The Combat Athlete – Part I

Many combat athletes must train several attributes within a single workout. This situation is particularly common among fighters who partake in skill sessions each day of the week. For example, a mixed martial artist will be busy training several unique skills. Each day may be dedicated to a unique aspect of his game such as jiu-jitsu, boxing, kickboxing, etc.

Not all fighters have the luxury of training two or three times each day (although I will address this audience on page 50). Many fighters work full-time jobs as well as train. For this reason, the athlete must carefully arrange the order of properties trained within a single workout.

For example, suppose you have a 2 hour jiu-jitsu class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It would not make sense to schedule an intense strength or conditioning workout before class, and then be forced to grapple with a fresh opponent. Remember, strength and conditioning work should enhance performance. If your S&C work detracts from skill training, you have made a mistake. Each piece of the puzzle must serve a purpose, with a common goal of improved performance.

If you have skill sessions each night of the week, you can often incorporate strength and conditioning within these sessions.

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A generally accepted sequence of events (within a single session) was provided many years ago by researcher N.G. Ozolin (cited from Siff, 2003). Following the warm-up, the template below can serve as a general guideline:

1. Technical skill training 2. Speed and agility

3. Strength* (refer to page 48 for further discussion) 4. Endurance

Clearly, this schedule should not be followed each day, as such an intense workload may compromise recovery abilities. A fighter certainly does not need daily strength training, in addition to daily conditioning and skill work. If you must train everything at once however, this template will point you in the right direction.

For example, new skills must be developed when the body is fresh. It would not make sense to begin a skill session with a conditioning workout. The fatigue that accumulates from the conditioning work will compromise your ability to learn new skills. If you try to learn new skills when the body is fatigued, you are likely to develop bad habits which are difficult to correct.

Speed and agility should also be trained when the body is fresh. Consider a short distance sprinter for example. You will not see a 100 meter sprinter improve his running speed after working through a lengthy conditioning workout. The body must be fresh (and rested) to produce maximum speed and power.

Therefore, conditioning work should be performed towards the end of a multiple attribute workout (a workout that targets more than one physical attribute).

Remember, endurance is the ability to bear fatigue. To improve endurance, you must produce and then push through fatigue. Fatigue will compromise speed, power, and technical skill, so commonsense tells us that endurance work should be performed afterwards.

QUESTION - Ross, how will I develop the ability to fight through fatigue, if I never train my skills when fatigued?

This is an excellent question which is easily addressed. First, as mentioned earlier, you must be fresh to learn a new skill. For this reason, new skills should not be drilled when fatigued. You must first become technically proficient with the skill.

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Conversely, as a fighter, you must be prepared to fight through fatigue. As mentioned earlier, champions separate themselves from contenders by executing skill under demanding conditions. The ability to display skill in a state of fatigue is a unique skill itself. Consider the boxer who must maintain a busy work rate in the later rounds, despite the presence of fatigue. When training this specific quality, the boxer should stick with well mastered combinations. These combinations are already ingrained in his arsenal. He will therefore stick with well mastered techniques when preparing himself for the fatigue that will be encountered under competitive circumstances.

Suppose you have just learned how to counter your opponent’s straight right hand with a check hook (a short left hook thrown as a counter to the right hand).

This skill is new to you. Therefore, you would not want to drill this skill as a conditioning exercise. First, you need to put the skill on autopilot, meaning that you can perform the skill instinctively without conscious thought. Instead, you would use well mastered techniques when conditioning yourself to punch through fatigue.

In addition, much of your conditioning work will come from supplementary activities that do not impact sporting technique. For example, working through an interval workout (ex. running) will not influence your technical ability to throw a compact left hook. The conditioning exercise is designed to condition the body (ex. develop the cardiovascular system) with no influence on technique.

QUESTION - Ross, you’ve mentioned skill, speed, and endurance, but what about strength training?

I have intentionally excluded strength training from the discussion above.

Combat sports are multifaceted in nature. The combat athlete’s training schedule is already crammed. When discussing order of properties within a single workout, strength training will typically be excluded, as you will not be training strength during each workout. A single session that includes skill work, speed, strength, and endurance is simply too much.

The skill and conditioning work of a fighter is often physically exhausting.

Consider the grappler who is rolling with a 200 pound training partner. Such work is extremely strenuous. It would not make sense to include a full strength training session on top of this demanding workout.

In most cases, strength work is best performed on its own. If you wish to merge multiple attributes, you could conclude the strength workout with a short, but challenging finisher (to provide some conditioning benefits). The actual strength workout itself however must stress quality over quantity. A fighter must already

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contend with a busy and intense training regimen. Too much strength work will compromise recovery abilities. A few brief sessions per week are all that is necessary.

A sample week could include:

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Skills

Monday and Thursday Most strenuous conditioning workouts Tuesday and Friday Most strenuous sparring sessions

Wednesday and Saturday Strength workouts, conclude with finisher

Sunday Rest

With such a schedule, individual workouts will follow the order of properties listed on page 47 (with the exception of strength work).

ƒ To start the week, Monday will begin with skill work and finish with conditioning. This conditioning workout should be strenuous. For example, you could perform one of the more challenging ICT or EIT workouts. Strive to truly push yourself during this session.

ƒ Tuesday will include a strenuous sparring session. Supplementary conditioning work will include less volume than Monday’s session. Refer to the samples from the end of this manual for a few options. You will be amazed at how much you can accomplish with 10 to 20 minutes of hard conditioning after a sparring session. As a young fighter, I was fortunate to work with the late Pepe Vasquez, who served as the conditioning coach for two-time world champion Marlon Starling. Pepe stressed to me that the workout was not over after the sparring session. On the contrary, the workout was just beginning. After sparring, we would take a few minutes to hydrate and then proceed with conditioning. It was during these times that we made tremendous improvements in overall fitness.

ƒ Wednesday will shift gears towards strength work. If skill training is included on this day, it will be less intense when compared to the sessions from Monday and Tuesday.

ƒ This three day cycle will then repeat itself from Thursday through Saturday.

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When constructing your own plan, it may be useful to first create a weekly checklist. Determine various objectives that must be targeted throughout the week. After filling in your checklist, it becomes much easier to see how each piece of the puzzle will work together.

The sample from page 49 is charted below:

Categories Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

Integrated Circuit Training

Finisher Core Training

Weekly Training Checklist (Sample)

Sport-specific training (ex.

MMA class)

Enhanced Interval Training

Strength Training Minute Drills

Clearly, this weekly split is just one of many options. Once again, individual work capacity will determine your ability to include more or less work per week.

A highly trained professional fighter will be much more capable of handling additional work. Your competition schedule must also be considered. Suppose you are not competing any time soon. You may wish to use this time to focus more attention towards a specific weakness (ex. strength).

Please note that I have not included the sample template from page 49 with the hope that everyone follows this model. I am simply offering one visual example to get the wheels spinning. Each athlete must customize a schedule to meet their needs and abilities.