in fantastic "shape" able to outperform athletes half my age. BUT... ALL exercises must be compensated for... and I have compensations, some of them quite strong.

Since my primary "job" is teaching classic Clubbell exercises, I excel at them (though you must not have watched all the videos because there are many CB exercises, classic and sports-performance oriented) throughout them. 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 they're specifically designed to strengthen hidden weaknesses in me: 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.

[MichaelR]

Wow, thanks for the thorough reply! That and the original article make sense of the workouts. OK, so I guess I had better abandon my plan to incorporate some of the workout exercises into my repertoire and do a bit of research into GPP...and I'm guessing FlowFit, Be Breathed and Forward Pressure etc would be a good place to start...

[Scott Sonnon]

I expanded upon my response here:

Fitness vs. Tactical Conditioning? (http://www.rmaxinternational.com/forum/../flowcoach/?p=664)