NO HOLDS BARRED

(Frank Shamrock and Eddie Goldman, New York, July 1, 2010.)

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with MMA legend and the best MMA fighter of the 1990s, Frank Shamrock.

Now retired as a fighter, we discussed, in an interview recorded by phone Friday, what he is doing now and what his plans are.

A major focus of his life now is raising his five-year-old daughter, "five-year-old immersion" as he calls it, including all the tasks of a father from watching children's shows with her, to getting her to train in taekwondo, to explaining why so many people know him.

While he does not follow MMA much anymore, he does have an interest in the rebirth of catch wrestling. He said that both he and veteran combat sports announcer Mauro Ranallo plan to attend the Catch Wrestling Alliance International Invitational on June 7 at UCLA in Los Angeles, California.

"Catch wrestling is the basis of my fighting style. And the basis of catch wrestling is conditioning, athleticism, and continuously trying to finish," he said.

"Anybody doing that is exciting. You're in shape, you know what to do, and you're constantly moving. So It's a recipe for creating exciting action."

He did caution, "I know as soon as super-athletes come along, the game will change. But let's wait until the super-athletes come before we worry about it."

For now, he said, "This is the type of martial art and social presentation and participation that's really good for everybody."

What he does have second thoughts about are those sports where there are strikes to the head.

"If you do that for a continuous period of time, if you develop a style that eats punches, if you are not good, if you are in over your head, if you're taking shots, none of that is good for you, in any sport, no matter what you're doing. You cannot get hit in the head. You cannot mess with the computer that runs the machine," he said.

"My whole style is based around not getting hit. I don't have any memory loss. I don't have any speech problems. I've been very, very blessed. And when I started getting hit, when the game started turning to boxing and wrestling, I got out, because I didn't want to get mashed up."

As for his daughter, he said, "The brain is the most important thing. You cannot damage it. My daughter is not going into any contact sport that hits her in the head. It's not going to happen. Might be volleyball, at best."

Asked whether at the start of his fighting career he would have gone into professional grappling or real wrestling rather than MMA if the financial and career opportunities were equivalent to those in MMA, without hesitation he replied, "100 percent."

We also discussed his now mellow life as a father and "a normal house dude", how his views on violent sports have evolved over the past two decades, the "huge potential" for sports like catch wrestling, some of his favorite experiences in Pancrase and Strikeforce, the lack of a martial arts code in present-day MMA, how the martial arts changed him, his relationship with his brother Ken, and much, much more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link doesn't work, please try another.

No Holds Barred is also available on mobile phones and iPads through Stitcher.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

ONE Fighting Championship. ONE FC is Asia's largest and most prestigious mixed martial arts event. ONE FC features the best Asian fighters and has initiated the ONE Asia Partnership Network, which includes most of the major MMA promotions and MMA gyms in Asia. For more information, go to their web site, at ONEFC.com.

American Top Team. Whether you're a beginner or a champion, train with the champions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, wrestling, grappling, and mixed martial arts at American Top Team. Check out their web site at http://americantopteam.com/.

Labels: brain, catch, Eddie Goldman, fatherhood, Frank Shamrock, grappling, head, injuries, MMA, No Holds Barred, trauma, violence, wrestling

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Dr. Margaret Goodman, a neurologist, the former chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, and the president and board chairman of VADA, the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association.

We spoke with her by phone Sunday, mainly about one of the many health issues facing the combat sports: concussions and the subsequent risks of dementia and diseases like CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy).

"You can generalize, and you can say that what we know today is, getting hit in the head in any kind of sport, whether it be football, baseball, boxing, or MMA, is not good for the brain," she said.

"How good it's not for the brain hasn't really been established as far as how much trauma can someone sustain before they're predisposed to a condition like chronic traumatic encephalopathy. And those factors are still unknown."

However, she cautioned, "But what we do know is concussions or trauma to the head is additive. So the more punishment you take to your head, especially over a shorter period of time, often in the short time of a career of an MMA fighter or a boxer, has a whole bunch of risks as far as predisposing someone to a dementing illness."

We discussed how trauma to the head can lead to serious brain diseases even in young athletes and especially children, why children are more predisposed to these diseases than adults, and how many in the combat sports are turning "one blind eye to what's going on."

All the studies about the dangers on concussions and the prevalence of CTE in former NFL football players "should be a wakeup call" to those in combat sports where striking the head and trying to score a knockout are key, legal parts of the sport.

We discussed the old saying from the 1990s that "MMA is safer than boxing," and whether or not that can still be said to be true, assuming it ever was.

She was especially critical of the regulators of sports like boxing and MMA, who are largely "ignoring what is happening to the NFL." She said, referring not just to bad scoring, but to health and safety issues, "We're not regulating these sports properly." We also discussed the dangers of rapid weight-cutting, and what might be changed in order to minimize these dangers.

But with the growing body of scientific studies and literature on concussions and CTE, with these issues seeming only to mount in the combat sports, with increased public attention all the time on the effects of head trauma involving high-profile athletes like Georges St-Pierre, with no solution in sight to these problems, and with the likelihood of more tragedies and premature deaths facing these athletes, we had to ask some very tough questions, to which there are not easy answers.

Can the combat sports survive? Which ones are likeliest to go the way of smoking and becoming socially unacceptable and severely decline? Can combat sports with no striking to the head, like the various styles of grappling and wrestling, fill what may be a coming void? And what should those of us presently involved in various capacities with the combat sports do about all this?

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link doesn't work, please try another.

No Holds Barred is also available on mobile phones and iPads through Stitcher.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

LenneHardt.com, the web site of the world's greatest ring announcer, Lenne Hardt. Need a unique and cool combat sports-related gift? At LenneHardt.com, you can order personalized messages, wedding calls, ringtones, phone answering messages, and more, all recorded by Lenne herself, in the style of your choice. For more information, go to LenneHardt.com.

ONE Fighting Championship. ONE FC is Asia's largest and most prestigious mixed martial arts event. ONE FC features the best Asian fighters and has initiated the ONE Asia Partnership Network, which includes most of the major MMA promotions and MMA gyms in Asia. For more information, go to their web site, at ONEFC.com.

GrappleGnostic, sponsored by Defense Soap. Where the will to win meets the power of knowledge. Features, interviews, analysis, health tips, and information on wrestling, grappling, jiu-jitsu, and all the grappling arts, written by some of the best writers and experts in the world. Check out their web site, a http://defensesoap.com/grapplegnostic.

Defense Soap, an effective, deep penetrating body soap with natural antifungal, antiviral, and antibacterial soap ingredients. Defense Soap is the best cleansing body soap for men and women athletes who are involved in contact sports such as MMA, wrestling, grappling, jiu-jitsu, and judo, to help their antifungal, anti-ringworm, anti-jock itch strategy. Check out their web site, at http://defensesoap.com.

American Top Team. Whether you're a beginner or a champion, train with the champions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, wrestling, grappling, and mixed martial arts at American Top Team. Check out their web site at http://americantopteam.com/.

Labels: boxing, brain, combat sports, concussions, CTE, Eddie Goldman, football, grappling, Margaret Goodman, MMA, NFL, No Holds Barred, trauma, VADA, Voluntary Anti-Doping Association, wrestling

Labels: Ann McKee, boxing, brain, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, combat, concussions, contact sports, CTE, Eddie Goldman, hockey, injury, MMA, No Holds Barred, wrestling