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Coaching the Elite - with Shaun Kober

by Shaun Kober
April 25th 2022
01:10:26
Description

Shaun Kober is the strength and conditioning coach for UFC fighter Petr Yan, and the head strength and conditioning coach at Tiger Muay Thai.
In this episode, we spoke about his adventure trai... More

what does it mean to live life to the fullest train to your potential and perform at your best, leave nothing on the table. That's a non negotiable is that I strive to be better every day because if I'm not on top of my game, how is anybody else going to follow me down the road? Keep demanding more of yourself to live up to that potential and to stay hungry. Training is progress. You know, when I look at the word training, I think of steps, baby steps to get somewhere that you want to be and that is basically your life journey. That's a mindset and itself man, it's like, it's not just about, I know that for you, a lot of that's about the physical, but we're constantly in training, whether it's growing our skill sets, whether it's growing our physical bodies, whether it's growing our relationships whatever and all of that is a training ground and that kind of goes back to the mindset that we just talked about. You underestimate yourself and you don't even start, but then once you start, you often surpass what you thought you could do perform at your best money. That's that's sort of what life is all about. You know, I don't have the knowledge and have the fitness, the healthy ambition and drive that no matter what comes along when that next phone call comes, I can just say yes, I don't have to worry, just go and do it.

Hey guys, this is an episode that I recorded with the Swiss eight boys Adrian and max for their podcast. The instructions sold separately podcast. Now we recorded this back in February. I had them booked in for a conversation for this podcast so that I could update you guys on. We're Swiss Seders at what they're doing, what they're working towards this year and why I'm affiliated with them. However, unfortunately Adrian got the rona and then I got the rona. So we had to put that conversation on hold. So I thought I'd share this one with you. I will have those boys on again in the next couple of weeks. Let's get this episode underway. Mm hmm. I'm very relaxed as you can tell the stretcher. Mm hmm. Good day mate. What? It's been a while since you've come on last one? Was that it was two years ago when we did the yoga course. Two years bro. It was actually legit like two years ago. We were actually on the course, then always the end of the month, I think it was the end of the month of february. I think we're on course, Yeah.

End of feb. And then we got back in March was when the world shut down. Let's not talk about that. But because that's I think everyone's done that to death for two years. I mean there's there's been a lot of fucking great things that happened in that time, if I'm honest. Well that's exactly what we need to unpack today mate, two years worth of stories to tell. I mean, and if there's someone to tell a story, it's coves. Um sorry, sorry, before you keep going, I keep undoing because as soon as you bump the fucking buttons, that's going to suck it all, sorry mate, it's mom and dad are gonna have a little fight on camera. Um So you've gone from, we left her at the the yoga camp and then you went off and You've kind of been super busy. I think I think the year of 2022 is going to be Sean Cooper's explosion onto the world stage mate. You mean what happened? You took a guy who was the UFC blow his professional fighter is yeah, I mean, you've you've taken him from, obviously he was dominating but you've, you know, your strength and conditioning coach for that, People are going to want to know some little intricacies and take us through it mate, What the fuss was that all about?

Um That was a very vague question max, so I'll do my best to unpack that bro, Give the audience, you're lucky you're lucky you got the end of the question normally, I just fucking hes out like that. Yeah, I was, I was waiting for the rest of that. Yes, I left you boys on that course. Um I got back to Thailand about 10 days before everything locked down and 2020 was kind of obviously a weird year, like the world lockdown, a lot of people around the world, lost their lives, lost family members, lost their livelihood etc. Um I was already planning on starting a podcast when I got back to Thailand and like literally the day before I flew back to Thailand, I bought everything that I needed with the intent of doing a podcast course, learning everything that I could before I launched a podcast course. Yeah bro, I've got a couple of podcast courses that I've been going through, so you can, you can hear like my first podcast episodes are absolutely terrible, but then I've been progressively getting better as I've been going, which has been awesome man, because you know, it's been an investment for me and we'll kind of dive into that side of the business, what I'm doing etcetera, etcetera as we go through this conversation.

But Basically, um I got back to Thailand everything locked down for about three months, um marched through to, I think July or August or something like that. But um anyway, I've been training Peter Yang, who made his debut in the UFC in 2018. Uh and we worked together for his debut as well as I think the subsequent, by that stage, it would have been four fights, four or five fights in the UFC um and through that lockdown period, that first lockdown period, I was actually training him, he's coming around to my place um and I was putting him through strengthening conditioning with very minimal equipment in preparation for his title fight against Jose Aldo for the vacant bantamweight title. Um So he went away, won that fight, got the title and then gotta fight against Al Jemaine sterling for his first title defense, and anyone who follows the UFC knows what happened um You know, Al Jemaine came out, tried to fleury and then take him down, um ended up burning himself out and you can just started picking him apart man.

Um and you know, put him on his back, I think, I think he had like seven takedown defenses or something where Al Jemaine actually ended up on his back himself. Um And then in the fourth round he threw an illegal knee to a downed opponent, he had three points contact, I think he had a foot down and knee down and one hand down. So you know, technically speaking, you know, he was a downed opponent, yarn through the knee. El Jemaine put on a little bit of a show ended up getting handed the belt and then, you know, I wasn't part of that fight camp, it was very obviously everything was locked down because I didn't I didn't see that fight was he was dominating the fight, so I've been told and then literally like you said, the guy sort of church it up and you know, Hollywood acting level 12, I mean he legit got hit by a knee whilst he was down, so you know, you're not expecting that but yeah just mistimed it man, he got it wrong, he mistimed it, he's owned up to it, he's taken responsibility for it. Um And in fact the last fight camp where I went over to Russia and then Dubai which I'll come back to in a moment, you know he kind of he made a joke about it through the through the public, what was the public workout when they have the coaches, the grappling coaches, striking coaches, just all for the cameras, the media stuff.

Um he hit his striking coach with a flying knee whilst he was down. So yeah it was really cool, funny funny dudes man, we'll probably dive into the fight camp and everything as we go through this conversation but um here's that title defense against al jemaine sterling, I wasn't part of that camp. He normally comes to tiger trains in Thailand um does his fight camps out here? So he's got his you know his whole team out here, our whole coaching staff which he didn't have access to. So he flew his striking his boxing coach over to America and they trained out of american top team in florida. Um And during the fight and after the fight I left it a week I sent him a message, I said hey man you know it sucks to see you lose a title like that, you know I look forward to working together again in the future, you know we'll make sure that, you know, the work's done and you get another another shot at the title. Um and he messaged back and he goes coach, I missed, I missed you, I missed the spark, I missed the power, I missed the conditioning and his striking coach said the same thing. So Um fast forward to July last year, 2021 and I get a message from Yarn on WhatsApp, Hey coach, can you come to Russia?

I'm fighting al jemaine again, I want you to fly to Russia, are you available? And I was like, fuck yeah bro. So I walked into the office at work and I said, hey boss PTR has asked me to go to Russia. So I'm going to be taking two months off and I'm going to obviously representing Tiger muay thai whilst I'm there. So he was like, yep sweet, let's go. What does it do? Who pays for the flights across? Is that something is it the Fighter? Is it tiger? Is it yourself? Yeah. So um Yarn covered everything man paid for my Visa. Um you know, sorted out all the admin side of things for the Visa. I had to get um an invitation letter for a special visa to fly into Russia um and that was a bit of a mission as well just getting to Russia um and you know, obviously filling out the declaration, former Australian soldier bla bla blast of the boys were joking, like Putin is going to have someone on you. Um Daddy Putin. So yeah, it was he paid for everything man. Um he paid for the flights, paid for the visa, sorted out all the admin there once I got to Russia, you know, he picked me up from the airport, we drove a couple of hours, 3.5 hours back to the training camp, He'd flown in all these striking coaches, grappling coaches, myself, strength conditioning coach and his training partners.

And we did seven weeks in Russia and then went over to my and spent two weeks in Dubai and then a week in Abu Dhabi. So I had a 10 week, 10 week camp all up. And then uh you know, I ended up finding out a week before the fight that I was in the corner um for his his title shot. And you know, it was absolutely incredible experience for me to be able to be in the corner and experience what was going on at a live event after the work that we put in and after the years that we've worked together. So it was an amazing experience, a strength and conditioning coach in the corner of a UFC fighter, Is that industry standard per se? Or and I guess the follow on, was is it because he saw something else in you outside of just strength and conditioning. Was there a spiritual and emotional, that's the question conversation, right. Um yeah, so not usual, no, but we have worked together for many years and you know, I, I trained him for years for free and that was part of my investment in learning my craft and you know, I use him as a guinea pig to test out my systems and frameworks and um you know, tweak and adjust, so they're not going to apply those same systems to other fighters.

Um so it was always an investment for me and he, after, I think it was his third fight, he tried to pay me for one of these, one of our sessions and I was like, I don't want your money bro, like this is an investment for me. Um you know, you'll pay me back one day, you will take me to one of your title fights and you know, I'll get to experience that live, that's enough payment for me. Um so obviously I wasn't part of that fight camp against al jemaine sterling, I got the call, went over to Russia um contributed to his fight camp played my piece, I played my part as a piece of the puzzle along with the other coaches and he asked me to go to buy with him a week before the fight. His manager just flown over who also works at Tiger Muay thai and I was on the phone with one of my friends and my friend was like, hey, you know, where are you sitting in the crowd, we want to catch up, I was like, where am I sitting? And he looks at me and he goes, you're in the corner bro. And I was like, oh fuck okay. Um, and we just finished a training session, yarn was down on the beach while we're in Dubai was, we're staying to Dubai marina, walk down the beach and was like, hey man, thank you very much for putting me in the corner.

Um you know what do you want me to do? And he just looked at me and he goes coach, you control situation and I was like, okay. Um, and then I went and spoke to save his, his manager speaks five languages, speaks great english. So I was like, hey man, like I spoke to Peter and he said, yeah, control situation, what do you actually want me to do in the corner? And he goes, dude, like he just wants you there because of your presence, You don't need to do anything. Like his striking coach is going to be the lead, he's gonna be the only voice. Like he just wants you there for your presence and I was like, funk man, that's, that's really cool. So you know, it was, it was really um, it was an amazing moment man to find out that I was going to be in the corner and that I wasn't really required to do anything, but I definitely felt like an imposter, I was like, we've just gone through this 10 week fight camp with these absolute killers, all these Russian dudes, um you know like I feel like his training partners, some of his best friends probably would have been a better suit to be in the corner. Um but you know, maybe he felt that after the years of investment, um and training him for free, that um you know, he wanted to reward me and have me in the corner.

Um and I've spoken to a couple of other people about this as well, actually did a podcast on the whole process a week within that week after he actually won that title and you know, I had a little bit of time to process everything and I recorded a solo podcast episode and it was actually quite lackluster. So I got on one of my mates, he had a great conversation with him and he was just asking genuine questions and um that was something that came up, was asking um you know how, how I felt being in the corner and me saying, I felt like an imposter and he was like, well dude, like you're a fucking sniper in the army man, like you've been in these situations where um you do control the situation and you know, he's obviously picked up on that and being like, well, you know, I want this guy in my corner because he brings something else that maybe other people aren't offering, So did you drop any one liners on him? Through the fight? Through the fight? His coaches are all going to be throwing and throwing and throwing over? Did you go? I'm just gonna wait, I'm gonna wait, I'm gonna wait. One liner, this will make him win the fight.

Did you throw any advice at him? May I actually did say something? Um in the four, I think, leading into the fourth round? Um I was on the outside of the cage, so the two of the coaches, there's four people in the corner, there's two on the inside of the cage to, on the outside, but on the outside the cage and his kickboxing coach was the main voice and you know, he finished talking about 10 seconds before the bell rang to go out and kick off the fourth round um and I just said, breathe, control situation, good, that's all you gotta, it's like writing a resume that I was thinking, I'm like, what, what do you want me there for you guys? You just controlled situation? It's like, cool, the one liner I'm gonna throw out is hey, peter control the situation. It's just copy and paste feed him back. Exactly, man, is there, is there a montage, like, so training in Russia, are they hardier people than Australians? Like going there? We know that the rocky to think it was rocky to one, it filmed and it went off to Russia and are they hardier people or is it much of a muchness really? Uh I mean that's difficult to answer, man because Look at who was there with 1?

I was I was there with those guys and everywhere he went every you know, people recognizing them um John's got like 1.3 million followers on Instagram or some sh it so he was putting stories up when would, you know, leave camp on the weekend and we'd go and venture out and uh you know, chill out a little bit, get some sunshine and just, you know, live a little bit of a normal day, so to speak. And he put a story up on his um instagram and people would like rock up man and like be running along the path that we've just been walking along to try and catch up with him and get photos and things like that. It was pretty funny. Um There was one guy that come running up and you know, we're on this big cliff face on the coast And there was a heap of I think it's 800 called 800 steps I think heap of stairs going down to um you know, going down the face of this cliff down onto this pebble beach. Um It was quite steep and there was a lot of steps um and we've gone down, he got stories, put them up on social media, we swam on the beach, we come back up and like it was a path that was going like crawling along the coastline and people were running along trying to find him.

And one guy ran up and went, blah, blah, blah blah in Russian and yan said something and the dude like just nodded and turned around and started running off and all the boys started laughing and called him back and I was like, and then blah, blah, blah, blah, they end up getting a photo and I was like, what just happened? And they're like, oh, that guy asked for a photo, john told him to run down the bottom of the beach, come back up and give him a photo. Funny dudes, man, they're real funny dudes. Like um you know, I was spending probably 4 to 6 hours with these guys every day, you know, we kind of lived on a, it was, it was almost like being on barracks again, you know, there's, there's a heap of buildings, accommodation lines, Um, there was a mess, um, you know, a pool, a gym, tennis courts, soccer fields right on the beach. So you know, we have all of our meals together, we're doing all the training sessions together in the gym, you know, some spending 4-6 hours with these guys every day and there was times when I was like, man, I wish I spoke Russian because there was, you know, we'd be sitting around the dinner table and one person would say something and then someone else would kind of laugh and throw something back at them and then someone else would like throw something back and then the laughter would get louder and then someone else was just throwing banter, man, the boys just throwing banter and I was like, funk, I wish I could contribute to this conversation because like I, I feel like I could, I feel like they're, you know, funny dudes and we share a lot of similarities just being guys and um, you know, training hard and spending a lot of time together.

It's almost like being on deployment or going through, you know, I E T s or something like that. It wasn't a lot of similarities. There wasn't an Antonio Banderas 13th warrior moment where you just clicked and you started speaking Russian and understanding it. Thank you. Well, there's, there's one guy, Dagestani guy, like a really good wrestler man, I couldn't understand what the fuss he was saying, he couldn't understand what the funk I was saying, but we just had this like this mutual communication where he would say something and I would just not because I felt like I understood what he was talking about and then the thing was like, you know, most communications 70% nonverbal ish. So you know, I really had to tune into those nonverbal cues. Yeah, that's what I was about to ask you, like, I was in Bosnia in 2015 out on the piece, I think when you, when you start, when, if you're out of the peace with people, you and you have a few beers and I mean I'm pretty deaf when, when I'm on the piece and there's, there's music and you get into subconsciously just reading body language, um did you, did you notice that? Because, I mean, so what do I notice was that after about two hours with these people, I had no idea what the words were coming out their mouth, but I knew what the intent was and you could get to the point where we didn't have to do anything, we're just two dudes in a bar, but I had like this english to Bosnian conversation for like an hour and we ended up going, yeah, like you're just shaking your head your life and if you don't really know, you just laugh and you're like, yeah, he's laughing, I'll laugh.

So did you get to the point the question, did you get to the point where after enough time these people, you can kind of gauge what their intent is. Yeah, absolutely, man, um you know, as I said, you, you pick up on those nonverbal cues and um, you know, you're reading body language, you're reading facial expressions and you kind of, I mean, I was six or seven Russian dudes at the dinner table every day, breakfast, lunch dinner, like you get a, you get a feel for the conversation and you know what they're talking about and um you know sometimes I just pull it up on google translate and be like, what are you guys talking about? And they're like, oh we're talking about whatever and I'm like ah I felt like you guys were talking about something there because of the way that they were communicating with each other. So yeah, we definitely started picking up on those things and and tuning into those things. Yeah, that's cold going back to what you're saying. I hope I didn't take this wrong. I think I got what you're putting down like the world's interpretation of Russians is they are all hard, they are all fucking cage fighting. There's 100 I don't know what's the population, 100 and something million, 100 whatever it is, it's like every male in Russia is a hardened warfighting fucking savage and it's like, well maybe, but maybe the most famous Russians are the ones fighting in the UFC and therefore they give the reputation that everyone in Russia is like them.

But I, I get the impression that it's like coming to Australia and going, yeah, if you're hanging around UFC gym, you think Australians are pretty tough. So I made it comment to max and I wasn't gonna swear, I just realized, I swore four times in one sense, but in reality you walk out on the street and the rest of the country as a whole is not anything like a UFC fighter, Is it the same in Russia, is the volume of tough dudes or hardman too soft men. Is it higher the ratio in Russia than over here? It's a good question man. It's, it's definitely something that you noticed like before going to Russia and immersing myself in the culture, I definitely felt um you know, that kind of standoffishness from, from Russians and um you know, always kind of wondered why that was, but once I was actually immersed in their culture and I was hanging around these guys so much man, like, you know, you would see them act one way in public and then they'd be a little bit different behind closed doors, you know, when they're with their own people, when they're with their friends, you know, they're laughing a lot more and you know what I realized was there actually really funny dudes man that I was spending time with, you know, so it kind of softened up my view of Russians.

Yeah, I can't remember who it was. It was, it was a podcast I was listening to about a year and a half years of Russian dude and he's like when the difference is the reason people think Russians are harder or ruff whatever is because in normal day to day conversation, they just don't worry about the fluff, it's very direct and very, very unfiltered and I read it and to give you a bit of context. I don't know if I'm ready for this on the podcast. The last two girls I've dated have both been rushing and I got I got suspicious for a minute there. I'm like two Russians and I've never met a Russian fit girl in Australia before. Then I met two back to back. I'm like, yeah, the buddy, what do you call, KGB has probably got something to do with it, but at the same time, like, I've found that I got along with him way better because I prefer a conversation that he's unfiltered and very, very blunt. And and they just are if they don't like if you're going to do something, it's not like what do you want for dinner? And you go back and forward for five hours because they don't actually tell you what you want for dinner. It's like I want this and if you can't get that, then I'm going to be unhappy about it. But that's honesty. And I love it. I think I might have to go there mate. I think I might have to go there for a holiday.

Yeah, yeah, it's it's a cool place, man. But as I said, that was my experience is probably different to a lot of people's, if you're going there as a tourist, then you know, it is going to be a different experience because I was seeing those guys behind the doors and you know, they were having conversations and it's kind of weird to smile at someone in public in Russia, really, you just don't do it. I don't know if I could do that. I gotta smile and say goodbye to everyone. Even in Sydney. Yeah, well, I don't know is that or is that just giving people like a bit of love for the day? I don't know. Maybe I'll cut away smiling at people and see what happens. Is that how you picked up the Russian girl mate just smiled at her and she's like, no one does that back home. Maybe, maybe that's the thing. We get a group of Aussie boys. We got to go to Russia to Moscow for a week. Just smile at every girl on the street and probably get bashed by the chicks. So what's the obviously not giving, you don't want to give any deficiencies away as a strength and conditioning coach for a UFC fighter?

What are you? I don't know, not going right into the nitty gritty, but what do you actually teaching them training them on as a fighter? Is it particular muscle groups? Is it movements or is it just like what is it? Uh That is a very difficult question max. It depends, there's my answer, it does legit depend on the athlete, it depends on their strengths, their weaknesses, how long we've got um what their game plan is, who they're fighting. What organization, you know different organizations have different rules. Um So yeah, every single fight camp is different. Every athlete is different. I need to do, um an athlete analysis and figure out what they need. And again, tying with all of those other variables I spoke about. Um a lot of the time it is working on strength, stability, power speed, endurance, stamina, and the system conditioning.

Um If I've only got four weeks with someone, then maybe I have to run like a conjugate system where I'm doing a little bit of everything in each session, I might only have them, you know, 123 times a week. If I've got a longer period of time, then I'm going to go through like a block period ization model where I'll go from like in Russia for example, I went through um strength and stability for about three weeks and then went through power development for two weeks and then transferred to speed and power endurance and conditioning for about three weeks. And then it was just about tapering off and tightening everything up. But a lot of things that I do is about energy or sorry, force production, force transfer, force application. Okay, so what I'm doing in the gym needs to be able to carry over to what they're doing in their skill sessions. You know, if they're throwing kicks, if they're throwing punches, if they're grappling, um etcetera, you know, they need to be able to organize their body into a manner to produce the most amount of force with the least amount of movement and allow that force that they're producing to carry through the kinetic chain and be applied to someone's face hopefully.

So do you, do you get a brief from their head coach of like he's coming to you? He wants to come to you obviously, I mean, I'm sure it's different every time, but, but peter Yarns obviously put his hand up and say, I want to go on training codes again. Um, does the head coach write you a training bra for a set of orders to go, hey, these are the objectives, this is what I'm working on with him at the moment, This is what I need you to do. Um it depends. Yeah, this was a cool thing about being in Russia, man was, I was like working, I was one of the team, um, striking coach, grappling coach, strengthening edition coach plus training partners. So we had a really good system where we'd be working together, you know, we're training twice a day. Um If I had strengthened auditioning in the morning and I knew that he had, you know, his kickboxing skills in the afternoon, I would talk to his coach and be like, hey, what are you planning on doing this afternoon, how hard this session going to be, blah, blah, blah and then I would make some adjustments to my session or I talk to him and say, hey, I need to really put the foot down in my sessions for the next couple of weeks. I need you to back it off a little bit.

Um, so we had really good communication between all the coaches and all the training partners about, you know, um working different intensities um and undulating those intensities so that we were working together rather than, and and complimenting each other's training sessions rather than taking away from each other's sessions, which was kind of, it was a really cool experience because in Tiger, you know, sometimes you don't have that communication, there is a disconnect between the different coaches. So when john was training for Jose Aldo for the vacant bantamweight title, um he was doing his strengthening edition with me twice a week and then he was doing boxing with our boxing coach and then he was doing Brazilian jiu jitsu and then he was wrestling and then he was doing mm a session, so he's working with, you know, four or five other coaches and every single coach is like pushing him to the max. So then I was having to back off some of our sessions because I could see that he was dragging his heels, his head was a little bit low and his energy levels were low man, he was tired, so, you know, I was, I was looking at that stuff and um constantly making adjustments, so, you know, over the years, it's been good to tie in with the other coaches because then we, we link in a lot better and you know, are able to come up with a plan together to then put together the best training plan um, to allow him to be peaking at the right time.

So for yarn, for example, he doesn't have a head coach. Like he's his own head coach. He just puts the people that he wants in the positions that he wants to then guide that process. He's kind of like a, it's kind of like a patrol base commander in Afghanistan, right? He just says like I had a great patrol base commander that would just go, hey boys, this is what we want to achieve. You know, snipers, what are you guys gonna do, engineers? What are you guys gonna do, mortars, what are you guys gonna do? Security section, what are you guys gonna do, blah, blah blah? And like the boys would come up with a plan. Mm hmm. Yeah. The boy, Yeah. Yeah, I guess, yeah, that's a big, I mean, it would be interesting to track him. It would be interesting to track him over as he retains his belt. Like to see whether he brings on someone just to, I mean, a head coach, realistically that's just you coordinator and all the other people are still plugging in to take that on yourself. Seems like a fucking lot of distraction to go, hey, I've got to put together or I've got to coordinate my own trainers. But I guess, I mean if you're good and you know what you want, then that's that's you don't really want other people putting their finger in the pie.

It would be interesting. Exactly man. He's I mean he's got a team around him, right? And you know, he's got all of his team that he had in Russia. They're all here, all that target right now. So he's found the winning formula and he's just flown all those guys in, man. So he hasn't changed anything. Oh so I just got to make the screen bigger. Make your face was getting too small. Um Has uh since since jan I mean obviously any question, there's a few questions I've got coming up that if if you've got to let too much out of the bag and you don't want to then just tell us to funk off. I've done it again. Just swore again. Um Has it been since then? Because he's Yeah, I really want to get this podcast to the point where we don't swear at all, but I'm the main offender for two years, but it doesn't work. Everybody is in the army 56 and whatever that many years of swearing in every second sentence, You can't turn it off, How's it been? But like if if how is peter, if someone else comes up and goes, hey, another UFC Fighter high level fighter comes up and goes, hey mate, I've I've seen you work with him, I want you to work with me, Is he gonna be okay for you to 222 known fighters at the same time?

Oh man, I'm working with a number of fighters at the moment. Any any One championship, he's fighting for the heavyweight title. Uh we're recording this on Thursday 10 February, so tomorrow night he's fighting for the championship. Everyone thinks he may have just put the pressure on my End up taking four weeks to edit this, right, they'll be like what you've been doing, That's all good mate, All my fighters would have fought by then. I've got I've got Kayne moussa who's um co main event at bellator Dublin in a couple of weeks time, I think 25th of february, Marlon Moraes, I've been training him for the last couple of weeks, Got another couple of weeks in fight camp um and then a number of other guys that have um that I've been working with, that I have worked with in the past that I'm working with again. So yeah, really cool. Is it a is it a projection of confidence that you think so obviously your persona that you are the person you are in the persona and what you project that that level of confidence?

Do you think that helps in a in a coaching environment and and is that the true representation of your internal dialogue or is that the that you put your superhero suit on when you go to work in the morning or no man that is who I am, the persona that comes across and whatever social media or podcast or whatever like you know you can't fucking cheat these long form conversations man. And in my mind like the more authentic you are, the more you're gonna attract, the people that like enjoy your content and resonate with you and people that don't resonate with you then they don't follow you. So who gives a faq Correent? Your letters were as much as you want by the way mate. No, that's 100% right. I mean everyone's got I know max is asking you the question but every time he asked a question it's got layers to it, how would I have answered this one? Not that I'm going to give you an answer because I don't know, no one wants to interview me, that's fine. But I think it's like everyone does have multiple personalities in one and it's like the one that you put across is always consistent that I've noticed like social media and the way you trained people and I mean realistically like when we came to Thailand a couple of years ago we met a couple of times before but not really and and and it was it was apparent pretty much straight away especially when you went from, I mean there is a little, you obviously know how to wind it back a bit when you're not coaching, but um it's very authentic and I loved it like it's, it's very Russian when I think about it, like your, your coaching style is very much like you're going to do it this way because I've, I've learned my ship, like I've been studying for years, I know what you need, so just do it and you just give them black and white and it's, it's no fluff and I think it works man and maybe, I don't know, maybe that's what attracts the Russians to want you to train him.

Yeah, maybe that's a good point, let's keep doing it, keep being brutal with no filters the point of my story, Thanks bro. On the, on the back side of all this, I mean what's happened post, post to fight in the training because there's a whole lot more outside of this, you're sort of going up and up, there's, I mean there's a million things we can go on with what, what's been the biggest I open on the back of this fight for you. Mhm mm hmm, I think you kind of mentioned it earlier, man, I feel like I'm almost at this tipping point with my career, you know, and I have been grinding away for almost five years, I've been in Thailand you know, so it has been a lot of hard work has been, I have had to persevere man because definitely been times where I've had opportunities to, you know, potentially move back to Australia and run a gym or go to Japan and you know, work with professional rugby teams.

So I've definitely had other opportunities. Um but I feel like I'm, you know, everything that I've been building towards is kind of coming to a head now. Um and you know, obviously getting that opportunity to go over to Russia ah and then being in the corner for yarn after that I had a week of um a week of d load downtime. Um and then I actually went over to India and did some work over there, so I can't say too much on the India gig right now, but I was filming with a prominent channel, prominent network Um and that will be coming out in the next couple of months. So that was an incredible experience as well, man, two completely different experiences. Um two different projects, but both amazing in their own right. And once that project drops in the next couple of months, I feel like, you know, my, my reputation, my brand, my name is just gonna like explode, especially through Southeast Asia.

Um and you know, again I'm working with a number of high level fighters at the moment and I've got very little um general population clients at the moment. So my general population clients, like they pay the bills, they're the ones that pay me the big dollars and then the, the athletes like they're paying me a reduced rate, right? But I'm doing that because I'm again, I'm in a position where I'm building and I'm, you know, I'm still quite new to the combat sports world. I know what I'm doing in terms of strengthening auditioning, but it's only been the last couple of years that I've been able to have the opportunity to work with mixed martial artists and um you know, take those skills and knowledge from my rugby background and my military background and then apply that to combat sports athletes. So I feel like I'm in a really good place right now. I'm building up my website, I'm writing up some training programs, I've got some mindset, e books, um nutrition e books and um that type of thing that I'm building out at the moment, which is going to go live in the next couple of months, so maybe something we can talk about a little bit offline as well.

Absolutely, I can't talk about it online, but we have a digital platform that might interest you that we'll talk about offline after this is finished, but absolutely, it sounds sick. I mean, I've noticed you're always busy, which is, you've got to be, everyone thought, I believe it's part of staying mentally healthy and happy you want to be over busy, but you need to be busy, your brain, your brain and your body both need to be moving always and you always seem to be, I really wanted to drill down into what happened in India, but I don't think we can, I think that that piece that you sort of spoke about where and I know absolutely that I've met you. I mean just your, your depth of knowledge in your field is is phenomenal man. So um, but I spoke to another bloke, I was up in council and he was nothing. He was nobody dropped out of school. Dyslexic. Yes, seven mass in English stay at home with retarded. Well you'll have to bleep that one. What is it? 29 30. We gotta cut 10 seconds. That should get you anyway, sorry to cut you off. Oh God.

Um but he started, he was on the dole and he rocked up to a job site and it was, it was earth moving plan equipment for this big company and he's like, look, they wouldn't give him a job, they wouldn't give him a job and our budget is tight and he's like, look, I don't want you to pay me, I just want to come and get work experience. And uh, and he said he rocked up and for months, he just worked his ass off like balls deep everyday, worked, worked worked. And then by the end of his three months locked up there, like dude, you got a job and then he just cracked it from there and and I know that's not, but but that, that knowledge of saying, you give someone that opportunity, that's your segue into the end of the world, isn't it going like I know what I've got to offer. How do I put the cherry on the top and you pick me? Mm hmm. Yeah, absolutely, man. And that goes back to what we're talking about earlier about that investment. You know, I had to put myself in a position where I was going up to these fighters and been like, hey, do you have a strengthening edition coach? Can I put you through a training program, you know, for the next four weeks?

And let's see how you perform in this, this next fight. And you know, that's how you build proof of concept. And it was years of investment before, you know, I was actually getting paid from these fighters. So now I'm in a position where you know, of guys that have just returned and I've trained for free in the past. I'm saying to them, they're like, hey, coach, I want to work with him. Like, hey man, I can't train you for free right now. Like I'm so fucking busy and you know, I need to pick and choose who I'm working with. And like, if you're not willing to pay, then I'm not working with you. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I'll leave that spot for someone else. And I think that's, that's the younger generation, we have to admit that they, there's, there's an issue younger, the younger generation want to get paid twice as much as they're worth for doing nothing and that's going to be a problem. And that was all I always get these people saying like we can't go to the american model of internships where the company demands, you do a 12 month internship or whatever it is, working for free because they just want free labor for the mundane jobs and then they pitch it out as we're going to give you the experience. You need to then go and get a job. That's the company dictating.

That would be like a fighter coming to you saying I need you to train me for free. Um, and if, if you, if I dangle the carrot for long enough, you'll get some um, some, some return at the end of it. Like that's very different to you, a fighter coming to you and you're saying, hey, I want to train you for free cause I got to learn the ropes. I think that that's, yeah, I'm concerned about the younger generation and their attitude towards needing to be paid. Like they're training the UFC champion when they just did their search three in fitness. Yeah, 100% man. And it's a, you know, it's, that's, that's the world that we live in. Burrows this instant gratification, you know, no longer people able to, you know, put off that, um, return on investment. Mm hmm. I don't know. Um, so the physicality, you're a physical guy, rugby sniper in the army strength conditioning coach, you know, in these corners for these guys, but you're a complete package in regards to what do you do when you get your, when you go up to a fighter and then back in the, you know, five years ago, 10 years ago and you're like, hey, can you fight, can I train you?

And they're like, no, I don't want your fucking program mate. And and constantly getting knocked back, knocked back. What is it? Was their tools that you used then to help you on the spiritual or internal side to get through it? Um because I mean, everyone's gonna say fucking codes is an overnight success. You're like, Nah, bro, I've been getting my Dick stood on for 10 years. Do you know what I mean? Yeah man. Um like I said, when I first came to Thailand almost five years ago in june um, you know, I was I knew that I was there was a gap in my knowledge particularly with the guys that I want to work with and you know, the athletes and the fighters that I want to work with. So I had to put myself in that position where I was asking these guys if I could train them and they were saying no and I was I had to accept that. And I was like, all right, well, what can I do to win them over and then, you know, I'd go to boxing classes or I'd go to, you know, the wrestling classes and I put myself in these positions where I was looking uncomfortable and I was way out of my depth and I'm definitely, this is what I'm doing this year man.

I'm really focusing on making sure that I learned as much about their sport as I can. And you know, I've been doing jiu jitsu twice a week. Um I've been going to mm aspiring, being, going to boxing sparring. Um, and I'm gonna haven't lifted for, haven't done any lifting for probably like four weeks now. Um, and I'm probably going to maintain that for the next, at least three months. Um you know, so that I can show these guys that hey, I'm, I'm a beginner in their world, but the base that I've built over many, many years of, you know, solid strength speed, power conditioning, etcetera. Like, you know, that stuff all transfers over to your skills. So if I can put myself in a position where, you know, I can prove to these guys what's going on, not only with myself but these high level athletes that I'm already working with mate, I love that, that that concept has utility in almost every avenue of business and probably life, like we're, you go up to fight and try and pitch yourself and go, hey, you should let me train you and sell sell, sell like he's all yours like funk.

No, like it is sales 101 or business pitching 101 is, it's not about what you've got and how well you can pitch it, it's about what they need and how well you can drill down on what they need. And that's that's that's a lesson if anyone listening who wants to take it away, it's like don't ever try and sell yourself figure it, just shut up and listen for a bit, figure out what people need become, go away, become better at that and then come back and go, hey I've got what you need now that hopefully someone from Diva is listening to this and they're like, it's not about what you got, it's about what we need anyway, very good at going down rabbit holes. I've realized max is good at pulling you up mate. Yeah good good. I like it. That's a, that's a great point mate. Like and you know that's that's why I'm putting myself in that position because like one I need to understand how these guys move how they feel in certain positions, but to like it's for my own credibility because one of the reasons why a lot of fighters didn't want to work with me when I first got to Tiger was because I didn't have any mixed martial arts experience or combat sports experience, you know, so um now is about building the credibility and you know having them understand that hey I'm willing to put myself in this position, I'm going to step into your world and you can see what my world brings to yours and maybe you want to bring your world over to my world and we can see if we can work together and complement each other.

Oh mate, that's another one that Absolutely. And that's got utility across across different cultures as well to go. I've learned everything out of a textbook, therefore here's all this stuff like I can, I can preach like this is the textbook answer, I am the expert, that's fantastic, but lived experience is pretty much what you just defined, right? That's what you don't have to be the best fighter in the world to come and train me? You just need to understand what my world is and you've got to go away and learn that once you've learned, it's like you step in the ring, like you can probably, you probably decent fighting now, but you step in the ring and peter and you're probably going to get in a bit of trouble. Right? And so you don't need to be as good of them as them? I grew up watching all different sports, rugby, tennis, whatever it was. And I was always questioning like, how do you get, how do you get a coach who's never been to Wimbledon to train the Wimbledon athletes, like that's not the point. You don't, you just need to understand the world, understand the culture and the lifestyle and then you can share some experience and that must have been tough to get because approaching fighters as a non fighter is daunting enough, but approaching him and going, hey, I want to become someone who trained you to make you better.

It's got to be a daunting. How old were you when you first started training fighters? Um, 36. Now, I was 30 teeth three, I think. 32, when I first got the tiger. Yeah, it would Have been 32. Just turned 32. It's probably, I mean, the more I talk about this stuff and go with everything you're saying as far as training fighters and being in a fight, kind of culture, environment has utility and life in general. And then I say it out loud and of course it does. You idiot like humans evolved, fighting for everything I'm like, but it does. It it seems like the practices and the culture around a fight can't fight jim, fight life has lessons that will across cultures, 100 percent ma'am. And you think about sports, we grew up playing sports all right. Like, what did you learn from sports? You learn that, you know, you're going to be good at some sports and you're not going to be good at other sports and you're also going to learn that, you know, if you put in some time, energy effort into specific training, you can get better at those things.

You also learn that, you know, you need to be a part of a team and if you're in part of a team, you know, sometimes your you need to play a role as a team member, you might be the best player in the team, but maybe you get pushed to a different position because you know, there's two other players that play the same position and then not as versatile as you, they might not be the best player in that position, but they're going to play in that position because you can be better utilized somewhere else, right? And you're also going to learn that sometimes you lose, sometimes you put in the preparation and things don't go your way, like sports has taught me so many things in my life. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, my my oldest kids started school last week and across the road from their high school, there's little other schools, I promise because this little karate class, as soon as I drop them off, I walked in, I had to hit the block and go, hey, when, when, what, what, what's your timetable on your schedule? So I've got to get the young fellow in here. The only, the only negative I've ever thought about was like, I always wanted him to do team sports because I've always thought like team sports teaches you x, Y Z, like how to fit and find your place in a group of people, Do you think is I'm sure this varies from fighter to fighter, but is fighting a team sport?

Do you think? 100% man, I've spoken to a couple of high level strength conditioning coaches for my podcast recently and this is something that we've spoken about is you know, again, going back to yarn, he's in Thailand right now, training out of Tiger muay thai and his entire um training team is here with him, the same team that he had in Russia, right? So, um, you know, he's putting the right people in the right positions to get him to where he needs to be, get him peaking at the right time and as much as it is an individual sport and once he steps under those lights and the cage closes behind him, it's up to him, you know, it's been a team that's got him into that position, is that everyone needs to play that role man being. Coming from a rugby background and an army. And I think we all have little superstitions, you know, like guys doing particular things before a game. And does he have soup? Is it overly superstitious? Like now I've got to touch my left ear three times, spin around the circle once and then go in the ring. I mean these sort of superstitions, do you think that's part of the reason why they build these teams and they see something, was there more to that question, that was your next question, by the way, I feel like I feel like your, your brain processes words.

You're like, I want to ask you, I needed an answer to this, but I don't know how to verbalize and you ask them, you put some words together, you're like, where do I put the question mark? You know, I've got a bit more, people know, shut up max activity explosions. Um, yeah, but superstition, I mean, UFC fighters, do you think they're superstitious? I think it depends on the person. Um, I mean, you look at when you play rugby for example, or you step out on patrol or whatever, you know, you're always going to go through a routine, you know, our days are built around habits. So I know for me if I'm, you know, I'm about to step out on the paddock and I'm in the changing rooms, I'm listening to some music, I'm about to boot up, I'm always going to put on my right sock first and then my left sock and then my right boot and then my left boot and I'm gonna tie my right shoelace and then my left shoelace and once I do that it's like I'm triggering something in my mind where I'm like, all right, this is the, the habit that I go through now I go through my routine, right?

And then that gets me in the right mindset where I can then transition from being chilled listening to music whatever to then now starting to visualize and focusing on the task at hand and going through the mental and physical preparation needed to before we step out of the change room and start and start the warm up, right? Is it believes belief system, there's always, yeah, it's that belief system stuff where you go, you look at teams who are or even tennis players like there there are honestly look at it and think these teams physically, when you look physically like backhoes, 6, 10 blah blah blah, you go even afford pack in the scrum when they wake up and I know there's a lot of skill involved, but if we can, I know we can reduce that somewhat to the argument and oversimplify it. Um once you take away the weights and the same In order for teams to be superior for 10 years. So like, you know when I was in the NFL or um you know, all these teams that have like you see this 10 to 15 years period where they're on the top and they're invincible you.

Like they're not that different and then suddenly they'll fall off the ladder or the belief system or they'll change some boys out and that belief system falls apart. Is that something that you think about as well, is that just me sitting there watching football? 100% man, that comes down to culture, right? When you build the right culture, then it doesn't matter who you have in that team, right? Because the culture comes first and then everyone acts in line with that culture. Like you look at the All Blacks, that's why they've been so dominant for so long man. You know, I think it was after the 2007 World Cup in South Africa, I think they got knocked out by the french and then that was 99 I think maybe it happened, you know, it might have happened twice, but 99 the All Blacks got, oh that was the actual fine, I think the, Oh mate, I'm on my brains, they either beat the French beat the all blacks, either in the final or the game before the final. No, I think the French beat them before the final in 99 and then Australia beat the French. But yeah, it's happened a couple of times to the All Blacks and then I'll let you finish the story, but you're right, they were like, we've got to fix our mindsets, not their physicality.

Exactly man. Yeah, because they went into the game and they had this kind of thing hanging over them over the team about, you know, being knocked out in the finals and then the french knocked them out, I can't remember if they beat them in the final or in the semis, but afterwards they they, you know, went through a complete overhaul of the process and, you know, they got their um their senior leaders in the senior players and went let's make a leadership team and let's give these guys a lot more ownership and they that leadership team then started making the rules and was like, you know, if you're rocking up five minutes late to training, that's not acceptable and if you're going out and getting on the pierce when you know, we're supposed to be on a curfew, then that's also not acceptable. And over the years, you know, having the right people in the right positions and building that culture has allowed them to, you know, allow that culture to then lead those decisions and those actions and behaviors because all the players are going to tie in line with that and if they don't then they're out man.

How many all Blacks have you seen that are fucking really good players play a couple games with all blacks and never play for them again because they've gotta know dickhead rule, right? They don't fit the team and you know, they they think that they're bigger than the team and the all Blacks um culture has built this, what would you call it? Built this, I guess character where the team comes before everyone else and the same the other way. Like I noticed when over the last decade when the all blacks were on their role, like even if one player had a ship game three games in a row, he wasn't getting dropped because they knew that that dude was part of the team and he was probably going through ship and he's got to come through it. The Wallabies on the other hand, it's like they played this week, they're playing a Fortnite. I don't know any of the players because that's a completely different team. Every game, they're just changing their team. And it's like that is a team run by managers who want money, not by people who understand the culture of like unity I guess.

Mm hmm. Yeah. I mean all of everything I just spoke about is in a book called Legacy by James Kerr and it talks about, you know, the culture that they created after that 2007 World Cup. And then, you know, obviously what happened then then new Zealand won the uh 2011 World Cup and then 2000 and 15, you know, and they went on a roll man, They just created this culture where that culture then dictated how people would act and respond and behave in that team environment. And it gets um, I mean I don't want to get to worldwide, but I'm, everyone talks about mindset and now I'm a firm believer that there's two things, there's energy and there's, there's this kind of manifesting reality, right? The energy one. We'll leave for another day because that's about crystals and kumbaya. But I think I think there's a lot of my point is it's like, let's not write it off just because we haven't Had another 200 years of research into it. I'm like maybe in 200 years we're going to find some stuff and go, hey maybe that energy stuff needs more investigation.

I think this manifesting reality needs more scientific exploration. Like we get you sit down with the 40 teammate or a professional athlete and you say visualize success and it will come to you and everyone's like I'm good with that. I accept that as a thing. Like my coach says to me, just visualize winning, visualize winning and then you win, you're okay with that. But then you say, hey if you sit down and you visualize and you can manifest your own reality. Everyone's like, oh okay hippie see you later. I think we need to do more research into the All Blacks would be a great case study because they were like, they had a reputation that was they beat us for the last 2.5 years. But don't worry in the World Cup because they will choke and that was their reputation. And then they flip the switch and then like not anymore went on and then then they just went on a roll and we accept that to go. Someone changed their headspace and everyone's like, yeah, I'm okay with that green tea, green tick that fits my scientific evaluation. Good to go. And then you're like, all right if you're having a shitty day for five days in a row, sit down and visualize having a really good day and everyone's like, no, no, that's where we're hippie.

I'm like, that's the same thing. We just, I mean, I don't know how you do research on it. This is far above my pay grade. I just think some of these coaching kind of resilience and these mindset pieces need to be looked at. You know, hey, we need to start quantifying what's happening here. I don't know how yeah, listen man, like, you know, you look at those professional teams and a lot of professional athletes and sports teams are moving down that route of having sports psychologists, why? Because that is a fucking, you know, a big piece of the puzzle that a lot of people, you know, up until recently have left on the table now. You know, obviously they're professional teams so they're paying for these sports psychologists to come in. The average person doesn't have access to that, you know, so they need to do their own work. That means you need to listen to podcasts. You need to read books, you need to do your own fucking study and research and talk to the right people that, you know, is going to put you in the right mindset. That's going to allow you to manifest the thoughts the actions behaviors, the habits that you need to put into practice every single fucking day to get you to where you want to be made.

That that argument, I am going to take this out as a clip because that we need to push that to everyone. Not just deviate, but like the psych industry in general at the moment, sykes are taught how to dig up your trauma and try and put a band aid on it or fix it. That's fantastic. I look at it and go, let's, let's treat him like a pt and go, You are going to go if you've had an injury, you're going to go to an ex fees, I get it. You need a reactive recovery model. That's fine. That's a very small percentage of the population. Most people are going to a trainer because they're like, I just don't want to get diabetes and fucking explode because I'm getting really fat. It's like, cool, are you going there to dig up the negative and just try and put a band aid on it or you're going to go there and the pt is going to be like, you're the shitty end of the spectrum, let's get you to the fit end of the spectrum. That's what everyone is doing and that's what a sports psychologist does. It's like, no matter where you are, I want you to be the optimum, high performing version of yourself. That's what in my again, this is just my opinion. Every site should be operating off that model. You go in, you're like, hey, I'm pretty depressed, I'm down blah, blah, blah.

It's not like, hey, let's dig up the trauma. It's like make me a high performing happy version of myself. That's that's Yeah, but that's simple issue, man, is like, people go in and they talk to a site and then, and they say, hey, make me the happy version of blah, blah, blah. No, you need to take responsibility and do that yourself because talking about what you said then about, you know, people going and talking to a psych and it's normally reactive, you know, as a trainer. A lot of the times when I do have general population clients come to me and they're trying to make changes in their life. It's because they don't like where they're at and they want to move away from something and it's reactive, right? When I'm working with professional athletes, it's proactive, we're looking ahead. They need to prepare for something. So we need to get there, It's moving towards something two completely different directions, man, one is moving away from something. Once you're far enough away from something, you stop moving if you're walking along and you you're about stepping dogshit and you smell it, you move far enough away where you don't smell it anymore.

Okay. Yeah, I agree. I agree somewhat. I think, I think it's all the same spectrum. So down one end, you're obese, you got diabetes, you're about to explode up the other end your winning belts around your waist because you're the best fighter in the world. That's the same spectrum. But you're 100% right. It's about which direction you're looking at. So the further you go from center to the left to the obese and you go, hey, I just want to, I want to push that wall away. I've got to get back up that in a little bit. But you're, you're focused on the dying end. Whereas the fighters, they're so close to the high performing and that's all they can see. There's no way PTR wakes in the morning and looks in the mirror and goes, if I have another 5000 days of eating shitty food, I'm going to get diabetes like he's not even worried about that. And but I mean I I just want to see a world where sykes look at the full spectrum, not just middle to left or middle to right. I think that would solve some problems. 100 percent man. I absolutely agree with you. But when do you have access to a psych? Oh, that's the big problem with that is the number one friction point. There's not enough and there's not enough. The ones that are, there aren't qualified and I get, I guess again, half of these podcasts is just meat processing ideas and getting information.

Exactly. Exactly. And I think we have at the moment we've got trainers like yourself, who are you do some of the middle range stuff, but you are focusing on high end clients and you are looking in that direction. That is the equivalent of a sports psychologist I guess. And then all the other sites that you go and see you in the middle. I don't know. I mean, I have never been done inside. I mean you can't flex, you bring this up all the time. You can't, you can't flex your mental health. Uh and, and so when you're sitting there and you're going home and you're knocking back, you know, account of peace on it over a weekend and it's not until the wheels fall off that you're like, well funk maybe instead of being like, no, I need to sort some sh it out. And I think that's high school really just teaches you, you know some real basic ship, like how to write some words down in my case, not so much. Um, maybe some social sciences, some real basic ship where you can go out, pay some taxes and literally be a taxpayer for society, but it doesn't teach you what code was saying and what you brought up before is that um, how do I make myself better?

I need to read, I need to do podcasts. It doesn't teach you these healthy habits to succeed in life what it does is it teaches you to be a, what the, this current system appears to be without the elders around to teach these people is be a taxpayer. Pay taxes don't die until you've paid enough taxes. We need to teach people like hopes and yourself To succeed to optimize your performance. And these other things that you can learn that you don't have to learn when you're 40, having a midlife crisis, two marriages and go, why didn't you like me because you're a cunt? But no, I agree, I agree. The social model is what needs to be looked at more than anything. How we, how we mate, you're the segue master, how we bring this back to training fighters. I don't know, I think it's a belief system and I think what you've done your persona, your your knowledge, you have all these things. We've spoken about belief and uh you know superstitions but the belief structure, he believed in you and you were part of his system and his superstition to to achieve that.

And I don't know, looking outside, looking in um mate like I said, and I'm privileged to get to know you from a personal perspective and I don't have to pay for you 2 20 minute, you know, conversations, but I think you've achieved it mate and I hope people don't, they give you the credit they do in the next couple of months and they don't start spraying off the overnight success ship because it's just not true mate, especially knowing what you went through even to get to Thailand and the decisions you have to make to start this life mate. So yeah, thank you bro, I appreciate that, man, I do have, I do have one question that so many me asking questions after that, it's gonna sound like we're jumping all over the place. But do we? I love the concept of Holistic health, right? So, but for me, at the moment, my stage in life, I'm 36, I don't have any ambitions to become a professional athlete. Um I want to optimize myself so that I can just raise kids, be, live as long as possible, as healthy as possible and to steal your uh what's his name?

Susan, what's season's first name? Mark Mark Seasons line was I just want to look good naked when I'm old and I'm like, I think that's where I'm heading. I have no grand ambitions, so I just want to holistically healthy life, both mentally and physically. Do you find that professional fighters, whether it's piano or any other fighters you've trained, did they put parts of their life aside to be obsessed with fighting or are they well rounded, holistically healthy kind of people? Great question. It depends someone like yarn, for example, when we're in fight camp in Russia, you know, his family wasn't there? It was just us and we were just focused on the task at hand. You know, we're constantly looking ahead. This is where we need to be on this date. You know, everything that we're putting in through this training camp is going to get him peaking at the right time, that means no distractions, you know, but then obviously after that, after the, you know, he's shown under the lights, he got the belt wrapped around his waist, um you know, he had time off with his family and spent another week or so in Dubai and then went home, spent a little bit of time at home and kind of unwound and you know, really dog back his training and um kind of just lived man.

Um but you know, this is something that he's done over many years because he has figured out that, you know, there are seasons of life and if you want to really excel at one thing, then you need to invest everything into that thing and then remove all other distractions. But then there's going to be a point where, you know, there's a point of diminishing returns where you need to then step away from that wrist relax, unwind, um go through a period where, you know, something else becomes your number one priority. And then, you know, once you get another target, once you get another goal, once you've got another date, then, you know, you make those adjustments. So, you know, life is all about prioritizing men, you know, we have priorities, whether we name them or not, you know, and that shows up in what you do on a daily basis. And if your priorities are, you know, watching netflix as opposed to um getting sleep, you don't need to name that man, like it's already happening, right? So, um I think looking at different seasons of life, constantly assessing what's actually important to you, um and then aligning your actions to tie in with that, I think that's absolutely essential, man.

And you know, that's a never ending process. You're always looking at that, you're always looking at um everything that's happening in your life and, you know, you're trying to juggle those balls and if you're trying to juggle too many balls at once, you know, you're gonna drop something, so, you know, looking at a couple of priorities and going, right, where does this sit on my list of my hierarchy of values? How can I then start scheduling my day to tie in with that? Absolutely, mate, love it. Sorry max, I knew you were trying to wrap up because we are on the clock, we've got the boys in England coming up next and I, I saw you trying to wrap up and I'm like, no, I've got to get this question and I don't care how long it takes, mate. No. Look, that was just, I mean, that is an honest assessment of what I've looked at the outside, looking in mate, and like I said, I really appreciate the time, man, it's been back and forward um amazing to watch and live vicariously through you and we'll keep getting on. If we can get any insights as we go along and look if there's any, if there's an opportunity while you're in a camp and you want to send some odds are way um let us know if you're going into the next part with a broken rib, let us know we'll go heavy against him.

Yeah, that's probably right. You better rush in with a broken rib. That's probably a good bet. No mate mate. Always a pleasure to have you made a wise, humble and educated mate. Thanks very much. Love you mate. Thank you boys really appreciate love your work. This episode was brought to you by Swiss eight which is a proactive mental health program designed by veterans initially for veterans that has been pushed out to the wider community that allows you to structure in and schedule their eight pillars of health and wellness including nutrition, sleep, time management, discipline, fitness, personal growth, mindfulness and minimalism. This episode was also brought to you by the spunky which is a male hormone optimization supplement that I've been taking for about a year and a half and I absolutely rate it is a TJ listed nutraceutical meaning that it's made from all organic produce to help you manage and optimize your stress levels, which in turn increases your ability to improve testosterone production levels naturally, User code codes 10 at checkout for your 10% discount.

All of those links will be in the show notes. If you've got some benefit from this episode, please make sure you pass it off to your friends and family. I'd appreciate any shares on social media platforms. If you tag me or if you share it to your stories, make sure you tag me so I can share that as well. Any five star ratings and reviews are much appreciated, much loved guys. Peace.

Coaching the Elite - with Shaun Kober
Coaching the Elite - with Shaun Kober
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