The fastest growing sport of our time, Mixed Martial Arts, has broken countless rules in regards to acceptance and culture; and has inspired many young people to be a part of something new and exciting. Not only has this growth and new interest inspired many up and coming athletes to give mixed martial arts a try, but it has also fueled many “secondary” sports as people fine tune various skill sets. Mixed Martial Arts may be a purist rebellion, technical menagerie, and the bane of any single discipline instructor; with this diverse and almost rogue pugilistic affect, becomes an intoxicating experience many fantasize about.
When does somebody decide to stop what they are doing in life, and decide to start preparing for a planned fight inside a cage or ring? What is your true motivation? Is this a patient goal, or do you just want to get in there and fight someone? Who are you really fighting?
This article is for people who think about fighting, but probably will never experience it more than a few times. My goal is to give you a perspective that will lessen the chances of you getting hurt. Competition of any type is for the specific few, and the fight sometimes is separated from the act of competing due to its specific emotional nature. I’ve been working with and training mixed martial arts fighters for as long as I’ve been training in grappling sports; specifically about 10-11 years. In the earlier year, various types of striking arts were my only background. At first grappling advice was something I had no experience to share, and towards the end became one of the only things I could share. (for the most part)
It’s easier to understand people if you group them together briefly, but you must look deeper if you really want to know them. I never got a thrill out of working with people who were doing something beyond the norm. When working dignitary protection contracts, I never bothered my clients by asking them questions that would make them uncomfortable or distract from the business at hand. When meeting a fighter who has an event coming up, I avoid saying anything distracting or emotionally charged. It really doesn’t do anything for either one of us.
Again, let’s group together a few motivations to fight, and then we will look a little bit deeper. Not all of these things are true for everyone, but we are following a pattern. Throughout the years, I’ve met a lot of people who seem lost and misdirected in life, and often had rough childhoods. MMA often calls to them, and they will fight a few times with only a short period of time spent training. Nobody ever took the time to invest in them, so they don’t know enough to invest their time into training. They take this to the fight, and are squaring off against themselves and maybe even an abusive parent as they touch gloves that first time.
I meet a lot of wrestlers, and they often did very well at the level they competed at. They are older now, and miss the acceptance and praise from when they stepped off the wrestling mats after their hand was raised. They were champions back then. Some of these athletes were “naturals”; they were successful while working maybe not as hard as the next guy. The naturals are often flakey training partners, but their ability to move people is something to see. They are also often fighting a emotional figure head, hoping to defeat them, every time they fight or train. These fighters often train in a rough manner, injuring training partners. Their conditioning is suspect, they tire before long. They will rarely show up to fight training, and will have wins and losses in the cage before they quit.
Another wrestler has been evaluating life and missing the days of competing, just like the one above. This wrestler is considered a dedicated work horse, and spends as much time as possible training. They usually took wrestling to college, because they wanted to compete at that level. They are likely to practice MMA a lot longer, and those that I know are champions in their own right. They have fewer issues, and just want to use their wrestling and continue competition.
I have yet to meet a pure Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner, Boxer, Judoka, or kick boxer that bridged their skill set to mixed martial arts. They obviously exist, but that is rare in this location. The majority are the last two examples. So our most common fighters are lower level wrestler/emotional, less skilled brawler/emotional, Higher level wrestler/work horse, or several combinations depending on why they want to fight in the first place.
Nothing is worse that reading tips and advice about Mixed Martial Arts from an MMA fan. The MMA fight fan writers are some of the most ignorant people around the sport in my opinion. They often write articles about when you should fight, and how you should plan out your early career. The bottom line is you need to be able to fight well enough and understand defense so that you don’t take acute or excessive damage at any one time during the fight. At many amateur mixed martial arts events, most of the fights even within the first round. It’s not that either fighter was that much better than the other, but rather that neither fighter was able to stop the other from finishing them. Sloppy punches landed, football tackles worked, and loose submissions were not defended. If you put a professional in there, they would not get punched, taken down, or submitted. You must learn to bridge the gap.
Learn what it takes to wrestle with a high school level wrestler, to compete against a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and to block punches and kicks the right way before knocking around a heavy bag. In the rhythm of combat, you will likely operate in many different areas of technique, and constantly filter and funnel your opponent back to where you are most comfortable at any given time. People often ask how long this will take. That’s a poor question. Put your time in to the point where you can exist in many different areas of combat and be successful. Rush it and you may hear your sinus crack like a potato chip, or detach a retina.
You have no business mixing the styles until you can do the above. From there, you have many different strategies of training, and the types of preparation discussed in my grappling competition article. Being able to defend yourself against the onslaught while remaining offense against your opponent is probably the greatest issue that most amateur fighters will face in their first mixed martial arts experiences. Conditioning, proper technique, and fight strategy will depend on your dedication to training, and strongest skill sets.
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