Pre-match drills and warm ups: Running Gordon Ryan through some pre-match grip fighting drills and warm ups minutes before his match with the great Keenan Cornelius. Interestingly, Mr Cornelius was just five feet away from us as we warmed up! Usually competitors warm up in separate areas, but this time we had a small common mat which was fun At this stage the work has been done and the drills serve mostly to prepare the athlete for physical activity and remind him or her of the main themes we have focused on in training, whilst keeping the athlete active enough to prevent negative thoughts emerging without unduly tiring him. The nature of the warm up will be greatly influenced by the rule set of the match and the style of the opponent. Here you can see a much more laid back approach than normal due to the anticipation of a long match against a very experienced and relaxed opponent.
