MMA Training

As many of you know, I’ve been training an MMA fighter for the past year or so now.  Dan is a great guy, and I couldn’t ask for a better athlete to work with.

When designing routines for MMA fighters, however, you run into a lot of problems.  Most obviously, what do you focus on?  Sport-specific training for many sports is easy – for instance in powerlifting, you just get strong.  Track?  Run fast in a straight line.  Now I say that with some sarcasm, but compare one of these sports where the training focus is quite narrow, to something like MMA. 

In Dan’s case, I need to balance the following:

– Strength/power work
– Flexibility/mobility
– Endurance/stamina
– Skill/technical work in three different areas (I don’t train this per se, but I have to know what he’s doing outside of my time to make sure his training with me is optimal)

But beyond all these separate categories, think about the overlap between them as well?!?!!  For example strength/power is great, but if you only have it in the first round, chances are you won’t fight too well!  In contrast, you need to have great strength/power initially, but you also need to have strenth/power endurance into the 2nd, 3rd, or even 5th rounds!

Keep in mind, too, that training for strength/power while simultaneously training for endurace/stamina is akin to a dog chasing it’s tail.  Instead, we’ll focus specific times of the training season on bringing up strength/power, and then trying to maintain as much of that as possible when bringing up conditioning and peaking for a fight.

In all honesty, it can be a pain in the ass to write/develop these programs.  But at the same time, I know that working outside of my comfort zone is taking my coaching ability to the next level. 

If you want to get the most out of your training, get yourself with a qualified coach who understands you, your sport, and how to take you to the next level of performance.  Good luck!

All the best

Mike