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 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 21 2010
How Would You React?
In sports a second can be the difference between a winning and losing. As the competition gets better reaction time is critical. For example stuffing a take down in the final seconds of a fight can get your hand lifted at the end or send you back home a loser. I have been doing my research and reading a lot on reaction time. Strength and conditioning coaches all know it is an important component to training. All athletes should be working on improving their reaction time.
So what is reaction time? Reaction time is the interval time between the presentation of a stimulus and the initiation of the muscular response to that stimulus. Some examples in combat sports such as MMA or boxing are avoiding a punch with say a slip or bob and being able to sprawl in time when you see a takedown coming.
Some athletes and people are born with great reaction time. But that does not mean that you cannot increase the ability of your reaction time with practice. In a fight there are many different stimulus’s a fighter must react to. Within those stimuli there can be many different reactions. The more choices a fighter has in ways to react the slower the reaction time will be. So when starting off training reaction time you want to keep it simple with your fighters. You may want to start off with giving them only one choice to make. So say they are working on their boxing, Give them only the choice to parry a punch, as they get better add the slip.
These are some of the more sport specific ways to train reaction time. As a strength and conditioning coach you don’t have to be as sport specific in your training to start off. Using different exercises that we have done before you can add the element of reaction time within them.
In this training clip I incorporate medicine ball tosses with reaction time. So as you will see this thirty second set incorporates, power, acceleration, reaction time and conditioning. Focusing on the reaction time, after tossing the ball you must turn around track the medicine ball and react to where it is going and get to it before two bounces. As for reaction time it’s on an easier level because you kind of know where the ball may land. To make this harder have someone throw the ball for you then turn around and chase after it. So check out this video and more to come on training reaction time. Train Hard! Train Smart!
P.S. This was done the morning of my second anniversary. Happy Anniversary Baby!
Jul 08 2010
Tires and Sledgehammers and Ropes, Oh my!
Having access to different implements for training purposes is really fun. Lucky for me I am able to train with some of these fun tools. Being a coach and also training in martial arts I find that these implements of strength and power are great for training fighters. We have seen and influx of trainers using these toys with their fighters to enhance their strength, power and conditioning.
The day that this conditioning circuit was filmed I actually did not have strength and conditioning session planned in my day. I was sitting around waiting for my evening Muay Thai session when a text message came in from my training partner. It read, “Want to flip tires?” Now how could I resist? Of course I wanted to go flip some tires. Then I thought to myself, “Wait a minute, I have a rope and sledgehammer in the car from training a fighter, I will use those as well to create a conditioning circuit.” So the 15-minute trip to the field I was devising a plan, lucky when I had arrived another person was training with us and he brought a medicine ball. This just added to the plan and the fun.
So when I arrived I warmed –up with some tire flips then laid out my plan. The plan was four stations. A tire station, a rope station, a med ball station and a sledgehammer station. Each person would pick a station to start at and work for forty-five seconds at each station. Now sometimes when you train you will always have to make adjustments. During conditioning this is no different. When I was doing the tire flips, I was just jumping on the tire with really no thought. Midway through I thought to myself that I could broad jump onto the tire and this way add a little plyometric work into the training session as well. In the video you will see a little annotation of when this thought pops into my head. After the tire flip I move on to the Battle Ropes. For this round I just did one exercise with the ropes in the following sets I switched up different exercises using the ropes, so you always have that option. After the ropes I hit the med-balls for some slams and followed it up with explosive pushups onto the medicine ball. Finally to finish off the circuit it was forty-five seconds of pounding the sledgehammer. You know it’s a good conditioning protocol when your training partner turns to you and tells you she hates you. My response, “Thank you!” Best of all I still made my Muay Thai class. Remember Train Hard! Train Smart!
Jun 06 2010
To Program or not to Program…
If you have been following my blog or know about my training philosophy, you will then know that I am al about having a solid program in place when you training. Some of the benefits of a program range from the motivational, knowing what you will be doing and hitting the gym hard, to just seeing the best results possible. I use my programs for my fighters to help increase their strength, power and conditioning in a progressive fashion. There is always a method behind the madness and it always works.
Even though I do not compete in MMA, muay Thai or Jiu-Jitsu fights I have always had a program that I have followed so I could get the best out of my performances in my martial arts training. Recently, however it has been tough to juggle the strength training, martial arts training on top of the strength and conditioning coaching and family life. At first this was driving me crazy not to be able to get to the gym and get some good strength and conditioning sessions in. Program, there was no program for a while as I tried to adjust the schedule so I could get everything in.
How did I solve this problem? Well first I put things into perspective. I had to think to myself what was the most important thing and of course family time came first without a doubt. I wanted to stay strong and powerful so the weight room was the next priority followed by the martial arts training. The only reason the martial arts training came last was because I am not competing or am not planning on competing I just love to train martial arts.
So what’s the program you might be saying? This is what I have done. I make sure to get two strength and conditioning sessions in. One session is in the gym, consisting of Olympic lifts, squats, deadlifts, plyometrics, other accessory lifts and conditioning sessions. The other strength and conditioning session comes in the form of a speed, agility and quickness session. This session takes place with my fighter Jessica. While coaching her I train along side her. This has two benefits, one it lets me get in that extra strength and conditioning session and two it pushes both her and I to compete with each other in the drills. I have written about the benefits of “team” training in earlier posts.
Now for the martial arts training, I try to get in one session of MMA training in every week as well as a jiu-jitsu class and a muay Thai class. If I am lucky I get in another no-gi and muay Thai session on the weekends. On one of the nights I pull a double session, a gi jiu-jitsu class followed by a muay Thai session. Now there are some weeks where I get all the training in and some weeks where I don’t it all depends on the schedule at home. Another factor that plays into attending sessions is being in touch with how my body feels. If I am fatigued and my body is not doing well I will take a recovery day. You need to figure out what fatigue is. Being a little sore does not count. This will help you learn about your body and how to react to your body.
I have seen some great results with this program. I feel refreshed in my training. My body feels better than it has in a long time. I have had more energy. That being said I highly recommend if you are a competitor in MMA, jiu-jitu, boxing, kickboxing, wrestling or any other combat sport I highly recommend you follow a strength and conditioning program for the best results in and out of the cage, ring or mat. This way of training is good for those that train in martial arts for fun and also like to hit the gym and be strong and powerful. So yes programming is very important and I will get back on a program for the weight room once more time is available but until then, Train Hard! Train Smart!
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Mar 12 2010
Making Your Takedown Explode!
Recently in MMA we have seen wrestlers beginning to dominate the sport. You must have heard it several times so why not one more time. If you have great wrestling, you will be able to dictate where the fight takes place. Say you are facing a jiu- jitsu opponent, as a wrestler you will be able to stuff the takedown attempts and keep the fight standing where you may be able to knock him or her out. If the opponent you are facing has great standup then you will be able to take them down and dominate with your ground control.
Anyone in the strength and conditioning field has heard of plyometrics or the shock method. It has also become popular in the fitness world as well. This method of training was developed by Professor Yuri Verkhoshansky. The shock method was developed to enhance the speed strength of the Soviet athletes he trained. (Siff, M. Facts and Fallicies of Fitness) I can go on here and give you all the scientific terminology that I have sifted through in my journey but I will spare you. At the end of the day plyometrics or the shock method helps you produce explosive power. On that note here are the three-plyometric-exercise that will help you develop more powerful takedowns.
The first movement that will help develop that explosive takedown is the split jump. To do the split jump, imagine like you are doing a lunge. Get down into lunge position with one leg forward and the other leg bent. With that jump straight up in the air as high as you can and land with your legs still stretched in the same position as you started. So if you started in the lunge position with your right leg forward then at the end of the movement your right leg would still be the leg forward. Take a look at this video…
The next movement for creating your devastating takedown is the single-leg lateral broad jump. In this movement you want to get into a quarter-squat position. Choose a side you are going to jump to. So if you are going to your left you will be using your left leg to push off of and explode. Get up on your left leg alone. Using the outside edge of your left foot bend at the knees slightly and explode out to your left side jumping out as far as you can. Do the same for the right. Check it out…
Finally the last movement is the stride jump crossover. For this movement you will need a bench or some type of box. You will place one foot up on the bench. Say you start with you right-foot on the bench your leg nearly at a 90-degree angle. You will explode off your right foot extend your body and land on the other side with your right leg down and your left foot on the bench. Here is the video of the jump crossover…
Some other key pointers, when doing lower body plyometrics like the one’s above, remember to use your arms to help explode. I cue my fighters to start with their arms up, when they are about to do the movement, drop the arms and raise them back up fast as you jump. You will see this in the videos above and it will help you explode in each of the movements. Another thing you want to remember to do is to land softly. This means that you do not want your bones and joints to take the impact but rather your muscles. A good gauge on if you are landing soft enough is, if you make to much noise with your feet when you land then you did it wrong. Now get back to training and remember, TRAIN HARD, TRAIN SMART!
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