Quality not Quantity- Take the steps to make it happen!

A recent video from JC Santana talking about MMA training prompted me putting this post together. Heres a link to the videos:

What the hell is going on in MMA 1

What the hell is going on in MMA 2

I thought the videos raised some good points.

Here are my views in general about how to design your training schedule incorporating technical, tactical and physical training. Whilst this does focus predominantly on MMA training i think that all sports can benefit from taking these points on board.

- All your sessions need to be quality. A quality session is where you actually get better either straight away through technical    improvements or following adaptation for physical qualities!

- Unnecessary quantity is the worst thing an athlete can possibly do. You have got to get better then go home!

- Identify your weaknesses and strengths and work on them in your training sessions be they technical, tactical or physical.

- Don’t just train to train, train to compete and then compete to win!

What i see in MMA in many cases is a very different scenario.

A lot of training goes on with not a lot of thought.

Fighters stay on the mats for too long. Can you really apply yourself for 2 or 3 hours at a time? For multiple sessions in a day?

If you are trying to improve your skills you need to be fresh to do this. Recovery is key when your training to fight. Skill acquisition should be done when you are fresh.

TUF (technique under fatigue) type sessions are excellent but you need to programme them into your training. Don’t start all sessions fatigued!

With a good warm-up and cool down a session doesn’t need to be longer than 90 minutes. 20 minutes warm-up and 10 minutes cool down plus the session objective in the middle be it technical, tactical or physical.

Conditioning drills should be specific to your gameplan and your personal strengths and weaknesses. Why do endless hours of pad drills and random stuff when its not going to improve your performance?

If you are learning a discipline then you might need to spend longer on the mats doing this. For example BJJ. This is a complex art just like all the other disciplines. When you are learning an art apply yourself to learning it. Get the reps in and go home.

Sometimes it is better to work on improving your strengths rather than spend time minimising your weaknesses to win a fight. This might be your conditioning or strength, or it might be your technical game. Other times you need to go back to bringing up your weaknesses. It all depends on who you are fighting, what their game is like, and how this matches to your own. Your goal is to win the fight right? Not be as well rounded a fighter as you can be?

The key point is that there is some analysis occurring. You can’t just keep training and hope to be the best you can be. Thats like throwing s**t at the wall and hoping some sticks!

You need to spend time focussing on different, specific areas, travelling to train with the best in the area or in some cases the country or even the world. My good friend Danny ‘Cheesecake Assassin’ Mitchell is a good example of this. He has sought out the best in the country to help in with his fight preperation by travelling to Kaobon in Liverpool. Who else is willing to take those steps?

Don’t plod! By this I mean don’t train just to train.Just because you think it’s the done thing to get 4 hours of training in every single day when in actual fact it’s all substandard stuff that’s not making you any better! Cut out some volume and get some quality in.

If you want to improve you have to take the steps to make it happen. It will be humbling to do so i’m sure, but it will make you a better fighter in the long run. I don’t speak as a fighter, I speak as someone who works with many different sports and athletes and in many sporting infrastructures and have seen a lot of different athletes make these steps or not as the case may be.

Make it happen dont just hope!

Thats all for now,

BC

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