Results of an 8 week General Strength program

by Bill Easlick

Hello, I just wanted to share the latest example of how we use Joel Jamieson's strength and conditioning (S&C) programming and his BioForce testing system to measure an MMA athlete's overall performance.

When we last left out hero "Joe", he had just finished up an 8 week block of General Conditioning and was now looking towards making some gains in his overall strength.

Here is how Joe finished up the previous General Conditioning block.

Bro.. why you trying to squat in my curl rack?

Armed with this detail of performance knowledge about Joe, I designed a strength program for him.  Many strength and conditioning coaches are not working with their fighter's skill trainers (and vice versa) and therefore the two don't understand the total scope or impact of their training on the athlete.

I've seen numerous cases of a fighter who is looking to become stronger getting advice from people who tell him "You gotta lift big Bro!" and proceed to give him a 3-4 day/week workout plan that looks like a powerlifting routine full of very high intensity compound lifts 90%+ 1RM.

This is fine, if you want to be a powerlifter and that is your ultimate training goal.  But if you're a fighter training 4, 5, or more sessions of skill training per week, this volume of intense strength training can often over-tax your central nervous system (CNS), cause insufficient recovery (for both), result in poor performance (for both) and probably reduce your cardio in the process.  If you're lifting like this, you're probably eating like it was your last day on earth and gaining weight too.

Or on the opposite end of the spectrum, fighters will often get advice to train Crossfit, which sounds like a good idea (after all they're "Forging Elite Fitness" right?) but the results are often much less than elite.  Low maximal strength, poor aerobic capacity, excessive shoulder training for fighter's, and very narrow window of metabolic work (lactic), and a focus on explosive power vertically (Oly Lifts) instead of forward or rotational which is much more applicable to combat sports.

So you can see, if a fighter swings to either side of S&C training too far, he will make poor adaptations for MMA. It's crucial to keep that in mind - the entire and sole purpose of S&C work is to make you a better fighter. To allow you to apply your skills faster, with more power, for a longer duration than others.

So here's what he needed to do over the block:

• Build strength. Joe was familiar with weight training, but did not have a good understanding of strength training - form, ques, breathing properly, and mindset gained from more serious strength training. Case in point. -Squats. His version of a squat was much different than mine and I got him to set a low back bar, a wider stance, getting his butt down below parallel and timing his breath with the lift.  This took some time, but I think Joe can agree, it was invaluable to his future in strength training. The next time he sees a kid do a deadlift with a rounded back, he'll be the guy who offers good advice that makes a difference in someones performance.
• Benefit from the "Novice Effect" without over taxing the athlete. This was the real challenge and where working with Joe in both skill and S&C is important because I needed to see how he was responding so that he could take advantage of the ability to make big strength gains but wouldn't become overtrained. It's a fine line between wanting wanting to see your stats grow, but still performing well in training.
• Skill training. Joe has been working very hard on the mats and his focus has been improving his skills on his feet both in striking and in his clinch and wrestling as well. He could not afford for his S&C to hamper his skill training, particularly his sparring sessions where he needed to be fresh.
• Cardio maintenance.  As a fighter gearing up for his debut fight, Joe could not afford to slack off here either. We know that we weren't building both up together, but we could not led cardio slide.
• Weight.  Joe will be fighting at 155 so it was important that he ate enough to recover from the training, but didn't consume enough to cause him to gain weight. This isn't as easy as it sounds. There is a reason powerlifters are "big guys" Those extra calories help them recover from the intense lifting and allow them to gain muscle mass which has a relationship with strength. 

These were the results of his 8 week General Strength Block.

Joe raised his Strength profile one entire point. He was able to increase in four out of the five categories of his physical profile, and maintain his level of aerobic fitness. Most importantly, his strength gains were very noticeable in his MMA training. All of his sparring partners commented on how much harder it was to move him in the clinch, and Joe was able to clinch and take down much heavier sparring partners who would formerly escape from his holds with size and strength. On his feet, his increase in anaerobic power and output was also felt.

Joe's final strength statistics for his 8 week strength block.
Increases in calculated 1 rep max:

• Squat - increased 62 lbs.
• Bench - increased 21 lbs.
• Deadlift - increased 114 lbs.
• Press - increased 30 lbs.

Stronger. Without losing his cardio. And improving his MMA skills. Great job!

Did you happen to notice that he LOST weight?

After wrapping up this training block, Joe will move onto a shorter 6 week block of Power/Endurance before beginning his very first fight camp.

Thanks for reading.

An Introduction to MMA Sparring - Closing Thoughts

 by Bill Easlick
This post on the "Introduction to MMA Sparring" topic is really just my final thoughts and an attempt to wrap up for any loose ends and questions that people have asked me about my posts.

"Bill I wanted to know how you connect the appropriate sparring gear to the levels of sparring contact  and the sparring methods you use in your classes."

Great point, and this is something that I planned on addressing, so here goes.

	Standup	Clinch	Ground
Cup	L/M/H	L/M/H	L/M/H
Mouthguard	L/M/H	L/M/H	L/M/H
Headgear	H*	-	-
Boxing Gloves	M/H	H	-
MMA Training Gloves	L	L/M	L/M/H
Shinguards	L/M/H	-	-

L - Light Sparring
M - Medium (Controlled) Sparring
H - Hard Sparring
* - Special scenarios or conditions


"Hey Bill, in my gym we wear headgear when we spar. Why don't you?"

- I think I covered my thoughts on headgear pretty well in my equipment article. If someone wants to wear it, I'm completely cool with that, but ironically, I'll almost expect that people will be striking extra hard at this person's head. Like a moth to a flame; it's just our nature.

"Isn't it silly to give a % of contact used in sparring ?" 

- I think it is when you're talking about things like 40% vs. 60% etc, but in my articles, I tried to be as clear and descriptive as possible and each was tied to more "instinctual" feelings rather than a meaningless percentage.

You weren't expecting a Will Smith reference!

"I can't get my sparring partners to slow down when doing "light sparring" Every round ends up sparring hard."

I know. Sucks right? As I mentioned in the article, I believe this is the hardest area to teach new students and others may pshaw it, but I think their problem lies in ego (whether they realize it or not). It requires, no, demands a removal of ego. Both partners have to let go of winning and losing and play the skill game: striking with good intent, but at a slower pace to keep the contact down. People don't like to lose, and their ego says "aww hell nah!" and they raise the speed and contact level until they're on top again, completely missing the point - creativity, developing reactions and building "fight intelligence" (more on that process in an article I'm already working on.)

The best advice I can give you is to try to find like-minded partners who understand your goal.  (Send them the link to my articles if you think it will convey the message to them!) And remember, almost everyone will get worked up at some point, even the experienced guys. The difference is they realize it, reset, and go back to the methods. I'm very fortunate that I had a core group of my first students come up under this approach, and as they advance they mentor the new students and now it's just part of our training "culture" at Fairfax Jiu-Jitsu.

Thanks for reading,

-Bill

Results of an 8 week General Conditioning program on Amateur MMA fighter

by Bill Easlick

Hello, I just wanted to share a quick example of how we use Joel Jamieson's strength and conditioning (S&C) programming and his BioForce testing system to measure an athlete's overall performance.

Joe has been training MMA for about a year now at Fairfax Jiu-Jitsu, focusing on developing a solid base of fundamental skills in a broad range of techniques. Joe is a fairly active guy who has kept in shape most of his life with military duty, running, going to the gym to lift occasionally, and now training MMA 3-4x a week.

A few months ago Joe expressed interest in "stepping up" both in the focus and intensity of his MMA training, but also in his S&C to meet these new physical demands and we did an initial BioForce test to get his baseline fitness levels.

Here is how BioForce ranks the fitness numbers:
1-3 Beginner/Low
4-6 Average/Amateur
7-8 Professional
9-10 World Class

Joe's profile - 3/27/11

From this baseline test you can see that Joe's starting stats were pretty good for a novice student. Typically many beginning people have one or two areas of physical  abilities that they excel at (either thru training and/or genetic disposition) and they have low scores in other areas.

Joe was very well-rounded and this can be attributed to his MMA training and occasional running and lifting, though not on a formal program.

I am in a fairly unique position to help Joe with not only with his skill training, but also to help him develop the S&C training that will support these developing MMA skills. Quite often the MMA coach and the athlete's S&C coach are not always on the same page, The MMA coach does not have the time or the background to help the athlete and the S&C coach doesn't fully understand the complex energy system requirements of MMA. Too many people forget that the goal of S&C isn't it's own achievement, it is to support the MMA training to allow the athelete to sustain power through the entire duration of his fight.

I created an 8 week program for Joe based upon a few related goals: As his MMA coach, I knew Joe had good aerobic capacity, but that he needed work on his aerobic power (the amount of power he is able to generate at the maximum rate of his aerobic energy production threshold) and his muscular endurance. These fitness areas were also very important for the specific MMA skill training he was focusing on in his skill training. (Just another reason how the integration of skill and s&c is crucial).

Here are the results from his 8 week program:

Joe's profile - 5/29/11

The results:

• Joe was able to increase Aerobic Fitness, Muscular Endurance and Explosive Power, while maintaining all other areas of his S&C.
• Joe was also able to lose 11 pounds of bodyweight, yet maintain his strength (and gain explosive power), which actually increased his strength profile because he is now stronger/lb. of bodyweight. considering he was focusing on his aerobic fitness, this was very good!

Next up for Joe will be a program designed to increase his strength and yet maintain his new conditioning. This will be a great test of a proper strength & conditioning program and I'll keep you posted of his results.

An Introduction to MMA Sparring - Part 2.

by Bill Easlick

( I'm Sorry for the delay. I know many of you were looking forward to a PROMPT follow-up to my last blog article and I sincerely apologize for the delay. Life has been kicking my butt lately! My day job; My family; Preparing some of our fighters for MMA fights; Travel; Seminars ; etc., all take precedence over my blog writing. In the future I plan on writing smaller and much more frequent updates. Mea culpa...)

Transitions

M.C. Escher understood the artistry of the transition.
Seamless transitions put the "art" into Martial Artist.

One of the most appealing and realistic aspects of MMA is the openness of the rules. Fighters can use hundreds of techniques from striking, clinching, wrestling and groundwork in order to win fights, most often by maximizing the fighters area of expertise. However, the current reality is that as the sport of MMA evolves, so do its fighters and their skills. The days of the BJJ or wrestling-based fighter doing a lunging takedown on a kickboxer who has no clue how to defend are long over. 



One of the most important things in being a successful MMA fighter today is being able to transition between ranges and tactics, but yet I’m always very shocked when I look at other gyms and see how many fighters are still training without transitions in their sparring. Many gyms still train boxing or muay thai for striking, train wrestling or judo (maybe) and train no gi BJJ/submission grappling; each as individual and sport-specific classes. That is not MMA folks! In my opinion there is a better way.

The problem with that approach to training lies in the lack of transitions that occur in each of those sports. Each has a fairly limited rule set and techniques compared to MMA, and their training is always done within those rules.

For example:

• A fighter goes to boxing class and he works on striking another like-minded striker to the head and body with his hands. There are no kicks, no knees, no elbows, no clinch, and certainly no fear of getting wrestled to the ground.

• A fighter goes to BJJ class where he spars with another submission-oriented opponent in an attempt to choke or joint lock each other. There may or may not be takedowns, and there is no striking.

Is that the best way to spar for MMA? Absolutely not. A modern MMA fighter must be able to transition, flowing smoothly and technically from different aspects of the fight. The fighter needs to train a transition as an actual sport-specific skill. He needs to integrate these separate arts into his MMA training, not specialize and compartmentalize them in isolation, otherwise he will never "bridge the gap" between techniques with success.

*(Please note that I fully understand that there is a time when a MMA fighter needs to train in sport-specific areas of his game, but for the novice-amateur fighter, this training should be supplemental to his fundamental MMA training if he's part of a well-rounded complete program. This will be the topic of another blog, much sooner this time, I promise!) 

• To be able to strike effectively in MMA, a fighter must be able to stay on his feet and control the free standing position, which can be very difficult because this often means his success in striking (and the damage it causes) will often cause his opponent to attempt to clinch or take him down to nullify the strikes. A MMA striker must be able to clinch and counter wrestle.
• To set up a shot, a fighter must be able to time his opponent’s strikes or create his own pressure by throwing strikes to set up the shot. He must also be able to transition from the takedown into ground work as well without putting himself in poor position to get submitted or swept.
• To end the fight in a submission, the fighter must get the fight to the ground and will need to make several transitions through the standup and takedown phases in order to get the fight to the ground putting him in a favorable leverage position.

"So how do I spar for MMA?"

So you can see that as a MMA fighter, it's critical to learn and train transitions. Including transitions in your sparring training to make each fighter work their skills in the format that closest resembles how they will actually fight. To do so we divide all of our MMA sparring at Fairfax Jiu-Jitsu into 3 major categories.

Standup Sparring -

Techniques: kicking, punching, knees, clinching, dirty boxing, takedowns, throws, standing cage tactics

Transitions: boxing and kickboxing striking and standup grappling including muay thai clinchwork, greco and judo and wrestling

Format: Fighters spar using almost all of their skills available on their feet including strikes clinched knees, pummeling, dirty boxing, takedowns (shots) and throws. The "action" does not stop until the round ends or someone is taken down and there is a clear position achieved. - Standing, side control, guard, back etc., in which the fighters will stop and reset standing again.

"Be like water" - Bruce Lee

This is the launch pad for all of our striking and for much of our clinching and wrestling skills in MMA. This is where our students begin to fully understand the relationship that striking and grappling have. You're a good striker? Try it against someone actively seeking to take you down (ie. BJJers and wrestlers - 2/3rd of the people you may encounter).  You're a good wrestler? Try it against someone who is going to punch or knee you as soon as you move towards them.

What changes? - the transitions of course! Setting up your takedown, timing a strike, the amount of pressure you give your opponent, making the level change, throwing a knee in the clinch, etc. Dozens, if not scores of tactics unique to MMA must be addressed to succeed on your feet in MMA.

Dirty Boxing/Clinch -

Techniques: knees, punches, clinch, takedowns, throws, standing cage tactics

Transitions: striking and standup grappling including muay thai clinchwork, greco and judo and wrestling

Format: Fighters begin in a neutral clinch position (ex. Over/Under or a Collar Tie/Bicep) near the cage wall or padded wall and work to these to strike and position into control and or a takedown

Hey..Wait a minute!.. Isn't this just a sub-set of the standup sparring? Yes it is (see if your students/fighters figure this out), but over the years I've found that it is so important that it's worthy of it's own sparring time during training for two important reasons.

The frequency that two fighters will find themselves in the standing clinch should make it an area that every fighter should be comfortable and knowledgeable. The standing clinch is often the gateway in a fight. - the fighter who can control the clinch often decides where the fight occurs - continuing to fight on their feet, or down on the ground - transition! This is exactly why we focus on this sparring, working on the balance of strikes and control to score.

The second reason is the proximity of the cage and it's importance in sparring. The cage is a game changer! This full length physical barrier has major impact on positional control, takedown defense and movement. All MMA fighters need to train on the wall; both offense and defense and all the transitions in between. (this goes for all 3 formats)

Speaking of transitions.. When you begin to spar in this format you will notice another type of transition that's very sport-specific to MMA -The transitions of the clinch itself, flowing from pummeling and positional control to striking. In any given minute you could go from a Greco bodylock, to an underhook and straight arm pike to the face into a Muay Thai knee into another pummel  battle into a Judo inside leg trip, etc., etc., in an infinite loop and combination of techniques. This is unique to MMA and why we say that there is not a "muay thai clinch" or a "wrestling clinch" in our program, it's just "the clinch".

Groundwork -

Techniques: Positional control, striking, submissions
Transitions: Positional grappling with striking

Format: Fighters can begin in various positions to begin to work groundwork positions attempting various goals including, submissions, strikes, reversals, and escapes

This sparring format is the foundation of the groundwork in our MMA program. The goal is to get fighters to use effective groundwork in an environment that includes striking. When fighters spar on the ground in an isolated grappling-only format, this can lead to many bad habits that can hurt them during an MMA fight. 

One of the most common, and obvious shortcomings is not being adept at defending punches being thrown by a person who may be more than willing to remain inside their guard or a side control position as long as they are causing damage and winning in the eyes of the judges.

This has a major impact on the guard position in MMA. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blackbelt Mark Jones had this to say about the guard in MMA. "The rules of each sport (BJJ and MMA) have made the complexities of the guard serve different purposes. The guard work of MMA has to be more functional.  Keeping tight when in danger, getting back on to your feet or capitalizing immediately when opponent makes a mistake in the top position."

On the other top side of this position, a fighter must also learn how to maintain posture and pressure to strike, safely avoiding submissions and sweeps and use striking to setup his transition to a better position such as passing the guard. He must learn to balance striking with positional control or the referee will stand the fighters back up.

Mark brings up a very MMA-critical skillset that is trained in this area - standing up and disengaging from groundwork. As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the goal of isolated sparring is often narrowly defined. In fact, disengaging from your opponent in BJJ is frowned upon, however, in MMA, learning how to get back to your feet while avoiding damage could change the fight, particularly for a striker.

One of the biggest transitions we work in groundwork is the starting position. While we feel that a fighter should know how to fight from every position on the ground, it's important that he works on perhaps one of the most critical position in MMA - taking someone down and maintaining control after the takedown to enter groundwork in the dominant position. To do this we'll often begin groundwork sparring from our feet with a "no strikes until someone hits the ground" guide. This puts the pressure on each fighter to get the takedown and start the sparring in the dominant position (and keep it).

These are the 3 types of sparring that we do do develop our fundamental MMA skills on our team. Each of these formats integrating a major transition in their sparring which is key for success as a MMA fighter.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the blog article and I promise that I will switch to smaller and more frequent posts in the future.  As always,  I'd like to hear any comments or questions you have about my writing.  I am not the final word on this subject, This is just my opinion based on my experience as a student, fighter and coach.  Thanks.

Fairfax Jiu-Jitsu - Aerobic Plyometrics

An Introduction to MMA Sparring - Part 1

by Bill Easlick

Over the years I’ve seen a lot of confusion and some misconceptions about how we spar in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) training and I’d like to give my own philosophy and experience on this subject to help potential new students and help more advanced athletes as well, who may not have seen all of the possibilities. I’ve broken this blog article on sparring into two digestible posts to help clarify my thoughts and intentions to the reader.

“You fight like you train.”

When you think of MMA, you can’t help but think of its intense, exciting history and the testing of different martial arts against each other that led us to the present evolution. I think most people can agree that regardless of style, what worked well in early MMA events were combat sports, which regardless of style spend a large amount of their training practices focusing on sparring. Sparring clearly has a direct translation to fighting regardless of style.

People who have been training, even for a short time, all know that sparring is important, but when I ask them a simple question – “Why is sparring important?” I get a confused look, or a shrug and a smile from them. It’s clear to me that sparring is something that has to be experienced to be fully understood by the new student. We call it “physical enlightenment”. A friend of mine calls it “the baptism”. I think it’s no surprise both of those references have a spiritual connotation.  

Author Dan Millman wrote, "Understanding is the one-dimensional comprehension of the intellect. It leads to knowledge. Realization is three-dimensional - a simultaneous comprehension of head, heart, and instinct. It comes only from direct experience."

The first time that someone participates in sincere sparring, they go from the theoretical to the living; From what they "think" they know, to what they can actually perform. Sparring is the main vehicle that transfers static techniques learned in class, into real fighting skills.

By “real”, I mean that sparring teaches the timing, movement, and resistance that no amount of pre-patterned movements or a cooperative partner will ever give them.  (Watch early UFC’s to see this in application when combat sports athletes fought traditional martial artists.) Someone can practice a jab in the mirror or thousands or repetitions on a heavy bag or wooden dummy or even against a compliant partner who knows the jab is coming, but until they can actually deliver the jab while sparring against someone trying to avoid their strikes, (and counter) they have not integrated that skill into their fighting and when the stress and contact level of sparring rises, the skills they can rely on will narrow to their most engrained, most successful techniques. (We'll talk about this thought later.)  



The thought or perception of MMA sparring can be intimidating to many novice students, particularly those who do not have a background in contact sports like wrestling, football, rugby, or combat sports. I sometimes wonder if they imagine that we just put on our fight gloves, put in a mouthpiece and start banging on each other until someone falls down, taps out, goes limp, etc.  Maybe the new guys have to mop up the giant pools of blood? – Got to keep those mats clean! ;-D

Here is my attempt at describing and clarifying some of the methods and objectives that allow my students to maximize the potential of sparring in our MMA training. 

Ever hear someone say, “At my gym, we spar at 100%!” ?

I'm actually surprised at how frequently I heard this phrase from people on MMA-related message boards and I believe I understand their meaning despite what they actually said. To me, this is the classic case of mistaking intent vs. contact in sparring.

Intent is your sincere effort to apply your techniques in sparring. This can relate to nearly every phase of fighting from striking to groundwork. If you are sparring with a partner and working on striking and giving your best effort to use good footwork, block and evade his strikes while trying to apply your own offense, or using your best technical ability to apply a submission from a dominant position, This is sparring with 100% intent.  

Contact is the delivery of the techniques. This is not only applicable to striking, but to all phases (clinch, wrestling, groundwork). ex. You intend to jab your training partner in the chin, how hard you hit him is a measure of contact. You may intend to tap your partner with an armbar, how quickly you hyperextend his elbow is a measure of contact. 

So hopefully you can now imagine that sparring partners can be working with 100% intent, but using various levels of contact ranging from light sparring, to nearly "fight-level" sparring.

Here is how I use levels of intent and contact to create the optimal sparring for MMA training.  

Light Sparring - 

This is the "laboratory" of sparring. The focus of this sparring is the testing of MMA skills. The contact level is no more than roughly 50% of your maximum effort. The speed at which you should spar should be no more than 75%.  

It is very important to remember how closely speed is related to power, particularly in striking sparring. (Power = the mechanics of your strike x the speed at which you use it) So if you strike at full speed, you're still producing the potential for very hard contact. 
Unfortunately the variable that most people try to change is the intent, but when they reduce the intent to maintain safety at full speed, they create bad technique. Instead, if they reduce the speed of the sparring slightly, each sparring partner can still spar with full intent, attempting to landing strikes to the desired targets instead of lowering the level of intent and "pulling" punches and creating a false sparring session, improper range and poor defensive skills. In my opinion this is actually one of the hardest sparring levels to do well, not because of the lighter contact, but because of the reduced speed. Novice MMA students tend to go faster when nervous or pressured. Sometimes a student goes too hard or fast after his ego is bruised. How many times have we heard the infamous line in BJJ sparring, "Let's roll light.", where students agree to roll lightly, then quickly change to a quicker, higher level of contact once one person gets put into a bad position or tapped out.

There is a time for ego in training, but it's not in light sparring. Light sparring is about experimenting and taking chances. It's about learning how to succeed and learning how to fail. The student should feel safe knowing that if he goes for something and it doesn't work for him, the consequences won't smash him. If a student is always worried about the consequences of making a mistake, they'll stop taking chances, their MMA skills won't expand and their learning process will stagnate.  Light sparring can show you that if you try something new it might work, and it might not, and when it doesn't you can find out why and then learn how to correct yourself or even counter the counter! This is the very definition of skill development and why it is such an important part of proper MMA training at all levels of experience. 

Here's an example of some of my students engaging in light sparring for MMA. Notice the use of a large array of MMA skills - boxing, kicking, knees, throws, takedowns, even a "slam", yet all was done in a controlled manner. No one was getting "crushed" and everyone was working on being skillful.

Here is an another example of two Fairfax MMA students, both active fighters, practicing light sparring.

Here is another example of light sparring with a focus on grappling. This one features Ryan Hall in the green t-shirt, rolling with the reknown BJJ phenom Marcelo Garcia. A beautiful smooth flow.  Both men left their ego's behind and took chances.

 

Medium sparring - a.k.a. "Controlled Sparring"  -

This is the base of our MMA sparring training.  When most expereinced combat sports athletes and coaches are referring to "sparring", this is the level we have in mind. The contact level is no more than roughly 75% of your maximum effort.

"How do I measure that?", is the commonly asked question that follows that definition. The answer is "Control". In this particular context, control is the mindset that we are not going "all out" with 100% contact. We are using full intent and speed, but we are being mindful not to harm our training partners. The goal is to land your punch, not cause a knock out, or to apply a joint lock or choke but give your opponent time to tap and avoid injury. I can usually convey the objectives of this sparring in those two simple sentences. For people who have already trained in the grappling combat sports like wrestling, bjj, judo, or sambo, this is already the "de facto" method of sparring. 





While I've seen this method of sparring used since I was in grade school on the wrestling mats, I've never had anyone define it or explain the mental side of this sparring until I began to study judo and learned that the founder, Dr. Jigoro Kano, based his entire art on two simple, yet profound principles. Maximum efficiency and Jita-Kyoei - the perfection of one's self and mutual welfare and benefit. It is this second principle that really speaks to this form of sparring.  Sparring should bring out the best in both training partners. If one of them is harmed during sparring due to excessive contact, they're both losing the benefit of sparring training. One is now injured and cannot train and one has lost a skilled partner to train with, whether by injury or mentality (No one wants to train with the jerk that intentionally hurts people) which means he/she has fewer partners that will help them grow. Instead, spar with skill and control. Focus on strategy and techniques, timing, etc.  Respect for fellow training partners is crucial in MMA for a successful career.  

Hard sparring –

This form of sparring is by far the most contact that we use in MMA training. I would categorize the contact level to be > 95%. The reason it is not 100% is because this is sparring, not a fight. There should always be some level of control, even if only mental to control your emotions, avoid late hits, and foul tactics etc. 

Hard sparring is practically diametrically opposite of the Light sparring described above. In Light sparring, the objective is the focus on technical skill and the contact is kept light to keep relaxed, but for Hard sparring, the contact is extremely high and this causes the technical skill level of the sparring to often be much lower than the MMA student actually has the capacity of using. This is due to the effects of the increased pressure of Hard sparring - the adrenaline is raised, the muscles are more tense, and the person is relying on their "go-to" movements the things that they can do under pressure without much thought involved. Fighters enter "Survival Mode".

The objective of Hard sparring is not the refinement of skill, it is about the culmination of mental toughness and physical conditioning. In our gym, only one group of students uses this type of training with any regular frequency (more than once a week in our gym) -Athletes preparing for an upcoming fight. All other times our sparring is Light or Medium level sparring.

Hard sparring is where rubber hits the road for serious MMA fighters. The jump from the recreational MMA student to the competitor. Someone can be a technical wizard and have the conditioning of a machine, but if he/she doesn't have the internal fortitude, they can lose the fight when put in a tough situation.

Hard sparring is the time for the ego in MMA training. Now is the time for a theme song or a great quote to bring out his/her potential. They're going to get hit and keep going, they're going to get taken down and must get back up. They're going to get mounted and must survive and reverse the postion. They will not give up and they will not give in. The heart of a champion.

David Jacobs, a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Blackbelt and very well known for his impressive competition record, says this when asked about how to use ego in training: "When you are learning techniques, practicing them, and experimenting, you have to minimize your ego. On the other hand, when it's time to get ready for competition, you need to toughen up and tighten up and be the king of the mat!" Dave calls this ability "performance on demand", and it's a perfect description of how a competitor needs to train.

Please understand that I'm talking about the use of ego in a positive, productive way. Don't let the negative side of ego into your training. Stay humble and focused when you step off the mat/ring/cage. Everyone gets hit. Everyone taps out. What matters is how you learn from it and continue to move forward. That's character, and in the end, that may be the greatest lesson the martial arts give us. 

In Part 2 of of this Sparring for MMA blog, I'm going to talk about actual methods and systems we use at Fairfax Jiu-Jitsu for developing specific objectives and the appropriate equipment and levels of sparring for each.

Thank you very much for reading. As always, please feel free to give feedback. I completely understand that my opinion is not the final word on these topics, just simply my own experience. 

New video of MMA Sparring at Fairfax Jiu-jitsu 1/12/11

Here's the latest article from MMAinDC.com with a video clip of the guys doing some light MMA sparring.

http://www.mmaindc.com/fairfaxjj-mma/

Essential Gear for MMA Sparring

When a prospective student attends a trial class at the Fairfax Jiu-Jitsu academy’s MMA program, one of the top question that they ask me is, “What type of gear will I need for MMA classes?”  Occasionally potential students will arrive to class with gear they have previously owned from other combat sports like kickboxing/boxing or they will make assumptions about what they need based upon what they see fighters wear on TV.

This is my attempt to clarify what I, as an MMA coach for the past 9 years, believe is the proper gear for MMA training.  I’ll begin with the essential gear.

*Note* I am not recommending any particular brand, simply the type or gear an athlete should own. Much like vehicles, sparring gear can come in all colors and shapes and can be very cheap or very expensive. Look to reputable, well-known brands from the combat sports. Ex. If you are looking at gloves and shin guards look for highly regarded boxing and muay thai brands like Boon, Fairtex, Windy, Twins, Ringside, Title, CSI for equipment.  Think about the value of each piece of equipment. If you buy cheaply-made vinyl gear, don’t be shocked when it’s life-cycle is much shorter than those who bought higher quality leather gear. A new student should probably look at gear that’s in the middle of the price range for the best cost-to-value ratio.

So let’s talk gear!

The Essentials:

Groin Protector/ Cup

Let’s be real here, any time you’re involved in a combat sport involving kicking and kneeing, you will get hit in the groin accidentally. Now amplify that by the intensity of your sparring session and you could be facing serious injury! You must wear a cup gentlemen! There are dozens of manufacturers and types of cups out there ranging from plastic flex cups, to muay thai steel cups. Bottom line: Wear one.

Mouth guard

Another no-brainer.  Protect your grill !   :-D will become :-( when you lose teeth (and see your dental bill).  There are several types of mouth guards including single and double coverage. Most are custom-fitted by using the boil-n-bite method at home, while other high end mouth guards are custom molded by doing an alginate mold.  A bruise will heal, sprain will eventually go away, but broken teeth are forever.  Protect them as best as you can.

Hand wraps

You will need to purchase 180” Semi-elastic, aka. “Mexican” hand wraps  These wraps have the required length to protect an adult sized hand and the elasticity will aid in giving for support with the right amount of give as you strike.  Far too often a prospective student will come in to his first class with 120” canvas hand wraps.  These are actually wraps for juniors and while may be OK for “the basement boxer” of the cardio kickboxer, they won’t give you the protection you’ll need during multiple rounds of bagwork/padwork/sparring in a proper striking class such as MMA  muay thai or boxing.

Gloves
There are 3 types of gloves an MMA athlete should own

1. Training / Sparring gloves

Fairly self-explanatory, they will only be used during sparring where the focus is on striking.  These gloves protect your hands and will take a little bit of the sting off of some of your blows.  

A quick rule of thumb that I follow for the number of ounces of padding:  If you're under 160 lbs. get 14 oz. gloves, over 160lbs. get 16 oz., if you're over 220 get 18 oz.

Some students ask about the difference between Muay Thai style gloves and Boxing style gloves.  Due to the nature of Muay Thai’s kicks and elbows, the Thai gloves have developed to be a more square-shaped hand box, with more of the padding applied evenly to the back of the boxer’s hand for protection versus a boxer’s glove which has more front-loaded padding over the knuckles because the hands are the boxer’s only weapons.  For the purposes of MMA, either is perfectly acceptable. Both will provide ample protection during sparring. It’s really about personal preference and comfort.

Training gloves should have an attached thumb for safety as to avoid an accidental eye poke.

2. Bag gloves

These gloves will be the workhorse of most of your heavy bag and pad work. Typically these gloves will be smaller, 9-12oz. but they are made with a much denser foam padding which will protect your hand from the impact better than the softer padding of a training/sparring glove.

For MMA class, an athlete should choose a glove that has either a Hook-and-loop or elastic cuff. In class you are often partnered up for pad/bag work and need to be able to transition quickly as not to cut into your partner’s pad time.

A commonly asked question I get is, “I can only afford one pair coach.  Which ones should I get?”

100% of the time -Training gloves.  Training gloves can serve dual roles as sparring and bag gloves but it’s important to remember that the more bag work you do with them, the more quickly they will break down and provide less protection when sparring.  It’s very important to pay attention to the leather of the glove. Bag work/pad work is naturally abrasive and that is going to wear down the leather over your glove’s knuckles - the same place you are trying to strike with. Small cracks and tears in the leather can cause injury to your training partner when the punch hits skin.  To help with this, occasionally take a little dab of petroleum jelly and rub it into the gloves to keep the leather pliable before class and reduce friction, and wipe them dry after class for storage and to remove any sweat and oils from training.

3. MMA Training gloves

This is the glove that my MMA  students wear when they are doing light striking, clinch fighting (including “dirty boxing”) takedowns and ground work.  The gloves have an open palm and allow the MMA athlete to have full use of his grip during grappling.  The most significant difference between MMA Training gloves vs. MMA Fighting gloves are the fingers.  MMA Training gloves do not have individual fingers. Instead there is a large, single pad covering the knuckle area with a single seam or protective piping along the bottom edge of the 2^nd digits of the hand.  This is often called a “Shooto” style design.  This allows the athletes to strike with light to medium contact and train safely while engaging in striking and grappling.  MMA Fighting gloves are lighter in weight 4-5oz. and have individual fingers. Why is this an issue? In some fight gloves, there is a sharp edge on each corner of the finger, making  8 very sharp edges at the end of your second digit. With this design problem, even light strikes can cause scratches and cuts that can ruin an otherwise good training practice, even possibly blinding your training partner if you were to cut his eye.

  *Note I have been noticing that many manufacturers are aware of the design problem and are now tapering down the edges and sealing them with piping which is much better, however they are still lighter and offer less protection.  MMA training gloves allow athletes to raise the contact level if necessary, allowing athletes to integrate grappling and striking.


Shinguards

While all of our bagwork and padwork is done without shin guards for the purposes of conditioning, when it is time to spar with kicks, shinguards are a must. For MMA which involves kick catches and takedowns integrated with striking, I’m very partial to the MMA/grappling style shinguards which have a neoprene backing across the calf. This backing keeps the shin guards in place where the conventional striking guards would twist or slide and the sparring would have to be stopped to adjust.  Some students ask about the slip-on style shinguards. In my opinion they might be acceptable for very light sparring, they are not substantial enough to use for heavier contact. Why buy two pairs of shin guards?

That completes my list of essential gear for MMA sparring.

But wait coach..  “What about headgear?”

Ah headgear..  The subject brings up a very complicated topic for me regarding sparring, in which I hope to discuss in a future blog.  For now I’ll give you the “Reader’s Digest version” of my philosophy regarding headgear.

a.       You want it? Wear it! I fully understand many people have conditions which make it a must. Do what you must to train well, train safe, and train fun. Are you going to engage in a lot of hard boxing and kickboxing sparring? Wear it! 

b.      I've noticed something over the years. When headgear is worn, the contact level goes through the roof and the skill level of the sparring drops dramatically. Instead of mutual respect and control, it becomes “rock ‘em, sock ‘em robots”.   Notice that boxing headgear is thick around the eyebrows and cheekbones and has little to no padding over the chin.  Headgear is designed to prevent accidental cuts, it will not prevent knock outs!

c.       Clinching while wearing headgear is just awful!  With pure boxing or kickboxing it’s fine, but when you begin to grab the head or a collar tie as in muay thai and MMA, it is almost impossible for it to stay secured.

If you are local to the Northern Virginia/Washington DC metro area you should stop by the NHBGear Pro Shop in Herndon VA.  The owner, Sam Kim,  is very knowledgeable about all of the equipment I've listed and typically has several versions of each component, ex. multiple types of training gloves, MMA gloves, shinguards etc.  For anyone interested in combat sports, walking into his shop is like a kid in a candy store! He's got everything you'll need.                  


If you have any comments or questions, I’d love to hear from you.

As mentioned above, my next blog will discuss sparring - purpose, intensity, contact, etc.

Stay safe, Have Fun!

Bill Easlick