Earlier this year she was also inducted as the first female fighter into the UFC hall of fame, at only 31 years old. Her career is a testament to the amount of work she’s put in over the years despite the odds.

Use these Ronda Rousey quotes to keep pushing through fear and love the process of becoming successful.

“Most people focus on the wrong thing: They focus on the result, not the process. The process is the sacrifice; it’s all the hard parts – the sweat, the pain, the tears, the losses. You make the sacrifices anyway. You learn to enjoy them, or at least embrace them. In the end, it is the sacrifices that must fulfill you.” – Ronda Rousey

Sometimes it’s hard to focus on the process when you crave the result so badly. But as motivational teacher Eric Thomas said, “Trust the process, don’t rush the process.”

Enjoy your failures, setbacks, and learning moments on the way to achieving your biggest goals. You can do anything once you realize that it’s just a process. Fail faster so you can learn faster and start achieving your biggest goals.

“There have always been people who have written me off. They’re not going away. I use that to motivate me. I’m driven to show them just how wrong they are.” – Ronda Rousey

Haters should fuel your fire, drive, and ambition. Don’t let the naysayers tell you what’s possible. They are only expressing their own failures, insecurities, and lack of belief outward.

When you feel like quitting, remember that if you do you will be exactly that person they said you would be. Don’t quit, find a new way to reach your biggest goals and prove them wrong.

“I want to be a perfect fighter, and that’s one of those unattainable goals because you will never be perfect. But I can always be closer to perfect.” – Ronda Rousey Quotes

Perfect doesn’t exist in sports, business or life. But striving to be perfect means you are constantly trying to improve and get better. This is a huge key to continuing to be happy and make progress in life.

Tony Robbins talks about this in depth with the phrase “CANI” — Constant and Never Ending Improvement. While perfect is unattainable in almost everything in life, you can always be improving as a parent, friend, partner, and person.

“No drug or amount of money or favoritism can ever give you belief in yourself.” – Ronda Rousey

Self-belief is something you have to build up and acquire on your own. Trusting yourself and your intuition to make your dreams happen will create more belief than anything else in the world.

“To be the best, you have to constantly be challenging yourself, raising the bar, pushing the limits of what you can do. Don’t stand still, leap forward.” – Ronda Rousey Quotes 

Always keep pushing, keep growing, and keep learning. The moments you feel the best are when you are learning and becoming the ultimate version of yourself. The moments you feel the worst is when you’re stuck and not making progress.

Remember, progress equals happines in all areas of life!

“There is nothing in my life that I would go back and change, even the darkest moments. All the successes and greatest joys in my life are a result of the absolute worst things. Every missed opportunity is a blessing in disguise.” – Ronda Rousey

Don’t run from your past, embrace it. Even the darkest moments have unbelievable learning moments if you are self-aware enough to find them. While it might not be immediately after a failure or setback, you can always find good in any situation.

Use these Ronda Rousey quotes to work hard, persevere, and become the version of yourself you were meant to become.

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Frank Shamrock – Uncaged: My life as a champion MMA Fighter – Get The New Book On Amazon

Frank Shamrock. Image Credit T-nation.com

The mind, spirit, and drive of a champion are something that comes from within and cannot be stifled or controlled by others. No matter how significant the adversities or obstacles may appear, such individuals always seem to find a way to rise up and accomplish what was thought to be unattainable and unimaginable. Such individuals are heroes; serving as inspiration for others and showing us what the human spirit is capable of achieving, no matter how aggressively the odds are stacked against you. The larger the mountain of adversity a protagonist must climb the more inspiring their story becomes…. and no story can be more inspiring than that of Frank Shamrock.

Becoming a ward of the state at the age of 11 years old, Frank decided that a life on his own was better than that of a life consisting of neglect and cruelty. By the time he was 18 years old, Frank already suffered physical, mental, and sexual abuse. Spending his years being bounced around from one juvenile detention center to the next, Frank had experimented with and used all types of drugs, fathered a child, and was about to be sentenced to prison.

For the first 18 years of his life, Frank Shamrock suffered and lived the life that many may have expected from a person dealt his hand. Furthermore, once he was incarcerated, the pattern appeared clear with Frank’s bleak criminal future seeming an almost certainty. But, looks can be deceiving and stories are not always as predictable as they may seem. While in prison Frank Shamrock began to undergo a metamorphosis both physically and mentally and upon his release the hero’s journey would began.

Prior to prison, Frank spent time on the Shamrock Boys Ranch. This was a safe haven for troubled boys owned and operated by Bob Shamrock. Bob would serve as Frank’s first father figure, eventually adopting him as his son.

Upon his release from prison, Frank took Bob’s advice and went to train with and under the tutelage of his adopted brother Ken Shamrock at his gym, the Lion’s Den. During those 9 months, Frank worked and built the foundations of skills and discipline that would eventually equip him to become one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time.

For a decade between the mid-90’s and mid-2000’s, Frank Shamrock engaged in some of the most epic battles in MMA history and was arguably the greatest pound for pound fighter the world had ever seen. Shamrock’s astonishing journey through the world of mixed material arts began when the then unknown travelled across the world to fight in the Japanese Pancrase Organization.

Shamrock became the first Middleweight Champion of the UFC (later to be renamed the Light Heavyweight Championship) with his shocking record setting victory over heavily favored and undefeated Kevin Jackson. During his reign as UFC Champion, Shamrock was ranked the Number 1 pound for pound MMA fighter in the world, as he successfully defended his title 4 times, never relinquishing the title in a match. His most epic title defense came on September 24, 1999 at UFC 22 when he defeated the much larger Tito Ortiz. Many consider this to be one of the greatest fights in the UFC’s history as Shamrock defeated Ortiz late in the fourth round with a sequence of vicious elbows and punches.

Shamrock would go on to win numerous titles in other organizations including, WEC Light Heavyweight Championship, and Strikeforce Middleweight Championship.  Today Frank Shamrock is a successful business man, actor, coach, author, and entrepreneur. He is a man who has grown into a mentor for others as he gives his time and energy to advising and coaching others.

Recently I had the opportunity to speak with Frank and to discuss his current life and epic journey.

SP- First off, I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading your book. Is the making of the movie still in the works?

Frank –Yeah, still working on the movie. So far it has been turned into the Bio-doc on Spike, Bound By Blood. We are pursuing making a feature film for it as well.

SP- Who is going to play you?

Frank- I got a young kid who looks like me 20 years ago. So my plan is to train him and have him go on the journey.

SP- So he will learn to fight?

Frank- He’s already a Martial Artist who has lots of other artistic talents such as break dancing and performance art.

SP – That sounds great. I wanted to talk with you today about a number of things but I will try to keep it brief because I know you are busy. One of the things I really wanted to discuss with you was your mental strength and your ability to overcome tremendous amounts of adversity, both in and out of the cage. What do you attribute that to?

Frank- I think for me it was that I didn’t like being poor. I could feel there was a difference being on welfare, waiting in line for cheese, and just being a different social status. As soon as I became conscious of that I began looking for ways to change it. And that was always a driving force, because I didn’t like the feeling of being hungry.

SP- When did you become conscious of this?

Frank – It was around 13 or 14 which was the first time that I really got stable. I was at the Shamrock Boys Ranch at the time and I had a real father figure and a pretty stable family of sorts in the group home. This was the first time I had a community, guidance, and rules. That was when I first began to realize there is a better way and that I could do it. That was kind of my moment.

SP- Throughout your career and life what was the biggest mental obstacle that you had to overcome?

Frank – Mental? Just fears, general fears.

SP- Fear of what? Fear of being a failure, fear of losing a fight? 

Frank- Yeah of being in a fight, of losing, of hurting somebody, just all the general kind of human fears. I spent a lot of time alone reading so I had a very healthy imagination, and I still do. But it made the fears very real. I was always very scared to fight and figured that it was crazy that you would escalate a human confrontation into violence. So I struggled with that for a long time, the idea of hurting people, and it being OK. That was always odd.

SP – What was the biggest physical obstacle which you had to overcome?

Frank – My back. When I was 16 my right leg went numb when I was playing basketball. I went to the doctor and he said I had scoliosis and at some point I had broken my spine. He explained to me that I would have to have surgery and cage my spine for a year. The doctor started laying all this stuff out. He told me that I was never going to be able to participate in contact sports again. I told him of my dreams of becoming a World Champion and he just responded that that was never going to work out. At the time I was living in a group home, so I went home and told my group home Dad what the doctor had said. He thought the Doctor was crazy. So he took me to a chiropractor. The chiropractor confirmed everything, but said it can be managed if I kept my core strong and worked specific muscles. So my greatest physical obstacle has always been this ticking time bomb with the deterioration of my lower back.

SP – That takes a certain level of strength for a 16 year old to go against a doctor’s orders.

Frank – I think by then I had my dreams laid out. And I just had to find a way to get behind them.

SP- Your first day of the Lion’s Den when you had to endure server physical punishment as some sort of test, what kept you from quitting that day?

Frank – Well I kind of considered myself a tough guy at the time. I had been through a lot and just come out of prison. I had fought quite a few people and figured I knew how to fight. At this point I had never really lost a fight; nobody had ever beaten me up or beaten me down for that matter. I just had a lot of confidence going into it. So when I went into the Lion’s Den I just never wanted to quit.  And it was my shot to be a combat sport athlete and a champion, so I just kept going. It was probably the worst thing that has ever happened to me physically.

SP – Nothing went through your mind, while getting beaten on like maybe, “This is insane, what am I doing?”

Frank – I was living in desperation, living in survival mode. So I was kind of use to that, fighting for my life. But it did seem extreme. It seemed like physical abuse and a whole other level of weirdness, but I made it through somehow.

A True Champion. Image Credit: Poptower.com

SP- You had just mentioned being incarcerated. It must have been strange for you when you headed over to Japan to fight just 9 months after your release. You go from being treated like a prisoner to being revered and loved. Was that a weird thing to have to get your mind around?

Frank – Totally. Beyond weird. I grew up very closed in and was a product of physical abuse. So I was all closed up. Then in prison you put on this tough guy image and walk around with it and have to hold it up all the time and defend it. So it was like a 180. I was training in Japan while still on parole just 9 months after being released from Folsom. I was living in a Japanese Dojo training, so yeah it was strange, it was other worldly.

SP – In your book you mention that when you moved to Japan that the other fighters weren’t really sure how to treat you. They have a sort of a ranking system and they weren’t sure where you fit in. It sounded as if you were kind of the odd man out in that situation.

Frank – Yeah, it seemed as if everyone was waiting for me to do something. It was kind of a strange position to be in. Because I hadn’t fought, I was really still a young boy, and I was sort of the brother to Ken. Yeah it was odd, but I just trained like everyone else and just kind of jumped in line.

SP- It’s kind of insane when you think about it. You were all of a sudden in this different culture, different world, with no sort of experience to feed off of and no prep or information on what to expect. The only commonality being the training, was it difficult to adjust? 

Frank- Yeah, it’s very odd when you look back at it. But I do remember in the moment just being astounded by the similarities. In prison by the time I paroled, I had been studying body building for 5 or 6 years.  I was training a group of like 8 people and they were training a small group of people. I had been hired by the fire crew to teach conditioning to the inmates who would go out to fight the fires. I was running like 500 to a 1,000 group crews in conditioning and exercise. But I already had this conditioning within me; my Dad had taught me how important it was to build up my body. So I was just struck by the similarities in Japan. While in the Dojo we were cleaning mats together, we are working out as a group, eating as a group, and interacting in similar ways. It was just a weird time, but all my childhood was like that from 11 on. I was a ward of the state so I moved from group home to group foster home, all the way up to the camps. So it wasn’t that different being in Japan compared to when I was in the Lion’s Den because there we also all trained in the house, ate together and worked out together. The biggest difference was that no one spoke English and it was very much ritualized. It was like a well oiled machine.

SP – What struck me reading your book is even though you spent a lot of time surrounded by others in camps or homes you also had to spend a lot of time on your own. Is that accurate?

Frank- Yeah, yeah. It’s been this way most of my life, having a lot of alone time, and a lot of personal reflection time.

SP – You like that?

Frank – I enjoy it. I feel compressed when I don’t get it. I perform really well when things are chilled out.

SP- Looking back at your career what is the moment which you are most proud of?

Frank – I say my first fight with Bas Rutten. Because no one thought I had a shot, no one knew who I was or what I was doing there. When they told me who I was fighting people felt bad for me. So beating him really opened the door. It’s between that fight and the fight with Kevin Jackson in the first UFC title match when I set the record with a 14 second victory. That was interesting because I actually dreamt that one. I was so deep in study, documenting everything, figuring things out for the first time. I was a nerd in superman a body.

SP- Do you do a lot of visualization? 

Frank – I do so much insane visualization that I have taken it into my dreams. I do dream control and dream awareness where I can look at things from different angles. That’s how I beat Kevin Jackson. I was having a lucid dream and was looking at the technique and I saw a huge hole. When I awoke and told everyone they thought I was crazy. But I was able to repeat it in practice, show everyone, and to explain the theory that hadn’t existed yet. So yeah, visualization has been key for me for years.

SP – Being so cerebral, and having such a coaches mind, do you enjoy coaching others?

Frank- I do really enjoy it. I have evolved as a coach through the years. I went from strength and conditioning, into a martial arts instructor, to team coach, and now I am doing executive coaching. It really is the mind set in the machine and the structure that you put into place. If you have a willing participant who is a passionate person, often times all they need is the structures and systems set up and they can be ultra successful.

SP – What was your biggest disappointment as a fighter?

Frank – I would have liked to have come along 10 years later and made millions of dollars. That would have been nice. (laughing) So that’s kind of a bummer. I also would have loved to have fought Ken when we were both younger and more athletically inclined to do so.

SP- You mentioned the money that has come with the evolution of the sport. Do you think the younger fighters of today appreciate the past fighters who have paved the way for them?

Frank – Everybody is very polite to me. But I do think the culture changed a little bit with the UFC. They brought in a different culture and spent some time scrubbing out the old. The older group was a quality brand back then, real industry builders.

SP – What about the fans? Do they appreciate your work?

Frank – My daughter always asks me, “Dad how come all these people know you, and why do they always want to talk with you”?(laughing) So I try to explain to her that I was a great fighter but she just looks at me like, “Sure you were Dad”. To her I am just Dad, the guy that drops her off at school. So that is kind of funny. The good part is all the fans, the people who come up to me are always so respectful and so nice. They are real solid people.

SP – Is it difficult, because of your background, growing up abused and neglected to accept praise?

Frank –Totally. It is something I have dealt with for years and years. And now when I feel uncomfortable with praise I just examine myself and think, “why I earth would I feel that way”? If my reaction is uneasiness, than there is usually something I am not taking care of in my spirit.

SP – What can be taken away from a win and what can be taken from a loss?

Frank – For me it is always huge learning experience when I lose. When I win, I still learn, but I always have been able to learn a lot more from a loss. If I lose, the first thing I would examine is why I lost. And usually it is something obvious. This applies both inside and outside of the cage. And that’s business, that’s being a Champion, that’s being a competitor. If you roll out a crap product you have to go fix it, if you roll out a crap fight then you need to fix it.

 SP – When you have experienced a loss, does self doubt ever begin to surface? Or are you able to just move on?

Frank – No, it creeps in. It creeps in like everybody. Everybody is feels exactly the same way, we all go through the same emotions. It is just what we do about the situation, about those feelings.

SP – I love this quote in your book; “You can learn a lot from watching a person’s reaction to adversity”. Can you elaborate on that? 

Frank – At your core your character is who you are. When pushed and pressed, if you have a solid character you stay strong and won’t fall apart. When you are working on your mind, body, and spirit and making your human being solid, none of that outside adversity bothers you. There is a level of confidence and wherewithal when you have yourself together. I can speak with someone and know from 2 minutes of conversation if they are together or not.

SP – Well I will tell you now that I am not together. I am pretty much a mess.

Frank – (laughs)

SP – So please don’t analyze me.

Frank – Well we all have this energy, this life force that exudes from us and goes through a few layers before it comes out. Whatever those layers are will dictate what will come out. That’s what you feel, that’s what you see, and that’s what you communicate. It’s what you choose in your words and actions.

SP – So you think this is something we should be constantly working on?

Frank – We should, otherwise we’re dying. This machine lasts only so long. Science has us living to around 84. I got myself planned out to a 100 years. I have to take my mind and spirit to where I want it in that amount of time.

SP – I know you did a lot of body building when you were young. While you were a fighter what did your weight training consist of?

Frank – I still maintained a body builder type workout up until my 30’s. Lifting would consist of 3 days a week, using medium to heavy weights. I did 3-4 exercises, body groove, push-pull, and I would always keep it changing. I needed to keep weight on my body, so lifted heavy and got extra meals in each day. I always looked at it like I had to put weight on the machine because I was usually 10-15 pounds too light for the weight class. When I first went to the Lion’s Den, I was taught to use high repetitions and high endurance conditioning. We did high rep squats, push-ups, sit-ups, and leg lifts. It worked great but it made me smaller. I always needed to get bigger because everybody was way bigger than me. My natural body weight is around 183 lbs.

SP – What was the biggest you ever got up to?

Frank – When I paroled from prison I was 204. And I was just massive. All did was lift weights for 3 ½ years.

SP – How was your mobility at that size?

Frank – It was good, I always stretched. I put on a lot of muscle and felt a little tight because of the muscle. But I was studying body building and I read about a French bodybuilder, Serge Nubert. He had the most amazing physique; the most beautiful and symmetrical build. And his secret was that he stretched between every set. So he would do a set and then he would just completely elongate and relax and stretch everything out. Then he would go back and pump it up again and then repeat. He described the muscle like balloons, you sculpt them the way you like, you stretch them, feed them, and take care of them. To me it just made sense and was so disturbingly simple. So I followed that practice, and still do today if I do any body building or body shaping.

SP – I have heard that today you do mostly hiking, is that true?

Frank – Yeah for the most part.

SP – Do you still hit the weights?

Frank – Only if I have a movie role or something that requires it. I look at it like an interval training experience. Every few months I do a film or a TV show or something and I go in for like a month or so and go workout. That has been my strategy for a while.

SP – Does it comeback pretty quickly.

Frank – It comes back but honestly I am losing muscle mass as I get older and I am just not maintaining it the same way. I have been in the gym for 25 years so I get tired of it.

SP – What has Martial Art taught you?

Frank – It has given me that fabric on how to live and how to give back to society in a positive way. It has pretty much given me everything. It has been one of the biggest catalysts to my emotional development and healing from my childhood.

SP – Do you have a favorite Martial Artist?

Frank – I think Bruce Lee was my favorite. Where he was going and what he stood for is the essence of Martial Arts. The human body has been doing this for thousands of years and expresses itself in certain ways once you start grabbing on each other.  I was in the gym and I would create a move and then we traveled to Russia I would meet a guy, we didn’t speak the same language and would be creating the exact same moves.

SP – What do you think of the MMA today?

Frank – I feel both good and bad.

SP – Do you feel the UFC is good for Martial Arts?

Frank – I think it is good that it is expanding the presence of Martial Arts and combat sports. And that at the end of the day is also my mission. I can’t begrudge them for their business tactics. That is their choice, the reason I didn’t sign on with them was I didn’t agree with their business tactics. What they told me they were going to do, they did something else. That something else was a detriment to the sport and to the talent. And when that happens I have to say something because that’s the right thing to do.

SP – Do you have a relationship with Dana White today?

Frank – No. We don’t really talk. I’m not really in the sport. Every once in a while I will be hired to consult a business or brand, but I am mainly in other industries right now.

SP- Do you miss it at all?

Frank – No, I had 16 years of it and I had my fill. A few people have asked me to run their company but it just doesn’t excite me anymore. It’s not what I want to do. I want to help people with Martial Arts. I want people to use my knowledge to help them whether it is in Martial Arts, business, or life. That’s the direction I want to go. I don’t want to look after a bunch of guys beating the heck out of each other.

SP – If you had been anything else besides a fighter, what would career would you have chosen?

Frank – I think I would have been some type of physical therapist, or something along the lines of focusing in on the mechanics and healing of the body.

SP – How does your body feel? Are you beat up from the sport?

Frank – I feel good now, but when I first retired I felt old and jacked up. But I took care of my body. I think it is a combination of learning the sport the hard way, (because someone had to create it), the toughness of the sport, and my deteriorating back. But it took about 3 years to feel good. I hiked during that time, stretched, and had some physical therapy done. But now I feel great. I just can’t floor it but most 42 year olds can’t floor it anymore.

SP- You inspired a lot of others, who inspires you?

Frank – I always liked Chuck Norris, and I always admired Muhammad Ali. I have always been fired up by people that are bigger than life and who have clear morals, values, and beliefs. I also admire the healers, like a Tony Robbins and David Allen. They are people who are helping others to fix certain aspects and develop certain aspects of their lives. Technology and technological development also inspires me.

SP – Last question for you Frank, is there still a Shamrock-Gracie rivalry?

Frank – Um? I guess so. I am retired, but Ken is still going so I guess he can keep it alive. I think it is pretty much dead, I think we are two generations removed now. It is moving on and there is a new era of stories. But that was a good one.

SP – It was a good one. This has been great, thank you so much for taking the time today.

Frank – Ok thanks Sam. Have a good one.

Frank Shamrock – Uncaged: My life as a champion MMA Fighter – Get The New Book On Amazon

Frank Shamrock Documentary : Bound By Blood:

The post Frank Shamrock – Uncaged: My life as a MMA Fighter appeared first on Fearless Motivation - Motivational Videos & Music.

Hackleman, himself a former professional Boxer and Kickboxer is considered to be one of the most innovative and sought after strength and conditioning coaches. Hackleman’s journey began at the young age of 10 when he joined a local gym in Honolulu, Hawaii to train under legendary Martial Artists, Professor Walter Godin. Under Godin, Hackleman studied KaJuKenBo (a mixture of Kempo Karate, Tang Soo Do, Judo, Jujitsu, Chinese Kenpo, and Kung Fu). KaJuKenBo, a style of Martial Arts developed in Hawaii specifically as a street fighting art.

At the age of 20, Hackleman answered the call of duty and enlisted in the US Army. His decision was influenced by the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, in which 52 American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days. While in the Army Hackleman found tremendous success as a member of the Army Boxing Team. During the three years as an Army boxer he won the state and regional Golden Gloves titles. Upon leaving the Army, Hackleman moved to southern California to pursue a career in professional boxing.

While working full time and training for fights, Hackleman built a backyard training facility where he could work his conditioning and practice Martial Arts. This began to morph into a training facility for locals looking for a new and exciting method of training. As a result Hackleman began to train and coach others in both Martial Arts and strength and conditioning. He renamed his Martial Arts style, and began calling it Hawaiian Kempo.

In this interview Hackleman gives the origins of CrossPit. He shares his philosophies on training, and explains the pros and cons of having success training fighters.

SP – What I was hoping to talk to you today about was the history of Crosspit, how it originated, how has it evolved throughout the years, and where do you see its future.

Hackleman – Well I have been doing these types of workouts pretty much the same since the mid 80’s. I have always pushed hard, hard, hard conditioning. I made up drills like Blackjack* and other crazy workouts which I incorporated not only in my fight training but in my belt training classes as well. And then one day, I don’t honestly remember how we even met, but I met Greg Glassman, the owner of CrossFit. And right away we just started sharing ideas. We went over his philosophies versus mine and we realized they were almost identical except for 2 basic things:

1. Overhead lifts which I didn’t think were very advantageous for Martial Artists.
2. The length of some of his workouts. They were much too long for Martial Artists. With Martial Artists they are working out a couple hours a day anyway, so if you place a long conditioning drill on top of that it is overkill. With a CrossFit athlete it is OK to go longer because that will be all they do on a given day.

So I took out a lot of non-specific exercises and substituted in other Martial Art specific exercises and we created CrossPit. Greg and I came up with it in the early 2000’s. CrossPit was to be the Martial Arts version of Crossfit, and it was designed to fit any Martial Arts practitioners training regimen.

SP – What were the origins of the Pit?

Hackleman – I got out of the Army in the early 80’s and moved to LA to pursue my career as a Professional Boxer and Kickboxer. I had a few fights, but having two young kids I needed something more financially stable. So I went to school and became a registered nurse. It became difficult to find time to go to the gym so I built this little 600 square foot gym in my backyard. Next thing I know coworkers of mine want to train, friends want to train, and then friends of friends want to train at my gym. All of a sudden I had this whole little gym in my back yard where I was training students and it was so small and cramped we called it “The Pit”.

SP – So you stumbled upon this completely by accident?

Hackleman – Yeah definitely. Eventually, when my fight career ended we decided to move out of LA. We moved up north and the first thing I did when we got the new property was I built an 800 square foot gym in the back yard. And I started right away training people back there. It was the same type of training; it was old school, hardcore, spar every day, beat each other up training. And I got quite a reputation around the county and guys like Chuck Liddell heard about it and he started training there. So that’s how the training with fighters started and eventually, like in the early 2000’s I decided to take it mainstream.

SP – So you would have regular students who came to The Pit learn and work on everything such as: Martial Arts, conditioning and strength, and sparring?

Hackleman – When it was in my backyard I didn’t differentiate the fitness training from the Martial Arts. The philosophy being that the fitness and Martial Arts were incorporated in one and they were equally valued. A student had to be just as efficient in the fitness as they did in any other aspect just to get promoted to the next belt.

SP – Didn’t you actually first meet Chuck because of an old school Dojo war you had with his trainer? 

Hackleman – Yep, We actually went at each other the first time we met.

SP – Were you able to see a difference between the type of training and coaching he was receiving versus that of what you were teaching?

Hackleman – I always do. And he found out real quick that the type of training we were doing at The Pit was something that he wanted to do. The very next day after we sparred he came and started training with me.

SP – What were the biggest differences between his old school and yours?

Hackleman – Their striking was more of the traditional Karate striking, where one hand would be chambered near the hip while the other was extended. That would leave the fighter completely open. They were more rigid in their style, stiffer with their movement and foot work. They weren’t used to other kinds of strikes, knees and elbows. Obviously he was pretty well versed in takedowns because of his wrestling background where as most Karate guys aren’t.

SP –What are your philosophies when it comes to training? Is there anything particular you try to instil in your athletes or students?

Hackleman – My Philosophies with training are basic old school values:

• There is no easy way.
• You must be disciplined with training. Work super hard, but rest when it is necessary. There is a fine balance.
• There is no one technique that is perfect. One of our philosophies when coaching is that it is OK to have subtle differences. The best left hook is one that knocks the other guy out. It doesn’t matter how it comes across as long as it knocks someone out, it is a great left hook.

As far as my philosophies when it comes to attitude:

• Always have fun.
• Never be a bully.
• Always respect the art. (Anyone’s art).

SP – How did your gym change immediately after meeting Greg Glassman?

Hackleman – We definitely picked things up. I began to incorporate a lot more dumbbell work. Exercises such as Thrusters, and D-bell Swings were a great addition. We also added jump rope work, such as double unders. CrossFit really upped our game, it added to our repertoire of workouts, and systemized our classes better.

Sp – Where do you see the future as far as the evolution of the Pit? More of the same, or is there something you see it evolving into?

Hackleman – The gym has changed so many times throughout the years. It started out as a hardcore Martial Arts gym, known for beating the hell out of each other. Then we started training kids, so it became known as the “Bully-proof” place. Next thing that happened, Chuck Liddell came and became famous, so then we were known as an MMA gym exclusively. When Chuck wasn’t fighting anymore we became known for the CrossFit. And now we are a little of everything; we are the biggest MMA gym in town, we have the biggest kids program in town, we probably have the biggest fitness program in town, and we have a big belt program. So we have a little of everything to tell you the truth.

SP – Do you have any aspect which you enjoy the most?

Hackleman – Not really. I really love it all. I love watching the kids get their belts, I love watching the adults get their belts. It is rewarding having a guy who just wanted to try fighting a little bit, end up making it all the way to the top. It is definitely fun to watch people develop their conditioning. So I don’t have one favorite. To be honest it is a dream come true to have this as my job. I can’t complain.

SP – What is the conditioning like?

Hackleman – We do a lot of sprints and Tabata work. Sometimes I will want to do a long hard day–I call those “Mental Toughness” days– and sometimes I want to do a shorter more explosive day. On those shorter days we will do something like a Tabata on the AirDyne. (Check out these videos at the bottom for a more in depth look at CrossPit workouts).

We also do Tabata sparring or burpees and sparring. When we do Tabata sparring it is always to the body, and not to the head; the goal is not to knock someone out or hurt them. We spar for technique, timing, distance, and defense. How Tabata sparring works is the two athletes place their foreheads together and bang to each other’s bodies for 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds for a total of 4 minutes.

SP- How are you able to build mental toughness through your training? 

Hackleman – First of all there is a difference between mental toughness and heart. Heart you either have it or you don’t. You don’t build heart. With fighters, you can always tell heart when someone is in the cage or the ring and they get hit for the first time. If somebody doesn’t have heart you can train them in every fuckin technique for the rest of their life and they will never be a champion fighter. Even with Sugar Ray Leonard skill you wouldn’t be a champion without his heart. Mental toughness on the other hand can be taught in the sense of how to grind out a difficult situation. To build mental toughness we do stuff like chipper workouts, where the athlete will do this, this, this, and just keep going. A workout may involve bag work with thrusters and just keep going for 20 minutes nonstop. Or sometimes we will do rowing followed by wrestling. For example, we will make them row for 5 minutes and then wrestle for 5 minutes. That is twice as long as a round. We make them push all the way to the end of the 10 minutes. If a fighter has an upcoming fight he may have to row then spar against a fresh opponent. That will build mental toughness.

SP – Was it ever difficult for you to make the transformation from being an athlete into being a coach?

Hackleman – It was pretty natural for me. When I was in my early 20’s I was in the Army at the time and I was on the Boxing team. While I was fighting, I was also training a lot of the other guys and doing their corner work. Then when I got out and I was fighting professionally, I was always training someone at the same time. Even with Chuck, during his first couple fights I was fighting on the same card. My last fight I wrapped mine and Chuck’s hands, then I worked his corner with my hand wraps on, then went on and fought right after him.

SP – That must have been unbelievably nerve wracking knowing you are about to fight next while coaching someone else.

Hackleman – The whole 2 weeks prior were probably the most nerve wracking two weeks of my life. We both won with first round knockouts so that was good.

SP – Is it difficult for a fighter to separate their everyday life from their fighting? 

Hackleman – I don’t think it is that difficult. Most fighters are so used to it. We get most of our aggression out in the gym. It was a little different for me than most fighters. I was a registered nurse, working the graveyard shift. So I would be taking care of people at night, and then during the day I would be either beating people up or getting beaten up. Most fighters aren’t really fighters outside the ring or the cage. So, it really isn’t as difficult as you think.

SP – Is there a particular type of fighting which you enjoyed the most? Kickboxing, Boxing, MMA……?

Hackleman – I don’t know. I don’t know if I was even a big fan of any of it. Guys I train like Glover (Teixeira), Court Mcgee, and Chuck, those guys love to fight. I never did, I just fought because that was expected of me. I was pretty good and I hit pretty hard. I never had a true passion for fighting. I had a true passion for Martial Arts. Yeah so I didn’t love it, and that was why I was probably miserable most of my life. (laughing)

SP – So when you first started to train as a fighter you were training yourself? What did that consist of?

Hackleman – I started young so I had a trainer at a local gym. This was back in the old days in the early 70’s. My trainer was at the local rec center. He would be training you with a lit cigarette in his mouth. That’s the way it was back then. He would tell you to make sure you got your road work in. But I didn’t know what that exactly meant. I was a 14 year old kid trying to figure it out. In junior high school I ended up going into the library and getting out a book written by Rocky Marciano on how to train for fights. Back then it was always said that longer was better as far as road work was concerned so I just ran. Some of my runs were 10-12 miles. Looking back I probably would have done less distance and more sprints and explosive work. If I had met Greg Glassman earlier in my career it would have turned it around. That would have been heaven sent.

SP – How does your approach to training a professional athlete differ from training a regular student?

Hackleman – The main difference I do between fighters and my regular students is the sparring. Almost everything else is identical except for the sparring. They drill the same, their bag work is the same, and their conditioning is the same. The fighters will spar harder and they usually train twice a day. With the fighters we usually schedule a striking workout with conditioning in one, then later that night grappling, or something like that.

SP – Can you breakdown a typical workout session?

Hackleman – The sessions usually last about an hour. With a regular class we warm-up really thoroughly, then move into drilling with partners. We go through a bunch of scenarios then drill, drill, drill. Then right from the drilling we usually always move right into some bag work for about 10-15 minutes. After the bag work comes the workout exclusive part of the class. That’s when I will give them the workout of the day. That will be anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes. It depends on what I have planned for them that day. Then I will finish them off with something like a deep core stance with some Karate technique or drilling combination work. Then I stretch them out.

SP – With each training session do you have a different focus, and different goal for your athletes?

Hackleman – The goal is usually the same every workout. That is to make them better Martial Artists. With the focus sometimes I will push mental toughness, sometimes I will push explosive strength, sometimes I will even push for better active rests, because they would have done a lot of bag work so we will go longer and have them do something like a 5 K.

SP – Is it difficult for an athlete to allow themselves to be pulled back?

Hackleman – It depends on the athlete. Some guys like Court, he hates it, and sometimes he will even cheat behind my back and do extra work. I can always tell the next day when they come in. You know what is so stupid? I have some guys that I will give a day off to and tell them they need to rest. They say “Ok coach”, tell me they are going to take the day off and then they post a picture on social media of themselves doing sprints on the beach or working out that day. That’s how stupid they can be. (laughing)

SP – How do you come up with your workouts for your athletes and students?

Hackleman – I have to be honest I come up with most of this shit myself. I might take a few things from others, sometimes even my guys will come up with things, “hey let’s try this”. But I usually come up with 85% of it. Now my wife is teaching classes and she comes up with things. We just try to come up with the craziest shit we can that accommodates the class. It is so easy to train somebody hard, but harder isn’t always better. If that was the case I would just have them do 10 minutes of burpees as hard as they can. Everyone would get in shape, but two problems occur:

1. Over training of the students and athletes
2. The classes would be pretty boring

So not only do you need to come up with something that is fun and exciting and different but it also needs to be effective and not cross the line of over training. Some trainers will drive people that hard and the athlete or student will either get hurt or burnt out. It is really a big balancing act. It is important not only for the students to not over train but it is especially important for the athletes.

SP – Do you think it is intimidating for students to go into your gym because of your history of training? Do they misunderstand and think that the gym is about fighting?

Hackleman – Absolutely, that is our biggest liability right now. That is what is keeping us breaking through every barrier in the world when it comes to gyms. Most business and most gyms their biggest obstacle is trying to get there name out there. Our biggest liability is everyone knows our name and they are intimidated to come in. They don’t realize that we are more of a family efficient Martial Arts gym, everyone sees us as blood, guts, and cages.

SP – In some aspects you are a victim of your own success.  

Hackleman – Definitely, it’s been a double edge sword. I love Chuck. Chuck is the best student any instructor could ever have. He has tremendous loyalty, perseverance, heart, and courage. He is very generous, but as a gym owner Chuck has hurt me more than any single person has ever hurt another gym. (laughing) Chuck is like a brother to me and I love him to death, but that’s the situation. Don’t get me wrong my gym is doing very well, but I think it would be doing very, very, very well. If I ever said that to Chuck he would try to pay me out of his own pocket.

SP – So have you ever thought about moving away from training fighters?

Hackleman – I have pulled way back. I have basically a single digit team right now. But a legacy and a reputation that we have built since 1985, is still in place. Even before Chuck was a champion the reputation of the gym around town was one of blood sweat and tears, and beating the shit out of each other. So the Pit had a very, very, very tough reputation. Even though it is not like that anymore it still has that reputation.

SP – How has Martial Arts effected or influenced your life outside of training? 

Hackleman – I don’t think it has affected my life as much as it is my life. I have been training Martial Arts since I was 10 and that’s pretty much been a constant more than any single thing. It’s always been there. It is my life, period.

SP – I heard you said it was difficult at times growing up in Hawaii. Did you get into Martial Arts because you were being bullied?

Hackleman – Yeah it was, but to be honest it was more that I just didn’t want to be bullied. I was bullied a little bit and I knew I was going to probably be bullied more so I just started training and guess what? I loved it. It was like heaven sent. I went to the toughest gym in Hawaii, trained with probably the toughest guy. I just found the place in the Yellow Pages when I was 10 years old, and it just came together perfectly. I couldn’t have hooked up with a better guy to train with to reach the goals and get out of Martial Arts what I wanted, which was to get tougher and not get bullied. Walter Godin was one of the toughest guys in Hawaii, he had the reputation and he had the demeanor, and the toughest training, so next thing I know nobody is picking on me. Like I said, it was heaven sent. If I had gone to another gym or Dojo it never would have turned out the way it turned out.

SP – What I find interesting, listening to your story is that you were there almost at the inception of MMA, and you were there from basically the birth of CrossFit.

Hackleman – Yeah I believe I was the 2^nd CrossFit affiliate. When I met Greg Glassman his certification was in this little gym in Santa Cruz and the meeting after was in his backyard and we had Pizza and Beer. So that was really a while ago.

SP – Wow it is kind of crazy, finding two things you love and being there in the early years of these two growing sports. 

Hackleman – Yeah what can I say? It just worked out.

The Workout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tHYPmaR8H4

Workout of Week: Wave Master Training (instructional) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHROO8_Tawc

CrossPit Blackjack – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-lqsw6iSx0

Follow John on Instagram @  or checkout www.thepit.tv

The post The “Pitmaster” – Interview with MMA & Crossfit Coach John Hackleman appeared first on Fearless Motivation - Motivational Videos & Music.

Chauncey Foxworth, born and raised in Hot Springs, AR. Chauncey has been fighting in MMA for 3 years & recently turned professional.
“My motivation to succeed is without a doubt my 1 yr old son” Chauncey loves to prove people wrong and says he feels he is the ultimate underdog fighter.
The world will soon enough see the greatness of Chauncey Foxworth.
“Work hard in silence – Let your success be the noise”
“Come for my throne: I’ll destroy you” -Samantha King
“I’m the underdog – And that means i’ll have to beat the odds”
“Stay Hungry – Never Settle” #FearlessMotivation
“The harder i work, the luckier i get”
“Success is my only option”
“You may see me struggle, but you will never see me quit”
“A Champion is defined as someone who gets up, when it seems he can’t get up” #FearlessMotivation
“If you really want to do something, you will find a way, if you don’t you will find an excuse” -Jim Rohn

“We all must suffer one of two things: The pain of discipline or the pain or regret” -Jim Rohn

The post Chauncey Foxworth – Profile Of A Rising MMA Star appeared first on Fearless Motivation - Motivational Videos & Music.