My girlfriend made fun of me today about how I relate everything to MMA. I told her some of my hits (forgive me if it’s not the right term, I’m not a baseball player) were due to my training.
Now if my memory serves me right, I don’t think I’ve played a game of baseball since my little league days. I was absolutely terrible, I played center field because no one could even hit out there. I quit after a year, but that’s what my baseball and athletic career consisted of.
Anyway, it was a Sunday afternoon, chilly but the sun was out and some of my friends decided to play baseball. I was planning to train at Camp Asia but I said what the hell, I’ll play. It was actually really fun and I managed to come up with some correlations between Mixed Martial Arts and baseball.
BATTING
I noticed that the ‘hitting the ball’ motion, is closely similar to throwing a hook or even a punch. Get out of your chair and try it, pretending your holding a bat and then throw a punch or hook. Same hip and body movement, except when hitting a baseball there’s a little bit more hip rotation.
CATCHING AND (MORE) HITTING
What helped develop my eye-hand coordination is training with focus mitts, headache bag, and double ended bags. This helped me actually hit the baseball and catch the ball.
RUNNING THE BASES
Getting from one base to another proved to be a test of my explosiveness. Sprinting from base to base was not difficult for me due to the explosive nature of MMA. One minute you’re throwing a barrage of punches, the next you’re on the ground or the rounds up.
Anyway, I’m not saying I did great and on my way to a major league contract. The truth is I didn’t even do that good but I would of done really really bad if I haven’t done any sort of training. I’m actually pretty sore in my legs which tells me I need to do less jogging and more sprints. I also ended up hurting my left wrist but that’s a different story. I think it’s safe to say Mixed Martial Arts training has a myriad advantages to those who participate in non-combat sports
I also found some interesting things such as:
Gracie Academy having a NFL Camp
Kobe Bryant trains in Jeet Kung Do
Tue, Apr 1, 2008
MMA