Grip and hand strength can often be an overlooked skill in MMA training.  From the observer, there may be many other components or athletic reasons that a fighter may win or lose a fight but more often then not, grip strength will never be mentioned.  It is a disservice to an MMA fighter’s career to overlook grip strength.

Grip strength is the applied by the hand to pull on or suspend from objects it is also used by strength athletes, referring to the muscular power and force that they can generate with their hands.

In MMA fighting your hands are the first point of contact to your opponent.  Having a good grip will help while in the clinch as well as submissions.  Grappling is the perfect example of where grip strength comes into play to either act as a turning point of the fight for or against your favor.

There are simple activities to add to your preexisting training that will grant you countless improvements in hand and wrist and finger.

-Pull-ups using a gee looped over the bar or oversized pull-up handles

-Hammer work

-Simple plate rotation exercises

-Squeezing a simple spring clamp

-Farmers walks using two or three fingers with plates

-Climbing wall activities

Do not allow this small body part to lose a big fight. The hands are not to be taken for granted during training and should be strengthened like any other body part to avoid injury and weakness.

With all the training that goes into MMA sometimes it is hard to keep track of the progress you are making.  This is where journal keeping comes into play.  Journal writing is not for little girls anymore.

Keeping a journal for strength training progress is a basic coaching tool that has been often overlooked and seldom talked about.  That  Jiu-jitsu practitioners keeping journals of what they learned in training classes should be of no surprise when record keeping and statistics are a part of so many competitive sports.

When I speak of keeping a journal I am not just talking about keeping a record of what you learned in class.  A journal should be of your experiences in training, weaknesses, strengths, mental impressions, triumphs and failures on the matt as well as your plan for your next trainings.  Note how those moves worked for you in training, how you felt during a training session, if you have done back to back training session did you feel fatigued?  If you train at different hours, when do you feel your best?

Keeping a journal helps enhance your training experience.  When looking back at your journal you should look for the things that worked for you and the things that hindered you.   Always look for the mistakes you have made and your specific plans to improve upon them. Write down your weaknesses and then a few months later go back and see if you have improved upon them or neglected them.  Writing them down will help reinforce your need to work on them.

Go out and purchase yourself a small notebook that you can carry around and a pen.  Start writing down everything that you experience in training and watch how your development  become elevated.  Your weaknesses will become strengths and your MMA game will improve dramatically by just having a more complete knowledge of yourself.

Grip strength is a very important aspect when training for MMA or any other type of combat sports.  I have heard many combat athletes talk about how their grips are weak.  One area of concern is in the sport of jiu-jitsu when using the gi.  If you are a practitioner of gi jiu-jitsu then you know very well the importance of having a good grip.  Your grip strength and endurance can save you from your opponent passing your guard or worse submitting you.

So how can we can increase our grip for combat sports? You have seen my oversized pull-up handle video, which have helped with my grip strength.  Another great way is by doing Farmers Walks.  Basically a Farmers Walk is carrying heavy weight by your and walking with it.  They do make Farmer Walk handles, which you can load lot’s of weight on.  You can also use a trap bar, which can be found in any commercial gym as well as dumbbells or kettlebells.  One thing I have found that has really increased my grip strength is the use of regular 45 pound plates found in pretty much all gyms.  If they don’t have forty-five pound plates at your gym just stop reading this article thanks.

Here is what I like to do with the forty-five pound plates.  Grab them in each hand using your fingertips.  Start with four fingers as you get stronger start reducing the amount of fingers that you use.  I then take the plates for a ride.  I like to go for about 100yards, once I reach the 100 yard mark I drop the plates and take a brief rest no more that one-minute.  Usually around the fifty-yard mark you start to feel the burn as you get closer to the hundred yard mark you will notice how you pick up the pace of your walk just to get it over with.  Do a couple of sets of these.  If your grip is weaker than you thought grab 25’s or 35’s depending on your level of fitness.  Soon enough people will be talking about your firm handshake and you will take your fight game to a new level.

Train Hard! Train Smart!

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.

Train Hard! Train Smart!
Rob DeCillis (CSCS)

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.

Rob DeCillis (CSCS)

The ability to pull an opponent in during a fight is an important skill to have in combat sports such as MMA and jiu-jitsu.  If you have ever seen one of my training programs you will notice that pull-ups are a staple for my fighters.  Using all different types of grips to work the many different pulling angles a fighter may see in a fight.  Pull-ups are the king of all pulling exercises.  I can already hear the whining out of some about how you can’t do that many.  Get up on a bar and do some damn pull-ups and get out as many as you can.  I still have trouble with pull-ups.

But this post is not about the pull-up but rather increasing your pulling strength in general.  On many post in the past you have seen me pulling a sled or running with it attached to me.  Sleds are a valuable tool I you have access to one and if you don’t go out and buy one.  You know they are good when you see some the chain sporting good stores carrying them.

The sled increases strength and explosive power depending on the movement that you do with it.  If running with the sled like I mentioned above, a fighter will develop explosive leg drive which can lead to faster takedowns and more powerful punches and kicks.

So while training Jessica Richer for the Abu Dhabi qualifying tournament we came up with a different way to use the sled to help improve pulling strength from the guard.  Now I am sure I did not invent it nor will I claim I did but I have never seen anyone pull sleds in this fashion.

So if you are looking for sport-specific training and looking to improve your guard try these three variations of the sled pull to increase pulling strength and power.   There are three variations the first is with the heals on the ground, this is the easier of the two.  The second is what we called the open guard pull, which was difficult, and finally the third was the pull from the closed guard.  So if you own a sled give these a try.

Train Hard! Train Smart!

Back in high school I competed in a couple of sports throughout the year. In the fall I played soccer, winter was wrestling season and in the spring it was track and field. The best part about both wrestling and track and field was the fact that they are pretty much individual sports. In order to win you need to depend on yourself to get yourself the victory. Sports like these can teach you a lot about yourself.
Well the one sport I want to discuss in more detail is track and field. You all thought I was going to say wrestling since yes this is a combat sports training website. But there is a lot we can take from track and field that can help us in our training as combat athletes.
As a track athlete I competed in two events, the 100m dash and the 400m. These all out sprints are some of the most grueling events I competed in high school. Yeah it’s one thing to get crossed faced on the mat and get a bloody nose while your mother looks on in horror and it’s another thing to sprint as fast as you can for 400m. The 400m has been said by many one of the hardest races and of course I picked it.
While training for these events I ended up sprinting a lot in practice. Back in those days I was not what you call a very athletic looking lad. That started to change a bit when I began to sprint nearly everyday. As a puny little high school kid I began to see some changes in power I had as well as the musculature in my legs. I was explosive and in great shape.
When I first started to train combat athletes I would use in my conditioning a lot of the circuit type training that “mimics” a fight. These circuits work very well and I continue to use them in coaching of fighters. Looking back though on how I felt after sprinting 400m and how I feel after some sparring I noticed the two feelings were very similar. Sprinting like many combat sports including MMA are anaerobic sports. So that being said I began incorporating sprinting into my fighters programs as well as in my own training and the results have been great.
With my fighters I also make sure that I coach them in proper sprinting mechanics. Now I know they are not going to be world-class sprinters but rather world-class fighters but teaching proper mechanics makes the athlete sprint not only faster but more efficiently. A more efficient sprinter will be able to last longer during conditioning and maximize there time in training.
For those of you that like to sprint or even want to give sprinting a shot to increase your conditioning I am going to give a four-week program below to help you achieve that goal. Each week there will be two sprint sessions. You will be surprised that these sessions are short and sweet but are very effective.

Week 1
Day One
6 sets 50m sprints
Day Two
4 sets 50m sprints
2 sets 100m sprints

Week 2

Day One

5 sets 100m sprints

Day Two
3 sets 100m sprints
2 sets 200m sprints

Week 3

Day One
5 sets 200 m sprints
Day Two
1 set 100m sprints
2 sets 200m sprints
2 sets 400m sprints

Week 4

Day One
1 set 200m sprints
4 sets 400m sprints

Recovery
As for recovery if you were training to be a track star then full recovery would be necessary. As forgetting ready for a fight I tell my combat athletes to sprint when they are ready. This affords them the opportunity to sprint when ready and recover but push themselves on there own pace. As they become used to the sprinting they adapt to the stimulus and take shorter and shorter recovery times.
Train Hard! Train Smart

By now we all know that MMA is mainstream, we are seeing it pop up everywhere.  With this explosion MMA gyms are popping up everywhere and the influx of new students is growing daily.  This is great for the sport and it will only continue to help the sport grow in the future.

This brings me to my next point.  These MMA gyms are not only being joined by adult students, but children as well.  I see the sport of MMA or grappling at the youth level as the next big sport here in the United States.  The children are the future of the sport and it will only help grow the sport to new levels here in the United States.

The one thing we need to be careful with, however, with our youth joining these gyms is trying to specialize these children to early in the sport.  Just like early specialization in other youth sports such as soccer, football and hockey, this could have a negative impact on the child athlete.

Having kids active in sports is great it sure beats sitting inside the house all day doing nothing but being lazy.  I strongly believe that we should have our children involved in some type of sports from a young age.  I particularly love when children are involved in gymnastics and martial arts from a young age.  Both of these sports allow the child to learn their bodies naturally by using different movements.

Now like I said earlier there are some things to look for when children are specialize in sports to early.  In his manual, The Development of the Russian Conjugate Sequence System, Tom Myslinski writes about how the Russian had a system of training their athletes from a young age.  He wrote that the goal of the Russians was to have the children be exposed to a whole range of different activities.  This would help develop their “functional capacities, motor abilities and knowledge base.”  (Myslinski, p5)

Myslinski also has a great chart where he explains some of problems that happen when early specialization takes place.   Two points that he makes that are of importance are, one, that there are “performance inconsistencies within competitions” and two, usually the athletes start to “burnout” by the age of eighteen.  (Myslinski, p6) With the burnout issue also comes injuries from overuse of the same muscles, joints and tendons.  Day in and day out, year after year of training in a very similar fashion will do this to any athlete especially at the younger level because their bodies are still growing.

So what is the take home message here?  As the sport of MMA grows more and more children will want to get involved.  Some parents will become crazy about their children winning it’s just the nature of the beast.  But as adults of these child warriors it is our responsibility to make sure they train the right way.  We have to make sure that these children learn how to use their own bodies before trying to control someone else’s.  Get your children involved in the sport of mixed martial arts but let them play all different sports as well.  This will only enhance their athletic ability in the future and just make them that much of a better fighter if they decide to take that path.

Train Hard! Train Smart!

It was that dreaded time in the school year that many of us went through as kids.  The physical fitness test in Phys Ed class.  Now I loved gym class playing all the different types of fun games competing with all the jocks who, after high school really did not end up doing much after their “great” high school athletic career.  Actually senior year I was given the award for the highest average for four years in physical education.  That and four years of college netted me a communications degree, should have really thought out my career back then.

Back to the physical fitness test, the most dreaded part of the test for me was how many pull-ups the student could get out.  Now I really sucked at pull-ups most of the time not getting to many of them out.  Back then it really did not dawn on me what a pull-up would do for me in the future but now I know why it was on the test.  That is because the damn exercise makes you strong and who does not want to be strong.  I think those physical fitness tests scared a whole generation away from doing pull-ups because when you walk into a gym most of the time you see people using the Lat pulldown machine because it is easy.  But like the old saying goes anything in life worth having should be difficult to get, and that goes for a strong back.

When it comes down to it the pull-up is one of the best exercises that a MMA or grappling athlete can do.  In MMA, jiu-jitsu and wrestling having a strong back which assists you in a lot of the pulling motions associated with the sports can help lead you to victory.  In the clinch having a strong back can lead to more powerful punches as well as being dominate in the clinch.  On the ground being able to control your opponents posture in the guard uses a lot of pulling movement to keep the opponent close.

This brings me to my next video. Pull-ups also help with grip strength.  Now those that do Judo or jiu-jitsu you can use your gi thrown over the pull-up bar to do pull-ups.  That will make the move more sport specific.  Now what I have done was I went out to Home Depot and picked up some straps, that along with some PVC pipe that was lying around the house I made homemade pull-up grips handles.  This is a fairly simple thing to make, for any of you who know me you know I can’t build stuff and I even did this.  With the wider grip handles you will see how much not only your grip improves but as well as your strength in your posterior chain.

Train Hard! Train Smart!

Like with all weeks leading up to the big UFC cards I am on the prowl for some good training video’s from the fighters that are on the card.  I have been on the lookout for some good George St. Pierre training video but instead came across a great interview done for UFC.com.

Since I am out to help many of those trying to break into the sport or those looking to get to the next level I pulled a few key points from this interview that will help with your fighting career.  When you want to be great at something you look to the best and figure out what they are doing and how they prepare, Take the knowledge you gain from these top notch people and then tailor it to you.

In this interview with GSP for his upcoming fight against Josh Koscheck he talks about using the knowledge he gained and putting it all together.  There are a couple of important messages to take from this interview.  One was getting out of your comfort zone.  Many fighters continue to train with the same team and with the same training ideas fight in and fight out.  This may work for a while but eventually it will fail a fighter.  The more often you take yourself out of comfort zone the more likely you will succeed in a fight.  In a fight there is no comfort zone so the more you are used to being out of it in general the better fighter and person you will become.

Another important point I picked out is all the different people he trains with.  This gives him an advantage because he is now a wealth of knowledge and he knows how to put it all together.  GSP invests in himself and his pursuit for greatness.   This investment in himself has made him the dominant fighter he is today.  So if you are an amateur trying to make it or you are trying to get to the next level in your career, then make the investment and watch how successful you will become.