I'm off to California to train with Chuck Liddell

[Britt]

I'm off to California to train with Chuck Liddell for a few days. No, really. Well, actually with his trainer, John Hackleman, although Chuck will be in and out. John Hackleman is (coincidentally) a Grandmaster in my primary self-defense art, Kajukenbo, and I, my instructor, and one of his senior students who owns his own school now are headed out to Hackleman's facility, "the Pit," to train at a seminar for four days. Am I intimidated? Why yes, yes I am. Here's a news article about GM Hackleman (from when Chuck had the belt, obviously):

Trainer on Top with Liddell: Hackleman helped mold Champion

So, we're leaving tonight for Dallas and will be flying out tommorrow. Did I mention I was feeling a little intimidated?

[Hardball]

Just relax and try to learn a few things.

[Bjjexpertise@be]

Take pictures and tell us what kind of techniques they taught you guys.

[JohnMc]

Try not to come back with too many bad habits from Haymakerman.

[Britt]

I'm back. We actually worked on that overhand right haymaker, and throwing it properly was harder than it looked! Anyway, I shouldn't have worried. John was great, Chuck was great, all the fight team and students were great and I had a blast. I'll post some more on what we worked later, and and some pictures as soon as I can figure out how to download them from my camera.

[Bjjexpertise@be]

Sounded like a blast. You should show us how to throw that overhand right.

[Britt]

It's basically like Chuck is demontrating in this video:

Chuck Liddell Teaches His Overhand Right

They edited the rest of it out, though: you initially throw it from way back like Chuck's doing (almost like reaching back and snatching a kettlebell from the floor) to get the arc down. Once you have the basic mechanics down, you tighten it up and throw it from your fighting stance rather than drawing it way, way back like that. That's where I was having trouble; I was hitting with pretty good power when I was drawing back, but when I tightened it up I was arm punching, or as John put it, throwing my arm over like I was arm wrestling rather than throwing an arc and putting my body into it. John's advice was throw it wide at a pad like that for a month, then try tightening it up to throw it from a fighting stance. A lot a John's striking techniques are reversed from other trainers would teach; wide movements to get power first, then tightening the technique up.

[Britt]

I haven't been able to download my own photos, but they mailed me some that they took and I put a couple of them up. They were taken either at the Pit compound in the mountains where John lives and the fighters train, or down at the Pit school in town. I'm the guy with the mustache and goatee wearing a black shirt and either blue trunks, tan trunks, or black warmup pants in most of the shots:

Photos of Britt at the Pit

Most of the photos on the first page are of Chuck and Antonio teaching us some takedowns, most of the rest are our own training or conditioning sessions. It's funny, it wasn't only a few hardcore fighters, it was actually a really family oriented place. One of the best memories I have of the place is a father tying a belt on a four or five year old boy, who said "I'm a Little Dragon!" Then he looked up at me and said "he's a Big Dragon!"

When I first got there, the first thing I saw was Glover Teixeira, BJJ Black Belt and MMA fighter making his UFC debut soon, wearing a black gi and teaching a kids class. He was an unbelievably nice guy. John's school is a lot like a traditional school in many respects, but he places a very, very high emphasis on conditioning, and won't hesitate to drop you back in a beginner class if you slack off and can't pass a PT test. If you reach black belt rank in his school, you're going to be in peak condition and fighting shape for you, whether you're eighteen or eighty. He also doesn't have katas anymore, although he used to. Even Chuck had to do two katas for his black belt test.

[Bjjexpertise@be]

Looks like a lot of fun. Those wheelbarrows may not look like much but they're a ***** to keep balanced. How was the tire flipping?

[osopardo]

I can just imagine me there... all tongue-tied and just staring at Hackleman and Liddell like some star-struck teeny bopper meeting a rock star... "Geez Mr. Liddell, can I touch your fist?"

Not to be impolite but, how much did this experience cost?

[Britt]

Looks like a lot of fun. Those wheelbarrows may not look like much but they're a ***** to keep balanced. How was the tire flipping?

The wheelbarrow was part of the "Pit Mile," a one mile run, push the wheelbarrow with your bodyweight in weights in it (200 lbs. for me) uphill for maybe a quarter mile, and throw an eighty or ninety pound medicine ball uphill for maybe an eighth of a mile. The mile run was a nice warmup, but the wheelbarrow was tough, like a walking deadlift uphill. I'd done a lot of running and deadlifting in the weeks before and was able to motor through it without having to set it down, but I was sucking and blowing air like a blacksmith's bellows. My instructor told me someone puked after the wheelbarrow last time (I puked too, but not that day ). I finished the wheelbarrow nearly half the course ahead of the pack, but the medicine ball throw was a real bitch and most of the frontrunners caught up to me. The fight team did a similar drill with the wheelbarrow, but with twice their weight. Glover pushed 400 lbs. about as easily as I did 200 lbs. The guy's a machine.

[Britt]

I can just imagine me there... all tongue-tied and just staring at Hackleman and Liddell like some star-struck teeny bopper meeting a rock star... "Geez Mr. Liddell, can I touch your fist?"

Heh. I'd be lying if I said we all weren't a little starstruck by Chuck. Half the time he was talking to us I was thinking the whole time "Dude! Effin' Chuck Liddell's talking to me!" It's weird, though, on the tube he's "the Iceman" and looks like a superhero, but you see him training with the team and he's just Chuck, former college wrestler and one of the fighters, working his ass off and sucking wind like everyone else. I was still a little starstruck, but he's rowing the same rower and punching the same bags as everyone else.

Not to be impolite but, how much did this experience cost?

Including round trip airfare from Texas and four nights in a hotel off Pismo Beach? I'll put it this way: if I ever want to go back, my wife says I have to pay off the credit cards and sell my Corvette first.