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This article appeard in International Sports Science Association Newsletter in June 2005 http://www.protraineronline.com/past/June05/spotlight.cfm
Spotlight Trainer of the Month
George Hynec
At first my interest in martial arts was pure fitness. I enrolled at a local Tae Kwon Do school to get my then 10 year old daughter involved in martial arts. 4 years later she dropped out and I found myself training for my black belt - a daunting task. 10 full contact rounds did not appeal to me.
I started to search for ways to prepare myself for the task at hand. Several things needed to happen – I needed speed, power and endurance. I was to go up against fighters who were less then half my age and of course much better then me.
I visited different martial arts school looking for that perfect style I trained in Hapkido, Capoeira, different Chinese styles but it was all too involved requiring mastery of thousands of techniques which frustrated me. Then I came across a system called Yang Mian (Spring Power Kung Fu). The legend has it that the top 10 masters from 10 different styles got together to develop the ultimate style. What appealed to me was that there were no techniques, just concepts. You learn the concepts, which are then used to develop free flow fighting. In 6 months I developed respectable speed and equally respectable power. It was no magic, just hard work learning how to use kinetic energy. This is when I really learned how the core generates power. This became very valuable later in life when I got into weights and particularly kettlebells, because they are all about the core.
Other training involved the development of ‘steel hand' and ‘steel body' techniques so that one withstands blows to the body without injury (very useful for contact sports).
Speed and power problem solved. Still I needed to put on more muscle. This is when I came across Charles Staley. I signed up with Charles to be my coach for 3 months. This was the time when I really started paying attention to how one should train and periodize one's training. Charles then led me to Pavel Tsatsouline – ex instructor for Spetsnatz Special Forces. I studied pretty much everything Pavel produced including kettlebells. I actually made my own KB handles that is how convinced I was that this type of training was the way to go – back to basics, the old school of fitness. I was so wrapped in it that I bit the bullet and enrolled in the instructor certification course in St Paul , a long way to travel from Down Under to swing funny looking weights.
I just kept on learning whatever I could always using Bruce Lee's motto ‘Accept what is useful to you and discard what is useless'. I broke away from the mainstream MA scene enrolled in ISSA's SMAC program and the rest is history.
I train martial artists, athletes, personal trainers and ordinary out of condition folk who can't do a single push up.
I try to be as versatile as I possibly can. That way we never get bored. Having a wide repertoire of exercises to choose from I am able to better individualize programs for my students. We use power yoga, body weight training, static contraction, free weights, martial arts exercises (particularly Yang Mian drills are very transferable to practically any sport where striking power and speed are key), stretching, kettlebells, clubbells, gymnastic rings, pull up bars, resistance cords. Most importantly I have passion for what I do and I never stop learning. I run a private studio “MA Training” in Sydney Australia.
George Hynec
MA Training, RKC Instructor
ISSA (SMAC)
Sydney Australia
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