9-20-08
HIT SQUAD DAY 1

So I arrived today at the HIT SQUAD in Granite City Illinois. When I arrived I was confused at first because the gym is on an old army base, and at the gate all you see is a bunch of old buildings. I asked and found out where the gym was, and from the outside it definitely didn’t look like there was a gym inside. But I went in to check it out and find out where the dorms were. Well you can’t judge a book by its cover because the gym was beautiful. Big, with a nice weight and free weight area which is open to the public, racks of kettle bells, a bag area with Thai bags, headshot and wrecking ball bags, double end and speed bags. There’s A LOT of mat space which is separated the entire length with cage wall. The locker rooms are impressive with an ice bath (which I’ve never seen before), and sauna. Nice pro shop where I’ll be tempted to redo my wardrobe with HIT SQUAD and Matt Hughes gear. Out back are a few tires for flipping which looked and felt to weight about 200-250lbs. and large stones which I was told were for throwing.

There was an open mat this morning, before I arrived, where people basically do whatever they want, mostly BJJ. They said most people just relax on Sundays but the gym is open for our disposal to do whatever we want, so maybe tomorrow I will lift or see if anyone is around. The fighters living here were nice, I talked to them all. They were very friendly. Some are amateurs; some are pro, heck some never even trained before. I'm looking forward to being in the pro classes, I heard they go at it pretty hard, which is what I need and isn’t any different from when I get punched in the head in Perth Amboy when I train with Chris Liguori. I heard they don’t let the amateur classes spar and is mostly just technical. Well let’s see what tomorrow brings, maybe ill lift, do some bag work, or milk a cow.

Redline

9-21-08
HIT SQUAD DAY 2

Well not too much went on today, I think Sundays are torture here; nothing to do and hard training tomorrow, so mostly everyone just chills out. I woke up this morning and after my routine I went up to the gym with 2 of the other fighters to do some BJJ. One was a guy fresh out of wrestling for Purdue for 4 years which was tough and the other was a pro fighter that just signed with HIT SQUAD and is moving out here. I sparred about 20-25 minutes with each guy. I must say the mat space in unbelievable. There are a few bags hanging along with ropes to climb, and in the corner are the crash mats and a ton of throwing dummies. Then after sparring, the pro fighter and I hit up the sauna, which was at 200 degrees and I was told they’ve gotten it up to 240 degrees. I was also told that Fiore, a coach/trainer of the HS, makes all the fighters go in after practice on Fridays for 15 minutes.

Other than that little session in the morning I didn’t do too much besides just hang out and get some groceries. Tomorrow should be good, first session at 9:30; conditioning with Matt Hughes. I'll let you know how the whole day goes, probably after I sit in the ice bath.

Redline

9-22-08
HIT SQUAD DAY 3

So the morning didn’t start that well when I woke up an hour early because my cell phone is still on Jersey time, one hour ahead, so I woke up at 7 instead of 8 and realized when I looked at my laptop when I was eating breakfast. So I killed time by watching Sanford and Son. The first session was at 9 30 and around that time there were about 16 of us. Matt Hughes walked in the door and told us to grab some ropes. Of course there were only a few normal sized jump ropes and I ended up getting stuck with the one that was made for a 4 year old girl; the rope didn’t even hit the ground and was about up to my ankles, so jumping that was just a blast because it was getting caught about every ten jumps. Then of course the rule is if you drop a handle you have to do 25 pushups. So being that I had a jump rope suited for Frodo Baggins, I owed 50 pushups after the two 5-minute rounds of rope. I had my own jump rope but it was in the locker room and there was no way I was asking Matt Hughes if I could be excused to get my rope, not happening, so I sucked it up. But the pushups weren’t the problem. It was the terrible shin splints I got from not being able to jump normally with that short rope mixed with jumping on the hard rubber mats. After the rope work we were sent on a 3 mile run. Now normally I would beast out 10 minutes of rope and a 3 mile run. But my shins were in agony, but of course I fought through the pain. Now this is the first time this ever happened to me: halfway through the run my shin splints were so bad that literally, no exaggeration here, my feet went NUMB. Every time I stepped I felt the tingling sensation go through my feet and up my shins. Now I know I could finish the run, just fight through it, but what I was worried about was what was in store when the run was over. And Hughes was standing out front of the building and the last 150 yards or so he yelled "sprint!" so of course I hauled ass to the finish. I went inside and immediately started trying to stretch to get rid of the splints, which didn't work out to well. But thank god, Hughes walked inside and said the conditioning was over, and it was time for a little fun. We all went on to the mats and were separated into teams. The first game we played was called "socks", or "socks off". You start on your feet and the goal is to take the socks off of the opposing team. Luckily the captain of our team chose all the wrestlers. We dominated the other team, taking them down, ripping their socks off. The best strategy to this was to have one guy take somebody down and hold them down, while another person jumps on top of them and rips their socks off. Our team only suffered one casualty. The next game we played was called "pull out". The teams were across from each other, separated by a piece of tape. The goal is to not cross over the tape while pulling someone from the opposing team out. This game was tough and my team got annihilated twice; the first game I was the 2nd person to get pulled over the line, and the 2nd game I was the last. And luckily during the games my splints went away. So it was a good session finished with some fun. When I was in the locker room a lot of the guys were saying how bad they got shin splints, which I was glad I wasn’t the only one. And I believe that was an easier session then normal because Hughes said come back at 12 and lift. Then I asked a couple of guys if that was a normal conditioning class, and they said it's usually a little harder.

I went back to the dorm to take some ibuprofen for my shins, and make some lunch, a protein shake and some whole wheat pasta (I don’t know how much more pasta I can take). Then at 12 I went back to the gym to lift. Me and Robbie Lawler were the only ones lifting, basically the only 2 people in the whole gym. He was doing legs and I was doing chest. I asked him for a spot when I was doing dumbbell presses; asked him to spot me on the 100s and give me a lift on the 110s, which was pretty cool I must say, It's not everyday you're getting a spot from a UFC vet and Elite XC Champ. After that I went back to the dorm to shower and just rest before the session to come.

Well 6 o clock came around and it was time for the pro class: boxing with takedowns. Robbie Lawler ran the class though there was no technical, just sparring. I didn’t get a chance to spar with Lawler but I got some good rounds in. We did 5 5-minute rounds straight through. The first round I didn’t really know the guy I was sparring but it was a good round. Second round I sparred with this guy Mario from Germany. One of the guys told me that he was asked to fight in the UFC but he turned it down. Let me tell you, he had a very fast VERY stiff jab. Third round was the wrestler from Purdue. Fourth round was a guy from Wales. Fifth guy was the BJJ coach here. All the guys were good, all were tough. Ended up with my white shirt looking pink. After the 5 rounds Lawler said to do basically whatever, so I went over to the speed bag then watched that guy Mario hit the pads, and then hopped in the sauna.

Came back to the dorms, cooked dinner (chicken and whole wheat pasta of course), watched a movie and went to sleep. Good training.

Redline

9-23-08
HIT SQUAD DAY 4

I woke up this morning with my calves pretty sore so after I ate breakfast I took a hot shower to relieve the pain and loosen up. Then I headed over to the gym for the first session. Matt Pena was running it and he had us run about a mile to warm up. When we got back he told us to wrap up. He ran us through some really good fast paced mitt-work. Then he had us doing some EXCELLENT footwork drills with the rope ladders. We finished the session with some short PT.

I got back to the dorms and some of the guys wanted to go to Appleby’s so 10 of us headed over there for lunch which was a good time. Came back to the dorms after and took a nap, basically so did everyone else. When I woke up I made a shake and just rested until it came close to time for the evening session, so I took another hot shower and headed over to the gym.

I hopped in the shower again before the night session. Hughes was running it, it was grappling. But we had a good warm up; we played a game :-) elbow tag. Its tag but there’s sneaky ways to screw people over or make yourself safe. But before the game started he asked who was new, so he could explain the game. So after he explained he asked me where I was from, Jersey, and then asked me my name, Chris. Then he said "you know why we always ask the new guys name? Cause they're it!" So all the guys were trying to mess with me and make me "it" as much as possible. I was getting people but every time I was "it" Hughes said "come on jersey!" you’ll figure this game out!" It was a good time, and honestly a good and fun way to warm up and get a good morale going. Then we started training; submission grappling. We went 5 minute rounds then Hughes made all the fighters who had fights coming up, which included me, do sprints in between the rounds. We did about 6 rounds, all with sprints after. Then one guy who has a fight in 2 weeks was 30 pounds over and Hughes didn't like that so he made us all do more sprints because of it. Sprint after sprint after sprint. Then after all that we all circled up and finished with buddy pushups. If you don't know what buddy pushups are, you'd enjoy this, it's a really good workout but very tough after hard training. One guy starts the count, which was the guy that was 30 over. He counts 1, then we go and do 1, then he does 2, we do 2, he does 3, we do 3, all the way up to 10. Buuuuuuuuut that’s not all...back down; 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. If you do the math there that’s 110 pushups basically in a row, but there’s a rule; while the one guy who started the count is doing his pushups, you can’t go down to a knee. So that was a good way to end class. Great workout.

Now this is where my bright idea kicked in. Two of the other guys wanted to stand in the ice bath to ice up their calves and ankles so I joined in to try and help with my calves. We were in for 10 minutes, we needed more ice but it was cold enough to do the job. So after the ice bath we were going to go in the sauna. Now I have this cream, it's like ICY HOT times 50. Literally. And for some reason when you sweat it really kicks in, kicks in so much that it burns pretty good and makes the area you rubbed it on turn red, but after it subsides it feels good, relieves pain. So I came up with the idea for all of us to put the cream on our calves and the one guy on his ankle, then go in the sauna and work up a sweat. So here's how it went down. 2 minutes in; nothing. 4 minutes in; starting to tingle. 6 minutes in; yeah it's burning a little. 8 minutes in, complete and utter agony. Our calves were on FIRE! We decided to get out 10 minutes in, then go back in for another 5. Well when I left the sauna my calves were still on FIRE, but when I tried to go back in, it was twice as intense and I walked RIGHT back out and tried to wash the poison off my beet red calves. Next thing I know my buddy comes out of the sauna basically screaming and writhing in agony with his red calves. He and I were both limping around the locker room in circles trying to make the pain go away. We couldn’t help laughing though we were being tortured. We were limping and yelling in the locker room for a good half hour before the pain went back down to a tingling sensation and finally subsided when we got back to the dorms. Well let's just say the guys didn't appreciate my good idea.

Good training. Good people. Good times.

Redline.

9-24-08
HIT SQUAD DAY 5

Well this morning was probably the toughest morning session, or maybe even the toughest session so far. I arrived at the gym and Matt Pena was running the practice again. It started with an explosiveness drill. There were three cones; you explode and sprint to the first cone (slowing down halfway) then run backwards to the second cone then explode again to the third cone and run backwards until you’ve reached the rope ladders where you had to do high knees throughout the whole ladder which was probably, if I had to guess, 15 boxes or so, and 2 knees per box, then jog back to the beginning and repeat. This went on for close to 15 minutes. That was the warm up. Swell. Then we partnered up and did some grueling bag work. It started off with swimming for 30 seconds then one person held the bag while the other did jab-straight combination for 30 seconds, then swimming for 30, then the other guy on the bag for 30. God knows how long that went on for. And that was the, for a lack of a better word, "easy" part. Then both people hit the bag in 4 punch combinations constantly throughout the 2 or so minute round, while in the middle, the coach would call for a burpee, then back up for more punches, then burpee, etc. And you can't get away with love taps on the bag, you gotta try and knock the bag out, Pena called for 100 percent, no less. Then it got harder. 4 punch combos on the bag then burpees, not just one this time. At first I didn’t know how many we were doing because it seemed like forever. I did so many I could barely get up. Then the coach told us we were doing the burpees until the slowest person did 10. So then I counted....I was doing about 20 burpees in between the bag work. And we didn’t just do 2 or 3 rounds. It had to have been at least 10, not including the previous rounds. You would have thought that was it, but no. Then the coach had us back on the mats. He set up 3 cones for shuttle sprint races; touch the first cone, back, second cone, back, and finally the 3rd. The loser had to go back in line and race again, the winner was excluded from the races but had to do 10 towel pull-ups. Of course the first 2 guys I got were lighter than me and had wrestling shoes on and I barely lost and had to do 3 total races all in all, finishing with the pull-ups. End-of-session.

Well I was pretty exhausted from the morning session, after lunch I took a diesel nap. I eventually headed back to the gym for the night session. Kickboxing.

Robbie Lawler was sparring again and he picked me for the third round. It was a great opportunity to work with one of the best fighters in the world. When I came over to him he said, “don't worry" and I laughed relieved. Though he was taking it easy on me he tagged me good a few times. I made sure not to do anything stupid to piss him off cause I know he could have laid me out at any moment. I was just trying to work some new combinations and avoid his right hook, I finished the round bloody. I was glad I played it cool because I heard him later saying how one of the guys was trying to come after him, so he “LIT HIM UP”. Good choice by me. The rounds were hard and tough, 6 5-minute rounds. Of course Pena was running it so that wasn’t the end. "Grab a rope" he said, which was just terrific since my calves were still killing me, but I made it through the 10 minutes of rope work. That wasn’t the end either. We finished with some dumbbell/pushup PT. Another tough session.

When I was in the shower Robbie walked in to take his. Now don’t get excited, we didn’t have a naked brawl like 50 cents in Get Rich or Die Trying. He asked me how sparring went, I said “good”, what about you? He said he was trying to take it easy, just work combinations. Then I asked him when his next fight was and how he felt about Kimbo and such. It was cool being able to talk to a superstar like he's a normal guy. He left the locker room with a "later", and me with "later bro." He's definitely a cool guy.

I was feeling great except for my calves and shins, wasn't sore or banged up anywhere else. So I decided another ice bath would be a good idea. So I dumped 10 bags of ice in the bath and this time sat in it for about 10 or 15 minutes. I then hopped in the sauna for about 15, making my calves feel better. When I was done I headed back to the dorm.

Everyone in the dorm was going out to a karaoke bar. I had planned on going and just watch, since I can’t drink (I have a fight on October 18th). I wanted to get a full night sleep and decided not to go. However when I got back to the dorm from the ice bath, everyone was on their way to the bar and I decided to go and watch after all. I got to see one of the guys who is leaving tomorrow get completely hammered. He was singing songs and being loud. It was great and he entertained everyone. I can’t wait to hear the stories tomorrow.

Redline

9-25-08
HIT SQUAD DAY 6

So I woke up this morning, left my room for the kitchen, when I saw a big pile of corn and some eggs with peanut butter on them in front of someone’s room. Mmmmmm....so I continued to the kitchen which had pieces of ripped bread, peanut butter, and cards all over the place. Turns out that the guy who was drunk got even more belligerent at the karaoke bar, was yelling, trying to get naked, and causing a scene, so one of the other fighters had to drag him out of the bar via wrist lock, when the cops showed up, but no one got in trouble. I’m glad I wasn’t there for that.

Matt Pena was running the morning session again, but this time he didn’t kill us. We did some really good focus mitt drills and he showed some pretty helpful stuff. Then we ended with some PT. I was really happy with the session because I learned a lot and didn’t just get a torture session.

There’s a nice lounge in the gym with leather seats, flat screen TV, fridge, and tables, so I went and hung out there for a little bit to kill some time and get away from the dorms.

The night session was good, tough but not over the top. Hughes was running it so we warmed up with elbow tag. And of course since he tried screwing me over constantly the last time we played, I tried to get my revenge. In elbow tag you can partner up by locking arms and that makes you safe. So Hughes and I were linked up and the guy that was "it" was next to us, so I unlinked from Hughes and took off, leaving him hanging and with no way out of getting tagged. Oh but he got me back then, and made sure I was "it" as much as possible, with his usual, "come on jersey, we got a jersey donkey here hee-haw hee-haw". It was all in good fun and was of course a great time. Then it was time to get to business; wrestling. First round was 10 minutes then the rest of the rounds were 5s, then some on the ground, with sprints in between rounds.

Hughes is like a little kid when it's not about "business". For example it was 3 of us in the shower, one was Matt, and the other guy was washing his face so Matt sneaked over and turned his water on cold and walked away. He's good spirited and is always trying to joke around or make fun of somebody. And he is pretty fair in his practices; he said at one point during the practice, "how hard you work in the next round will dictate what we do after", meaning you half-ass it and he’s going to make you work more and harder. And that’s fair, you get what you put in, you give in 100% the practice will be easier, you slack, the practice is...not so fun.

Not much going on at the dorm as usual besides everyone busting everyone else’s balls.

Good training, fun training.

Redline

9-26-08
HIT SQUAD DAY 7

Today was probably the most physically demanding day so far. Fiore was finally in and he ran the morning session; plyo's. First we jumped rope for 10 minutes, which now I use my OWN rope. Then Fiore set up 4 boxes, the first one was 10-12 inches, the second was a little taller, the third was probably around 24 inches, and the biggest was 36 inches. The first box you stood on top of then jumped off so you're straddled over it with the box between your legs, then you jump back up, repeat for 20 jumps. Then you move to the next box which was just regular jumps up and down for 20 jumps. Next box you held a gigantic medicine ball and stepped up on the box with one foot, then the other knee comes up and touches the medicine ball, then back down, then coming up on your other leg, 10 for each leg. Then the last box, the 36", you jump on top of, stand up, then back down and repeat for 10 jumps, which required good form. We did that two times through.

Then it was back to the jump ropes for 10 minutes, and then it was one more time through the boxes. Then we went out to the mat where we did long jumps down the mat, which keep in mind is probably around 60 or so yards, and back, then lunges down and back. Then Fiore whipped out the climbing ropes from the ceiling, which was damn scary because the top of the rope is close to 40 feet above the ground, and I'm not one for heights, I get queasy standing over the railing on the second floor of the mall, so going up and down twice was a real treat. Practice still wasn't over. Time for stations; station 1 was an overhead medicine ball pass. Station 2, which was probably the worst, riding the aerodyne bikes at a full sprint, station 3 was a rope pulling machine/punch resisting machine, station 4 was vertical focus mitts, and station 5 was interesting and is kind of hard to explain; you and your partner get on a throwing dummy, heads facing each other, then grip around the bag and try and rolling the opposite way from each other, building natural resistance against each other. Each station was about 30 seconds each, 100 percent of course, twice through. We FINALLY finished with more long jumps down and back, and lunges down and back. Thank god there’s only one session on Fridays.

Only training once a day on Fridays leave a lot of down time, but of course there’s not much to do. I mostly just sat around watching movies until night where a few of us went to a bar walking distance away and played darts and relaxed while I got to sip on my coca-cola like a real man.

Fiore seems like a genuine guy, seems like he cares and is really interested in the fighters. Good coach.

Redline

9-27-08
HIT SQUAD DAY 8

Well I had planned on doing something light today since there’s no training on the weekends, just an open gym. But I woke up pretty damn tired, the week had finally caught up to me so I decided to just rest my body, skip any kind of training, and just hit up the sauna for a while. The training is very intense here, you can't come to this gym out of shape and I'm glad I didn't. I can feel myself getting into even better shape day by day, and thank god for all my supplements helping me make it through these crazy workouts.

Nothing went on here during the day, not much to do. A bunch of us went out to see Eagle Eye at the theater tonight which was cool, movie was pretty good. Then we went to hang out at a bar for about a half an hour. It was pretty funny cause it was only 4 of us fighters and as soon as we walked in, heads turned and we got some evil eyes. I was joking around saying that these hicks were going to go to their pickup trucks and grab their shotguns. The scene was pretty lame but anything is better than sitting around at the dorms.

Let's see what tomorrow brings, though I doubt anything better than tonight...

Redline

9-28-08
HIT SQUAD DAY 9

Well it's Sunday and there's not much to do. Everyone just basically sat around. I popped in American Psycho, one of my favorites, for a bunch of us to watch. Later we all went down the street to shoot some pool and hang out, where I pretty much dominated the game and continued to talk trash, though I was just lucky. It was so funny. Then we came back, I watched a movie and went to sleep.

The weather has been awesome here. Every day since I’ve been here has been clear skies and hot. One more week left of training, I'm looking forward to it. It's been great so far. Let's see what Hughes' conditioning class brings tomorrow morning.

Redline

9-29-08
HIT SQUAD DAY 10

I jinxed myself when I said it's been nothing but perfect weather here because today was the first rainy day so far.

Hughes and Fiore ran the morning session today; it was a short but intense workout, a baby version of Friday’s workout. Did some rope work, plyo boxes, rope climbs, handstand pushups, and buddy pushups, and some BJJ drills. It was short and sweet and was a good way to start off the week. Of course we finished with a game, "pull out" this time. Tomorrow we'll play elbow tag and I’ll try and get my revenge on Hughes :-)

Not much went on during the day as usual. Chase Beebe arrived today with his dog, a 5 month English mastiff (I too have an English mastiff) that is adorable.

Pena ran the night session, boxing with takedowns, six 5-minute rounds in a row where I was trying to work some new stuff. My last round was with Clay French who is one of the top pro fighters here, he fought in Pride when it was still around and fights in an organization in Japan now, had a good round with him, the last one is always the hardest because I’m tired. And we actually finished with a game where you stuff a towel in the back of your shorts and you have to pull other people's towel out without getting yours snagged.

Redline

9-30-08
HIT SQUAD DAY 11

Today was the first chilly day here, it feels nice though, had to wear a hoodie. Pena ran the morning session which started of with a run of about 2 miles. We then worked focus mitts, which I always love. We worked on some theory and certain techniques against certain fighters. We finished with some leg kick/dumbbell PT and topped it off with towel pull-ups till failure. I didn't think I was going to be able to do that many since it was the end of the workout but me and Chase Beebe and I think another guy did 22, the best was Clay French doing 24, and the rest did 20 and under. He said remember your number, so I have a feeling we'll be doing that again soon.

Before the night session, we warmed up with elbow tag. When I walked in the gym, Hughes was there, and he said "You ready East Coast? This is a ruthless game..." So I figured Hughes was going to try and screw me over and make me "it" as much as possible. But I managed to maneuver and escape enough to only be "it" twice, while Fiore and the manager of the Hit Squad, Todd, were mostly "it" and were the butt of the jokes. Then the practice started, which was mostly grappling, BJJ, with sprints and burpees in between rounds which was exhausting. Two of the rounds started on our feet, then back to the ground where I finished with Chase Beebe which was an awesome roll, though we were both tired. It was a good scrap, it was good rolling with a world class technical guy, not like a big guy just trying to use force, I enjoyed it. Then they had us drill takedowns on each other, and then told us to grab some kicking shields. We did a bunch of rounds of kicks, which was tough, forcing out powerful kicks at the point of exhaustion. But we finished, and the practice was over, and it was one of those practices that I thank god for my nutritional supplements...

In the shower, it was me, Lawler and Hughes. When Hughes was walking out I saw Lawler give him a funny face. I started to wash my face and I just had a feeling Hughes was going to mess with me, so I followed my instincts and washed my face off real quick and stepped to the side and took a look at my handle, which Hughes had turned all the way up on hot, he almost got me, as he was walking away chuckling.

Then I ran into a guy here that does unique strength training with some of the fighters. It’s like a full body blast, which takes less than 20 minutes, and is guaranteed to make you stronger. I set up an appointment, which he does for free, for 3 days from now and I'm totally looking forward to it. Clay French does this guys workouts twice a week and I talked to him and he said he got a lot stronger since he started doing the workouts, and he said it wasn't like he was starting from scratch, he was all ready in shape and he said he could tell just how much stronger he got. How can you beat a 20 minute workout, guaranteed to make you stronger....

Redline

10-01-08
HIT SQUAD DAY 12

So things got changed around and I did the strength training this morning instead of Friday. Now there are only two words I can think of to describe what this guy put me through.....holy hell. The trainer's name is Steve McKinney and he trains some of the fighters at the HIT SQUAD. Those who I've talked to all rave about his workouts and say they've all benefited from it. The goal is to increase strength, in a short session that carries into the fight game. This is obtained by a short workout with very limited rests and is intensified through slow, controlled movements with good posture and form, not speed even though the workout is short. Steve can describe his workouts better then I can, but this is how I put it in a nutshell. The workout only lasted 15-16 minutes but we blasted every body part; abs, chest, back, shoulders, arms, quads, and hamstrings, with only 1-2 sets per body part, which is amazing. Some sets were super-setted, with virtually no rests in between, except for when he was explaining the next movement. Now I'm a pretty strong guy for my size, like I posted in one of my previous blogs last week, I was dumbbell bench pressing 110 pound dumbbells, but this was something COMPLETELY different...this was the ONLY time in my life that I legitimately thought I was going to puke from weight lifting, no BS. After the workout I was sitting on the floor, feeling like a little girl, constantly trying to find a position to make the nausea go away. I plan on taking this workout home and implementing it in to my routine. Steve says that if I were to workout with him again (though I regret that I won't be able to because I’ll be going home soon), that I would be even stronger the next time, just from the workout today, and I believe him. He says through these workouts I would get stronger EVERY session, which is truly amazing. He is a really good guy and trains the fighters for free, it's his passion, but it'll come back to him in the end. He is coming out with a book and DVDs which I look forward to getting. And Steve, I know you are reading this blog, and no, I am no longer nauseous, and yes, I did take a 3 hour nap when I got back to the dorms. :-)

The night session was kickboxing. 6 5-minute rounds like usual. The second round I sparred with Chase Beebe which was probably the best round I’ve had since I’ve been here. We went at it pretty hard and at a very high pace, it was an awesome round. Fighting at such an intense pace, I got exhausted and basically for the last 4 rounds I was trying to survive. The third round I had Lawler, and I had just a little bit left in the tank to be somewhat offensive, whatever that means, though again he was taking it easy on me although he popped me with some nice shots. By the 5th round I was completely exhausted when I sparred Kyle Watson, the BJJ instructor here, his stand up is very good and I was just trying to make my beating look good :-) It was a tough night, though it was worth it just for the one good round I had with Beebe.

I went back to the dorms, ate, drank a pedialite, and hit the sack.

One more day left.

10-02-08
HIT SQUAD DAY 13

So there were fights coming up this weekend in Arkansas that a lot of the fighters were fighting on and basically everyone else was going to watch, so there was no class Friday and only one on Thursday, my last day.

The workout was intense. One of the other guys described it to me as a car wreck; it's short and it hurts, and that was a pretty good description. It was all done outside, there were 2 small platforms set up for power cleans with 135lbs., a cone about 40 or so yards away from the cleans, gigantic stones that were the size of basketballs and if I had to guess, I’d say they weighed anywhere between 35-50 lbs., and the tires. Here's how it went down: do 5 power cleans, sprint to the cone, then sprint from the cone to the stones, throw the stones over your head 8 times, then flip your tire about 20 or so yards, then sprint back to the cone. Now that’s just one set, 2 more to go. So sprint back to the cleans, do the cleans, sprint back to the cone, back to the rock throws, more tire flips, back to the cone, back to the cleans, back to the cone, back to the rocks, back to the flips, back to the cone, sprint back, done. It was a great final workout for me. It basically broke your body down to basically complete exhaustion and failure, great test physically and mentally.

After the workout I packed up my bags, got things ready, went back to the gym to say good-bye to the fighters and coaches before they left on the bus for Arkansas. It was a bit sad because I met some really cool, really good people, and I knew I was going to miss them.

I went to sleep around 9, then woke up at 3 a.m. and was on the road for home at 3:45, and drove straight through, 15 hours, back home.

I will be posting up one more blog, an "all-in-all" blog, briefly giving an overview of my stay and training at the Hit Squad.

Redline

FINAL RECAP
HIT SQUAD "ALL IN ALL"

Before I came to the Hit Squad I wondered, what kind of gym would it be? Would it be the gym that beats the hell out of the new guy, or has him in the corner drilling the whole class? Or would it be the intense gym that pushed one's body, heart, and mind to the limit, with hard conditioning classes, hard and technical sparring sessions with some top pro fighters under the guidance of great coaches? Well it was the latter. I was always in great condition for every one of my fights, but now I believe my conditioning is on a whole new level. Not only was the conditioning intense, the beauty is I got to take the routine home which I am doing now. I got to train and spar with some of the "big name" pros today, Lawler, Beebe, and even the local Illinois pros were great; the BJJ instructor had like 4 different championship belts in his dorm room, and he had the skills to go along with it by far. The coaching staff was phenomenal, not only knowledgeable, but they knew how to push you, how to motivate you, and it worked, you pushed yourself, you didn't want to let them down or show any weakness.

And I met some really awesome people. All of the fighters were all just good guys. There was no macho, alpha male, raging testosterone vibe at all during my stay here. Everyone was pretty laid back and funny, always trying to bust each others balls. I knew as I was packing my bags the last day, that I was leaving behind some good friends. From bloody noses, to "elbow-tag", it was all-in-all a positive experience, and I have no regrets coming to the Hit Squad, and plan on coming back in the future.

As for going into my next fight coming off of a camp at the Hit Squad, I feel very positive and optimistic. I know my next opponent won't be able to hit me or smash me as hard as some of the guys did at the HS. I know that he cannot break me physically or more important mentally, because honestly, if the Hit Squad didn't break me, I don't know what can. There was one guy training at the Hit Squad who used to play in the NFL for the Packers and the Colts, and he said, after one of the conditioning sessions, that this is harder than the NFL. That alone makes a statement.

I want to thank all my coaches for preparing me for the Hit Squad, Malinconico, Ligouri, Cureton, and of course my father, and my mother, for without them this trip and experience wouldn't have been possible.

I also want to thank the coaching staff at the Hit Squad, Hughes, Fiore, and Pena, and also Todd and Lawler, and a thanks to Steve. And a "shout-out" to Deejay(congrats on your recent win), Kyle, Dan, "Texas", and "Irish", and all the other fighters, thanks for a positive experience and I wish you all luck in the future and hope to see you soon. Thank you New Breed Fighters for allowing me and taking the time to post my blog on their website.

Redline (Jersey/East Coast)