The Importance of Drilling and “Proper Sparring” in MMA

I have said it before and often that one of the biggest downfalls of the popularity in the sport of mma is that it grew too big too fast. What ensued after the popularity boom of the late 90’s (and still continues today) was a mass race to cash in on popularity, perceived cash flow, and social status. The end result was a mix of good and bad with the bad being largely unregulated less than credible instructors, trendy wanna-be tough guys, non-standardized curriculum and sometimes greedy promoters looking to make a buck.  To this end, the fact that anyone can rent a storefront, hang a sign and say they are an mma school can make finding a place to train a sometimes daunting endeavor. 

GO HARD OR GO HOME?

I have seen gyms that base their entire syllabus only on sparring and rolling hard every class. These are the knuckleheads I often hear coaching cage side who's idea of corner instruction is relegated to: “BE STRONGER” or “TAP HIM OUT!”  Now, let me follow the aforementioned statement with my affirmation that yes, sparring is important but of even more importance is where it lies within your overall training regimen and how it’s structured.  If you take one thing from this article take this “Sparring without proper drilling is useless.”  Let me expand by taking for a second Manny Pacquiao or any other high level boxer during a pre-fight camp where making a living is on the line.  Sparring is purposeful and pre-planned with each session focusing on individual attributes, defense, or offense that is being emphasized for the upcoming opponent. It is based upon controlled drilling, specific pad work to reinforce the behavior and solidified by starting slow and building the response in a free flow environment i.e. sparring.  If the fighter is worried about getting his head taken off every session, he will revert to what is natural for him to do and never absorb the new behavioral patterns. This becomes even more apparent in the world of mma where trainers are often faced with the task of transforming wrestlers into strikers and vice versa.  If the fighter in question enters every sparring session with a “balls to the wall” mindset he will always resort to his base and will largely remain the same fighter over the course of his career, one dimensional and predictable. When you couple this with the injuries that tend to result as part of this teaching method it becomes painfully apparent that neither participant is learning, merely only testing their manhood to the enjoyment of fan boys turned coaches who believe sparring is the fight and not a tool.

Drill the Skill

Technique sessions should beget drilling sessions which should in turn be broken up into various scenario options with variables on ways to lead into the desired behavior.  

Example:

As part of my program I often teach the left hook sets up the double leg with the penetration step to the left side of the body. Now, upon breaking down the individual technique of left hook, change levels, step through and turn the corner I will begin the drilling process.  This often looks like:

1. Jab, Cross, Hook Go.

2. Then, Hook Cross Hook Go.
3. Then adding defense I may add in the context of pad work jab, slip his cross, hook and shoot etc. breaking the technique into different lead ins to get there.

4. The fighter should reinforce the pattern with a live partner loose and lightly adding the normal prefixes like exchanging jabs or kicks before hitting the new technique set.  You can round robin this approach with different partners to get different feels with the end result being that by using platforms and building intensity slowly the fighter will gain newfound confidence and comfort using the sequence in real time.  Also, a good segue into hitting the combination is to ascribe a codename for it that only he knows cueing him in sparring to hit the go button when as a coach you see opportunities arise while in the 3^rd party perspective  of the corner.

The resounding lesson here is that sparring is not a fight, it is a tool that should be used to reinforce desired behaviors, work functional cardio, gain experience, dissect shortfalls and prepare you for success.  Pissing contests belong in barroom brawls, not in the sport of mma. Train smart, fight hard and succeed!