UFC 104 Preview: A Lot Went Into Making Lyoto Machida
by Nate Wilcox on Oct 24, 2009 2:51 PM EDT
in MMA News
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They started early, per the Orange County Register:
"Since he was 3 years old he's been training Karate and wanting to be a fighter. It's not just any Karate, it's Machida Karate. He incorporates a lot of things that the sport of Karate has taken out. He utilize elbows and knees, which in the sport of Karate they don't do. It goes back to the training and being Machida Karate."
Machida said his father never forced him to train. It was just something that came natural to him and he wanted to be around it all the time.
"It wasn't the same kind of training that you would do like a pro athlete," Machida said. "It's not like I was there and my father was forcing me to train. Even if I wasn't training I was there at the academy every day running around. I would go train for 20 minutes and watching you learn a lot. I was just in that environment. My son is 1 year old and he's already copying my punches."
Machida had a black belt in Karate by the time he reached his 13th birthday. He also began training in Sumo at 12 and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at 15. But Karate, specifically, Machida Karate has always been his first love.
And they ran a tight ship at Casa Machida, per MMA Weekly:
Lyoto grew up in his dad's dojo and began learning the art at age three between the usual stuff of a kid's life. Until the age of 10, dad was a stern disciplinarian.
When Lyoto or his brothers Chinzo and Take got into trouble, Yoshizo would make them sit on their ankles for an hour or more, eyes closed, facing a wall.
With all the fights, Lyoto learned to sit and be still from an early age.
"Up until 10 years old, that's when you can instill discipline," said Yoshizo. "I did everything I could the first 10 years, and then they're on their own. Every day I was telling them what they can and can't do."
Even with tens of thousands of budding MMA fighters beginning to train seriously at very young ages in America, very very few will have the kind of upbringing that have made Lyoto Machida such an effective MMA fighter.
But somewhere out there, probably in the USA but possibly in Brazil, Japan, Russia, Canada or the European Union, maybe even in China, there is an Earl Woods (father of Tiger) or Richard Williams (father of Venus and Serena) who's training their little wunderkind right now.
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Off topic about the European Union part. I guess it should be just Europe. EU is basically a political-economic union consisting of 27 countries. There are 50 countries in Europe.
I don't see any enthusiasm for MMA coming from the non EU countries
in Europe.
When I say European Union, I mean the EU.
Follow me on Twitter @KidNate
Norway and Iceland for example are not in EU.
Also when I say EU I mean European Union…
by dancingChicken on Oct 24, 2009 3:33 PM EDT up reply actions
Greenland is cull of ice, Iceland is very nice
by Austin Martin on Oct 24, 2009 3:36 PM EDT up reply actions
I didn't list every country where someone could
be training the next Lyoto, just some I thought were the most likely. Due to larger populations, I think the EU countries are our best bet.
But hey, Norway or even the Ukraine could be the place.
Follow me on Twitter @KidNate
I personally have mad respect for any athlete that starts training that early and kept on training until they have become adults and have been recognized by their success, unfortunately for every one of these kids that makes it there are probably 100 that don’t and have lost their childhood in the process. Personally I wouldn’t enforce my kids to focus so much on one thing (even if it’s soccer), because they’ll never get that time back no matter what and they may not be successful at the end of that journey.
SHOGUN WILL SLAY THE DRAGON!!!
SHOGUN TO BE THE NEW LHW CHAMP!!!
I think you need to read that again, Lyoto clearly stated he wasn’t forced to train and it was something he wanted to do and be around from a young age. Obviously there are parents who do force their kids into sports early but this isn’t one of those cases.
Walla walla walla I'm an idiot.
by ufc4 on Oct 24, 2009 3:19 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
but other fathers are forcing their kids
and sometimes, even if it’s all successful, it’s not worth it. See Jackson, Freddy.
Follow me on Twitter @KidNate
Yeah...
after I read this stuff about Lyoto and the ensuing comments, I went straight to Todd Marinovich’s wikipedia entry to refresh my memory and learn more about he and his crazy parents. I find this passage interesting from an article about Todd, Marv y familia:
He has never eaten a Big Mac or an Oreo or a Ding Dong. When he went to birthday parties as a kid, he would take his own cake and ice cream to avoid sugar and refined white flour. He would eat homemade catsup, prepared with honey. He did consume beef but not the kind injected with hormones. He ate only unprocessed dairy products. He teethed on frozen kidney. When Todd was one month old, Marv was already working on his son’s physical conditioning. He stretched his hamstrings. Pushups were next. Marv invented a game in which Todd would try to lift a medicine ball onto a kitchen counter. Marv also put him on a balance beam. Both activities grew easier when Todd learned to walk. There was a football in Todd’s crib from day one. “Not a real NFL ball,” says Marv. “That would be sick; it was a stuffed ball.”
Cake and processed ketchup turned out to be the least of his worries. That’s just going too far…putting a regulation NFL football in his crib. You’ve got to set limits.
by Cannon Jacques on Oct 24, 2009 5:24 PM EDT up reply actions
Its a good move for parents to take an active role in developing their children. I know my father forced me to prioritize my athletic training at a young age when I would have rather been sitting on the couch watching tv and eating doritos.
It made me realize that you can achieve goals thru hard work and determination. It gave me self esteem at a young age. It gave me the chance to be part of a team and understand the importance of teamwork and having others rely on you. It eventually earned me scholarship. All because my father was a huge pain in my ass.
I just feel like there should be a limit to how much time the child spends training, sure his father seemed to not enforce on them, but he still seems like a very old fashioned strict guy (obviously this could also be the Japanese culture, and I understand). But from the stories they have told, it’s Karate before and after the school! Where is the time to be a kid?
SHOGUN WILL SLAY THE DRAGON!!!
SHOGUN TO BE THE NEW LHW CHAMP!!!
""It wasn’t the same kind of training that you would do like a pro athlete," Machida said. “It’s not like I was there and my father was forcing me to train. Even if I wasn’t training I was there at the academy every day running around. I would go train for 20 minutes and watching you learn a lot. I was just in that environment. My son is 1 year old and he’s already copying my punches.”
by Austin Martin on Oct 24, 2009 3:20 PM EDT up reply actions
Greenland is full of ice, Iceland is very nice
by Austin Martin on Oct 24, 2009 3:36 PM EDT up reply actions
But somewhere out there, probably in the USA but possibly in Brazil, Japan, Russia, Canada or the European Union, maybe even in China, there is an Earl Woods (father of Tiger) or Richard Williams (father of Venus and Serena) who’s training their little wunderkind right now.
I believe that father might be Lyoto Machida =P
A man should never waste an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.
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