My slatmill keep is a "poor man's substitute" for the main keep in my book
The main keep in my book is a strength-conditioning keep, with the jenny being advocated as superior to any mill, precisely because it is an even mix of cardio
plus muscular endurance (
not just "pure cardio")
Only if people CAN'T use a jenny, and CAN'T follow my main keep, do I throw out a mill keep as a (distant) second-best option.
As for how my mill keep is "better" than the Lemm mill keep, I cannot say for sure, because I have never read the Lemm keep.
My main criticism of Lemm is for his
mill, not his keep, as the entire idea of "free-spinning" is counter-productive to strength-building, thereby an inferior solution to conditioning
for a fight.
The simple fact is fighters need to be STRONG and able to RESIST other fighters ... they don't just need to "breathe nicely" in a resistance-free environment
Not so. That is
your leap in logic, not anything Hard Core stated directly.
ALL dogs need strength conditioning, regardless of style. You might want to
concentrate on weight-pull with certain style dogs, and concentrate more on the jenny with others, but ALL dogs need
some kind of weight resistance training to be
at their best. PERIOD.
For example, my dogs are typically head dogs, and typically win long-distance fights in "bulldog territory" (namely the 1:00-2:40 time range). My dogs repeatedly and consistently STOP so-called "killers" in their tracks, out-hustling, out-thinking, and out-scratching their asses DEEP in the trenches. Dogs that typically kill other dogs in :20-:30, find themselves unable to touch my dogs within that time ... or, if they do touch my dogs, they're still unable to put a dent in them ... and these so-called "killers" find themselves in there with A BULLDOG this time ... who will figure-out whatever they have to do, TO WIN ... as opposed to some "front-runner" who's going to fold right away and never figure out what he has to do.
That said, my dogs (like any dogs) DO BETTER
when STRONG, than when weak. I found this out the hard way, when I was green, when I had my flagship dog Poncho wayyyy too light at 44 lb. At 48-lb
Poncho was almost untouchable. Yet he was so light and weak at 44 that he couldn't overcome the 45-lb Ch Leonard. Poncho never got tired, he just had no strength left thanks to my (then-green) stupidity.
Yet, at 49 lb, Poncho stopped the even more devastating Dragoon in a mere :32. Dragoon only got his mouth on Poncho 2x in :32. Once at :12 and once at about :22, and Poncho got Dragoon out of these holds in seconds. Other than that, it was a 100% ROUT at the bigger weight into a devastating son of Ch Rattler. Poncho totally controlled, totally dominated, and was in fact trying
to eat Dragoon by the :28 mark. The difference in Poncho's strength, and effectiveness, at the different weights was literally night-and-day. In fact, at the heavier weight of 51, Poncho was so strong and so good I rolled him with 58 lbers--and even they couldn't touch him. Yet, at 44, Poncho was a limp noodle and he couldn't do shit to keep Leonard out of his throat. Poncho's primary attribute as an ace head dog was NECK STRENGTH, which was gone at such a light weight, so
you bet STRENGTH MATTERS, regardless of what your style is.
In fact, the same phenomenon happened to Poncho's triple-bred grandson,
Ch Miagi. All of Ch Miagi's fights were in the 1:20-1:58 range, where he outlasted and outscratched so-called "killers" in the trenches, pounding their asses on the scratchline on his scratches, and basically beating them into submission with his gameness and pit smarts. Yet Miagi's shortest match was actually one where he came off the chain, 2-lb
over his so-called "pit weight" of 44 lb. Rather than being spindly and weak from the usual treadmill keep of his owners, this time Miagi was basically only walked for 2-weeks (as he came in as a substitute for his father
Hero, when something went wrong with his keep).
Miagi basically BENEFITTED by being 2-lb heavier, and NOT being put on the mill, as even though he was now fighting at 46 (rather than 44)
he was MUCH stronger at the bigger weight, and didn't have all the strength taken out of him by some ridiculous mill keep this time. And, therefore, rather than fighting defensively as usual, Miagi took it to this dog, and went toe-to-toe with his bigger opponent, out-wrestled him and was much more aggressive than normal,
and even knocked the bigger dog AND his owner OUT of the pit on his scratches.
So, yes, I firmly believe that all-out cardio work "only" ... and drawing dogs down too fine ... RUINS THEM ... regardless of what their preferred style may be
The dog "may win anyway" ... but NO DOG is helped at all by being either too light or "only cardio-trained."
Not one dog has ever been "helped" by being conditioned that way; it's just that some "win anyway," in spite of their stupid owner, while others lose because of their stupid owner (as Poncho only lost due to my own green stupidity).
EVERY dog is HELPED by some sort of strength conditioning ... and ALL dogs are better off coming in "a little heavy" than by coming in "a little light"
Dogs may "win anyway" with no strength training, but OPTIMAL condition =
strength conditioned (as well as cardio-conditioned).
It's pretty much that simple. Word.
Jack
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Originally Posted by CA Jack
