martin
Martin, I love this site! I am going back over all the Q&A and I want to thank you for sharing all the information. This section has made me a better trainer. Speaking of training, I would like to know what has been the biggest breakthrough for you this year in your own training? I am sure this answer will move me further in my training like this site has already. Thanks in advance, Tim Silverman
Pictured are World, Pan American and European Champions Roger Gracie, Romulo Barral and Braulio Estima all monitoring their heart rate recovery during training.
Tim,
Thanks for writing in and for the feedback about the site. As I have found, the more you share, the more comes back to you in training and in life. If you have read "The Secret", you will learn about the law of attraction which I believe is true, but there is also the law of reciprocity: help enough people get what they want and you will get what you want for sure.
As for biggest breakthrough in training, that is hard to decide on. I am always trying to put my training "white belt" on and see things from the eyes of a beginner. Since I really started doing this, I have had breakthroughs in many aspects of my training. I will say that one area I dont think I paid enough attention to was monitoring heart rate and heart rate recovery during training sessions. Now I am doing this consistently and not only is it teaching me a lot about myself and my athletes, but it is also teaching me about the exact demands of my exercises as well.
Below is my take on this style of training:
At the 2007 ADCC Championships, I saw the epitome of physical conditioning during many of the hard and long fought matches. I was extremely happy that 5 athletes (Roger, Rolles, Kyra, Flavio, Braulio) I have worked with brought home either a silver or gold medal. I was even more satisfied that even when multiple matches went 20 minutes for my athletes, they were still focused and fresh. This event compelled me to reflect on how my training for cardiovascular conditioning has changed over the years to create this result. The following addresses my current view of this style of training for combat sports.
A common mistake of athletes and trainers is to solely focus their training on what they are good at or what they enjoy most. When I began training athletes, I was no exception to this statement. At the time I began this training over a decade ago, I was very strong, but surely did not have the endurance to match this strength or the endurance needed to be a world class athlete in many other sports that had a different energy requirement.
I have since challenged my thought process about our physical preparation. I realized that the enemy of becoming the best at something was simply being good at something to start with. I began to realize that getting great at your weaknesses and making them your strengths was a key to both physical and personal growth. This new way of thinking forced me to concentrate on the two most important pieces of anatomy for sport training: the brain and the heart.
Initially all I could find on Heart Rate was training and identifying Heart rate Maximums and working within a “target” heart rate for weight loss. We started here by simply measuring our heart rates with our fingers pressed to our necks, but I quickly realized that we were not making progress. The target ranges were too continuous, too long, and did not match the demands of an actual contest. Unfortunately first for my fighters, we then pushed the training to the opposite end of the physical continuum. We began to push our limits with torturous sessions that had the fighters crawling in their own sweat and sometimes vomiting at the end of each session. After analyzing this “hardcore” training, not only did I find that this was not helping performance, but was also deterring the athletes from wanting to train at all. This pressed me to study the exact demands of the sport in terms of length of time for the fight, and energy system requirements for the fight and then apply that to the specific fight style and usual fight architecture that an athlete would use. From here, I created our hurricane training. This style of training is a cyclical form of anaerobic training that is brief, yet demanding, and then followed by adequate rest to then repeat the training again. I started to apply this training to all of my athletes according to the energy system demands of the sport that they played.
For the last number of years, my hurricane training sessions have served me well, but as with anything, I am always trying to improve on what we are doing. I was trying to uncover how to keep the mind under control even though the athlete was under great physical stress during these hurricane sessions. I realized that since the athlete had no reference point for this style of training in terms of biofeedback, it was difficult for the athlete to manage and or determine the level of progress and overall conditioning. In weightlifting, the athlete can easily determine if they are getting stronger by the change in weights and can determine the intensity of any workout by the weight that they select. For cardiovascular training, however, this was much more difficult. It was then that I searched for this feedback mechanism and found it in heart rate monitors.
If you never had a speedometer in your car, how would you ever know what 55 mph “felt” like? It was only through the practice of looking at the speedometer and matching it with your velocity that you learned what 55 felt like and then began to understand how fast you were moving at a certain “feel.” The same is true for heart rate. If you don’t know what it “feels” like when your heart is at 170 beats per minute or you cannot match an intensity level with this rate, you are essentially exercising as blindly as driving a car without the speedometer. Every session, whether it is running or lifting, my athletes now wear monitors to not only let me know their status at any time during the session, but also so that they can develop a sensitivity to connect their heart and mind to better understand themselves. This is known as biofeedback and is critical for an athlete to start to better understand their own body and how it responds to, and as you will see in the next paragraph, recovery from bouts of exercise.
The most important recent discovery I have had from this type of training was finding that heart rate recovery was an important aspect of training I was not focusing on and neither were my athletes. I realized that although it is important for athletes to be able to perform at a high heart rate and intensity, it is also important for the heart to be able to learn to quickly recover. This is now known in science as Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and is becoming seen as a most important ability to work through progressive, cyclical training. HRV can simply be described as the capacity of the heart to recover and do work. Without this ability, the stage can be set for disaster. In our cyclical training we not only monitor the maximum heart rate during activity, but also the speed at which the heart rate returns to our accepted value to tell us that the athlete has recovered. If you are not looking at and training this variable, you are only doing half the work.
If you do not have a heart rate monitor or don’t monitor this value in training I suggest you get one. Without this information about yourself, every cardio session is essentially guesswork. It would, in essence, be like lifting with a blindfold on so you never knew the weight you were using. Without the properly trained endurance, you can be the strongest, fastest athlete and still be in big trouble. Endurance is the key to success and matching it with an understanding of mentally knowing where the body is at and what it has left in the tank through trials and errors working with biofeedback. According to Marcelo Aller, Performance Consultant for Polar Heart Rate Monitors and personal friend, more research is identifying the critical moment in sport in which even though an athlete may have more physical attributes like strength and explosiveness, an opponent that is better able to control their HR and recover may have a better opportunity to make the right decision at the right time. This can and does lead to success in sports all the time. Some may call it strategy, but now science is finding that the connection between the heart and mind play a big role in victory.
In addition to monitoring physical training like lifting and running, I think that monitoring sport specific training will also be very important in the future of sport. By better understanding the physical demands of certain positions and situations in a actual game, coaches and athletes will better learn how to relax, improve technique, and control their bodies and emotions. This will surely be where I next take my training of these athletes. Until we exactly understand the demands of sport, how can we ever adequately prepare ourselves for it?
To summarize, your training should be brief, cyclical and mimic the demands of the actual sport. Every training session should be monitored, and not only should you be looking at HR max, but also the heart’s ability to recover in terms of rate and time. This will create more time for overall recovery, prevent injury, and give the athlete a much better understanding over his or her self. In the great scheme of training and the martial arts, that self awareness is, after all, the ultimate goal.
I hope this helps everyone take their game to another level,
Martin
Comments Closed
Pictured was one of the last photos taken of the group before they left for the combine. Now with all the pro days about complete and individual workouts coming, the combine team is setting their sites on the draft in a few short weeks.
Although most of the guys stood by their combine numbers, here is a list of some of the tests they did take at the pro days from around the country:
Jay Moore, Nebraska: Ran a 4.74 40 yard dash at 274 pounds!
David Clowney, Virginia Tech: Ran a 6.69 3 Cone Drill!
Dante Rosario, Oregon: 9-10 broad jump and 6.91 in the 3 cone drill!
Germaine Race, Pittsburg State: 9-10 broad jump, 34 vert, 7.00 3 cone drill!
Craig Dahl, ND State: Ran a 4.10 in the short shuttle!
Michael Coe, Alabama State: Ran a 4.49 in the 40 yard dash!
Dan Bazuin, Central Michigan: 9-7 broad, 6.97 3 cone, and 4.79 40 at 267 pounds!
Chris Davis, Florida State: 4.08 in the shuttle, 36 inch vertical and 9-7 broad jump!
Cliff Ryan, Michigan State: 5.14 40, 7.36 3 cone and 29 vert at 308 pounds!
and the big story,
Kyle Cook, Michigan State: Not only did he run 4.51 shuttle and 28 vert at over 290 pounds, but he set the Parisi Record with 40 Bench Reps on 225!
Congrats to all the athletes for their hard work and look out for them in 3 weeks!!!
Martin Rooney
Martin, with the combine now over, how do players start to get ready for the NFL? Is there a difference in the training or does it stay the same? Mark C.
Pictured is Luke Petitgout practicing the role he will be playing in Tampa for Chris Simms this season: Bodyguard! We are pumped that Luke just signed with the Bucs and that the two that have been working out for years together here at the facility will now be on the same team.
Also congrats to long time client and now Minnesota Viking Vinny Ciurciu on his recent contract with the Vikes! Pictured is Vinny below blasting out some nice sets of 10 with 275!
Mark,
Great to hear from you and thanks for writing in. This is a great question. I have to say that although the athletes will still be working out, eating right, rehabbing and getting enough rest, the training will actually be different from the combine to playing in the NFL and getting ready for camp.
Right now, many of our combine athletes are back at school to finish up this month with their pro days and individual workouts. Once those are complete, then it is time to focus the training on strictly prep for camp to play football. We also currently have a number of current NFL pros in training and their training more closely mimics what our combine athletes will be doing once their workouts are over.
Using Chris and Luke as the example, they are in 4-5 times per week and alternate between running and lifting sessions. Before every workout, they go through the entire Parisi Warmup as seen below and we also use the hammers and med balls to start tempering the body for the contact of football throughout the week in addition to the speed and strength drills.
For the running, I suggest that athletes at this point really focus on improving their anaerobic conditioning with drills that take less than 6-10 seconds and then repeat. We do more agility and resistive running work than we do straight ahead distance work at this time. We also do some nice interval work on the ladders as seen below:
Many of these drills are more football specific. Chris works a lot on 3,5,7 step drops and passing drills and Luke focuses on shorter lateral and backward movement drills that mimic his position. So obviously I would advise an athlete to start honing their specific football techniques in addition to just pure speed and strength work as well.
Another final difference in the training would probably be the emphasis on the leg work. During the combine, we do not spend a ton of time on the legs since we are training twice a day 6 times a week. Now that the workouts have cut down and there is more recovery, the athletes can go after the legs harder too.
I hope this helps,
Martin Rooney
Martin, Now that the NFL Combine has come to a close, I see that your predictions about this class came true in many ways. How do you compare this class now in terms of overall numbers and who do you think are the biggest winners from your group. Excellent work and congratulations. David M.
David,
Thanks for writing in and following the program. As you probably saw, we had another amazing year (check the recent news section to see where many of the athletes excelled).
In terms of overall numbers, every class is hard to compare. Last year when I was with the groups at a reunion in Boca Raton, they asked me which class was the best and I still find it difficult to answer.
What I will say is this: in our top All Time NFL Combine (means this happened at the combine, not a pro day) every class has had members on the top list and this year was no exception. See below on the list and the athletes in with an asterisk are the ones that made it this year.
As for big winners, big Michael Allan of DIII Whitworth State shocked many,
Fred Bennett of South Carolina and Craig Dahl of North Dakota had amazing days, Michigan's David Harris' 4.5 turned heads, and Tony Ugoh of Arkansas showed he is the real deal.
Now for some insane numbers, see below (and remember, these are NFL Combine numbers, not pro days or personal workouts):
Here is the 4.3 Combine Club.
Fabian Washington Nebraska 4.25
Triandos Luke Alabama 4.30
Jonathan Joseph South Carolina 4.32
Jonathan Carter Troy State 4.33
Tim Jennings Georgia 4.34
Dunta Robinson South Carolina 4.34
Domonique Foxworth Maryland 4.34
Joseph Jefferson Western Kentucky 4.35
Josh Wilson Maryland 4.35 *
Willie Reid Florida State 4.36
David Clowney Virginia Tech 4.36 *
Matt Jones Arkansas 4.37
Leron McCoy Indiana Pennsylvania 4.38
Nick Collins Bethune Cookman 4.38
Top 5 All Time 20 Yard Shuttles:
Dunta Robinson South Carolina 3.75
Kevin Kasper Iowa 3.75
Deion Branch Louisville 3.76
Justin Beriault Ball State 3.80
Rashad Holman Louisville 3.83
Top 5 All Time Verticals:
Derek Wake Penn State 45.5
Kevin Kasper Iowa 43.5
Jonathan Carter Troy State 42.5
James Anderson Virginia Tech 41
Ko Simpson South Carolina and Chris Harrell Penn State 40.5
Top 10 L Drills:
Kevin Kasper Iowa 6.56
Reed Doughty Northern Colorado 6.66
Chris Davis Florida State 6.66 *
James Anderson Virginia Tech 6.67
Fred Bennett South Carolina 6.67 *
Craig Dahl North Dakota State 6.69 *
LJ Smith Rutgers 6.74
Willie Pile Virginia Tech 6.75
Michael Coe Alabama State 6.78 *
Owen Daniels Wisconsin 6.87
Top 5 225 Pound Bench
Ryan Fowler Duke 35 reps
Bryan Thomas Alabama Birmingham 33 reps
Tony Ugoh Arkansas 32 reps *
Eddie Freeman Alabama Birmingham 32 reps
Drew Mormino Central Michigan 27 reps *
So, overall I thought this class stepped up this past week as well as the past 3 months. I am proud of them and now we will all look anxiously forward to the draft in April.
Martin Rooney
Martin Rooney. How does this year's Combine class match up in terms of speed. Last year's group of Joseph, Jennings and Reed has to be tough to beat. Is this going to be a FAST year for the Parisi Speed School? LD
Pictured is the true speedster of this year's combine class, Josh Wilson of Maryland. Josh went sub 4.3 when this photo was taken at our last mock 40 test last week.
LD,
Thanks for writing in and for the interest in our program. This year was another fantastic class and I am always anxious to get it over with at this time of the year. Everyone is calling in for predictions, so now that the class is almost graduated, I can start to give some out.
In terms of the speed of last year compared to this year, we could be right there. Dont forget in addition to Wilson, we also have David Clowney, Chris Davis and Michael Coe who have all dropped fast times in training. Also dont forget that I dont just compare this year to last year's 4.3's (Jonathan Joseph, Tim Jennings, Willie Reid) but to all our previous guys in the 4.3 Combine club (Fabian Washington, Jonathan Carter, Dunta Robinson, Triandos Luke, Joseph Jefferson, Nick Collins, and who could forget Matt Jones! I hope we add another 3 to the group at least and take home the top spot, but every year is tough.
I think that this class is going to surprise people not just with the flat speed of the CBs and WRs, but also our big men. Keep your eyes out for Gabe Hall, Tony Ugoh, Mario Henderson and Cliff Ryan. I will be more proud when they all go under 5.0 in the 40 than if we get 3 4.3's! Those big guys worked so hard and although they may not run 4.2, when you are over 300 pounds and drop a 4.8 that is saying something.
Also we have 3 realy fast DEs that are going to shock the scouts. When Dan Bazuin, Jay Moore and Jacob Ford all drop 4.6's or better, they will turn heads. Then their other drills are going to be wild too (watch these guys hit the L Drill).
At ILB, I am hoping to have the fastest guy there too. I am not going to spoil the surprise, but David Harris is surely going way faster than the 4.75 that is expected. See for yourself if my prediction comes true.
At TE, look for DIII Michael Allan to drop a quick 40, smash the broad jump and blast a high vert and Dante Rosario to smash the L and 5/10/5. Between them, we could be placing high in every event.
Overall, I measure the overall improvement of this group like none other. Now it is time for them to go in and get it done.
Let's see how my predictions go over the next 2 weeks.
Martin Rooney