by Duff McKagan
When you train this hard, the ring is everything. How you enter the ring should be an extension of your persona and confidence. But me being 6’3” and 160 lbs., I can look awkward if I let myself. The last thing I wanted to do was trip over a rope or come in on my knees. Seriously, if you’ve never gone through the ropes and you have a world champion waiting for you . . . it’s kind of a big obstacle. But I had the confidence of my sensei, and by this time I finally had good footwork, too. This would be no problem. Of course, I stumbled on the first rope and went too high on the second rope. It probably looked like Jerry Lewis was entering the ring.
Sugarfoot wasn’t there to play. He didn’t know or care that this was the first time I was in a kickboxing ring. He was dead serious about getting ready for this fight. I was simply a tool with which he could work. It quickly became obvious to me that “ring cardio” is different from any other type of cardio. My sensei yelled for me to relax my shoulders and keep my hands up: “Jab and move! Double jab! Triple jab! MOVE!” It also became obvious that Peter Cunningham was working on his axe kicks.
An axe kick is when a very flexible and strong person brings his leg straight up and a bit to the side and lowers his heel at a high rate of speed onto his opponent’s shoulder, nose, or upper pectoral muscle. The result is pretty much a nonuse of the area that has been stricken by said heel. It’s a lethal offensive move, for sure.
The thing about an axe kick from a guy like Sugarfoot is that you don’t see it coming. Since it was my first time sparring, my eyes hadn’t been trained for what to look for. BOOM! I got a fierce axe kick to my left shoulder, and suddenly my left arm felt paralyzed. My left jab was gone. I changed my stance to southpaw (something we worked on a lot), but then another axe kick to my right shoulder took out my jab from that side. Every time I’d front kick Cunningham to keep some space, he would thigh kick my supporting leg. When I tried front kicking with the other leg, he’d just thigh kick the other supporting leg—all the while peppering my now defenseless face with jabs and right crosses. I’m afraid that I didn’t give him much of a contest. But I did last the three rounds I was scheduled to be in there.
After the bell rang on that third round, Sugarfoot came up and told me that I did a good job. He also said that I could tell my friends that I “lasted three rounds with the world champion.” I will never, ever forget that. Sixteen months prior I had been in the ICU with a burst pancreas. This was victory indeed.
Those first few years in the kickboxing gym showed me how to live a new life. This life now includes not gentle workouts but full-on strenuous conditioning sessions. In the dojo, you don’t want to stop training, because the guy who trains harder than you is going to be the guy you meet in the ring.
Always train harder than the other guy.
Always keep your neighborhood clean.
Kickboxing Workout
—Wrap hands
—3 minutes jump rope and 1 minute rest while doing push-ups (5 sets)
—3 sets of 20 hanging abs
—50 burpees
—Stretch hamstrings, quads, back, neck, glutes, calves, ankles, and shoulders
—3-minute rounds of each of the following:
-Jab bag
-Combination (jab, right cross, left hook, etc.)
-Front and side kick
-Body bag (hands)
-Thigh kicks, round kicks, axe kicks, and donkey kicks
-Flying kicks
-Knees and elbows
-Gap bag (close distances with combinations of hands, feet, elbows, and knees)
—Spar with a partner for 3 to 5 rounds (Wear mouthpiece and cup—if you’re a guy. Actually, women should wear mouthpieces and a cup, too.)
—Shadowbox to cool down
—10 minutes of slow jump rope
Gym Workout
—30 minutes of cardio (20 minutes at maximum heart rate, 10 minutes at 70 percent). Do cardio before or after weights.
—3 sets of 25 push-ups (or max), interspersed with 3 sets of abs
—Stretch
—3 sets of pull-downs, interspersed with 3 sets (20) of front flies
—3 sets of 15 lunges, each leg
—2 sets of calf raises with a weight in hand. Follow calf raises with one-legged jumping on the ball of that foot.
—3 sets of hamstring curls
—3 sets of 15 Superman back crunches
—3 sets of 20 curls, interspersed with 3 sets of triceps
—Finish with 50 burpees if you started with cardio
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13
CHAPTER
SKIP THE STRIP CLUB, HIT THE BOOKSTORE
THE FIRST TIME I TOURED THIS REGION IN MY TWENTIES, I can guarantee you that finding a local bookstore was not on my itinerary. I had fleshier locales on my mind. These days, bookstores take up the space in my life once reserved for bars and strip clubs. I’m like a kid in a candy store when facing shelves and shelves of books. The only poles at these places hold up bookshelves, and the only crack is the small sound a book makes when it’s opened.
I do pretty much all of my reading on a Kindle, but I buy the physical books, too. That is, I buy the e-book for my device and the hard cover for my bookshelves. The Kindle isn’t always the best way to find new books. It’s cool, for sure, in that you can instantly download books that you read about or are referred to—and it’s so much easier to bring a Kindle on the road than a backpack full of books. But a bookstore is the ultimate way to immerse yourself in what’s new. You can browse, and you can ask around, something you can’t do as well in the cocoon of e-commerce.
It can be the littlest hint or clue that sends people looking for a book and thrusts their life briefly in new directions. It can be gossip you hear in line for an espresso or a movie you see on espionage. The direction of your reading can very well influence your life for a while.
I’m not much for Hallmark bromides, but a friend sent me a card once that infected my headspace for months. The front featured a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, an author I had yet to be exposed to:
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
I reread it about twenty-eight times over the next few days and became enchanted with this Emerson dude. How did he know I needed to hear this? How did he know we all need this kick in the ass sometimes? What else does he have to say?
A recent study reported that 30 percent of men don’t read a book every year. If you’ve gotten this far, you are already ahead of a large percentage of your class. If you’re wondering where to turn to next, here’s a list of some of my favorite books that have kept me company at home, on the road, and backstage:
Stephen Ambrose, Undaunted Courage: Ambrose is most famous for his book Band of Brothers, which was turned into the epic HBO miniseries of the same name. Ambrose was a prolific history writer whose interests and expertise were wide. Undaunted Courage unravels the journals of the Lewis and Clark expedition—the uncharted exploration of US-owned parts of North America circa 1805. Read it and you’ll be reminded why Ambrose is considered one of the best writers of American history.
Jack Black, You Can’t Win: My good friend and Loaded bandmate, Mike Squires, found me this page-turner in Portland’s famous Powell’s Books. You Can’t Win was reportedly William S. Burroughs’s favorite book and a cornerstone of his writing style. The edition I own includes an introduction by Burroughs himself. The book follows Black’s rough-and-tumble childhood that eventually brought him to a life of crime, riding the trains while crisscrossing the United States at the turn of the century. Black tells an uncompromising tale of his absolute fascination with the life of a “yegg” (a homeless vagrant who chose a life free of the 9-to-5). The book is really quite fascinating in that Black’s voice throughout the book stays true to the parlance of the 1920s.
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Jon Clinch, Finn: This book is a Cormac McCarthy–esque look at a fella named Finn; a bedraggled and alcoholic man who fathers a son with a runaway slave in Illinois in the 1850s. His son’s name is Huckleberry and, yes, this is the preceding story we all know, told through Clinch’s eyes. This is a brilliant—if dark—take on what happened in Huckleberry Finn’s early life.
Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001: Al Qaeda, counter-terrorism, government fuckups, and all the rest. Ghost Wars won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, and although it’s easy to dismiss book awards, I’ve found that when it comes to nonfiction, the Pulitzer stamp is to be respected. I’m sure that Coll must have had a ton of help in sorting through the mind-numbing amount of documents and whatnot that he used to write this book. The question is, How did he make it all so readable?
Edward Dolnick, Down the Great Unknown: This is the epic true story of adventurer John Wesley Powell and his journey down the Colorado River. The year 1862 saw the end of the Civil War and gave birth to a whole slew of young men who wanted to see the beauty in life after so much horror. A British friend suggested this book. Sometimes it takes that outside fascination with your own country’s history to light a spark.
Jennifer Egan, Black Box: Egan’s first piece of fiction since A Visit from the Goon Squad furthered my belief that she is one of the best and most forward-thinking fiction writers of our generation. She is punk rock and cosmopolitan and inventive. Black Box originally came out on Twitter via @NyerFiction. The limited-edition bound proof copy that I own has a permanent place on my bookshelf of greatness.
Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad: This Pulitzer Prize–winning piece of fiction is about punk rock, self-destruction, and redemption. Wait . . . I know that story.
Timothy Egan, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis: This National Book Award–winning book by a writer from my hometown, Seattle, is a page-turning look at treasured and celebrated photographer and ethnographer of Native American culture, Edward Curtis. If you are already a fan of Egan’s writing style, then you will know of his gripping and fluid prose. We will all instantly recognize many of Curtis’s early and beautiful “Indian” photos. This is the story of how hard Curtis worked to get these shots, and how head-over-heels in love he fell for the plight, wisdom, religion, language, and people of the many, many indigenous tribes scattered throughout the American West, Canada, and the Arctic. Curtis sacrificed his family and livelihood to pursue what he saw as a life’s work: to preserve and archive what was left of the quickly disappearing customs and people who were in North America first. This is an instant Egan classic.
Timothy Egan, The Big Burn: As that “radical,” President Teddy Roosevelt, was nationalizing huge swaths of our US forests and trying to stock them with a few good men and women (the first forest rangers) to protect the trees from evil clear-cutting lumber companies, a massive fire-fueled anomaly of a hurricane swept through the inland Northwest. The year was 1910, and there was no such thing as forest firefighters yet. The saga that ensues is an edge-of-the-chair feat of death, survival, heroics, and frustration. This book makes me want to take a driving tour of eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, just to see the remnants of the 110-year-old megafire.
Timothy Egan, Breaking Blue: Spokane, Washington, was once a burgeoning promised land of wealth and growth. During the American dust bowl and Depression, Spokane became a main destination for people looking to start anew. But Spokane was also a place run with an iron fist by the law, where graft, prostitution, liquor running, and burglary were all reserved for the police. If you stepped in the way of any of these vices, you may have gotten killed . . . even if you were another cop.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance (Essay): Some of us have religion and faith, while others look for spirituality elsewhere. Many have faith in science and logic. Some of us have simple love from our family, and others have nothing at all. For those of us always searching and open to ideas, consider this essay. Like the above quote, Self-Reliance is a rereadable meditation on the innate feelings of victory and perseverance that we all have at our fingertips. You’re welcome!
Dexter Filkins, The Forever War: I wear my friends out recommending this one. But, look, it becomes their favorite, too, so I can’t stop! Iraq and Afghanistan are two big clusterfucks that have so many peoples’ lives on the line. We should all be as best informed as we can. The Forever War gives a view with scope and honesty.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby: I guess there is a reason they call it a classic. This is perfect fiction. I never took the chance to read Gatsby during my abbreviated high school career. If you, too, missed it while you were starting rock bands, give it a look. It’s pure joy to read. Fun fact: Hunter S. Thompson typed every word in this book just to get the feel of writing perfect fiction.
Michael Finkel, Here Be Monsters . . . 50 Days Adrift at Sea (Kindle Single): I couldn’t tell you why, but I enjoy stories of survival and misery. This is one such story. Three fifteen-year-old boys from the tiny speck of the island nation called Atafu in the South Pacific got drunk and decided that they had had enough of living so far away from the modern world. They made the inebriated, knee-jerk decision to steal an uncle’s fishing skiff and set off on an adventure. There was no other land anywhere nearby. They did not bring any water or food. They guessed that they’d probably be found within a day or two. They were not. The boys did survive their fifty-eight-day ordeal, but just. Finkel does an outstanding job of reportage here.
Thomas Friedman, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century: Don’t let the nonfiction-ness of this book’s title throw you off. The World Is Flat is, like all of Friedman’s books and columns, immensely readable, informative, well-rounded (for a nonprimary source especially), and just plain outstanding. If you want to be informed on what is up with globalization and digitalization topics, get you some of this book.
Heimlich Harrer, The White Spider: Movie viewers are familiar with Harrer through Brad Pitt’s portrayal of him in Seven Years in Tibet. Did you know that this amazing man (Harrer, not Pitt, ladies) took part in the first successful climb of the north face of the Eiger in 1938? This book will leave you gasping.
Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption: I read this book when it came out in 2010 and immediately recognized it as the best piece of nonfiction I had read in years. If you haven’t read it yet, just go do it now. It’s a fascinating story of an Olympic runner who found himself shot down in the Pacific and a prisoner of the Japanese. An epic adventure.
Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost: Hochschild is, in my opinion, one of the most readable and well-researched nonfiction writers of our time. This is THE ultimate story of colonization of Africa, with Belgium giving no thought whatsoever to the genocidal effects their endeavors had on the human beings of the Congo.
Michael Hodgins, Reluctant Warrior: Just when I thought I had read everything worth reading about the Vietnam war, boom!, out comes another great account. Michael Hodgins writes with ease about his time as a Marine at the end of the war.
Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go: I know that there are some pretty pointed opinions when it comes to this author and this book. Ishiguro—like Cormac McCarthy—is an author people either love or hate. Like McCarthy’s The Road, Never Let Me Go is not so much about the story itself but how it is told, the relationship between characters, and the usage and turns of a phrase. If you like to go to dark places, give this book a try. If you like butterflies, unicorns, and rainbows, well, stay far, far away.
Sebastian Junger, War: This book is a written account of Junger’s time spent at a forward fire base (Restrepo) in Afghanistan, and is a companion to Restrepo, the documentary he made with photojournalist Tim Hetherington (also a must). Where the documentary simply lets the film tell the story, Junger’s book fi
lls in the gaps. Junger has become a master storyteller, both in researched topics (The Perfect Storm, A Death in Belmont) and in his firsthand accounts of war. The line between journalist and combatant has fully been blurred with the advent of IEDs (roadside bombs). Whereas a journalist can be snarky and full of politics in the rear, the frontline journo like Junger seems to have a much more human and apolitical directive. The motto seems to be: “Survive Today and Write the Truth Without Doing Harm to Those Who Protect You That Day.” Junger did a very honorable job here. Neither pro- nor antiwar, just a day-to-day account of some young men in extreme danger.
Steven Kasher, Max’s Kansas City: Art, Glamour, Rock and Roll: This is one of those coffee table books that a guy with my influences just has to have. I didn’t get it on my birthday, but purchasing a book like this feels celebratory. I never got to go to this club in New York before it closed down, but if you are a fan of the Ramones, the New York Dolls, Iggy Pop, Bruce Springsteen, or Patti Smith, then you undoubtedly know of the lore of this hallowed ground.
Michael Korda, With Wings Like Eagles: The History of the Battle of Britain: This is a book that I read while touring the UK and Ireland. It is always insightful for me to try to read a historical book on places that I am visiting. War history, for me, is much more than the study of conflict; it is also an insight into how people coped and lived and suffered and triumphed in extraordinary settings. Korda’s Battle of Britain illuminates the strategy and players involved in the buildup to this turning-point battle against Hitler and the Luftwaffe. It’s completely fascinating.