Robert V
05-31-2004, 10:39 PM
I was recently presented with an advance release copy of Scott Sonnon's Three Dimensional Performance Pyramid (http://www.circularstrength.com/3dpp.html) for the Combat Athlete (3DPP) to review.
This is a work of art guys!
What is combat? 3DPP is combat! That is Three Dimensional Performance Pyramid for the Combat Athlete, written by Scott Sonnon. This manual is the blueprint for constructing a fighter, from the inside out to the inside out again.
This is a conceptual training tool one uses on his journey to "flow" state. It's a mental picture one uses to envisioning the work one must do and goals one strives towards. At its base is his (PDT) Performance Diagnostic Trinity. Mr. Sonnon details on how his experiences in Sambo and ROSS lead him to develop this assessment used to improve the performance of a combat athlete. According to this model, an athlete with superior conditioning and toughness can overcome an athlete with superior skill, an athlete with superior toughness and skills can overcome one with superior conditioning, one with superior skills and conditioning can overcome one with superior toughness.
This is where he really got my attention. You see, I've had a very brief Judo competitive Judo career. I studied Mr. Sonnon's combat material and practiced/taught his conditioning concept. Then, I stepped on the mat with Judokas who were very experienced and skilled. To my surprise, I was modestly successful against these athletes whom I thought would have no problems defeating me.
I could not understand why. I didn't really know how to ask that question or to whom I could address it to, but after reading 3DPP I got it.
The thing that I had in my favor was "toughness". I had spent all my life doing various forms of "hardwork", from which "Toughness" derives (Mr. Sonnon goes into great detail about the value of "hardwork" in both combat sports and reality based training) Freestyle, folkstyle, greco, submission, boxing, kickboxing, TKD, BJJ, NHB and full contact combatives bestowed upon me the gift of "toughness". In his manual, Mr. Sonnon explains how my "hardwork" and crosstraining actually diminished my "fear reactivity", uncovering my confidence. It also gave me the ability to perform under various stressful circumstances.
Then there was my "conditioning". Mr. Sonnon goes in greater detail than ever to explain the differences and needs for GPP (General Physical Prepareness) and SPP (Specific Physical Prepareness). My training consisted of SPP training in the form of his Clubbells, Bodyflow and Warrior Wellness “Biomechanical Exercise.”
While GPP trains your muscles and your effectiveness, SPP trainings your movement and makes you efficient. This is the ultimate goal he states: to be Effectively Efficient! I focused on movements that were very similar to the movement patterns that would actual be at play in a Judo match. Neuro-muscularly, my body was prepared for adjustments and re-adjustments, which would decrease my recovery time. "The moves between the moves." This is the nucleus of "flow". Even though I was not as skilled as my opponents, because "how" I trained my physical attributes were superior.
Another important element of the 3DPP is the Training Hierarchy Pyramid (THP). This consists of at the bottom GPP, SPP, Physical skills and at the very top, Mental Emotional skills. The bottom must be solid before you can move on to the next level. I didn't have a lot of "Judo" skills. But I did have "tools" that I used from Mr. Sonnon's Immovable Object Unstoppable Force (http://www.rmax.tv/iouf.html) program. Most valuable was the knowledge of how to negotiate one's "joint mass center" and how to distinguish their respiration.
But it was the "Mental/Emotional" skills that gave me my greatest victory. This is built upon an athlete's ability to recovery from failure and perform with distraction. One of the biggest distractions can be an athlete's attachment to "winning". Mr. Sonnon writes about how most athletes would rather perform badly and win, opposed to perform well and lose. And how one of the true goals of combat sports was to diminish emotional detachment.
In my last Judo shiai, I walked onto the mat with the rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb". I wasn't thinking about winning or losing, but only the next line in the rhyme. As we began to play, I felt appreciative of my Judo opponent for he was giving me an opportunity to learn. I knew the end result. Not winning, not losing, but learning. Right before my final match of the tournament, which happened to be the finals, I sat along the wall barely able to walk. I had a pulled groin. I was about to let the officials know that I would not be able to continue, but I asked myself "why".
Was it because if I played with this injury I'd lose? No, I had to continue for I knew just by getting on the mat that I would "win self-improvement". This is what Mr. Sonnon teaches.
The lone reason I walked into the Judo world was to improve my "clinch game", which is the cornerstone of my "Combatives" training. This training is more "Reality based". In his manual, Mr. Sonnon elaborates a great deal on how Combat sports should be the SPP for Reality based systems. I've always base my "combatives" training with police officers heavily on "hard-work" or "aliveness". But it wasn't until I was introduced to Mr. Sonnon's concept of "soft-work" transitioning into "hardwork" that I felt my training was complete. One of the many epiphanies in manual is his section "How would criminal want you to train in martial arts?" This is a must read for anyone involved in combat sports, traditional martial arts or reality based systems.
The manual gives specific examples of how to transition from "soft-work" to "hardwork". he actually tells you step by step how he could enhance a fighters performance in one workout, with his concept of going from "soft to hard". He does it not by teaching "technique", but creating an experience with a progressive form of drilling. He makes it clear that he doesn't teach technique. Incremental progression is what Mr. Sonnon uses in his "Response-based approach." This is now the method I use and will forever... unless he comes up with something better!
What do you do in the fight? Well, Mr. Sonnon gives you a sound strategy. It is a strategy Mr. Sonnon gave me when I was confronted with trying to clinch a good striker in a NHB scenario. He explains this in his "Flow State Performance Spiral and the Awareness Dome" chapter. I was taking a lot of shots to my head in my attempts to clinch with my opponent. Mr. Sonnon advised me move and attack at an angle, grab one arm on my way in and allow my opponent's defense to give me my opening. In his manual he describes this as "forcing my opponent out of attention and into intending. His emotional arousal creates tension and interferes with his flow, sending him in what Mr. Sonnon calls the "Vortex". To consciously do this, I had to be in what he refers to as "Flow State". He gives clear characteristics of this state.
But, how does one get out of the "Vortex"? This manual explains how integrating your focus on the task and by concentrating on your performance goals you can spiral upward into what he calls the "zone".
This manual can not only enhance you as an athlete, but a human being. Its pinnacle is "awareness", for the "flow state" he speaks of cannot be achieved without it.
I feel as if I've lived this manual. It spoke to me personally. It appears to be a work that has taken a lifetime for Scott Sonnon to create. It wasn't built upon ancient myths, but real blood, sweat and tears. I feel a little guilty for I can so easily drink today from the well it took a master builder a lifetime to construct. But I truly think that was his intention.
This is a work of art guys!
What is combat? 3DPP is combat! That is Three Dimensional Performance Pyramid for the Combat Athlete, written by Scott Sonnon. This manual is the blueprint for constructing a fighter, from the inside out to the inside out again.
This is a conceptual training tool one uses on his journey to "flow" state. It's a mental picture one uses to envisioning the work one must do and goals one strives towards. At its base is his (PDT) Performance Diagnostic Trinity. Mr. Sonnon details on how his experiences in Sambo and ROSS lead him to develop this assessment used to improve the performance of a combat athlete. According to this model, an athlete with superior conditioning and toughness can overcome an athlete with superior skill, an athlete with superior toughness and skills can overcome one with superior conditioning, one with superior skills and conditioning can overcome one with superior toughness.
This is where he really got my attention. You see, I've had a very brief Judo competitive Judo career. I studied Mr. Sonnon's combat material and practiced/taught his conditioning concept. Then, I stepped on the mat with Judokas who were very experienced and skilled. To my surprise, I was modestly successful against these athletes whom I thought would have no problems defeating me.
I could not understand why. I didn't really know how to ask that question or to whom I could address it to, but after reading 3DPP I got it.
The thing that I had in my favor was "toughness". I had spent all my life doing various forms of "hardwork", from which "Toughness" derives (Mr. Sonnon goes into great detail about the value of "hardwork" in both combat sports and reality based training) Freestyle, folkstyle, greco, submission, boxing, kickboxing, TKD, BJJ, NHB and full contact combatives bestowed upon me the gift of "toughness". In his manual, Mr. Sonnon explains how my "hardwork" and crosstraining actually diminished my "fear reactivity", uncovering my confidence. It also gave me the ability to perform under various stressful circumstances.
Then there was my "conditioning". Mr. Sonnon goes in greater detail than ever to explain the differences and needs for GPP (General Physical Prepareness) and SPP (Specific Physical Prepareness). My training consisted of SPP training in the form of his Clubbells, Bodyflow and Warrior Wellness “Biomechanical Exercise.”
While GPP trains your muscles and your effectiveness, SPP trainings your movement and makes you efficient. This is the ultimate goal he states: to be Effectively Efficient! I focused on movements that were very similar to the movement patterns that would actual be at play in a Judo match. Neuro-muscularly, my body was prepared for adjustments and re-adjustments, which would decrease my recovery time. "The moves between the moves." This is the nucleus of "flow". Even though I was not as skilled as my opponents, because "how" I trained my physical attributes were superior.
Another important element of the 3DPP is the Training Hierarchy Pyramid (THP). This consists of at the bottom GPP, SPP, Physical skills and at the very top, Mental Emotional skills. The bottom must be solid before you can move on to the next level. I didn't have a lot of "Judo" skills. But I did have "tools" that I used from Mr. Sonnon's Immovable Object Unstoppable Force (http://www.rmax.tv/iouf.html) program. Most valuable was the knowledge of how to negotiate one's "joint mass center" and how to distinguish their respiration.
But it was the "Mental/Emotional" skills that gave me my greatest victory. This is built upon an athlete's ability to recovery from failure and perform with distraction. One of the biggest distractions can be an athlete's attachment to "winning". Mr. Sonnon writes about how most athletes would rather perform badly and win, opposed to perform well and lose. And how one of the true goals of combat sports was to diminish emotional detachment.
In my last Judo shiai, I walked onto the mat with the rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb". I wasn't thinking about winning or losing, but only the next line in the rhyme. As we began to play, I felt appreciative of my Judo opponent for he was giving me an opportunity to learn. I knew the end result. Not winning, not losing, but learning. Right before my final match of the tournament, which happened to be the finals, I sat along the wall barely able to walk. I had a pulled groin. I was about to let the officials know that I would not be able to continue, but I asked myself "why".
Was it because if I played with this injury I'd lose? No, I had to continue for I knew just by getting on the mat that I would "win self-improvement". This is what Mr. Sonnon teaches.
The lone reason I walked into the Judo world was to improve my "clinch game", which is the cornerstone of my "Combatives" training. This training is more "Reality based". In his manual, Mr. Sonnon elaborates a great deal on how Combat sports should be the SPP for Reality based systems. I've always base my "combatives" training with police officers heavily on "hard-work" or "aliveness". But it wasn't until I was introduced to Mr. Sonnon's concept of "soft-work" transitioning into "hardwork" that I felt my training was complete. One of the many epiphanies in manual is his section "How would criminal want you to train in martial arts?" This is a must read for anyone involved in combat sports, traditional martial arts or reality based systems.
The manual gives specific examples of how to transition from "soft-work" to "hardwork". he actually tells you step by step how he could enhance a fighters performance in one workout, with his concept of going from "soft to hard". He does it not by teaching "technique", but creating an experience with a progressive form of drilling. He makes it clear that he doesn't teach technique. Incremental progression is what Mr. Sonnon uses in his "Response-based approach." This is now the method I use and will forever... unless he comes up with something better!
What do you do in the fight? Well, Mr. Sonnon gives you a sound strategy. It is a strategy Mr. Sonnon gave me when I was confronted with trying to clinch a good striker in a NHB scenario. He explains this in his "Flow State Performance Spiral and the Awareness Dome" chapter. I was taking a lot of shots to my head in my attempts to clinch with my opponent. Mr. Sonnon advised me move and attack at an angle, grab one arm on my way in and allow my opponent's defense to give me my opening. In his manual he describes this as "forcing my opponent out of attention and into intending. His emotional arousal creates tension and interferes with his flow, sending him in what Mr. Sonnon calls the "Vortex". To consciously do this, I had to be in what he refers to as "Flow State". He gives clear characteristics of this state.
But, how does one get out of the "Vortex"? This manual explains how integrating your focus on the task and by concentrating on your performance goals you can spiral upward into what he calls the "zone".
This manual can not only enhance you as an athlete, but a human being. Its pinnacle is "awareness", for the "flow state" he speaks of cannot be achieved without it.
I feel as if I've lived this manual. It spoke to me personally. It appears to be a work that has taken a lifetime for Scott Sonnon to create. It wasn't built upon ancient myths, but real blood, sweat and tears. I feel a little guilty for I can so easily drink today from the well it took a master builder a lifetime to construct. But I truly think that was his intention.