meta name="verify-v1" content="mxUXSoJWEFZKrtw31+uRroeKyRmf49ADfeiAbP3JB2o=" / Arizona Martial Gym: August 2005

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

oil companies = crooks

Now, anybody who knows me knows that I am a firm believer in capitalism. I think if you work hard you deserve a reward. However, can someone explain to me how what the oil companies are doing is anything but criminal? What I mean is this. Gas prices at the pump are dependent are supply. If something happens to the supply, prices go up. That is cool. But how can prices increase essentially before something happens to the supply? The perfect example is this morning when I went to fill up. The gas prices are up considerably. The newscaster says the hurricane will cause supply to diminish since much of the Gulf of Mexico production will be interrupted. But how does that affect the supplies that are already in? The gas you buy at the pump was purchased wholesale at a lower price BEFORE the hurricane, so the only reason the price at the pump will jump today is price gouging and oil companie/gas stations taking adavantage of the soon to come projected shortage. That is wrong. I wish some grandstanding politician would look into that, rather than steroids in baseball.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

my stand up skills


Where do my stand up skills come from? Well, as I wrote earlier, I have boxed, and did Jeet Kune Do with Paul Vunak, as well as extensively trained Savate (a criminally underrated art). Currently, besides my training partners like Howard Lawson and Mike Grandinetti and a decent amount of ability to self coach and a willingness to train hard and regularly, I owe an enormous amount to two people.

One is Adam Singer. He runs the Hard Core Gym in Athens, GA. One of his fighters, Forrest Griffin, has a three year contract to fight in the UFC. Another fighter, Rory Singer, will be there soon. He has other guys who have fought in local events, along with doing very well in submission grappling tournaments. He is a terrifc coach who knows how to tie all the the aspects of MMA (striking, clinch, grappling, conditioning, mental) together. His own performance skills are amazing, and more people would know it if he wasn't focused on being a great coach and his real career of bio-chemical engineering (or something ridiculously complex like that). I take great pride also in that he has become a very close friend. I would trust him with my life. He has two FANTASTIC instructional DVD's on the clinch. Get them both, they are must haves. Check them out at his website at http://www.thehardcoregym.net

The other person responsible for what stand up skills I have is Rodney King. He has a great background in boxing and thai boxing and has created a system that allows anyone to function at a decent level of striking in a very short amount of time. It is referred to as the crazy monkey or CM for short. The brilliance of CM is it lets people with a lesser level of athletic skill hang with people who have a decided advantage of physical superiority. It keeps you from being hit as much or as hard while having less time to train it. He also has an uncanny way of teaching someone to hit harder, more accurately, and more often than they could ever believe. He is also someone I can call a friend. He is a good person with a high sense of ethics, but his taste in music is a little suspect (sorry Coach LOL). I have the honor of being an authorized coach with his group Street Tough World Alliance (of which Adam is also an important part). He has three great DVD's that, along with Adam's two, I consider the cornerstone of my library. Check out his website at http://www.streetbrawl.co.za/

You cannot go wrong training with either one of these guys.

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

In a previous post, I mentioned MMA. Someone asked me what that was, so I realized that there might be more people who aren't familar with that term, so I decided to explain it.

MMA in the general sense refers to Ultimate Fighting Championship type events in which participants can punch, kick, throw, clinch, knee, takedown, and grapple on the ground with submission holds. They sometimes take place in a cage type environment, or in a boxing ring. Rules can range from fairly strict (like no closed fist punches) to almost street fight like, though this is, and has always been pretty rare.

In a specific usage of the term, MMA also can refer to those who train all of these elements together as a comprehensive system. The original UFC type events pitted "style vs. style" i.e. a wrestler against a kickboxer, a jiu-jitsu player against a karate expert, a boxer against a streetfighter. After a few years, smart fighters began to train a spectrum of techniques and tactics in order to not be vulnerable to certain situations the way most of the early UFC fighters did. What happened was people began to see that you needed to have a decent knowledge of striking, clinching, and ground grappling, so they sought out the right systems to fill in the appropriate gaps. Basically today our striking comes from boxing, Thai Boxing, and Savate. Our clinch usually stems from Greco-Roman wrestling and Judo while the ground part is from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with some elements of Russian Sambo and western wrestling. These arts generally provides the framework for most MMA practioners because they have been proven to work in high pressure situations. There is no theory or faith in a omnipotent grandmaster as the only proof. These things do work. In another post, I will go over how MMA works in the ring AND the street with little modification needed.

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Megaton = gold

I just found out that my BJJ intsructor, Megaton, just took the gold medal in his weight class at the Rio State BJJ championships in Brazil! He will spend another week down there and compete in next weeks International Masters Championship before flying home. Good luck next week and major props for yesterday's win!!

about me

My name is Cecil Burch, I am 41 years old, and I live in Glendale, Arizona. I am an independent health insurance broker (though soon there will be some changes / additions to that resume) and I have been involved in the martial arts since I was 16. I have the world's greatest wife and the two greatest children in the world. I have a lot of different interests such as music, movies, food, and reading, but my most intense passion, outside of my wife and kids are the martial arts. So, this blog will mostly be my vehicle to comment on that aspect of my life. However, I reserve the right to occasionally post on other topics.

So, basically, when I was 16 I started doing an American Karate style. I enjoyed it until I realized that the techniques I was using in the sparring class had almost no relation to the stuff I was learning, so I left that school. I then learned mostly by book and magazines, since this was pre-video era (early 80's). When I went to Arizona State U. I temporarily shifted my focus to Rugby. Then I got the chance to go to a seminar by Paul Vunak, who at the time was an unknown newly teaching Jeet Kune Do. I was hooked. I became a regular student of his by travelling once a month to his place in Long Beach. Eventually I was promoted to Full Instructor. During this time I was also training at a local boxing gym called Top Level run by a great guy named Paavo Ketonnen. I also started extensive training in Savate under Salem Assli, where I made it to yellow glove, which is the rough equivalent to brown belt. About 1998, I severed my relationship to Vunak for my own reasons.

But, fortunately, I had the chance to begin training in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu under a fantastic coach, Wellington "Megaton" Dias. I am currently a purple belt under him, but even better, I can call him and his wife Luka (also a black belt) my good friends. Another good friend and mentor is Rodney King of South Africa, who has developed a great boxing based striking system. I am honored to be a coach under him as well. I also run the local affiliated training group (ATG) of the Straight Blast Gym, run by another friend and coach Matt Thornton. My other mentor/ coach is an even closer buddy, Adam Singer of the Hard Core Gym in Athens, GA. In addition to being an all around great guy, he is also one of the finest all around coaches on the planet. If you want to learn MMA (mixed martial arts), he is the man.

I am currently coaching a small group here in town, so if you want to work out, just drop me a line!

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Joining the 21st century

Well, I finally did it. I took the plunge and joined the 21st century. I am not happy about it.

First it was the cellphone. I fought that for a few years. When I did get one, I swore I would only have it on during the day for business purposes. Now, I feel naked without it.

Next it was the internet. I wanted to only have it to use once in awhile. Now, I find myself not only using it for work, but personal stuff all the time (if I don't check my e-mail and a handful of favorite sites at least 2 or 3 times a week I get antsy).

And now this. A blog. Well, since I have come this far, I will do what I can to make this at least vaguely interesting. My next post will be an in depth look at yours truly, and then after that, anything goes!