Brad ' One Punch' PickettLondon Shootfighters
London Shootfighters
Words and photography by Lee Whitehead
The London Shootfighters brand is synonymous with UK MMA and their iconography as much of a legend on these shores as SFUK T-shirts, yellow Cage Warriors gloves and bald shiny heads.
Considering the relatively auspicious beginnings of the camp at a small building in Bard Road, they managed to produce an array of champions and currently hold various titles in house, the most prestigious of which belongs to Marius Zaromskis who near-decapitated two tough opponents in the land of the rising sun to become the Dream Welterweight Champion and Dream Welterweight Grand Prix Champion.
Things changed when they moved into the 35,000sq ft facility that used to be Gold’s Gym. Typical of a former bodybuilding emporium, the facility came pre-loaded full of everything required to get big, but where the facility (under the brand name Hooks Gym) comes to the fore, is that it meshes the worlds of Bodybuilding with MMA.
Another key thing to note is the location; many MMA camps are buried in dark alleys, in the middle of an industrial estate or away from public view – but not this one. Standing pride of place in the middle of a leisure complex, the Hooks Gym facility (with iconic London Shootfighters branding) stands as an impressive reminder that this sport is becoming mainstream, and people’s perceptions of it need to change. This is a state of the art place to hone body and mind.
The facility boasts a huge array of cardio machines such as treadmills, bikes, steppers, elliptical’s and rowers to cover aerobic requirements as well as every kind of machine and free weight that you could think of for building strength and power – making this a total one stop shop and an excellent place to anyone looking to get started on the path to full fitness.
Caveman training has come to the fore in recent years thanks to consistent analysis of the requirements of the modern Martial Arts gladiator and the boys from London are firm believers in the principle, offering a 200kg tractor tyre, sledgehammers, kettlebells, atlas stones, logs, elastics and ropes. Those looking for pure strength development are well catered for too with a ruberised Olympic lifting platform and a vast selection of plates.
Moving from fitness into MMA all under one roof, there is a full size cage for pressure testing and live drills and during the pro training sessions becomes home to sound of full-bore MMA sparring to really scare Joe Public on the treadmill.
In an adjacent room there is an Olympic sized boxing ring that is used for Boxing, sparring and in the case of someone like Zaromskis, familiarisation to the format used in Japan; At the top of the stairs above the entrance there is a 10m2 Olympic Wrestling mat for Greco, Freestyle and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, thankfully free of nasty jigsaw matting.
“Our intention is to become the premiere place to train in the lead up to the 2012 Olympics as we are focussed on developing the Wrestling and Judo aspects of this facility” explains Alexis Demetriades, adding that their strong wrestling roots will present the perfect platform to work from “We understand wrestling for MMA, but also as a sport in itself, it has been a key strength in our camp and we want to represent for 2012”
A tough day of conditioning and sparring can leave the body worse for wear, but the Shootfighters have all this in hand by offering deep tissue massage facilities, a sauna, a steam room, a salt cave, foot spas, an ice bath, showers and lockers to hang your kit while you recover. If you are in need of advice on how to best look at recovery or an injury then a quick chat with the incumbent Nutritionist or Osteopath may help.
Cutting weight is a fine art and but something that is becoming increasingly key in today’s competition – even amateur level fighters are taking it as seriously as the pro’s so having the facility in-house gives them the chance to learn about their body’s with test cuts, rehydration and fight simulation sparring in a safe environment. Furthermore, for the Pro’s it means they can cut for an event away from prying eyes and jump on the scales as soon as they turn up.
The camp has a real family feel to it and everybody mucks in to keep the place rolling along nicely, even new additions to the family understand that this is above all, a train hard fight hard easy environment, and although their reputation as being a notoriously tough gym may put some people off, those that want to succeed know exactly where to be pushed.
With such an impressive facility at their disposal, Alexis is keen to offer the chance of coming to train to anyone who is willing - this is no closed doors facility; he explains: “As long as someone from another camp identifies themselves before-hand so we can keep them away from the guys who might be fighting one of their team mates then they are very welcome. It’s all about learning techniques, sparing and driving forward as the UK steps up the international level”
http://www.londonshootfighters.com/
London Shootfighters (Hook’s Gym)
Royal Leisure Park
Great Western Way
Park Royal
London
W3 0PA
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