Team Continuance Tryout

By Lee Shone, 18 December 2001

I trained for nine weeks for the tryout and got myself into the best condition I have ever been in. As they don't tell you a 1/3 of the test it was always in my mind as to what it was. I had read the Lions Den book a while back and it gave me an idea for what was instore for me. I knew the biggest killer is the cardio and that I had to be on form. So I never sparred at all for my training in the whole nine weeks. I new that if I couldn't last until the end There wouldn't be any at all. I had to train my muscles so that they wouldn't fill with lactic acid pump up and fail on me.

I trained six days a week for it. On Mon, Wed and Fri I was doing 400 press ups, 500 sit ups, 60 chin ups and 300 dips. Every day I did cardio for an hour and a half. eg,. I would run for an hour in my target zone followed by bag work for the other 30 minutes. I got there on the 5th December and chilled out. I stayed with Danny Daniels who is a true gent. Next day we trained with his school on submission. We played the leg lock game and got to know each other, which was fun. On Saturday tryout day, I was very nervous. The test started at 1.30pm so I had to get my head into gear. I got up at 8.00am, I ate and drank up until around 12.00am.

The test began at 1.30 and four of us got started. Phase 1. Conditioning. We shouted out each rep number of each different exercise as we went. Squats, sit ups, press ups, wheel barrows, etc..etc. Half way through the third set of exercises one of the lads quit. He was a soilder and looked to be in excellent shape. His arms weren't conditioned enough and quit on him. After finishing the twelve different exercises we then started Phase 2. Plyo drills. Non of us knew what we were in for as it is kept secret. It's to see how hard you have trained for the test. This was the hardest part, I thought. I felt like I'd had nine pints..lol!

I can't mention any of the exercises in this phase and they took an hour to complete. It was now 1hr 45mins into the test and it was time for the last phase. Sparring. We sparred with Danny on boxing. We grappled with a guy from a near by wrestling school. Then we Sparred with Danny again in the kickboxing. These were full contact with no head gear. We all used boxing gloves and shin guards if we wanted.

Each round was 2 minutes long and we all got stuck in. My best round was the kickboxing. Danny and I both went hell for leather..lol! We both exchanged some good shots. He caught me with an awesome right hook and nearly took my head off and I let loose with some good kicks.

After the sparring Danny confirmed who had passed. Jeff, Brian and myself. We all Jumped around like loonatics. We were all in a lot of pain also. We took some photo's and went out to celebrate later that night. It was a great experience.

Note: Team Continuous is run by Danny Daniels, a former member of Frank Shamrock's team. "I am training the guys in Shamrock Submission Fighting to compete in pro MMA events, but my guys are not on Frank's team. We are more like an affiliate. Our test is pretty much identical to Frank's and is no joke to pass. I have held 3 since I have opened the East Coast Submissions Academy here in Durham, North Carolina, and this one is the first time anybody has passed."

Related links:

• Frank Shamrock's site