3 reasons why “sports specific” training is not a good idea!
Over the last few years we have been pelted with thousands of posts, articles, books and lectures on “sport specific training”. I want to take a minute to hash out some of my ideas on this subject. Of course, a lot of “my ideas” come from studying other people’s theories and putting them to practice. (“Theory To Practice” I even stole that from Keith Norris. Theory To Practice ) after all, we are the sum of all the people who influence us and our experiences.
The basis for doing extra-curricular training is to somehow make ourselves super-human; to gain an edge over our opponent through scientifically superior methods. We are striving to work “smarter not harder”.
There is always room to improve our physical strengths, coordination, endurance and skill set. I’m not opposed to finding new ways of doing this, in fact, this is my mission for the most part; to find the fastest and most efficient ways to improve and build a fighter from the ground up.
I often use examples of my music days and how my journey to become proficient at lead guitar playing parallels my search for skill building methods in martial arts. An example would be doing specific exercises to strengthen your fingers without playing any actual music or practicing scales and arpeggios over and over to improve your speed.
Of course we have to prepare in so many ways to train our muscles, nerves, bones and brains to be ready to fight but we need balance in our schedule. We lift weights and run miles, ride the Aerodyne and roll our shins; anything to build the machine! We use tools like punching bags and focus mitts to drill one particular combination at a time which we need to gain the muscle memory to pull it off in the ring but nothing beats sparing and fighting to make you a better fighter and get you into fight shape.
Next I’ll give you 3 reasons why doing “sport specific training is a good idea and 3 reasons why its not. Make sure to weigh these variables as you put together your training camp.
3 Reasons why it IS a good idea to incorporate “sport specific training”:
1. Overuse injuries: If you are punching bags or jumping and kicking pads for thousands of reps or in the case of a sport like football hitting the tackle dummy a billion times, the chance for repetitive stress injuries goes up substantially.
2. Pre-hab: Doing loaded stop and start as well as rotation and anti-rotation type training not to mention strength training can prepare you for unexpected, violent movements and lessen the damage caused by these events. You can also correct imbalances like those caused by being in your stance for hours and turning your punches and kicks out always the same way.
3. The over-load principle: Doing something like adding weight to the body, hands and feet while shadow boxing as well as wearing an elevation mask or doing under-water running can add load to your cardiovascular system training and cause an over-compensation effect to give you an advantage in endurance.
Here are some great trainers who have worked out fantastic programs to improve the fitness of fighters:
MMA FITNESS TRAINING AND CONDITIONING
THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE COURSE ON MMA SPECIFIC TRAINING!
3 Reasons why its not a good idea:
1. Time limitations: You have a limit to the amount of time in a day so training your skills as part of your conditioning work will kill the proverbial “two birds”. If you have 5 hours per day to train, BJJ, Boxing, Muay Thai, Wrestling you aint got time to do no Crossfit!
2. Risk of injury: Any strength or power lifting exercise has the potential to cause injury. Even doing ladder drills or aqua fit can have their hazards! The lead up to a fight is fraught with perils and you have already won that contest if you make it to the ring.
3. The best reason: Nothing approximates the sport like the sport and nothing prepares you to do a particular movement like actually doing it.
4 steps to powerfull punches and kicks
I’m going out on a limb here and assume that every fighter would want to have powerful punches, kicks and take downs; that on the ground they would want unbeatable submissions and un moveable positions. The process that any athlete uses to go about increasing the power of anything from a right cross to a power-snatch, a paddle stroke to a high jump is the same. When asked how to get “power” in a punch my coach Hon Lee gave this very concise formula which can be used in any sport but is essential to the fighting arts:
1. Technique
2. Flow
3. Speed
4. Power
1. Technique: Absolutely every technique we use must be mastered before we try putting any force behind it. Take an Olympic lifter for example, imagine violently throwing 300? Pounds over your head without knowing how to properly execute the movement! The process that most lifters work through consists of going over the steps of the lift many times, sometimes for months, with only a broomstick. Throwing a punch is also risky but for different reasons, still, the process is very similar. How many times do you practice a punch, first in the mirror, then on the bags and pads before the coach lets you spar with actual people? Make sure that every aspect of the technique is perfect, the turn of the foot, the torque in the hips.
2. Flow: The next step in the process is to make the technique flow. Weather you are throwing one punch or a combination; weather you are pulling a triangle or using it as a set-up for an arm-bar, you need to learn how to seamlessly flow through the movements keeping your defence tight. The smoothness of your movement also adds to your momentum which leads us nicely to the next step.
“We want to move efficiently because it gives you higher performance, its energy-concervative and ultimately its safer. If you want to move often and more frequently you’ve got to be efficient with your movement to maintain safety and maintain that quality. That’s why these skills, techniques and efficiency principals are so important.” Clifton Harsky
3. Speed: A car travelling at 100k will do a lot more damage to a person than a bus travelling at 3k. Likewise, a fighter who has speed in their hands will cause much more havoc than a slow one, even if they are bigger. As long as we keep the technique sound and flow from one to another, adding some speed will automatically generate the power for step 4!
4. If you followed the last three steps you have already arrived here! Power is some thing we shouldn’t be trying to do, it comes as a result of using you body with the most efficiency, hitting the target with accuracy and committing to our technique without reluctance.
In my observations of hundreds of people training in the fighting arts I see similar patterns recurring often related to this. One of these is the way a fighter will slowly revert to instinctive reactions like pulling away from danger. If you think of fighting like placing your hand on a hot stove; holding the hand to the fire goes against our base human drive and we will do anything to remove it from pain. In order to have success in a fight we have to put our face, head and body into a dangerous situation in order to be in position to do damage to our opponent. I see this withdrawal in every fighter as the sparing heats up. In a class setting I am always aware of that and pull the students back to basic movements and get them to focus on technique, timing, distance and posture. Does this sound exactly like what a strength trainer would do?
Any athlete that thinks that they are too advanced to revisit the basics will never advance!
Boxing, Kickboxing for MMA, defense Low bobs and rocks
Both the “bob” and the “rock” can be used in many different applications. In this video I show you how you can use them for setting up low body punches or to use a s defense against an attack and thereby countering with the low punches. There are many other punches, kick and takedowns that can be set up using them, largely up to your own imagination. I will give some of these examples in the upcoming videos.
Boxing And Kickboxing For MMA 