Quality Control Coaching MMA’s Missing Ingredient
I recently had the good fortune of meeting up with an old friend from years ago Kru Oscar Martinez at an event in which I was coaching and he was officiating for the Colorado State Athletic Commission. During the course of our conversation, we spoke about what we were currently up to and reminisced about our early days in the sport. This brought back a flood of fond memories, spawned some questions about the direction MMA has taken and where we each saw it going in the future. And while the focus of this article as the title alludes to is quality control coaching, I would for a moment ask that you grant me an opportunity to share with you a special piece of history that is gone forever, one that had a monumental impact on our sports development and yet the masses will never know it existed.
Early Development
When I first began competing somewhere around circa 1995-96 there was no such thing as Mixed Martial Arts. At the time the activity that would later become known as such was simply referred to as either “Pit-Fighting or NHB (No Holds Barred). During this embryonic period there was a little promotion ran out of Bing Tran’s CMGA in Littleton, Colorado called The Lone Wolf Tournament. This event was true gladiatorial combat at it’s finest. Weight classes spanned 40lb differentials, up to 20 minute time limits were the norm, you could fight numerous times in a night and the bouts were set up to showcase different skillsets. This means that there might be a Muay Thai match followed by a grappling match followed by an NHB bout and oh what glorious time it was. While these fights remain for the most part obscure and unrecorded by history or sanctioning body I was blessed to witness near teenagers at the time with names like Ludwig, Kronk, Mardquart and Waterman enter the arena of battle years before they would become legends of the UFC. I remember Oscar Martinez winning end of the night honors for Muay Thai and many like Donnie Martinez, Joe Montalvo and big John Patrone from the Defense Institute all who would go on to be great teachers themselves make their fighting debuts alongside me.
End of An Era
However with the arrival of the new millennium, came regulation of the sport by the boxing commission. This signaled the death rattle of unsanctioned events in Colorado and the sport, by now called MMA continued to experience exponential growth much like the ninja craze had done a decade beforehand. As with any opportunistic endeavor everyone rushed out to monetize on the newfound cash cow and what ensued, both good and bad created the springboard for what we now know as our sport today.
Coaching Chaos
It is my observation that MMA grew large so fast in such a short amount of time that it never quite had a chance to fully develop uniform teaching structures, well rounded coaches and business models on average to support the amount of “gyms” and “fight teams” that were popping up on every street corner. This is certainly not meant to accuse, point fingers, or paint anyone with a negative brush as there are of course many reputable gyms/teams in my home state of Colorado and around the world. Rather, I hope this article will serve as a conduit for introspection, one that can help us all get better at what we do. Now, if we look at the sport as a whole we will see that there are really 3 major types of teaching models. Please take into account that all approaches have good and bad points I am merely generalizing each one for a big picture perspective.
1. The training “group” this is the team in which noone on average has a clearly defined role except usually the “team manager” who supplies the t-shirts and promotional items and usually takes the role of matchmaking for the group as well. In this model we see individuals who come together to work toward a common goal and for the exchange of knowledge and techniques i.e. one has done boxing the other some jujitsu, a few are wrestlers etc. This comprises the most common category today at an amateur level though this does not exclude them from having pros in their stable. They are often tight knit and bound by friendship at their core. The advantages of this type of group are trust and loyalty, the downside is often training space, resources and equipment.
2. The traditional school who, seeing their profit centers shrink in lieu of mixed martial arts decides to add an mma class/team. This school has primarily relied on traditional arts involving cardio, kids and self defense. However, because the popularity of MMA is unmistakable they will either bring in an affiliate grappling program and or hire an instructor and by mixing their kickboxing with grappling they are able to stave off profit loss by diversifying with MMA. The advantages of this group are usually very clean facilities and usually well equipped but on the norm do not have access to very MMA specific resources as it pulls capital away from their primary focus women, children and cardio.
3. The barber shop is based off the same model as well ,a barber shop. An owner buys a building and sublets or leases different time slots and classes to provide a variety of curriculum to choose from. Usually this includes a boxing coach, a Muay Thai Kru, A wrestling coach, and BJJ coach. This model is usually the most successful of the 3 approaches and keeps pro fighters at the forefront of priority. Advantages of this program are very much resource based, cage equipment high quality instruction the downsides are lack of personalized focus on beginner levels, and if there’s not enough communication you have several different disciplines telling you several different ways to do things in which none may be specific for mma.
The Future
As far as this sport has come and continues to mold and evolve today, it can always get better. We as coaches need more quality control in our programs. There are many coaches who have no idea how to break down their techniques and skillsets in a manner that allows one to set up the next. I see too many “friends” in corners when what an athlete really needs is a coach. I see coaches who’s idea of advice for their fighter while he’s getting pounded is simply: “be stronger” or “take him down”! I have seen 3 different coaches yelling 3 different commands in unison while their poor discombobulated guy is having a hard enough time listening to one. I have seen world class reputable gyms fumbling around locker rooms asking to borrow scissors or for someone to wrap their fighter’s hands. The defining point here is that we as a community of professionals (and amateurs) need to step up to the plate and better learn our jobs. We need to stop being so vain and ask for help in learning things we don’t know. That means, learn how to teach, learn how to do a lesson plan so we are not doing something different every day that we won’t see again for two months until we have forgotten it. It means structuring progressive, comprehensive programs that take a student from point a to point b, it means learning that sparring and rolling at a 100 percent every day doesn’t make you look tough it guarantees you a short career. Coaches need to learn how to strategize, do homework, how to game plan, how to cut weight and prepare properly and most importantly safely. We have an opportunity here to create the next generation of mixed martial arts greats and they will be a direct byproduct of the training environments they are bred in. So, no matter which of the 3 gym types you fall under, let’s help this next generation of greats put their best foot forward.-
-Kuya
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