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Darryl, how did you get involved with Orygen Youth Health and what made you decide to take on the challenge of fighting for 100 rounds in one session?
I wanted to choose an organisation that would mesh well with our [Active Red’s] take on health and fitness. After researching different charity organisations for a few months, one of my friends mentioned they had heard about Pat McGorry, who is the OYH executive director and 2010 Australian of the Year. After looking into OYH I knew they’d be a great organisation to work with. Youth mental illness is a serious and overlooked issue and through my work with various clients at the gym I have seen the effect mental illness — depression, anxiety, etc. — can have on a person’s body. I’m a firm believer that in order to have a healthy body you need a healthy mind. OYH and Active Red make a great compliment.
I approached OYH with the idea and they seemed very excited to have some guy come in and offer to get beat up 100 times to raise awareness of youth mental health. The team at OYH are really passionate about the work they are doing; they are always enthusiastic whenever they discuss mental health, so it’s great to be able to help them out.
As for the event, I came up with the idea in late 2010. We had been building our new website for a while and I thought it would be a good idea to train for something unique to showcase how I would prepare for a big physical challenge using the Active Red approach. With our new website, we want to encourage people to be more mindful of and take better care of their bodies; I feel young people especially need to listen to this message. The 100-man kumite is a great event to demonstrate one’s mental toughness, and delivers a strong message to young people watching.
Of all the charity events one could stage to raise funds, why select a 100-man kumite?
I had thought of doing different challenges — marathons, climbing a mountain, etc. — but it felt like they had all been done too many times before; to me, it felt like I wouldn’t get much of a response from doing that. I had contemplated the 100-man kumite for quite a while and after seeing footage online of [Kyokushin karate master] Matsui completing his, I was initially put off — it looked too painful!
So I took it back a bit and considered the 50-man kumite, thinking it would be easier to manage. But then I thought, if I was going to try 50 I should suck it up and go for 100! I guess if I had attempted 50 I would always wonder how I would’ve gone up against 100 — now I bet I’ll be thinking how nice it would’ve been had I left it at 50! So before I could wuss out, I started telling people I was going to do it, so I would have to do it.
I guess what finally made me want to do the 100-man kumite is that I don’t feel I have ever really been challenged as a martial artist. I don’t feel like I’ve ever been pushed to my absolute limit; I want to feel that I have really proved myself. My background is in taekwondo and not Kyokushin, so I will be attempting the event differently by facing off against martial artists from various styles — TKD, Kyokushin, Muay Thai, kung fu, boxing etc. I feel like this event is perfect for my skill set and it’ll be great to be able to complete it with my friends involved.
When did you begin training for it and how have you structured your training?
You can follow my training at www.activered.com.au — I officially started documenting it on 5 January 2011. Training for this has been a bit of a balancing act; there’s a lot of work involved in setting up a fundraiser, let alone preparing for a 100-man kumite. I always try to listen to my body when it comes to exercise — I’ll only bust out my best workouts if I’m feeling energised and I take it easy if I’m flat. I haven’t done anything like this before, so it’s been a big learning experience. The following program shows an average week but isn’t always this clear-cut (visit the website for more info). Note that all of the following workouts are performed after a functional warm-up that prepares the muscles and tissues specifically for those workouts:
Monday – Four sets of the following: 8-to-10 deadlifts; drop the weight then clean the bar for 8-to-10 front-squats; press the bar over my head for 8-to-10 lunges; press the bar back over in front of me for 6-to-8 bent-over rows; then put the bar down and finish with 8-to-10 push-ups with my hands on the bar.
Tuesday – On Tuesday it’s more about maintaining mobility and stability and varies in difficulty depending on how I pulled up after Monday. I do single-leg loading, fit-ball, chin-ups and handstands. These are basically exercises that teach me to correctly position and balance myself. I keep the reps low and the rest periods long.
Wednesday – Again, this depends on how I’m feeling after Monday’s session. If I’m feeling good, I will focus on some plyometric drills — box-jumps and single-leg variations — then finish with a few rounds on the bag (usually 10) of 90 seconds on/20 seconds off. I wouldn’t be smashed at the end of this session, just warm and energised. If I’m not feeling so good, this session will be a repeat of Tuesday or something similar.
Thursday – Probably the toughest day. I do a circuit-style workout at lunchtime and taekwondo class in the evening. The circuit will go something like this: three reps each of deadlifts, cleans and chin-ups, then six reps each of single-leg step-ups (on each leg) and push-ups on two fit-balls, followed by two minutes working on the bags with hands only, because I need to increase my hand speed.
I’ll complete this six times through. Keeping the reps low helps me to maintain ideal posture throughout the whole session so I can work quickly without my technique suffering. TKD class runs from 7.30 to 9.30pm — so you can imagine that it’s pretty tiring by the end of the day. I show up to class a little fatigued because on 23 September [the date of the challenge] I’ll be roughly halfway through the 100-man kumite at that time of night and I want to be used to pushing myself that late in the day.
Friday – Some days I’ll be wiped out and just rest, and then other days I’ll be really motivated and bust out a session similar to Monday’s. Most of the time, however, I will just go for a one-kilometre swim at MSAC. The loading for this would always vary: 10 sets of 100m with rest breaks, or five sets of 100m followed by 10 50m sprints, or four sets of 250m, etc.
Saturday – Hill sprints at the Tan [Melbourne Botanical Gardens]. I trained with my running group and built up to doing 20 100m hill sprints. A lot of people have been asking if I run a lot to build my endurance. I think long-distance running is probably the most useless type of conditioning for any event (including weight loss); the loading doesn’t resemble anything but going for a long run. Short sprints are much more specific for sparring.
Sunday – Rest!
Having recently completed a 40-man fight in March, how would you rate your progress so far, and did it give you an idea of how hard the 100-man fight will be?
Two months prior to the 40-man kumite, I did a 20-round match with much less contact and no head-shots; I took longer rest breaks and was smashed by the end of it. Even though the 40-man was really tough, I felt like I managed it a lot better than that first 20-round session. I feel like my fitness and strength is increasing at a good rate in order to reach peak performance by September. But don’t get me wrong, I still get very anxious thinking about it. I’ve only done 40 rounds and the end goal is two-and-a-half times that!
Has that first experience seen you change or increase your training at all for your second trial, the 60-man kumite this month?
I will make some minor changes to my fitness training but I feel really confident in how that aspect is going. What I will be putting more focus onto is my fighting skills and chilling out before the event. In the two days prior to the 40-man, I was so nervous that I went into the event tense, which drains a lot of energy. I need to be entering the next two events completely mentally relaxed. As I mentioned earlier, all of this has been a huge learning experience and that nervous tension was something I didn’t think would bug me so much.
Finally, how are you promoting the events and sourcing sponsorships?
We are promoting the event through the Active Red website and other online networks — Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. If any businesses or companies would like to support the charity event and appear in our video series, please contact us at
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. Also, I am looking for more fighters to help me complete the challenge. Again, please contact us if you’d like to be a part of this special event and promote your club through our website. Donations can also be made at www.mycause.com.au by searching for ‘Fight for Youth Mental Health’.
The big event will be on September 23 at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre at 6pm. Tickets to come watch will be available soon and all proceeds will be donated to OYH. To get a ticket for the 100-man fight for youth mental health, visit www.activered.com.au
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