For the last few months I have been watching the sessions as I had guys training for fights so I had to keep an eye on their technique, temperament, sort out game plans and so on. This took me away from all the other guys at the club as my focus had to be on the fighters. Now the fights are over I have taken a step back and I am loving it.

I have two of my trusted lieutenants step up to take the classes. This leaves me to train on the mat with the rest of the guys and get hands on with everyone. This is working really well for a number of reasons, but the fact that I get to train with the guys and work all the same skills and drills gives me a great view of our clubs training. If I just stood up the front and barked orders then I would lose touch and forget how 20 double leg takedowns in a minute felt. When you forget what things feel like it is common to take things too far, eg 20 double legs in one minute is hard, so the next time you do the drill you increase the number until you have gone too far and reached a level that you couldn’t do yourself. I believe as an instructor that you should never ask your students to do something that you can’t or haven’t done. Doing the sessions has been great to make sure that we have the training at a realistic level. The guys on the mat also know that I practice what I preach in terms of technique and skills.

The other more enjoyable part of the process is having someone else take the session and see them develop as instructors. I think this is important so if I am away then the guys know that there are good people who will take the class that I trust. The guys that I have been getting to take the sessions have been doing a great job working together to figure out who takes what session and what techniques are shown. As they both have different strengths it very interesting for me as a trainer to see how they use their skills. They have shown techniques that I wouldn’t and that is great as it gives the guys a different perspective to the positions shown. Overall it has been great watching two skilled guys develop as instructors.

Some instructors will be saying “I don’t want my students taking the class when I am there” as it almost be like you have been demoted in rank. Yes I can understand that but it is more important that your students know that if you are not there that there are some very good guys that can step up. Having a strong level of teaching is very important for a strong club.

Some instructors will be saying “But people come here for me”. That’s true, and you are still the big dog in the club and everyone knows it, but having that strong group of people around you is priceless.

In short, don’t be arrogant enough to think that you can’t learn from your students and it is a great way to help them with their development. Get on the mat with your students, partner up with them for drills, and they will remember that session for years. Meanwhile you are developing some great instructors and you are there for them as a safety net if they need it. The only downside is it becomes hard to keep your mouth shut during the drills – let them do their technique their way and enjoy the ride.

Gareth Lewis

Head MMA Instructor

http://www.mixedmartialarts.co.nz/

Take Nog v CroCop – in this fight you knew that Nog was not going to win on his feet and CroCop was not going to win on the ground. This meant that CroCop was doing the classic sprawl and brawl, keeping his distance with strikes and defending the takedown attempts. Nog on the other hand had to close the distance get him to the ground to get the win. What made this interesting was the fact that the fighters, the crowd and everyone watching more or less knew the game plans for both the fighters and was very interesting to see how it would play out. Another great Striker versus a ground fighter was Randy Couture v Chuck Liddell, again you knew what each of them had to do to win and it was great to see how they solved the puzzle.

Recently the fights have not been as entertaining in that respect, a shocker was a great wrestler against a great grappler (Hughes v Renzo Gracie), they both knew about the others skills on the ground. Renzo is a grappling legend and Hughes tapped out Royce Gracie. So instead of a potentially great grappling and positioning match we got to see two guys, who are not good strikers, stand and strike. Hughes didn’t go for the take down for fear of Gracie’s ground game and Renzo could not take Hughes down, because of his wrestling. Two of the sports big names ended up having one of the most boring fights as neither of them is known for their striking.

Take Rashad Evans v Jon Jones (at the time of writing the fight had not happened) they are both two very good athletes with strong wrestling backgrounds. There is a very strong chance that the fight will be decided with the stand up as neither of them want to risk a missed shoot and getting caught underneath the other person. However as it is a five round fight, they will revert to their strengths as they fatigue, which means in the last two rounds (assuming it goes that long) there will be a number of takedowns in round four and five. For the record I am picking Jon Jones to frustrate Evans with his range and eek out a decision as gridge matches are usually not event full– Jones win via DEC.

These days everyone is so good at everything that there is no longer the classic battles of days gone by. Everyone is so well rounded that they can adapt their game depending on who they are against. This is because MMA has caused a fight evolution, no longer can the World Kickboxing Champ move to MMA and get instant success, this is the same for a World Champion Wrestler or a BJJ World Champ. MMA has shown us that no matter how good you are at one thing, you need more strings to your bow to make it in MMA, which is great for bragging rights, but I still like the good old days of kickboxing v BJJ, boxing v wrestling, BJJ v wrestling just to see how they dealt with another style of fighting.

Gareth Lewis

Head MMA Instructor

http://mma.uprise.co.nz/

Ronda Rousey has won all her 8 fights with arm bars, and she has even broken a few arms in the process. Surely then all you have to do against her is work your arm bar defence and you will be fine.

There are a lot of fighters that are very strong in one area and use that to get their wins, but this does not mean that they are only a one trick pony. Take Ronda for example, after she won her first 3 amateur fights with arm bars and then stepped up to pro I am sure her first Pro opponent Ediene Gomes must of known that all she did was take people down and arm bar them, and she did this in under a minute in all her fights except one. This makes her even more impressive in my opinion as everyone knows what her game plan is yet she achieves it each and every time, she takes them down and gets the arm bar.

All you need to do to beat Mike Tyson, in his prime, is keep him at range with your jab. Again all sounds very easy, as you know against Tyson he is going to try and get inside and throw his shots. Tyson fought Larry Holmes, who was past his prime, and was known for one of the best jabs in heavy weight history and he couldn’t keep a young Mike Tyson away.

Take any of the top fighters on the planet and in theory they are all easy to beat. GSP defend his take downs and out strike him, Anderson Silva slip his punches and land your counters, Bones Jones take him down and keep top control. This is all very easy in theory but in reality everyone knows what they have to do against these guys and no one has been able to stop them yet.

How does this work for you? Get very good at a couple of things and be good at everything else. Then work on how to keep the fight in your strong areas. For BJJ, find a submission that you get success with and the learn how to get it from a number of different positions. Wrestling is slightly different as you want different takedowns from your favourite positions – for example, have three ‘go to’ moves from the clinch. In striking have a counter for the percentage punches, which are punches that they are likely to lead with (usually a jab), and have your movement and counter ready to go. Once you have landed the counter then your offensive favourites come in to play.

Just because someone wins the same way each time doesn’t mean that they are only a one trick pony, rather it means that they are very skilled at that move. Watch and learn to see what they are doing different to you and make your move better.

Gareth Lewis

Head MMA Instructor

http://mma.uprise.co.nz/

Every time you are at training you are giving up valuable time, and in many cases money, to be there to train. Instead of spending time with your family, partner or friends you have decided to go to training so that should make you think that you are going to get the most out of it as possible.

There are nights when you feel a little flat and have a good excuse to take it easy at training. The other option is to go technical and work specific skills and make sure everything is as correct as you can make them. You can drill these techniques in a live situation rather than sparring. This way y0u get a great workout without going over the edge with your energy levels.

In fight sports it is a case of when you get injured, not if. This means if every time you are injured that you stay at home then you will miss a high number of sessions. Instead, change how you look at injuries, as they are actually a blessing. How can an injury be a blessing? It is all very simple, take a striker that has a great jab and a left hook (orthodox) who gets an injury to their left hand. One option is take time off until the hand heals, the other option is to look at the bright side – now that person has to work their right hand as they can’t throw their left hand. This now gives the striker a few weeks to work new skills – and the best way to land your left hand is to make the person worry about your right. Everyone, no matter what part of MMA you are talking about, has an area that they stick to as it is their strength. Then an injury comes along and you are forced out of you comfort zone, and makes you develop new skills which I think is fantastic.

Everyone has things that they could be doing instead of training, at any fight gym around the world you will have business owners, parents, husbands, wives, people going through sad times, divorces, deaths and so on. If you are going to be away from your family then it is only fair, to you and them, to put in 100% to your training and get the most out of that session as possible. That doesn’t mean just training hard but ask questions from the top guys and pick their brains, practice new moves on the less experienced guys and work your skills against the people at your level.

The old saying is “Be here now” which is perfect in this situation. When you are training make sure your brain isn’t at work or at home as that means that training suffers. Whereas if you are at home or work and your head is at training then your work or home life suffers. Whatever you are doing make sure your head is there, especially with fight training as you really need to have your head in the game otherwise things are not going to go very well.

Gareth Lewis

Head MMA Instructor

http://mma.uprise.co.nz/

However there is a down side to this competitive spirit – when things don’t go to plan at training and you ask them about it they will include an excuse on why things didn’t go their way. One of the most common I have heard is “I was working some different stuff, if I was using my A-Game then….”. Excuses are just the way the fighters deal with failure, because in their heads they just can’t be beaten so there has to be some reason for it. If you need more evidence on this just listen to post fight interviews and listen to what the loser says, it is very rare that they say they are beaten by a better fighter as there is usually the injury, the illness or the break up that effected the preparation. All the top fighters that I have trained with have this in common – they have no concept that someone is better, they always justify a loss with an excuse (reason) even if they got a beating it is due to some sort of miscalculation.

It is the nature of the fight game that you will come up against people better, that is why there are very few undefeated fighters. In MMA especially you will come up against better people as we have to train each sport individually the specialists will always have the upper hand. This is one of the best aspects of MMA. When your #1 fighter needs to beat everyone every time you are going to hear a lot of excuses, some of them will make you laugh and some will make you mad, but they will keep on coming.

The real problem with this mentality is fight time – if no one can beat them then how can they get up for a fight? The best fights are when you are against someone who is meant to whoop you ass, you are on high alert and you know that if you do something wrong that it could be the end of the fight. If you don’t think anyone is above you how can you get in that mind set?

Have a think with your training how people have justified their loss to you, you are either too big, too strong, too fast, too flexible, too experienced, too fit, too technical – the list goes on.

Make sure when you are on the losing end that you take it, learn from it and get better from it rather than making excuses.

Gareth Lewis

Head MMA Instructor

http://mma.uprise.co.nz/

This moment of clarity came when I was watching a very experienced kickboxer take a studentfor a pad session and over a twenty minute period he repeated three things.

1) Don’t Rush

2) Keep your balance

3) Don’t get excited

On the drive home I had a think about what he was saying and how I could use it to improvewhat I am doing. Then it clicked for me – they are all inter-connected.

Each element affects the other. If you lose your balance and rush to get your balance back you will, ironically, lose your balance and put you in a bad position. Or, if you land a good punch and get excited it causes you to rush and lose your balance which means that you will miss out on the knockout.

These elements are applicable to each individual discipline of MMA, and every fight sport is based on the same principles. Go fast but don’t rush is something that one of the Gracie’s said.

This works for striking as well, as if you try to rush a counter and a combo it ends in a stuff up. Generally people rush striking for fear of being hit, but the more they rush the more that

they leave themselves open to be hit. In wrestling it is all about balance and position, your opponent is constantly trying to get you out of position so they can get you off balance and take you down.

The more I think about what was said the more it makes sense, they are all very simple yet very difficult things to control. The next time you are sparring focus on your balance, make sure you don’t rush and don’t get excited and see how it effects your performance.

Gareth Lewis

Head MMA Instructor

http://mma.uprise.co.nz/

Hitting a tyre with a sledge hammer – can’t say I have ever seen someone ground and pound a tractor tyre with a sledge hammer in a fight yet. Yes, Tank Abbott somewhat resembled a tyre when on his back and I am sure Fedor’s hands feel like sledge hammers on the receiving end of his ground and pound, but you will not see this movement in the cage. The only move that the sledge hammer swing would reassemble is a shoulder throw and please tell me the last time that one of those were successful in the higher levels of MMA. Even assuming that you are working the movement the physics are all wrong when you compare throwing a person over your shoulder compared to swinging a sledge hammer.

Flipping a tyre – people have told me that it is good for working your shoots. Now I am not an Olympic Gold medallist in wrestling but I do know the difference between a single and double leg, and all that I have been shown with the double leg takedown looks nothing like flipping a tyre. Take the penetration step for example, where you do the level change then drop the front knee and drive (more or less), whereas when flipping a tyre your feet are side by side, your hands drop to the level of the tyre (also known as the floor), and then you do a dead lift movement to flip the tyre which is not like a double leg at all.

The most important things when training for MMA is intensity and level changes, just like when you are fighting. This means that instead of doing 3 sets of 6 – 8 of squats with 90 seconds rest between sets you would be better off (for legs) doing a 5 heavy squats, a weighted jump (dumbbells for example) and 10 walking lunges continue and do as many reps as possible for 3 minutes. This gives you the strength (squats) explosiveness (jump squats) and endurance you need with the time duration. In MMA you need to have the strength endurance to get the take down for the last round. A workout that I gave some wrestlers had lots of body weight and movement based exercises with a heavy heavy lift (90% of their max lift). This gave them that strength in the last minute to get the takedown if needed. For MMA you need to work your strength while you heart rate is high, this is how to replicate competition.

In short, do movements that mimic what you are doing and make sure that there are level changes in the workout, this could be as easy a burpee, but you need to exercise when on the floor as in MMA we spend a fair amount of time there and remember that there are more ways to train other than tyres and sledge hammers.

Gareth Lewis

Head MMA Instructor

http://mma.uprise.co.nz/

I started BJJ before MMA and got caught up in the all round skills needed to give the good guys a run. This made me work my guard, develop my top game and get attacks from both positions. Then I started training in MMA and found that certain positions meant a lot of pain and not much fun - AKA being on my back. Without knowing it from then I started working top control and attacks a lot more than working off my back. Going forward to today, and I may be wrong here, but my game is all about top control and keeping the other guy on his back. I use my wrestling skills to get people on their back and then use BJJ to keep them there and then attack their arms or go for a brabo – that is my game in a nutshell.

So has training in MMA made my BJJ better? Here is the positive spin – as I avoid going to my back in MMA, as that is where I get punched, I have developed a good base which makes me hard to sweep and then if I do get swept I try to roll away so that they can’t control  me after the sweep. This has given my BJJ focus and intent as I have an absolute goal. In fact recently I have noticed that even when I try to work my guard and someone stands and  gives me a leg to grab I immediately grab it  and go for a takedown and get top position. This methodology is so ingrained in to my brain it seems to be in entrenched in my BJJ game as well.

On the flip side, when rolling and I feel like playing guard (this is the usual situation against a mid level guy) I usually get them in my guard and attack, they defend and pass (due to the lack of my pure guard skills) and once they are in side control I escape and put them on their back then I find I try and get to mount so I can roll over and play the game again. This developed as I have a hell of a time getting back to guard from side control. I would love to be able to blame my size for this but sadly it is not the case. With this current mind set I have found myself using guard as a stall position, just like MMA, then I attack to get the sub or sweep. If that fails then they usually pass and I then switch to wrestling mode to get off my back. The down side is that I will give up positions in the process, as I back my wrestling to deal with the head to head or someone attacking my back when I am on all fours. This works most of the time but the when I am on my back against a good guy the only option for me is to get out and I have to have my defence going at 100% to get back to a place that I am happy.

So has BJJ hindered or helped my BJJ? I believe that all depends on how you look at my skills. In rolling I know how to keep to my strengths and avoid my weakness. Therein lies the problem – your biggest strength is your biggest weakness, which means if I am up against someone who is squirmy twisty guy that is like trying to control a piece of soap my plan B doesn’t get the practice it should to be effective.

In short MMA has helped focus and give my BJJ intent but has also given me tunnel vision and has left skills, that I would’ve worked without MMA, underdeveloped.

 From what I have seen, for people with BJJ skill if they get some wrestling technique it seems to help them a lot. This is based on the theory that most people in BJJ learn the same things, with a slight twist on it. But at the end of the day an armbar is an armbar. When you add some wrestling in there it gives them a slightly bigger skill set with moves that BJJ guys haven’t had to deal with, which makes them effective. In New Zealand having any wrestling experience is going to put you ahead of the curve and give your BJJ game a boost.

Gareth Lewis

Head MMA Instructor 

http://mma.uprise.co.nz/

Have a think about the best trainers in the fight world: people like Cus D’Amato, Eddie Futch, Freddie Roach, Lou Duva, Greg Jackson,  and Shawn Tompkins. They have all trained some of the best fighters on the planet but none of them really did anything in the sport themselves. This means that they know exactly what it takes, in terms of technique and strategy, to get to the top but they just missed a certain ingredient. This knowledge and love for the sport lead them to help other fighters in the gym and before you know it they have become a trainer (that is not the scenario for each of the names above).  

Then you have  the fighter who has a bucket load of talent, skill and heart but can’t make a fight plan to save themselves. These guys need the trainer in the corner to make the plan and adjust the plan as needed during the fight as the fighter cannot see it. Even the very clever fighters need help with this during a fight because  as fatigue sets in thinking becomes very difficult.

How does this translate in to the fight gym? There is the guy that was a good fighter and now is helping the young guys out but what they don’t understand is not everyone is as dedicated as he was. In his day the fighter did all his fitness outside of the gym and turned up to every session raring to go. The fighter pushed to the limit on each session and was the last to leave on most nights. In short he got there through hard work and discipline, so when he is talking to the young fighters he assumes that they are all like him and he doesn’t need to worry about that side of the training. This leads to the fighter lacking in preparation as the fighter believed that everyone has the same drive as he did. You can’t blame the fighter for this as they just thought that everyone who wants to fight is willing to put ion the hard work and doesn’t need to be told – sadly this is not the case.

The trainer is the guy that turns up and gives the fighters the session, someone who is a fighter cannot really train people – there are exceptions  to this – as by nature a fighter has to focus on themselves and when you are training people you have to focus on everyone else so it becomes a contradiction. Therefore it is better to decide if you are either a fighter or a trainer.  The trainer can focus on everyone else and make sure that they are doing all the right things, as they are not trying to get better at fighting themselves there is never any thought about themselves they are there to make all the fighters better.

It is good for a trainer to have a competed in their sport, although not necessary, so they know what it feels like. A trainer should never ask someone to do something that they would not be prepared to do themselves. The trainer has to be just as dedicated as the fighter, they should be at all the trainings and working as many rounds as the fighter and so on.

They are lots of examples of how a good player is not a good coach, Michael Jordan in Basketball was not a good coach but as a player unstoppable. In general most people become one or the other as there are very few examples, if any, of people who have got a world title in a fight sport and then trained a world champion. As they require contrasting skills you will usually succeed in one more than the other.

Gareth Lewis

Head MMA Instructor 

http://mma.uprise.co.nz/

The UFC expert: The guy that knows everything, watches all the UFC events, and can tell you who won any fight – thing is they have no talent or skill but will still tell you where you are going wrong, based on what they have seen on the UFC.

The training CV guy: You ask the new guy the “have you trained before” question and they give you a look, with a slight smile, like they are hiding the winning lotto numbers. Then they proceed to tell you that they have trained in Kickboxing, karate, boxing, BJJ and have trained in America, Brazil and Europe. Turns out that they suck at all the styles that they have done, hence why they have done so many. This will not stop them giving you their CV before and after every session.  

The Smart Guy: This guy will tell you the origins of each move and the percentage chance you have on landing it. Sadly the thing is they will also correct the instructor on any mistakes that they make, not so much on technique but if they mis-pronounce, mis-quote or get a date wrong.

The let’s go easy guy: The guy that will tell you that they have an injured shoulder so you should  just take it easy, when what they really mean is that you go easy and they will try and rip your head off. Then if it doesn’t work they can always blame their sore shoulder if they lose.

The no tap guy: This guy is a direct relative of the training CV guy, they have done another style and are usually rather good at it, so they assume that they will be good at MMA. Turns out that they aren’t that good and they get their ass kicked. However they will not tap as they are too good for that, this leads the submission going on harder followed by a squeal (also known as the verbal tap) and then them complaining about you going too hard.

The little angry guy: This is the guy that is little and therefore believes that he can go hard on everyone bigger and they can’t go hard back, because they are bigger. If anyone ever beats them it is because they are bigger and stronger. They often complain that everyone goes hard on them and don’t realise their size.

The natural talent guy: This guy is a good guy and really likeable, however  they have one big flaw and that is they pick stuff up so damn quick. They have been doing the sport for half the time as you and they are twice as good. When you ask how they get the move to work they answer “I don’t know I just grab a leg and go”. Since they are a good dude it makes it difficult to dislike them - difficult but not impossible.

The I want to fight guy: They tell you that they want to fight, a fight comes up and then you don’t see them for 3 weeks. On their return they will tell you about their injury but will be keen for the next one, when they find that that is only weeks away they then have a wedding / event / concert/ family thing to go to – and once again they are gutted.

This is only a sample of the people that you will come across on your MMA journey, chances are you already know some of them. Enjoy training with them as they do make each training eventful and some of them are great to practice your moves on.

Gareth Lewis

Head MMA Instructor 

http://mma.uprise.co.nz/