IFL Seminars at Wizard World [UPDATED]

by: DarthMolen November 16 2006

Wizard World Dallas has come and gone and much fun was had by all. There were some great times and even plenty of surprises. One of the pleasant surprises were the IFL seminars in one of the far rooms in the convention center.

I was invited to Wizard World by the IFL to participate in their seminars. To be honest, I didn't know what to expect. I thought it would be the fighters talking about their experiences and maybe set up some demos that we could watch with a Q&A session afterwards. I was also hoping to get some interviews in after their sessions.

It just happened that I checked the website the night before upon arriving in Dallas and noticed in the description for the seminars: "...work out with reknowned fighters...". This floored me. You mean they were going to let us work out and be trained by professional fighters and coaches... FOR FREE? Being the prepared person that I was, I had packed workout clothes just in case I wanted to tussle somewhere. So with that thought in mind, I put on my work clothes and showed up at the convention early in the morning.

I immediately wandered over to the IFL booth and was impressed by all the literature, paraphenalia, stickers, etc. that they had out about the league and their teams. A funny thing kept happening as I was grilling one of their marketing personnel. Person after person kept walking up and asking one of the gorgeous blonde IFL employees for pictures as if she was a booth-babe...Really, really funny IMHO. Stereotypes ftw.

Pretty soon it was time for the seminars. The first was going to be hosted by Maurice Smith, the coach of the Seattle Tiger Sharks, and his player Brad Blackburn. It became apparent very quickly that we were going to train stand-up for two hours, which was fine by me since that is what I train a majority of the time. What I wasn't expecting was the totally different style he brought to the table. He teaches a form of European Thai with a strong sports bend. Its a cross between Muy Thai and boxing. The kicks have no snap in them and you are striking with the shins. The arms are held close to the body so that you don't tire and drop your guard. Both punches and kicks are set up with diagonal steps to give them the power. Very different from the more traditional styles that I train but I could see where the physics were coming from. Plus the guy is a MMA legend and the style he showed us worked quite well for him, why not us?

The thing I thought interesting was the rigidness in the teaching style. You had to do it a certain way or he would constantly correct you. Exactness counted for everything. Brad Blackburn, the fighter, didn't say a word the whole time that Maurice was teaching and it was us just practicing form for the whole two hours. At the end we split off with partners for some shadow boxing where we practiced catching jabs with our back hand. I was surprised how fast the time flew and before you knew it, our two hours were up.

During our break, I had the opportunity to interview Maurice Smith, Don Frye, and Shane "Battlecat" Johnson before the next class started. Each interview was unique unto itself. Shane was outgoing and about as honest a guy as you could find. Maurice was a little more reserved but very knowledgeable. Don was just a character. Period.

Don Frye happened to be teaching the next class. His left arm was in a soft cast from bone chip surgery and I was thinking, "so maybe he will sit and Shane Johnson will do all the teaching". Fat chance. Don Frye doesn't sit for anyone. Shane led us in a few warm-ups and then Don took over. He paired us up with a partner and then started to ask us what submissions we wanted to see and practice. After getting our input, he then went straight in TO DEMONSTRATING on Shane Johnson, soft cast and all, the submissions we were going to practice. We practiced tricep control, arm triangles, single leg reversals, near and far arm kimuras from the side mount, guillotine's and throws from guillotines, hip-throws, 2-on-1 arm control, and a whole bunch of different moves.

Did i mention the guillotine throw? That was the funnest technique of the night and something I had never done before. I will try to explain because it was a blast to do and see. A guillotine is where you loop your arm over the back of a person's head, pressing the head down to your side with the pressure, and then continue the loop using your forearm as a bar across the throat. Kind of an inverted headlock but instead of your opponent being behind you, they are in front of you. If you can't secure this. You quickly transfer the head from the side to under your belly. Sit down and arch your back at the same time and your opponent is guaranteed to go flying over your shoulder in a most satisfactory manner. Keep rolling with them and you end in side mount. Fun stuff.

The session was more fluid than the morning session and just as packed with information. Shane "Battlecat" Johnson and Don were circulating after showing us the moves and if we weren't happening to do them right, they would do them on us or our partner to show us the correct way. The details were just as important but they were working from the opposite end of the spectrum. We would start rough and then they would come in and tune it to the right way it should be.

There were a couple funny moments. There was a point where we were practicing rear-naked chokes. This is where you are on the back of a person with your legs draped over someone's thighs and your arm around their throat. It looks kind of like a piggy back except you are trying to knock them unconscious from lack of blood to the head instead of hitch a ride across the room. They were on the ground at this point and looking quite *ahem* close. Shane told them to stop and freeze that posture. A number of the students, including me, and even Don Frye started to snicker and comment on the appearance of the poses. Shane, totally oblivious, goes into a discourse about what they were doing wrong. He even shucks his shirt, which sent us all rolling, and gets down in the rear naked choke position with the other two guys. So there are three people in train formation on the ground. At this point half the class is holding their sides trying to not appear too obvious and Shane is continuing on with his one sided instructions without pausing to notice our snickers. The guy in the back pipes up and says, "Hey, at least i'm in the drivers seat!" At this point, the whole class bursts out laughing and Shane finally gets what is going on.

The session ended with Q&A for Don Frye. All the participants (there were about twelve of us) sat down and could ask him any question we wanted. Quite refreshing and very "close and personal". Directly after the seminar, Brad Blackburn was waiting for me and I had the opportunity to interview him.

By the end of both sessions, I had done four hours of martial arts and a full hour of interviews. I was definitely tired both physically and mentally and that was just the start of the day. I had the Spike TV TUF4 Finale party and the Live Art Auction for Heroes for Heroes.

Needless to say, the seminars that IFL put on were unique and very special. I never expected to be rolling with actual professional fighters. It definitely made me partial to seeing more of the IFL product because I knew that they really cared what the fans thought and wanted to bring us closer to the "experience".

P.S. Upon popular request, I present to you the blonde that I was talking about (She was in normal clothes when I saw her both times so I didn't know that she was an official IFL Booth Babe in disguise ) :