Lincolnista the guide to Lincoln, UK.

Time to get your monkey on!

Monday, 22nd August 2011 Written by: Tenacious T

The Crazy Monkey Defense. Sounds crazy right? Wrong. In reality it is a highly developed and highly technical style of mixed martial art (MMA) and the best bit is you can do it in Lincoln.

“Crazy monkey is essentially a fully fledged martial arts program” says Matt Flaherty; a trainer in the art at the Strike Zone gym. “It’s based on mixed martial arts but primarily the way we go about training in Crazy Monkey defence is that it’s there to build confidence and ability very quickly and ensure you’ve got the right tools for the right job.”
The style of MMA was originally developed in South Africa and is now practised in over 15 countries and is for everyone and anyone. From the military to your everyday man Matt says there is something in Crazy Monkey for everybody; “Within the Crazy Monkey training programme we have professional Muay Thai champions, we’ve got some mixed martial arts champions as well who are also coaches but anyone really can take part. We don’t take kids at the moment I’m looking to develop a specific kids programme but absolutely anyone can do it. We’ve got a 68 year old guy who comes in and trains with us and he threw me around the other week. It’s for all ranges really, all heights, all ages, and all sizes.” All training is done in a progressive style meaning amateurs and pros alike can interact with each other, while helping to boost your fitness and confidence.

The thing that might make it so appealing to anyone is its ‘fun’ style. “One of my main reasons for coming to crazy monkey defence was the way that it was taught” said Matt. “There’s very much an emphasis on play as opposed to competition. The guys we’ve got training with us are all a certain age. They’re all kind of family men or they’re older than teenagers so to speak and they’re looking for something different which is more based on the environment you train in. We do teach all ranges; boxing, muay thai, BJJ as well but mainly our emphasis, what differentiates us from the competition I suppose is more about the environment that we train in – the play aspect”. It’s not an easy ride however as MMA is a very physical sport. “We train very, very hard. We do a lot of sparring. We make it functional, we make it alive, we make it work. When I say play I mean the environment we’re in; the ability to have no ego or the ability to make mistakes and learn from that all at the same time. We’re not shouting at you, we’re getting you to think for yourself, we’re getting you to get your body working and find out what works for yourself.“

When you think MMA you probably find yourself thinking of promotions like the UFC or Strikeforce and Matt believes that the style and training could get you to that point if you wanted to go there but at the same time it can help you from a mental perspective. “I enjoy watching the UFC, I do enjoy the sport aspect of it. I do think our training and coaching within Crazy Monkey can get people to whatever level they want to get to. It’s got a funny name which gets people interested and in terms of MMA I think it’s only going to get bigger. I guess my main point - the difference between how we teach MMA and how it’s perceived on the TV is that if you want to go for that then by all means go and enjoy the competition but for us it’s more a case of the challenge more than anything else and understanding what it is that we do and why we do it.”

Matt says that the style and the ‘fun’ manner of the training means that the classes really help you mentally as much as they do physically. “I guess to some extent it’s a case of mind over matter. It’s not trying to put aside the physical aspect of it because the way we train is incredibly hard. I’ve never seen these guys get as much of a sweat on as in any gym I’ve been at but I think the main thing for us at the moment is to get the mental game side of crazy monkey implemented as well because it’s really key. You can have all the physical attributes in the world but if your brain isn’t switched on or in the right place I think that is the big difference in what we do.”

If you think that the Crazy Monkey could be for you then why not give it a shot? Training takes place at ‘Strike Zone’ located on Croft Street in Lincoln just off Monks Road behind Lincoln college. Training takes place on Mondays from 8-9 pm, Wednesday and Thursdays from 7:30-9 pm.
For more information you can go to:

Tel: 07961 291495
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thehouseofmonkey
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/houseofmonkey
Web: http://www.thehouseofmonkey.net