Jun 30 2010

Three Cone Drill the MMA Way!

Category: Agility,Conditioning,Jiu-Jitsu,MMA,muay Thai,Quickness,Speed,Uncategorized — Rob @ 3:19 PM

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!

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Apr 03 2010

Flip This!

Category: Conditioning,MMA,Power Training,Strength Training,Uncategorized — Rob @ 8:20 AM

We have all seen it before athletes flipping tires. This is not some new fad in the fitness industry. So what is the fascination with this form of training? First off training by flipping tires is fun and a different form of training. As we all know people like a little variety and fun in their lives and tire flipping can deliver both. They can be used to develop strength, power and also used as a conditioning protocols.
Many combat athletes especially in MMA are now utilizing tire flipping into their training. What are some of the benefits for these combat athletes that use tire flips in their training? First flipping tires can develop strength. As a fighter you can use the tire to develop power and finally you can use it as a conditioning tool as well.
Let’s look at how it can develop strength. Now I don’t recommend just jumping right in with your fighters and just start flipping tires because it is the in thing to do. Make sure your combat athlete has a good base of strength training to start with. This will help limit the possibility of injury to your athlete.
Trainers can use the tire flip to produce strength. If strength is your goal with tire flipping, I suggest that you pick a tire that is relatively heavy and as with most exercises you do to develop strength choose a repetition range between 1- 5 reps and 3-5 sets. If you are looking to develop power then pick a tire that weighs less. Remember when training for power you want to explode with the external resistance.

Tire Flipping is Fun!

Having too heavy of a tire will prevent that from happening. Once you find a tire suitable for you to move at a good speed I would suggest that you do 3-5 sets of 3-5 reps. Remember you want to drive the tire up and over as quickly as possible to develop your explosiveness. Finally if you are looking to add a conditioning with your tire flipping it can also be done. Again you do not want to go super heavy on the tire. I would keep the weight moderate. You can flip for reps or add different exercises along with it to get your desired training effect.
Here is a sample training session that I have used. Now this day was just dedicated to flipping tires outside in the nice weather and just having some fun while getting strong and getting a little conditioning in as well.
We started out with a dynamic warm-up and moved on to a more specific warm-up by doing partner tire flips for 3 sets of 8 reps. After the warm-up we moved on to 4 sets of heavy tire flips at 3 repetitions with jumps onto and off the tire after each rep. Then we moved on to a conditioning protocol using tire flips (with a lighter tire than used for the strength work), sprinting and pushups. So this is what it looked like:
Dynamic warm-up
Partner Tire Flips 3 sets 8 reps.
Strength Work 4 sets 3 reps with jumps on the tire and off.
Conditioning 3 sets timed at five minutes. 5 tire flips, sprint 20-25 yard and back, 10 pushups, 5 tire flips. Rest for 10-15 seconds after the last five tire flips then continue for five minutes.
Here is the protocol in action.

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