Building a Fighter

Second in our Wrestling with Biomechanics Series is leg riding! Throwing in hooks, attacking from the back, escaping and anything to do with leg riding. We talk about cross-body riding, taking the back, using your legs as arms in the strategy of leg riding. We then talk about specific anatomical approaches to training for leg riding and some necessities to train. These include hip internal and ext...

Practice Planning. Many coaches plan practice, they at least plan what technique will be the key point and the general format. Along with our Building a Fighter mission, we believe that this practice planning should be done better. Warm-ups, general activity, specific skill development, positional goes, training, drilling, physical conditioning we can and should include it all in our practice. We...

First Performance Team Roundtable! We are rejoined by Christina Chu RD, a performance dietician based in Chicago, IL. We discuss a hypothetical athlete with whom we are preparing for a fight camp. Our athlete is staged within the episode, and we talk though our whole process in planning, collaboration and preparation. The value in this episode it to see where we prioritize our plan, our time, and...

Applying and applicable assessments. Let’s assume we have already selected the most beneficial and most important training assessments for our sport. (which is another episode altogether.) So we have our tests, and we got some results, what do we do with them? We first weigh the athlete’s results for adequacy. See where the athlete lies on the testing scale, and modify your training plan according...

This week’s area for Wrestling / Grappling with Biomechanics is the Front Headlock!  We are starting up a New Series: Wrestling with Biomechanics. We are going on an in-depth look at specific positions that arise in wrestling/grappling. We explore the position, strategies, and techniques that apply in wrestling and mma. We investigate the biomechanics specific joints involved in the area, how to s...

This one is a treat! we go through a few disciplines that make up mixed martial arts and put our spin of a needs analysis on each one. This is valuable for the athlete to know and especially the coach to know. Rather than making athletes go through general workouts, we should be customizing each one to the sporting goal and style. This gives us a cheat sheet for that! We use a framework that I was...

Athletes, Coaches, other bad asses: Overtraining is real! There are multiple factors that go into a training load but at the end of the day you need to know your own body. Coaches are generally well meaning, your inner-drive is well meaning but at times can be detrimental. Take charge of your training schedule, mental health, and workload. Offensive #1 against overtraining: monitoring. Monitor you...

Its all in the hips, & he hips don’t lie! The hip/low back/pelvis is integral to every movement that mma athletes use. Training the hip is fairly straight forward as long as we know what we are looking at and how we want to orient our training. Seeing the breath, core, and mobility coming from the right areas are huge to avoiding/eliminating low back or hip pain. Abduction, adduction, internal rot...

Be a coach, not a programmer, or a rehabilitator, or a machine. Human relations cannot be overstated when it comes to coaching and leading people. Get to know your athlete’s personalities, tendencies, and needs. This requires you to actually give a f*ck about the person in front of you. There are countless ways to demonstrate and apply this extra thought into your coaching practice. Account for su...

If you care about you training, then organizing your training process should be a constant topic of interest. Too many athletes and fighters get stuck in the bodybuilding approach of training isolated body parts within each workout. This is not the best approach, *in general* for athletic performance training. but… Monday is Chest day, bro! Sure there are benefits to this isolation training approa...

We have a guest! Christina Chu is a performance dietitian consultant based out of Chicago, IL. She works with all level athletes and elite corporate members to optimize their nutrition to fuel their lifestyle. She has developed and implemented sports nutrition programs in Chicago-area performance centers and clinics to best support high-level athletes in the Windy City. Christina earned her Bachel...

“High Performance Team” this has been a goal of building a fighter since day 1. Recruiting expert coaches, dieticians, physical therapists, chiropractors, and support staff who are all working to a common goal is a mecca of sports performance. When the goal is athlete performance, health, and wellness we have a recipe for success. There seems to be “something in the water” when you walk into these...

Rotational training and getting into the transverse plane should be a staple in your program. Within a logical and integrated program rotation should ride right-along that curve. From building a base of anti-rotation to demonstrating power through a rotational movement we must carry this along in the training process. Correctly progressing and teaching rotational movements has traditionally been a...

The shoulder. Mobility, Stability, Power, Strength, and Range of Motion. Where should we prioritize our training around the shoulder? It depends. One thing is for sure is that we need the shoulder to move. A large active range of motion through the shoulder blade adds range to our punches, adds pop on the end of the punches, and can enhance your defenses. We get into some good anatomy, mma tactics...

Training at home, on the go, or just trying to optimize your training with less equipment? We got you. We compiled a list with 5 of the most universally valuable pieces of exercise equipment. We decided on this list based on a few criteria. 1. Is it versatile? 2. Is it affordable? and 3. Is it practical to train with?  We love all of the pieces on this list and various exercises with them, we hope...

The Why behind assessments. Previously we have introduced a strength and conditioning assessment, but today we aren’t talking about the what, we are talking about the why. Assessments serve a purpose in our programming, results analysis, and overall tracking of progress. People all the time get obsessed with the numbers, but we need to see the actual merit of the test and understand who and why is...

Let’s talk about actually benefit from your rest, rest intervals, and recovery. Optimizing your training via matching appropriate rest is the main topic within this podcast. Training hard is not always synonymous with training better, and rest intervals are a defining factor with training better. Rest intervals enables us to emphasize different conditioning qualities, or sporting skills which crea...

What is work life balance? Who knows. We think its individual to everyone and there has to be a period where you, as a self-starter, feel out your own process. What is a good pace for you? We talk a lot about defining your goal, and setting yourself up to accomplish that goal. When your goal and methods are misaligned that’s when problems arise. Perhaps you are ignoring your family and social life...

Busting the myths, talking about our biggest pet peeves that exist in the MMA training, and sports performance world. Strength training doesn’t make you gain weight, you don’t need to overhaul your entire diet, and not every exercise needs to look like a punch or kick. Absolutism runs rampant in strength and conditioning, but there is no one best way/methodology to train. Each program is individua...

“Tis’ that time of year to change and become a better you in 2021.” Whatever. On this Podcast, we talk about realistically addressing your bad habits, and replacing them with better training through consistency. Addressing and understanding your injury, changing your mindset in training, actually warming up, and having accountability are all strategies that we touch on in order to change behavior...

The Clean. A foundational power exercise in many strength and conditioning regiments. Should you do it to be better at MMA? How should you coach it? Is it absolutely necessary? We dive into the nuances of the clean exercises and what exercises can be used to mimic the same power stimulus. We talk derivatives of the clean itself, using a trap bar jump, medballs, kettlebells and straight up jump tra...

What goes into your strength and conditioning program? We try to explain as best we can the principles that guide our program writing and other factor that affect your training plan. How do strength and conditioning professionals create out of camp/ yearlong training plans called annual plans?  Where do we even start? There is more behind it that, lift heavy sh*t and get strong, we are trying to m...

Anatomical Approach to Training – The Neck! Hugely important to combat sports the neck is a huge area to consider when planning for training. We cover the anatomy, muscle function, training approach and common injuries in relation to the neck. We also highlight different methods of training, and better approaches to protecting and strengthening what is important in this region. Defining good posit...

This week is all about ways to enhance your Jiu Jitsu practice. The goal is to enhance the efficacy of your practice, addlongevity to your Jiu Jitsu game, and spend less time away from the mat. In order to do this we touch on optimal warm ups, using passive recovery tools well, implementing strength and conditioning, and identifying injuries early.  Areas to focus on within all of these maintenanc...

Which is better? Micro vs. Macro approaches to coaching and training within MMA. We talk about when it is important to train with a team vs as an individual, monitor training daily or on a monthly basis, or making decisions to push forward or pull back. We agree that a mix of both approaches will work best based on contexts and athlete personalities. Coaches are there to write the plan, guide the...