Mainstream? Yes MMA has gone mainstream if you have not figured it out by now. With the growth of the sport also comes many new participants are joining the ranks in the amateur circuit. Now we all know that MMA training is tough and if you are a serious amateur it is very time consuming.
For the most part if you are serious about getting a career started in the cage you will have to make an investment in yourself. Yes you will have to spend some money on quality MMA training but you will also have to make an investment in your time. Unlike the majority of the pro fighters out there amateurs also have full time jobs that take up their time. Add this on top of the countless hours of training in jiu-jitsu, wrestling, boxing and muay Thai it can leave an athlete wanting to quit.
I am in the middle of a training camp with Jessica Richer for her upcoming MMA debut this Saturday, May 14th. Jessica is an amateur fighter that has the full time job and is still able to pursue her dream of fighting. With that being said in a few months I am going to put out a manual detailing the training of Jessica. This manual will help guide amateurs in their training and other life commitments. The manual will serve as a detailed guide to help amateur fighters out there reach their potential and be a successful fighter. The manual will also come with a DVD that will have Jessica’s strength and conditioning sessions as well as the program that I wrote for her. If you are serious about a career in fighting then you will want to get your hands on this. Here at Combat Trainer I strive to help everyone achieve his or her goals! Those that want will, those that don’t, won’t.
The most basic necessity is that a fighter relax. He needs to relax during training and he needs to relax during the fight. True mental focus can not be achieved if he is too tense. Pacing, shot selection, power generation, and strategic decisions are all affected by being tense.
One aspect of this is the same as stage fright for performers; it takes repeated exposure to being on stage and performing in front of an audience to get over it. Some kids can never get over this and so they do not progress beyond the novice stage. However, boxing is full of stories of experienced fighters tensing up and blowing big fights. What we are really talking about is ways to manage adrenalin released due to stress.
In the mental game there are these different ego games and they can affect a fighter’s performance. They have to do with the fighter’s internal dialogue, or what’s going on inside his head during the fight. There is positive ego, “I am the greatest” but this usually only carries them so far and if the build up is too big it makes losing more painful than it needs to be. There is negative ego “I can’t do anything right” and this often leads to tentative, low energy performances. There is a third state, a neutral state, where the fighter “gets out of his own way” mentally and stops placing his ego between himself and what he is doing. This is “the zone” where all of the fighter’s training can come out, his reflexes are at their best, and he is able to stay relaxed and give his best performance.
The key to relaxing during training is to have a “happy camp” where the mammalian politics are held to a minimum and the day to day environment is relaxed. If the atmosphere is tense it uses up a lot of energy unnecessarily. Fighters tend to be high strung and they don’t need anyone at camp making this worse, especially handlers, sparring partners or management. In this rap star age many of today’s fighters are very prickly about feeling like they are being disrespected and so this has to be taken into account.
There has to be a level of trust among professionals so that open dialogue can exist between the trainer and the fighter. The trainer needs to be able to make corrections in a way that does not offend the fighter, and the fighter needs to be able to communicate to his trainer what is going on in his body, especially if he is hurt. If there is no trust in this crucial relationship it can lead to disaster.
When I watched trainers like Georgie Benton work with fighters in Joe Frazier’s Gym back in the day the instructions were always positive. “Do this,” they never discussed strategy or tactics during sparring and there was never any criticism. It was a public gym and the press and gamblers were watching the big names. Working in the gym was like a show and they never scolded fighters out loud there. A fighter can’t learn like that, it is all happening too fast.
I found out that they had a small gym, a room really, with mirrors and bags and this is where they worked on specific moves at slower speeds, if need be, in preparation. This work was done in the mornings after roadwork and breakfast, they didn’t start going to the big gym until the afternoon. Everything that needed to be said between fighter and trainer had been said earlier in private, everyone was on the same page, it was just work in the gym. This is how professionals like Benton handled themselves and their fighters with class and at the same time gave the fighter time to learn new skills without the pressure or any lose of self esteem.
The old time trainers were psychologists as well as conditioning experts and boxing coaches. They spent a lot of time with their fighters beyond the hours in the gym. Many of the fighters became dependant upon certain trainers to keep them calm as well as get them in shape. Anxiety decreases wind and so staying calm is an important part of peaking. They talked to them about boxing and played cards with them at night in the age before TV and video games. Even in the 1980’s Larry Holmes hired Ray Arcell, then in his eighties, to come to camp just talk to him about boxing!
Throughout history there have been many attempts to find a method for getting a fighter into the “neutral zone” mentally. Attempts were made in ancient China by melding meditation practices taken from Buddhism and Taoism with martial arts. Today we know that calm repetitive action increases Serotonin levels in the brain while reducing Cortisol levels which reduces stress. Cortisol inhibits memory retrieval of already stored information and is an important aspect of the brain chemistry of stage fright. If you are pushed beyond the level of your conditioning, “taken where you havn’t been before” your anxiety will increase as your energy level goes down. However, there are many examples of fighters who have done the work, are in the best shape they can get in, and still have poor performances because of stress. This is because their stress level has risen until it effects their brain chemistry negatively and they are unable to control their breathing.
Sugar Ray Robinson preferred ping pong for this mental training. It was a way to daily practice getting into that flow, to stop talking to himself and just react, in a context that was fun and had nothing to do with boxing. I recommend it to fighters today but they usually prefer video games. Great champions like Robinson tended to make this level of concentration, “mental energy” as Arcell called it, look easy but it requires daily training for many years to be able to do it under the duress of a fight.
Many fighters have been able to focus and stay calm in fight after fight against ordinary competition, only to “blow it” when they stepped up to a higher level of competition or got a title shot. This effect is especially noticeable when they step up to fight a great champion for the first time. These are the fights that haunt them in their old age, the ones where they know they didn’t give their best performance.
One of the best examples of this sad aspect of the mental game is Ernie Lopez, older brother of featherweight champion Danny “Little Red “Lopez. He was a very good welterweight who fought from 1963 to 1974 and had the misfortune to come along in the era of Jose Napoles, one of the greatest welters ever. At the time of their first meeting in 1970 Lopez was 36 6 1. Ernie was very smooth counter puncher without much power. The hype, the pressure of meeting a great champion, really got to him and he came in “tight”. You can really see this on the film of the fight. The tension is visible in Lopez from the beginning and so his punches fall short and seem to have nothing on them. He was knocked down in the first, the ninth, and KO’d in the fifteenth round. Lopez came back with ten wins in his next twelve fights and got another shot at Napoles’ title in 1973 but it was worse this time and he was KO’d in the seventh round.
For years at the Englewood Coliseum they talked about the night the real “Indian Red” Lopez didn’t show up. He ended his career with a record of 48 13 1 with 465 professional rounds boxed and a KO percentage of 38.71. Lopez passed away in 2009 at the age of 64.
I have said it before building strength is an important key in training any type of athlete. Many times building strength is overlooked especially among combat athletes. Many fighters feel, as though conditioning is the most important in the training spectrum. In order to increase your conditioning and improve on it is important to build a solid base of strength and be able to maintain and improve upon it.
You don’t need a state of the art facility to become super strong. I am going to give you a great secret on how to increase your strength. Now be careful how you use this secret, you may become stronger than you once were. Are you ready for it? Here ya go, one way to become strong is to pick heavy things up and walk with it. Walking with heavy items has many benefits. First picking the implement up will work you balance and strength in different positions from those that are worked in the traditional weight room. When at the gym, you pick the weight up in a controlled fashion with proper technique. In combat sports there is no such thing as proper lifting technique. Usually in a fight you are off balance or in an awkward position and need to use strength at different angles. Lifting different implements will help you with this strength. Some call it functional strength, I like to think of it as raw strength or old man strength. Ever notice how our fathers are strong as hell, it’s from all those years of lifting heavy stuff and manual labor.
Sandbags and kettlebells are great tools to use as a MMA fighter. Each of them alone have helped many a combat athlete increase their strength, putting the two together can lead to great advances in your strength. As you will see in the video below I use both a sandbag and a kettebell to train my strength and work my balance. The sandbag used in video is fifty pounds and the kettlebell weighs seventy pounds. Now with the sandbag on one shoulder and walking with the kettlebell in the other it throws you off balance a bit as you need to compensate for the lighter side and the positioning of the sandbag as opposed to the kettlebell.
This movement will help strengthen you grip with farmers walk, work on your balance and depending on the distance you carry both the sandbag and the kettlebell. If you do not own a kettlebell you can use some a forty-five pound plate or dumbbells instead. If you take anything from this post make sure you start building your strength and watch how every other aspect of fitness gets better.
Looking for a great way to become the best-conditioned MMA fighter that you can be? Then do yourself a favor and get yourself a Prowler. I have pushed a Prowler in the past at places that I have worked or in training with friends. So I made it my mission before the winter was up to get my hands on one for my fighters and of course myself. Lucky for me I was able to land a “Prowler” now I have the quotes around it because it is not the exact Prowler that many know about. This one is a replica but works just the same. But when you can get something that looks almost the same and works just the same for $150 cheaper then hell yeah it’s a good price.
Anyway a Prowler is a big sled. You have seen many people pushing cars before, well this works just as good. A Prowler will do a couple of things that will help you as a fighter. When you sprint with the Prowler while adding weight to it you will feel like you just ran several 400m sprints. After using the Prowler you will notice how quickly your conditioning level rises.
Another benefit for fighters that the Prowler brings is the ability to develop lower body power. Just like dragging a sled behind you will help with lower leg drive so will the Prowler. As you push it you will be driving with your hips, glutes and hamstrings, all muscle that help develop power in your punches and explosive takedowns. These benefits alone are worth the price of a Prowler. No I don’t make any money selling Prowlers but I believe it is one of the best pieces of equipment out there.
Here is a quick circuit you can use with the Prowler. Load the Prowler up heavy weight in this case I started with about 150 lbs on the Prowler. I pushed the Prowler down one way unloaded 90 lbs and pushed it back the other way. In this video you will see that I go to unload the 25 lb plates but as I started I felt it would take to long so I decided to scratch that idea and head back the other way.
So if you are looking to invest a great piece of equipment go get yourself a Prowler and enjoy the training.
Some of the strongest guys I know are construction workers. They are always carrying around odd objects. This just makes them naturally strong. So taking a page out of their book I am starting to incorporate different ways to train using some of the methods that they do day in and day out with a little strength and conditioning added to it.
Training with sandbags is becoming very popular. It’s a cheap and effective way to get some good training in and get strong. As combat athletes it is the way to go especially with the high membership prices on MMA gyms now. Go to the local Home Depot and for around seven dollars and change you have yourself two sandbags each weighing fifty pounds.
Working with odd objects is a very effective way to train. Sandbag training is a great way to work on your strength, core strength, and balance and grip strength. The video below shows a very basic way to utilize your sandbags. To begin get both sandbags on either shoulder. Once you have them secured on you begin to walk with them for a short distance. As you will see I am using my backyard and using the distance I have available to me. When you come to a stop perform five squats with the weight. When putting down the weight don’t just drop it bend down and put them down one at a time it will improve your strength and time under tension.
Now for a beginner you can start with one sandbag over the shoulder. For those that are stronger then you can get, you can fill the bags heavier using a duffel bag or strong contractor bags and perform the same exercise. Look for more to come using the sandbags and how to get stronger.
In combat sports like MMA and jiu-jitsu pushing and pulling an opponent is an occurrence throughout a match. I want to focus on the latter, the pulling. In a fight combat athletes are constantly pulling at their opponents, being in the clinch, or trying to pull an opponent in guard. Developing pulling strength and power is essential for success in combat sports.
There are many ways of developing pulling strength. Pull-ups are the king of pulling exercises, you can also use rows and deadlifts to increase pulling strength. Adding these exercises to any athletes program will only help make them stronger. If you have been around the fitness world then you have come across resistance bands. Resistance bands can be a great way to get stronger with out the use of traditional weights. They are also easy to use and can be taken anywhere for a great training session.
When training fighters I like to add the use of resistance bands into their training. More times than not I use the resistance bands to develop explosiveness. Below are three great exercises that can be used to develop the pulling power that I am talking about. This session was done when the fighter in the video Jessica Richer was getting ready for a major jiu-jitsu tournament. If you notice there is Brazilian Jiu-jitsu gi sleeves attached to the resistance bands. This adds a little more specificity to the exercise but also it works on grip strength. Jessica has gripped the gi like she would in a match and performed the exercise.
So if you are looking to take your game t the next level add some resistance band work into your training. Is it the end all of training, no, but it will help get you stronger and more powerful.
Life is full of so many choices, should I get my coffee at Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks, should I shave Sunday night or Monday morning and the list goes on and on. When it comes to training there are also a slew of exercises that we can choose from to help us achieve our goals. But if I had to make a choice between exercises as to which one I would use to get strong I would choose to deadlift.
So why would I choose to deadlift over all other exercises. First off the deadlift kicks ass and is fun. Now let’s get into some quality reasons. The deadlift is a great exercise to help train and make the posterior chain stronger. In combat sports or any sport for that matter the posterior chain is of utmost importance for optimal performance.
The deadlift works on improving strength in your hamstrings, and glutes having a strong posterior chain will help in combat sports when trying to take an opponent down or picking an opponent up. We all know why having strong glutes and hamstrings will help your performance but a strong back is also essential when involved in sporting events. Along with strong glutes the deadlift will also increase the strength in your back.
In combat sports a strong back is key, as many movements during a fight require you to pull an opponent. If you are pulling some heavy deadlifts in training you will see how much easier it will be to pull your opponent all over the mat or cage. Having a strong posterior chain will help in combat sports when trying to take an opponent down or picking an opponent up.
Deadlifts will also increase your grip strength. In my own training I have seen my grips improve dramatically especially in jiu-jitsu gi training and in the clinch. Deadlifting has given me a strong grip, which has save me from submission plenty of times on the jiu-jitsu mats.
Deadlifting can also reduce the risk of injury. By adding deadlifts into your programs you will be doing your body a favor by keeping it injury free. Deadlifts can also help with the rehabilitation of IT Band injuries, which are common in many athletes. If you use sprinting in your training you can run into an IT Band issue.
If you are looking to improve your performance in the field of battle then you need to really start to deadlift. If I had to pick one exercise to do for the rest of my life I would make the choice of deadlifting. Below I will give you two videos that you should watch if you want to improve your technique on the deadlift.
Tomorrow Fedor Emelianenko will be taking on Giant Silva in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Tournament. Coming off his loss to Fabricio Werdum it will be interesting to see how Fedor responds. I am thinking that he will be coming out to destroy Silva convincingly.
When I though about putting up some of Fedor’s training video, I was very surprised to see that there was actual stuff out there. Thinking about how he leads a pretty much private lifestyle I though it would be harder to come across some training material. But lucky for Combat Trainer I was able to find some!!
In this video you will see Fedor using different types of training to get stronger and more powerful. By the looks of things it looks as though Fedor had an outdoor training facility constructed for him and his team. I definitely would not be surprise if they used this strength training playground year round, even in the cold weather.
If you have never done any strength training outside, then this spring you should really get on it. I began incorporating a lot of outdoors training into my own training and it has not only made me stronger but it is also a lot of fun to train outside. So if you are looking to spice up your training get outdoors as soon as possible and train like Fedor.
Nerdy opening, I know. Doesn’t make it any less true, however. It’s a great way to summarize one’s entire philosophy. When you set your goals, you have to do everything in your power to achieve them. If you want to win, losing is just another step in that direction. Remember, you are only defeated when you give up. But enough of the philosophy. You came here for some fighting tips/advice/talk/whatever and that’s what you’ll get.
I did have a reason for starting this article with my take on the philosophy on fighting. The very first step I take before preparing for a fight is getting in the proper mindset. I train my mind first and my body second. I make it very clear to myself that for the next six, four weeks or even one week (yes, I’ve taken on fights on such short notice), I will live, breathe and sleep fighting. This is the time when I put in the most work in the gym, both in the weight room and the ring. It’s not that I like cramming in all my work in the last days before a fight. That would be stupid. In fact, I work hard all year round both for athletic and for personal reasons. It’s just that then is the time when I have the proper mindset to really push my boundaries and re-discover what I’m capable of. And even when I’m resting at home, I will usually watch fights of my favourite fighters, like Ernesto Hoost, Buakaw Por. Pramuk and others, so that I can maybe learn a thing or two. Sometimes I may not even learn anything but it helps get me pumped for the fight.
When training for fights or just martial arts, it’s important not to let your strength training lag behind in favor of conditioning. A martial artist needs to be a very complete athlete. They need to be strong, conditioned, fast and durable. So, I hit the weights three or four times a week. However often life and recovery allow. Now, I’m in no position to tell you exactly how to train. What I can tell you is that you need to train hard but safely. And injured fighter isn’t really much use to himself. I may not be the biggest guy in the gym but I do aim to improve on a week to week basis. If I find my workouts harder than normal, I take a step back and take a look at my lifestyle. Have I had adequate sleep? Am I eating enough? Am I psychologically alright? The problem is usually something as simple as getting an extra hour or two of sleep and you’ll be fine. But don’t be afraid to seek advice if you find your strength lacking.
Another area a fighter must be fully aware of is his diet. Since most martial arts work with a weight class system, it’s to your advantage to be as lean as possible, so you’ll carry the most muscle for your weight and you won’t have unnecessary fat weighing you down. To melt away the fat is as simple as reducing your caloric intake below your BMR if you’re an amateur fighter that trains 2-3 times a week. For a more active individual, they could just eat up to their BMR and let the extra exercise take care of creating an energy deficit for the day. However, keep in mind that your mind will lead you to eat to cover that deficit. So, you have to be mindful of what you eat, how much you eat and whether you’re losing fat or not. I fight in the -74kg class because that’s closer to my natural weight and since I’m around 10% body fat most of the year, you can see how that could work in my favor in the fights. In fact, I’m usually the biggest guy in terms of muscle in my class and my opponents feel it.
Of course, what makes us fighter is the fact that we train to fight. I usually train three times a week doing kick boxing for an hour and a half each time but when I’m getting ready to fight, I’ll train five times a week for a total of 8-10 hours a week and I’ll add some more conditioning in the form of jumping rope and jogging. This lasts up to a couple of days before a fight. I don’t train the day before the fight because I want to be as fresh and as rested as I can be. Besides, an extra training session won’t make much of a difference at that point. It all becomes a mind game after that. UFC Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre said it best : “Training is 80% physical and 20% mental but fighting is 20% physical and 80% mental”.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that everything is within your grasp. If you want to get stronger, you can do it. If you want to get leaner, you can do it. If you want to get better, you can do it. Well? What are you waiting for? Go out and get it!
About the author : Bill Pairaktaridis has been training in martial arts for the past 14 years. He found a passion for Shidokan Karate as a young boy and later for Kick Boxing as a teenager. He’s currently a silver medalist in the national level in Kick Boxing. He also has a great passion for health and fitness and maintains his blog at http://herofit.tv
UFC Fight for the Troops 2 is tonight. In the main event Evan Dunham, coming off a controversial loss to Sean Sherk takes on Melvin Guillard. Now I am not the best at picking fights but I do believe that Dunham will take this fight in the end.
Now back to something I do know about an that is strength and conditioning. Just looking around for video I came across two of Dunham doing some traditional weight training. The purpose of these workouts was to increase strength. Norm Turner puts Dunham through some compound exercises that will build strength in combat athletes.
What I have been finding in more and more fighters especially in the amateur ranks is that they love to do a lot of the conditioning protocols that they see their favorite fighters do. Yeah all those protocols look fun and exciting to watch and are tough to do but in order to get the body to that elite level you must build a foundation of strength. Many people forget about the strength in strength and conditioning and jump into these crazy circuits only to find that they are not getting the best results or they are at time getting injured.
So take a look at the videos below and just keep in mind that as a combat athlete you must not only have great conditioning but you need to be strong and powerful.
If you want a solid training program check out my online coaching program above and start to get strong, powerful and conditioned!
Train Hard Train Smart!
