Dallas Fitness Magazine Article

The first wave of fitness fighting actually started in the early 80's. New York and then Dallas lead the way with White Collar Boxing, "The Workout of a Fighter Without the Fight". Later in the early 90's kickboxing gyms joined in on the new fitness craze. In that time a select few boxers and kickboxers started training clients in their own gyms. Around that time the first of the original fight programs were started. Dallas, Texas had the first with White Collar Boxing. This program was the catalyst of all the other programs. This particular program was designed around real fight conditioning without the fighting. This training spawned countless other programs such as Cardio Boxing, Cardio Kickboxing, Aerobic Boxing, Kickboxing Aerobics, and Tae Bo. The theme of the programs was boxing and kickboxing training. However, not all of these programs were created equal.

First we have to define what is fight conditioning? In boxing and kickboxing the training is very similar. They both involve running, jumping rope, speed bag, slip bag, heavy bag, focus mitts and a host of stomach and back exercises. This training involves full power and full speed output during the interval training. Boxing rounds are three minutes long and kickboxing rounds are two minutes long both with a one-minute rest. The other types of training that fighters do along with this are biking, swimming, and weight lifting. That covers the conditioning with the equipment workout. All of these aspects of fight training are the actual fighters' warm up. The training gives the fighter the endurance first, strength second, and mental fortitude third. The by-product, of course, is conditioning.

A workout involves running about one to 5 miles. Jumping rope for about 15 minutes, then stretching, and on to bag work. Usually you start with the heavy bag work. Depending on your workout that day you could do 5,10, or15 rounds on the heavy bag, rotating in and out between the speed bag and slip bag. Averaging 15 to 20 rounds. The fighting begins after that segment of training.

First there are focus pads to the tune of about 3 to 5 rounds. Second you do 3 to 5 rounds of body work in boxing (body work is when you box full power to the body only), then you go on to 3 to 5 rounds of traditional boxing. In boxing you could do more rounds at this point but in kickboxing you move forward to the kicking and punching rounds. Kickboxing rounds are 3 to 5 rounds also. In the end you jump rope for another 5 to15 minutes. Obviously you have to balance your training with the emphasis changing day to day. A normal workout is as follows: You run first, jump rope, and then stretch. After that, you hit the heavy bag for about 5 to 7 rounds. Next you hit the slip bag for about 3 rounds and then hit the speed bag for at least 2 or 3 rounds. The focus mitts are next hitting those for three rounds. Now you're on to the fighting, with three rounds of boxing, body work then the same with three rounds of boxing. The kickboxing training also goes for three rounds. If you have access, three to five rounds of shadow boxing in the steam room to finish your training for the day. All in all you do about 20 to 30 rounds of interval training altogether.

Real fight training is usually broken up into 2 a days training. Running, weight lifting, and shadow boxing in the steam room are one workout, and then the fight workout is later in the day. All of this training combined could take up to 3 1/2 to 4 hours. The commitment level to do this training must be is intense. This is the real thing in fight training.

The further a fight program is from true fight fitness the less credible or identifiable it is to it's name sake; fight fitness. This is not say that other programs are not very effective it is only fair to define what is what. Example: If you have a real 20 dollar bill in one hand and a photo of a twenty dollar bill in the other, which one has worth? They are both 20 bills. One works, and the other one looks like it, but isn't. Fight fitness programs are the same way. The top of the food chain in fight fitness is as mentioned above. This is what real fighters do in boxing and kickboxing. On one hand you have real fight training as mentioned above, or on the other hand you have punching and kicking moves without the equipment.

The next level down is boxing and kickboxing aerobics. These programs were created due to the lack of credible talent to actually teach the programs. In the history of kickboxing in the United States there have been as few as a 100 kickboxers. If you do the math it doesn't take long to see that there is not enough to go around. There are a lot of cities in the United States with a lot of gyms and health clubs. Usually your major cities have enough talent to draw from too have a half way decent instructor with a program, so why are these health clubs avoiding seeking these instructors and programs out? The other reason is economics. Your average health club doesn't want to spend the money for the equipment or a quality instructor. The fitness industry is used to an aerobics instructor becoming certified to teach a class in less than week or two. Common sense would tell you the faster you acquire your credentials the less knowledge you have to teach. These instructors get paid very little to teach because they have very little to instruct. An average martial artist could spend as much 30 to 100 dollars a month to learn karate and become an instructor in about 3 1/2 to 4 years. With that expense and commitment it's a hard sell for a health club to draw a high caliber program or instructor for 15 to 25 dollars a class. The only alternative to date is for a health club to market what ever they can throw together at very little expense. The loser in this transition is the public. The public needs to know the difference between real and fake programs, as well as instructors. The reason is a lot of this philosophy is a spill over from the aerobics industry. Traditional aerobics classes as a whole have fallen off in recent years. For the time being there is a void waiting to be filled by credible instructors and programs. All to often you lose potential clients that never had a chance to do the real thing due to fake instructors and programs.

Today in the fitness industry there is a craze for everyone to be certified to teach boxing or kickboxing. The industry believes that this will legitimize their programs to their clients. Not true. The standard in the United States is defined and is very clear and historical. First off all, the majority of all trainers judges, coaches, and instructors are all ex-fighters. In Boxing, Mills Lane who is one of the premiere referees was an ex-professional fighter. In Karate and Kickboxing you have Roy Kurban who also fought in the professional arena in point karate, as well as Kickboxing. Roy is an outstanding instructor and referee. The further the fighter went usually the higher his knowledge to pass along. In Boxing it takes about 2 to four years to become a good boxer that can compete at a competitive level. In karate it is about the same amount of time if not longer. Anyone else other than the above would fall into a very small percentage and certainly would not be very credible according to the fight industries standards. However, the fitness industry is consumed with instructors who were never fighters or have done real fight training. In a lot of cities you have all the ex-world champions especially in Kickboxing who were never known in the fight industry. Yet the fitness industry allows them to promote themselves as if they were on the same caliber as say Bill Wallace, Raymond McCallum, Howard Jackson, Demetrias Havanas, Don Wilson, or Benny the Jet.

Now it is time to define the differences in the fight industry. What is credible? Any fighter that only fought in amateur ranks in Boxing and Kickboxing is on the lowest level. The truth is on this level anyone is considered as an amateur. I've seen fighters literally picked out of the audience to fill in for a no show in the amateur ranks. Where as, in the professional ranks all the flakes have already been weeded out? To be a pro it is tough. All of your higher credible trainers and judges and instructors were pro fighters. That is true in Boxing and Kickboxing. In the city of Dallas as I'm sure else where, the fitness industry has been in fooled by many martial artist who claim to be something they are not. All of sudden black belts that I've known for twenty years or more making claims of being kickboxers and even world champions. When fight fitness started there were all these point karate black belts that all of a sudden took on a couple of amateur fights in an attempt to legitimize their credibility as a kickboxer. They were local events fighting local fighters over and over. First off there are only a few credible world sanctions in Kickboxing. The longest running and most credible in the past have been the PKA, WKA, KICK, and the ISKA sanctions. A real world title sanction is involved in international competition. Simply you fight people from other countries. All of the multiple local amateur World Champion events and fighters are not that credible. If you think you are a credible World Amateur Champion in kickboxing as an amateur odds are your not. If you are a professional in an accredited sanction then you are. There is no gray area here. I've been doing this as long as anyone in this whole country and I see the fitness industry is hurting for the real thing. The turn over of shallow programs and instructors is very high. A lot of gyms have already given up on fight fitness due to the lack luster performance in their facility. These gyms are using aerobic instructors and weight trainers to teach Boxing and Kickboxing. It isn't the fault of fight fitness. Rather it is the fault of the philosophy and perception of that club. Here is good example: if a health club offers one to two classes a week in this training there will be injuries. Your body has to adjust over long period of to do this. In other forms of training if you miss and take off for a while the risk of injuries is low when you return. In Kickboxing and Martial Arts you are talking about full power, full speed, full range of motion slamming into radical impact and stops. Martial Arts training and Kickboxing are like boiling water, if you take it off the fire it doesn't boil very long. The training has to be maintained. The motivation factor slides unless there is a real noticeable improvement rate. That improvement rate is sustained when you have a continual learning process. A certified trainer that has trained less than several years has very little to teach. The training itself is very demanding. It takes commitment and persistence. Not everyone is suited for this training. It is better to remove the ones that aren't suited for the training out of your program verses changing the program to suit the needs of those that are not committed. The success rate is higher in the committed clients in the committed programs. For you Martial Artist and Aerobics Instructors out there that claim to be something you are not, make an attempt to define or create a name or program that defines what you do. Billy Blanks has done a good job on marketing a karate aerobics class called "Tae Bo". He developed a program that suited his background and expertise. He doesn't claim to be anything that he isn't. His program is a martial arts aerobics class. It is not Kickboxing, Boxing, or a fight training program. It is an aerobics class. His program is very successful and has created a bridge between the aerobics industry and the martial arts community. The "White Collar Boxing" program has done the same thing. It is a fight fitness program that invloves real karate with belt ranking, with real Kickboxing and Boxing training. The fighting in Boxing and Kickboxing is optional for the clients. However, the sparring in point karate is mandatory. There is no safer way to learn to defend your self than this type of combat. All of your renowned kickboxers came up through the traditional karate ranks first in the United States with this form of fighting. Then they took on Boxing to help develop their kickboxing skills. The top of the food chain as you now well know is real Kickboxing and Boxing. In closing I don't mean to offend any programs out there. This article not only serves as a consumer alert but also defines the various levels of training and credibility in the fight fitness industry.