Why MMA Fighters must train in regular classes - MMA Melbourne

Why do some MMA fighters have successful careers while others start off well but then quickly go downhill?

I’ve seen fighters have a lot of success early in their career, then they stagnate, they stop improving and gradually get worse and worse results. How can we explain this deterioration of skill level and results?

There are several factors that can have a bad long term effect on a fighters career.

The Fight Camp Problem:

One common thing I see with many fighters is that once they have a little bit of success they stop attending regular classes and instead just want to do their own fight training, They just want to do their own padwork and sparring rather than attending classes like the regular students,

They see top professionals like Floyd Mayweather training like this so they assume that's what they should be doing too. They also think they’ve become too good to train with the regular students and that all the training should be focused around them and their competition goals,

The reality is that if you are already an elite world champion like mayweather then it makes sense not to do regular classes. There's a point of diminishing returns, time is better spent doing training that is solely focused on you. Also, if you are already a world champion you can afford to pay your trainers and sparring partners a full time salary so they can work around your schedule,

Why do fighters think they don’t have to come to regular classes?

They think that training in the regular classes with non fighters will hold them back. This is not true. I have seen many recreational students who have a much higher skill level in specific areas than the professional fighters. The fighter would actually benefit tremendously from training and sparring with these non fighters.

They believe training should be all just focused around them, This is completely unrealistic, Even if the fighter is paying his trainer 10-20% of the fight purse, it is very unlikely that any decent or suitably qualified trainer will be willing and able to devote all their time over the course of an 8 week training camp.

They think they already know everything that's being taught in class so there's no point wasting time practicing it again. This is usually never the case. There isalways more to learn and more skills to be refined and improved upon.

Disadvantages of only doing fight training:
There are several common patterns which I notice from fighters who only do ‘Fight Camps’ rather than regular training. These include stagnation and deterioration of ability.

Fighter is happy in the short term because he gets to train on his own terms. It's all about him, he feels like a professional and builds his ego but it's a disaster long term,

The fighter may be able to maintain their current level of skill, technique and fitness but is not improving and will not be capable of beating the next level of opponent.

The fighters coach who was probably responsible for the initial success doesn't want to work with the athletes who don't attend his classes regularly as this sets a bad example to the other students.

This often leads to the fighter finding other coaches who are willing to work them but usually the replacement coaches are inexperienced and just trying to make a name for themselves which will ultimately do more harm tahn good to the fighters career.

Why should fighters keep training in classes?
Its very important to continually keep improving and updating your skills. MMA fighting is a game of levels. If you beat a fighter of one level then you will have to move up to the next level to keep progressing your fight career. The level of skills and ability that was required to beat your previous opponent will not be enough to beat your next opponent.

This is especially the case in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts where the overall skill level rapidly increases from year to year. The level of skill required to win a state or national title even a few years ago would likely not be enough now.

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Why Fighters Lose MMA Fights

Here are some of the most common ways in which fighters sabotage their potential success in the sport of MMA.

1. Training with coaches who don't understand the sport of MMA. The coach may be skilled in individual areas such as striking or BJJ but lack the ability and experience to prepare fighters properly for MMA.

2. Failing to fix the holes in your game and being too reliant on one skill set. An MMA fighter needs to be skilled in the areas of striking, takedowns and groundwork and be able to combine them. Focusing on only one area at the expense of other skills will leave holes in your game which will be easily exploited by opponents.

3. Jumping into professional level fights too soon without adequate amateur experience. Amateur fights are necessary to develop and build up your skills and experience. Its very important not to fight above your level too soon as a bad loss may be very demoralizing and affect your future training and performance in fights.

4. Failing to get experience in individual combat sports such as kickboxing and BJJ before fighting in MMA. Competing in other combat sports is a good safe way to gain valuable experience and develop your skills so that you are more well rounded and more of a threat when you fight in MMA.

5. Too much Sparring - Focusing exclusively on sparring rather than taking the time to develop your skills in each range. Making an effort to develop your BJJ, Wrestling or Muay Thai skills individually will give you more weapons to use in when you fight.

6. Avoiding MMA sparring - MMA sparring is necessary to simulate what will happen in the fight. Grappling and Kickboxing sparring will only get you so far. MMA sparring is necessary to bridge the gap between ranges and teach you how combine your skills.

7. Too much conditioning training at the expense of skill development training. It won't matter how good your strength or cardio is if you are making basic mistakes which could lead to losing a fight and which could be corrected with proper technical training.

8. Neglecting your conditioning and hoping that you'll be able to get by on skills alone. The fighter needs to prepare for the worst case scenario. This means being prepared to push the pace throughout the duration of the fight without being afraid of getting tired.

9. Not getting enough information about their opponent. Fighters need to find out as much information as possible about their upcoming opponent such as their strengths and weaknesses or how they have won or lost their previous fights. This information can give the fighter a huge advantage over the opponent.

10. Inadequate mental preparation - ignoring the nerves and pressure of the upcoming fight until its too late rather than mentally preparing for the fight so that you are ready to deal with the stress before the fight and calm and focused when the fight starts.

'One thing I have learned as a competitor is that there are clear distinctions between what it takes to be decent, what it takes to be good, what it takes to be great, and what it takes to be among the best. If your goal is to be mediocre, then you have a considerable margin for error... If you hurt your toe , you can take six weeks watching TV and eating potato chips, most people think of injuries as setbacks, something they have to recover from or deal with... every time I tweak my body well intentioned people suggest that I take a few weeks off training. What they don't realize is that If I were to stop training whenever something hurt, I would spend my whole year on the couch. Almost without exception I am back on the mats the next day figuring out how to use my new situation to heighten elements of my game. If I want to be the best I have to take risks that others would avoid, always optimizing the learning potential of the moment and turning adversity to my advantage.'

Josh Waitzkin - The Art of Learning.

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