Philani Shabalala

3 x SA Champ, MMA

All Africa Champ, MMA

What do you enjoy about combat sports?

I enjoy the scientific part of it. I enjoy the exchange of movements and punches. When you’re in the zone it feels like you’re in the matrix. You see everything in slow motion.

You don’t have time to sit and think. Everything is in the moment. When you’re in the moment, you think about nothing else except what you’re doing. No stress.

It keeps me fit and active and on my toes.

MMA is like an ocean. It’s deep. You can always get better, you can never reach your full potential.

Why do you train?

I want to get better every time.

It helps me stay sane. Keeps me grounded. Keeps me disciplined. Keeps me strong.

I enjoy learning new skills, mastering my body and bettering myself in every aspect.

You like to grow in whatever field you’re in. I want to grow my skills and my mental toughness, and strengthen my body.

Life is not easy, It’s a long journey full of hardships and when you’ve got that mental toughness, that grit, you are able to deal with things coming your way that can cause anxiety or depression that a lot of people suffer from.

We are born to grow. If you feel stagnant, if you’re not growing and achieving anything, you feel trapped. You feel like you’re in a box. You start feeling depressed.

If you don’t grow and strengthen, you get weaker. In one way or another.

We need to grow as humans. Not only by age. By our physique. Strength. Mental toughness. In every aspect.

Being stagnant leads to depression. Growing leads to fulfilment.

You have two businesses you run on your own time. How do you find training affects those?

Training keeps me on my toes. It gives me energy and focus.

Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy, its challenging. So you need a platform where you can unload that stress and hardship. You need to be able to go and recuperate, and come back ready to face the challenges.

Why do you train others?

I enjoy seeing people grow and mastering their skills. Making them better, making them achieve their goals.

What I enjoy is seeing growth and improvement through the person. I’ve trained a couple of guys who didn’t even know how to jab, and you look at them now they are competing and doing well.

It gives me a feeling of achievement when I make a difference in someone’s life.

I enjoy meeting different people with different challenges and working together with the client to help him overcome the challenge and become a better person.

What sort of results have your clients achieved?

I’ve got two different kinds of clients. Clients who want to learn how to fight or how to defend themselves, and I’ve got clients coming in for strength and conditioning.

I see my clients able to defend themselves and get on the attack, that gives them motivation, discipline and confidence.

I see my clients happier, being able to get through life better, less pain, more strength, more coordination. Being able to control and manage their body better.

I’ve had clients who struggled with depression, smoking, drinking. By the third session, they challenge themselves to stop smoking and drinking and jerking off. Soon after that, he is training better, they’re embracing the challenge. It’s helped them get record results at work even.

What do you get from training clients?

I get growth. I’m learning. MMA is deep, As I teach my clients, I polish up my understanding.

It gives me motivation to help everyone grow and achieve, to get better at what they are doing and reach their goals.

What do you give your clients?

The skills and knowledge I have from training and competing is what I give my clients. I’ve been injured, I know the rehab to deal with lots of injuries. Knee pains, shoulder pains, this and that.

I tell them to try this exercise or that exercise and immediately they tell me it’s getting better.

What can new clients expect from you?

Firstly, professionalism. Respecting their decision to come and train. Experience. Effort to help them achieve their goals.

I’m a methodical person. If you use a method you are more likely to get results. Start here, then do this and then that. If that doesn’t work then go back and work on this.

We start with boxing and balance. How to move and throw your punches. You have to be able to move your body out of danger and into opportunity to strike.

A normal session, we start with jogging to warm up, then warming up hips, necks, shoulders, etc. Then body weight exercises. It’s important to warm up to prepare the body and the mind, and to start interacting with the group.

That group interaction is important to build trust. It grows the team unity. You need to build bonds and trust with people on the same journey as you, you can’t get their alone. You need people you are comfortable to get help from.

Creating that friendship, communicating that goal and vision. Sharing that road with a team makes the journey successful.

Then shadow boxing and drills.

Depending on what we are working on on the day, if it’s timing for example, the drills focus on learning when to move, when to strike back. The drills start very limited and as their understanding improves they get more freedom.

Free play is very important to explore. Sometimes a client wants to work on something, it’s important they have that time and opportunity to work on what they think would be best for them. They need the opportunity to practice that so that they can grow and learn.

Then more exercises and stretching at the end.

Who goals, dreams and outcomes do you help your clients achieve?

Self-mastery. Timing. Movement.

What do you think are the most important things when it comes to winning fights?

Preparation. Discipline. Commitment.

You need to discipline yourself to do what you need to do every day or every week. And there are things you need to stay away from. That’s discipline.

Commitment means putting your time out there working toward achieving your goal. You have to put in your time, your effort to make sure you are working your way toward your goal.

It’s also about getting the right commitment. How can you be a boxer with no gloves or no mouthguard?

Consistency. You put everything together throughout the time, it should bring you closer to your goal.

Are you confident you can prepare ANYBODY for competition?

Yes, I’ve been someone who has never competed to having over 20 fights, I’ve got the experience, I can use that to prepare anyone and get them ready for a White Collar or MMA fight.

I am doing it, I’ve got guys who’ve done boxing and MMA.

What change do you see in your clients after the first time they compete?

They are more confident. They realise there is more to achieve and more to learn. That it’s not the end, it’s just the beginning and they can grow their skills, get quicker, get stronger. There is always room for improvement. That’s what they realise.

It’s not “I’ve done my first white collar, I’ve done well. I’m done.” It doesn’t happen like that. They start to see the bigger picture. They want to learn to kick, to wrestle, to transition to MMA.

Have you had any clients who’ve competed and then decided they never want to train again?

No, they come back and they can’t wait to get into another one. They’re always keen on having their next fight.

What challenges have you been able to work through and overcome with your clients?

The clients who come in looking to be pain free. It often takes research to find out what’s causing the pain, how to relieve the pain, what exercises to do.

For clients who want to compete, it’s challenging to get them to understand that in training they’re not training to kill each other, you’re training to learn. You’re learning for yourself. If you’re training to get them to understand training and they just want to smash the other guy.

It’s like easy easy, the purpose of the drill is to understand timing. You don’t even need to punch your partner hard, just give him a tap and try to understand the timing. Feel the beats.

Trying to get them to control their frustration, their aggression and their punches.

The better they get, the better they are at controlling their emotions and their punches.