Speed, agility and quickness are key essentials in any fighters program. These types of drills to improve speed and agility can turn the average fighter into a better athlete. So adding these drills into any program is a must.
Here is the thing and coaches out there should be careful especially with fighters. Fighters in my experience feel that every drill has to be conditioning. This is not the case especially when training speed, agility and quickness. You must make it clear to the athlete that these drills are designed to improve these different aspects of training. They are not meant as conditioning drills. Of course if you want to make them into conditioning protocols by all means reduce the rest time in between drills and go for it, no one is stopping you. Usually when I tell a fighter to perform the next set when they are ready they go to fast, so to combat this I now wait about two minutes before I tell them to perform the set.
Another thing that a coach or if you are training yourself that you want to be aware of is to perform these drills if possible before you strength and power work. So before you hit the weights perform your speed and agility drills. You want to make sure that you are a fresh as possible when performing the drills, this way you are fresh. You will move a lot faster than say if you lifted first and then performed the drills. These are just a few pointers to help fighters understand and learn how to train effectively.
In the drill below you will see one of my fighters Mike Savarese perform a drill using a hurdle. Mike jumps over the hurdle forward and backwards as quickly as possible, which helps with his quickness and agility and power. As an added bonus, Mike performs a sprawl after landing on the backend of the hops. This makes Mike have to react quickly as he lands off the hop and go right into a sprawl. Just a small way for the fighters out there to add a little combat sport component to this drill. In this video you will see normal hurdle hop followed by the MMA style hurdle hop.
Train Hard! Train Smart!
Aug 11 2010
Power and Agility for MMA
Aug 07 2010
UFC 117 Predictions
One of the most anticipated UFC events is upon us. In just a few hours we are going to see if Chael Sonnan can back up all of his talking and win the world championship. The hype around that fight is crazy, and after Anderson Silva’s last performance many want to see him go down.
The best thing about UFC 117 is that the main event is just the icing on the cake. The rest of the card is stacked with great fights in all the different weight classes. This card on paper is the best card of the summer.
So here are my predictions for this card. Now if you know me I m never really good at this so if you are a gambling man or woman then bet against me and I could make you rich.
The first match-up I want to discuss is in the heavy weight division. Junior Dos Santos takes on Roy Nelson. This could turn out to be a slugfest. Both have heavy handsand someone is going to be getting knocked out in this one. Many always go against Roy Nelson because of the way he presents himself. He does not look like a fighter but we all know he can throw down. Damn this one is hard to call. I am taking Roy Nelson in a 2nd round TKO.
Next up is a match up I want to see, as former welterweight champ and UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes takes on Ricardo Almeida. Once again Hughes will be taking on a Gracie fighter. First it was Royce, then Matt Serra, Renzo Gracie and now Almeida. Can Hughes become the new “Gracie Hunter”? I think this is where Hughes hunting dayscome to an end. Big Dog will come out on top via unanimous decison. It will be a tough fight but Almeida will pull it out in the end.
Clay Guida and Rafael Dos Anjos is going to be a barn burner and the next match-up on the card. The pace of this fight will be incredible. Who doesn’t like a nice lightweight fight. Guida is a fireball and the fans are in love with him. He looks to win his second fight in a row coming off a submission victory in March. Dos Anjos looks to keep his three fight win streak in tact, with a victory over Guida it will bring him to a new level in the lightweight division. In this fight I have Guida taking it in a split decsion. The judges will have a hard time with this one. So boys don’t leave it to the judges.
Next up we have Jon Fitch taking on Thiago Alves. This is a match-up of ATT goig up against AKA. Fitch won their first meeting but Alves is a different fighter this time around. If Alves can stop the takedown then Alves will take this one but I believe that Fitch will be able to get this fight to the ground and pull out the victory via unanimous decsion.
Finally the main event the one everyone has been talking about, the super hyped match-up with Chael Sonnen going up against the pound for pound best fighter in the world Anderson Silva. I see Silva knocking Sonnen out in the second round. The first round Silva will feel Sonnen out. Sonnen will get a takedown and Silva will survive the round. In the second the feeling out process will be over and Silva is going to just take control of the fight and finish Sonnen off. Then everyone will be in love with Silva again and we will all be one happy UFC family. So enjoy the fights and in the famous words of the Beastie Boys, “If your driving, don’t drink, and if you drink, don’t drive”!
Aug 04 2010
Jon Fitch Strength and Conditioning
In my search for strength and conditioning footage of the fighters in this weekends UFC 117 card I came across a lot of Jon Fitch footage of his strength and conditioning. Other fighters are hard to come by but Fitch produces the video. Jon Fitch who fights out of the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA), is taking on American Top Team (ATT) member Thiago Alves
In most of his videos he is doing agility work. We all know that agility is one of the key components to any strength and conditioning program and is essential for fighters and athletes alike to train.
In this video however, Fitch is using lateral jumps over hurdles with punches. Lateral jumps are a form of plyometrics which help train an athlete to become more powerful. I found this movement to be interesting and will definetly incorporate it into my fighters overall programs. Fitch we all know has great takedown defense. This exercise will help him react and move explosively when someone attempts to take him down. I also enjoy the MMA specificity that is added into the drill. After each set of hops Fitch throws a one-two combo, this makes Fitch focus on sticking the landing on the jump and then exploding with good technique with the one two. This in particular drill takes focus. Lack of focus will lead you to hit the hurdle and crash to the floor. So remember when watching these videos I post of pro fighters doing these exercises know that they are under the watchful eye of a professional, well at least I hope so.
Don’t forget to watch UFC 117 as Anderson Silva defends his title against Chael Sonnen. Also on the card UFC legend will take on Ricardo Almeida, Junior Dos Santos will go up against Roy Nelson as that will be a fun fight to watch.
Jul 28 2010
UFC Fighters Conditioning Routine
Saturday night Dana White is giving us all a free UFC event on Versus. The card is pretty stacked, and if you are a big fan of the UFC you have been itching for the last month for some octagon action. The main event of the card is Jon Jones taking on Vladimir Matyushenko in the light heavyweight division. This can be a big stepping-stone for Jon Jones young career as many see him as the future champion of the division. With all that raw talent and youth on his side I tend to believe this as well. Jones is a pure athlete and the future of the sport.
Also on the card Mark Munoz will be taking on veteran Yushin Okami. Last April Munoz had a great come from behind victory over Kendall Grove defeating him with some vicious ground and pound. Munoz like Jones is a rising star in the UFC. Munoz is still going through some of the growing pains as all fighters do but he is well on his way up the ladder and becoming a serious contender in the near future.
As a treat for the site I was able to find some of Munoz’s strength and conditioning training. In this video he is doing a ten-minute non-stop conditioning circuit. In the circuit Mark is wearing a weighted vest. In this circuit you will see all different types of training going on. Each exercise is done for thirty-seconds. The circuit includes: speed and agility training, you will see him testing his core with medicine ball tosses, he performs plyometrics in the circuit to develop explosive power sledgehammers swings and some fight specific movements that you will see throughout the protocol such as ground and pound. So sit back and enjoy the next ten minutes and wish you were doing the circuit.
Jul 24 2010
MMA Here We Come!
Another gorgeous day this past Thursday and the boys from Staten Island, New York made it out for another training session. If you remember Mike Savarese is an aspiring MMA star and is currently training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Ricardo Almeida at RABJJ.
Last time I met with Mike we hit the weight room and then headed to the field for some speed and agility work.
After our first session I knew that Mike would be a future star in MMA. He is dedicated and trains hard with no complaints. And we all know in this day and age athletes like to complain. For this session we headed out to the field to train. Our focus was speed, agility and conditioning.
The first thing we started with was some speed drills. These drills are designed to place the athlete in accerleration position and to generate force off the ground. How does this transfer to MMA you may be asking, well after you are done with this post check out my post titled Usain Bolt v.s. GSP Part 1 and 2 http://bit.ly/cVCQTO http://bit.ly/au0RP After we hit the speed work we moved onto some agility drills, the first time I trained Mike in these drills he was not as fluid as I wanted him to be. He was very tense up top almost robotic. In this session he looked looser, his arm action when moving was vastly improved. Like I have been saying, I train my fighters to become better athletically and that will transfer into into being a better all round fighter. We also hit some work with mini-hurdles and there is more to come on that in a later post this week.
Finally we came down to the conditioning portion of the session. To start we worked some kettlebell swings into 100 yard sprints for three sets. And as his brother Patrick said while Mike was running, :Who knew he was that fast?” After the three sets we moved onto a circuit using, Battle Ropes, sledgehammers, and Medicine Balls. This time I increased the time on the circuit by thirty second, the last training session we had we did a three minute circuit. Increasing it slowly will increase Mike’s work capacity and increase his level of conditioning. So check out the video below, let us know what you think! Oh yeah sorry about the shaky movement of the camera I was trying to get down the field. Train Hard! Train Smart!
Jul 10 2010
The Future Star of MMA!
Nothing beats youth and determination when it comes to wanting to be an athlete especially an MMA fighter. That youth and determination can be found with Mike Savarese. This future MMA fighter has just started on his journey but you can see in his eyes that he wants nothing more than to be a fighter. Mike trains jiu-jitsu under Ricardo Almeida at RABJJ.
After speaking with his brother Patrick about strength and conditioning and MMA, I had the pleasure to meet Mike and his brother for strength and conditioning session. Mike and I hit the gym, this training session was used to test where he was at with strength and where his conditioning level was currently. As with any of my fighters or athletes I tested his one-rep max deadlift. The deadlift is one of the best movements that can be placed in any fighter’s strength and conditioning program. The deadlift builds strength along the entire posterior chain. As you know with any sport a strong posterior chain is very important in a combat athletes performance. Working on some tips to clean up Mike’s deadlift technique, he was able to pull 345 for his one-rep max. Not to bad since he had not deadlifted in quite a while due to injury.
Next we moved on to test his one-rep max on the bench press. Although I don’t use the barbell bench press in my programs that often I use this test and transfer it over for pressing with dumbbells. Mike put up 265 lbs for his one-rep max. After the one-rep max tests were done, I introduced him to Olympic lifting and taught him some of the movements in the power clean. If you have read some of the other posts on the site you know how important it is to have some of the Olympic lifts in the strength and conditioning programs of athletes. These lifts test the power an athlete can produce. Using only the bar I taught him how to clean from the top down. Pretty much this is how it went. I had him front squat to learn where his body will be at the end of the clean, then had him do jump and shrugs to teach how when doing this movement he should shrug his shoulders. This was followed up by cleaning from the thigh, then above the knee and finally below the knee.
After our training session we headed for the park to for some speed and agility work. Usually I will begin a training session with speed and agility work but I knew I was testing one-rep maxes and want Mike as fresh as possible. During this session I used drills found in some of my previous posts. Here are some of the drills we did…
Finally we ended our training session with some conditioning. He did two, three-minute rounds of the following circuit:
Super Legs
24 Squats
24 Lunges
24 Split-Jumps
12 Jump Squats
This was followed by a minute of Battle Ropes, using four different rope exercises for 15 seconds each. To finish off the three minutes he smashed away at a tire with a sledgehammer for thirty seconds alternating the grip on the sledgehammer with every strike.
Here are some things that I picked up during the session. Mike is very open minded to learning new ways to train in and out of the weight room. He is willing to do what it takes to achieve his goal. Mike is and exceptional athlete and is the future of mixed martial arts. So I would like to welcome Mike to the Combat Trainer team. He has a bright future in the sport of MMA and will be a world champion one day.
Jun 30 2010
Three Cone Drill the MMA Way!
In the past few months I have been working on developing my fighters speed, agility and quickness. If you are a regular to the site then you have seen some of the drills that I have been performing with my fighters and hope that you have at least tried some of them if not have incorporated some of them into your strength and conditioning program.
Incorporating these agility drills into your program will make you a better athlete. Like I have said before and I will say it again in combat sports such as MMA the top dogs are now the better athletes. So what does this mean for you? Means you must become faster, more agile and quicker. Some of the drills I have already covered were the Quick Feet drill, and the 20-yard shuttle. I have added a little twist to each of the drills to make them a little more specific towards martial arts like wrestling, Jiu-Jitsu and MMA.
The next drill I want to cover is the Three Cone Drill. In many cases they use this drill to test different athletes quickness and agility. Many strength and conditioning coaches use it as a base test and then train other agility drills to improve the athletes time on the Three Cone Drill. The Three Cone Drill is one of the events at the NFL Combine so it is important to many athletes. Here is what an actual Three Cone Drill looks like, and then I will give you the MMA variation.
In the variation, besides the fact that I much slower than the guy in the video above, I add a few different movements. At first you will see me deliver two knees, right into a back pedal and into a sprawl. A note as you backpedal, as soon as you see the starting cone you need to quickly sprawl. Seeing the cone and sprawling quickly greatly improves reaction time. The better your reaction time the better fighter you will be.
I recommend doing the actual Three Cone drill for two sets then bang out three to four sets of the variation. Get enough rest in between sets. This is training your agility not your conditioning. If you are tired you will not improve and it defeats the purpose of the drill. Remember this is a variation to the Three Cone Drill, just adding a little MMA to it. Train Hard! Train Smart!
Jun 23 2010
Jessica’s Journey and Conditioning!
Over the past few weeks I have been hitting the local high school with Jessica for some good ole speed, agility and quickness work. The wonderful synthetic field also is fun to play on but let me get back to the article. At the end of each session I have been working on a little conditioning with Jess. Now I don’t have to go crazy with her. Because of her intense training schedule her conditioning is the last thing I need to worry about, but I do like to add it in and go above and beyond what she will encounter in a MMA or jiu-jitsu fight. Having a higher intensity in a conditioning session than in what a fighter would see in a fight will only improve the fighters chances of winning.
The conditioning circuit in the video below consists of the the Dumbbell Matrix and Battling Ropes and lasts for 3:37. The Dumbell Matrix is an idea I got from my many years of research. At the beginning of my strength and conditioning journey of training combat athletes I came across J.C. Santana’s work. One circuit I came across was the Dumbbell Matrix. The Matrix helps improve shoulder strength as well as give you the ability to keep your arms up for an entire fight. Within the Matrix there is a lunge series in which you will hit multiple directions, foward, lateral and backward. All Positions in which your body can end up in in a fight. After the Matrix she moves on to the Battling Ropes. The ropes are a great tool when conditioning fighters or any athlete for that matter. Best of all the fighters love to use them and they can only curse at me when they are done with them. In this conditioning protocol I have Jess do only some of the basic movements with the ropes, but after the Matrix she is pushing through it hard. Jess is going after Cris Cyborg’s belt and I have no reason to believe she won’t get it. So if you have some dumbbells and rope give this circuit a run for it’s money. Train Hard! Train Smart!
Jun 15 2010
Quick Feet for MMA!
Continue to use speed and agility drills to help train my fighters, below I am going to show you a way to take a simple cone drill that helps create faster foot speed and body movement for all different kinds of field sports such as soccer and football. I then do a variation of that same drill for combat sports such as MMA, boxing and jiu-jitsu. Having quick feet and being able to change direction in sport is important in creating the best athletes possible. The same goes for mixed martial artist or anyone that trains in any martial arts. Being able to control your body and move quickly at the same time is essential. A fighter must have quick feet or footwork to be able to move in and out of range of danger or move in for the attack. This kind of agility work should be placed in a combat athletes strength and conditioning program.
The cones are placed 5-6 feet apart laterally and about 2-3 feet from front to back. Watch the video you will see what I mean. In the first drill you will shuffle laterally and as soon as you hit the cone you take a quick step forward. You continue to the last cone then you sprint out. Remember to keep your arms moving as if you are moving. The second drill is just a variation. This variation will help you move quick in and out of sprawls and knees. As you reach the first cone you will sprawl get up as fast as possible step forward and deliver to knees then continue to the next cone where you will do the same movement with the sprawling. Note that on the last cone you want to sprawl this way when you get up you can go into a full sprint straight from the acceleration position which will help in your explosiveness for takedowns.
Jun 08 2010
Agility Drills MMA Style!
Before I start, agility is defined as the ability to change the direction of your body efficiently and effectively. In order to perform agility drills effectively you need to be strong, powerful, have good balance and be able to control your body at all times. Agility drills are very effective for training all sorts of athletes. They increase the athlete’s performance and also help with the reduction in injury. Today many athletes are prone to knee injuries and other lower body injuries, agility drills can teach an athlete how to control their bodies which in turn will help reduce the likelihood of these injuries.
Combat sports and athletes are no different from regular athletes and should have agility drills programmed into their strength and conditioning routines. Fighters that compete in jiu-jitsu, MMA, boxing, and kickboxing are always changing direction. Agility drills will help a fighter with their footwork as well as other aspects like takedown defense and takedowns. Agility drills will make an athlete quick on their feet, as it will help any combat athlete as well.
The drill below is the 20 Yard Shuttle, it is used during NFL Combine and scouts use it to help them assess the players. The 20 Yard Shuttle is used as a test of lateral speed and coordination. Like I stated above being able to change direction in a fight is essential. So below is an example of the regular 20 Yard Shuttle and then a variation of it for combat sports. In the variation I add sprawls to enhance reaction ability and help with the athletes ability to get up and continue to change direction in a fight. In future article I will write about how to program agility drills into your strength and conditioning training. Remember one thing when you do these agility drills or even speed drills, get a full recovery in, it’s not a conditioning session it’s an agility session.
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