Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Contour Kettlebells


Hey everyone just wanted to inform you about a new piece of training equipment that works great for strengthening your striking muscles. It’s called the “Contour Kettlebell” and it works great at mimicking your strikes without getting in the way of your movement. They are made by GoFit and Bob Harper from the Hit TV Show "The Biggest Loser" for people that didn’t like hitting their forearms when performing kettlebell exercises.
So they flattened the sides of a kettlebell and contoured it slightly so as not to hurt the forearm. But if you know me; I’m always thinking out side the box and I realized that they didn’t know what they really created. You see this is shaped just like a Padlock or Keylock as they’re called in China to develop the body for fighting and exercising. The Contoured Kettlebell is like a modernized version of the Chinese Keylock.

I bought two pair of these Contour Kettlebells and tried them out. I went to youtube and found a few videos on how to workout with keylocks and I just copied some of their movements.  Let me tell you they worked great, I used them with my punching movements and elbows, they have a different feel then regular kettlebells. You can bring them closer to the sides of your head and move freely with them. By being able to bring them closer to your body you can really mimic the way you fight and keep them tight to the body.
The price ranges from $29.00 - $85.00 dollars and they come in 7, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 35lbs. They come with a plastic cover around the bell and the handle is bare metal. I’ve priced keylocks and they can cost over a hundred dollars for a twenty pound one and a 35 pounder will set you back $299.95. So as you can see they are a bargain when compared to a real keylock.  You can purchase them at Target or on Amazon. So all you Martial Artists, Boxers, and Muay Thai Fighters should try them out and see what you think.

About the only thing I don’t like is that the handle on the lighter contour kettlebells are a bit thinner but if you add some tape or put a pair of fat gripz on the handles they’ll be fine. My fists, wrists, forearms and elbows have benefitted greatly from using them and I know they will benefit you also.

By the way, the two pair I bought were 10 and 15 pounders, they really work great for punching. And as a bonus you can also do any kettlebell exercise you can think of with them.
So get yourself a pair and start striking.
Take Care


Daniel Sambrano



P.S. Don’t be like me and freak out the shoppers and the workers at Target by doing a quick workout with them in the aisle, trust me when I say they work great!

Sunday, March 27, 2011

MyMuayThai asks if MMA is bad for muay thai

Muay thai blogger, and a leading resource for news on ring style mauy thai, MyMuayThai.com posted a contributed article  earlier this month arguing that MMA actually hurts muay thai. I, for one, am stoked that other muay thai bloggers are waking up to this reality.  I've made this point in previous posts, and received a fair amount of flack from the TapOut crowd. Thank you Mai for keeping the discussion going.

Here's a link to the article on MyMuayThai.com. It's fairly short and worth a read.


Donnie-

Source: MyMuayThai.com
http://www.mymuaythai.com/archives/is-mma-counterproductive-to-muay-thai/

Sunday, March 20, 2011

The Law of Impact, Street Fight vs Sport Fight


When it comes to accidents on the highway streets, the law of physics always favor the larger, heavier vehicles. Even though smaller compact vehicles are better on gas and can get you around town much easier.

But what these “Politically Correct” “Kumba Yah” type of vehicles seem to forget is that they can’t take too much impact especially when hit by a larger vehicle. It’s just the way it is, sorry. That’s why I drive a big powerful Dodge Truck with a Hemi Engine, it keeps me safe on the streets. And it’s the same way when it comes to striking someone in a vicious street- fight.

You better not have small weak, soft punches that are just meant to score points and look pretty moving fast. Or you’ll most likely find yourself laid out on the filthy ground wallowing in your own bloody self delusions, spitt’n teeth out. You need to have impact crushing, power generating fists that can hit with such brutal viciousness that it’s scarey to think what kind of damage you’ll cause to any fool who chooses to tangle with you.

You need to know what the majority of strikers don’t about how to generate maximum power in your punches. You need to be hitting like the fighters of old, legends like Dempsey, Marciano, Fitzsimmons, Choynski, Jeffries just to name a few. After all boxing was once upon a time taught for self protection, it was the martial art of the west.

Now it’s become a watered down version of it’s once powerful self, due to the way it’s being taught in the gyms across the country today. In WWI and WWII boxing was taught to the soldiers to teach them to have aggressive footwork and power in their fists but not to strike the enemy with but to use in bayonet trench fighting. That’s how important boxing was. It taught you how to prevail in a life and death situation.

Todays boxing only works well in the ring with a referee and with rules and let’s not forget boxing gloves. They tell you don’t hit with your barefists you’ll break your hands so you
don’t but you get into a streetfight and you end up with a broken nose, jaw or ribs, what a trade off! You're taught combinations that will win you the day in the ring but mess you up in a streetfight. You're taught rules that will make you a fair fighter and a sportsman but get your ass handed to you by some scum in the street who follows no rules, save one “the law of the jungle”.

Wake up! And pull your head out off your coaches ass and think for yourself for once. Fighting with rules and restraints, and using safety equipment is only going to get you hurt when reality hits you upside the jaw. So get some street smarts and learn to fight dirty using proven fighting methods that will teach you to be merciless to your enemy.
And be ready to answer the call of violence when it gives you a ring.

Daniel Sambrano
www.SuperHeroSystems.com

Friday, March 18, 2011

Thank you readers - OSMT enters Alexa's Top 1 million

Hey folks, a quick bit of news here. This blog, Muay Thai Beyond the Ring, has officially broken into the top 1 million visited websites on the Internet, as ranked by Alexa! Alexa is like the Nielsen Ratings of the web. I'm certainly stoked!

For the past two years, Daniel and I have been providing truly unique content on the subject of muay thai, peppered with a whole lot of street fighting theories, dirty boxing techniques, and simple methods to develop strength and speed without spending a ton of money on equipment.

We don't wear the thai shorts in our videos, and I'm a farang who lives, trains, and teaches in California. We believe in ending a fight as fast as possible through the use of older muay thai systems that we've been (seriously) lucky enough to have learned. Thanks for appreciating the simplicity and  efficiency that this system provides.

So I wanted to take a moment to thank you, the readers, those of you who participate with comments, the votes of confidence, even the rants from that one guy who was really, really upset regarding my opinions on the Fairtex franchise.

On behalf of myself, Daniel Sambrano, and my dog Bando - who is chewing on my arm as I type - THANK YOU!!!

Donnie Baker-