Fisticuffs (Peak Performance Pugilism)
By R-Max Productions
I Prime Your Bioenergy
Prime Your Bioenergy consists of a series of exercises and concepts that are introduced and demonstrated by Scott Sonnon for implementation into your daily personal practice.
There is one statement Scott makes during PYB that for me is indicative of the P3 series as a whole.
"With each exercise you expand what you're capable of, which in turn expands what you're capable of producing"
Although Scott mentions this by way of introduction to the exercises, I feel that its connotations reach far wider. To me this is Scott saying that rather than limit yourself to one application/technique/whatever, work on expanding your capabilities in there own rights (rather than imposing a specific outcome on them). By not limiting yourself to one avenue of training you are constantly on top of your game, and can respond to the unexpected when it happens.
OK, anyone who's followed me on my tangent is probably wondering how this manifests itself in the videotapes. Well, instead of showing you how to train your 'jab' Scott will give you a bucket load of exercises that will enhance your arms' freedom to operate within the various ranges of motion (The Six Degrees of Freedom). Once comfortable within the Six Degrees of Freedom, your arms are free to move as they please, and you can begin to Weaponize Your Architecture.
By way of a brief rundown of the exercises in the tape;
Static ROMs; First Scott examines the joints of the Upper Body and the directions that they have a natural propensity to move in.
Infinities; The Static ROMs are now combined to move in an infinity symbol through the Front-Back, Top-Bottom and Left-Right planes (The Six Degrees of Freedom). These exercises can be quite sophisticated in places and take a little vigilance to get, such as the Double Arm Infinity through the Top-Bottom plane.
Vibration Drills; These Drills aim to integrate breathing with movement seamlessly, so as to lend the motion maximal power to the motion. In order to work on these drills, you will need to have worked with the Explosive Respiratory Drills from the Zdorovye System.
Rotational Values; This is one of I couldn't believe I needed to be told about, it really is beautifully simple. Rather than moving from a joint (say the elbow for example) you switch down your forearm and rotate around the middle of your forearm, with the wrist end and elbow ends making 50% of the motion each. This has the advantage of cutting the distance you need to move to strike in half as well as providing instant access to subsequent strikes. To continue the previous example; your fist has landed, you rotate around the middle of your forearm and catch your opponent with the elbow almost immediately.
Folding Architecture; Continuing from rotational values, these exercises concentrate on folding around a point of contact. For the purpose of the exercises you provide your own contact points, but in an engagement you could for example be caught in the clinch and have room to rotate your elbow towards your opponents sternum creating space for launching further attacks. Work from the clinch is covered specifically in Part II.
Lower Limb Movement Drills; These would conventionally be called Footwork Drills but Scott asks us to get rid of this antiquated term as it lends itself to misinterpretation. The purpose of these drills is to keep you light on your feet and moving your whole lower body in concert with what's going on upstairs.