Monday, January 24

How to be a Kickboxing champ!

I have finished my Secrets of the Millionaire Mind and is moving on to the next book - The 4-hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris. This book is about someone who simplifies his work and life process, and thus have plenty of time at hand to pursue his activities.

As I read the book, I will come across many tips which I will share some with you here in future blog posts. Particularly very interesting is the story of how most of his cold calls never get to the intended person because of gatekeepers (ie. the clerks and secretaries). So he chose to make his calls at 8-8.30am and 6-6.30pm instead of 9am-5pm (when the secretaries were not in office), and ended up getting twice the results for 1/8 of the time.

Anyway, I will leave you with an extract of his book, on how he became a kickboxing champion by playing smart, and staying within the rules. Whether you like his way or not, I must give him some credits for playing "smart".

Cheers, everyone!

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In 1999, sometime after quitting my second unfulfilling job and eating peanut-butter sandwiches for comfort, I won the gold medal at the Chinese Kickboxing National Championships.

It wasn’t because I was good at punching and kicking. God forbid. That seemed a bit dangerous, considering I did it on a dare and had four weeks of preparation. Besides, I have a watermelon head–it’s a big target.

I won by reading the rules and looking for loopholes, of which there were two:

1. Weigh-ins were the day prior to competition: Using dehydration techniques I now teach to elite powerlifters, I lost 28 pounds in 18 hours, weighed in at 165 pounds, and then hyperhydrated back to 193 pounds*. It’s hard to fight someone from three weight classes above you. Poor little guys.

2. There was a technicality in the fine print: If one combatant fell off the elevated platform three times in a single round, his opponent won by default. I decided to use this technicality as my single technique and just push people off. As you might imagine, this did not make the judges the happiest Chinese I’ve ever seen.

The result? I won all my matches by technical knock-out (TKO) and went home national champion, something 99% of those with 5-10 years of experience had been unable to do.

* Most people assume this type of weight manipulation is impossible, so I’ve provided sample photographs at www.fourhourworkweek.com. Do not try this at home. I did it all under medical supervision.

18 comments:

TG said...

I don't like what he did, even if it's allowed, it's not sportsmanship, it's manipulation. He's not someone I would look up to, but well, it's not his own fault, if the rules allow this, then equal blame goes to the one that set them.

reesan said...

LOL. Exploiting the rules, gotta love it. There is always someone who wants to find the boundary and abuse the spirit of the rules.

The weigh-in reminded me of this image:
http://bradleykay.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/picture-1.png?w=355&h=356

khengsiong said...

Do not try this at home... well, that pretty much says it all.

BTW, you have returned from Hokkaido? Show us your photos!

Anonymous said...

can just "copy and paste" the contents of the book here meh ? not scared kena copyright issue ?

TG said...

@boh.tak.chek.: I think should be ok, since he only published a small paragraph and is actually promoting the book and linking to Amazon, where people can buy it. So it's free promotion, why would anybody sue? It's a win-win situation for both, Shingo should not worry.

foongpc said...

Thanks for sharing the contents of the book here with us : )

Anonymous said...

I watched a kickboxing demo in Phuket. I am not a fan of contact sports like boxing.

HappySurfer said...

Survival of the fittest comes to mind. Thanks for sharing, Shingo.

Netster23 said...

sounds like a good book! I don't read book and I fall asleep fast with book hahahahah

Shingo T said...

Nino:
I love and respect your sense of morality. You, and I should go make a movie someday, brothers who grow up and got separated by birth and grew under different environment. You are the good down-to-earth bro, and I will be the scheming bro who's consumed by greed. Hehe. ^_^

reesan,
haha, I saw the pics. Pretty much summarise the situation. ^_^

khengsiong:
I'm flying on Sunday night (that's tmr). Will post the photos after I get back, which is after 10th Feb.

Netster:
I didn't quite used to be a fan of books, until I found how much I have changed my mindset for the better. I still do fall asleep now and then while reading though, haha.

Jo said...

I didn't read the 4-Hour Work Week but I hear people talking about its contents and I do not like some of his methods. It's pretty shrewd. I'm all for working smart but there's a certain limit to morality too. I guess I must read the book in its entirety to be better able to judge. Who knows, I may grow to love some of the methods. And the boxing thing... Nyeh... sounds to me like a huge loser actually to win via such means. He may be crowned the winner but he's got no real sporting talents, sportsmanship whatsoever in him and is not a true winner at all. I would not feel proud of my title at all should I win via such lowly means. I would very much respect the ones who lost who has in them the experience and true fighting spirit. They've lost with dignity.

Ooh ooh... Now your turn to go overseas! Enjoy yourself with wifey!

[SK] said...

wow, using dehydration techniques to lose 28 pounds in 18 hours??!! i would think that's very dangerous, unless you have water retention, haha~~ :D

Wenny said...

28 pounds in 18 hours ... that's interesting. But I don't think I want to hyper-hydrate myself back.

Anonymous said...

Makes me think of card counters at casinos.

Anonymous said...

57087.....22598

Pretty Pauline said...

He's also written 4 Hours to the Perfect Body~or something similar to that. Not a fan of his cheating ways in dealing with real people, but I wouldn't mind using some of his advice to cheat FOOD! EXCEPT taking an ice bath 3 times a week. I can't imagine climbing into that tub...

dblchin (double chin) said...

kick boxing involves a lot of work. I dun think i can ever achieve that!

Twilight Man said...

I wanna loose 28 pounds in 18 hours! Teach me! I just re-joined the Fitness First and the trainer made me do some kick-boxing. Now my ass and knuckles are hurting me badly.

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