Issue 131

August 2015

Mike Winkeljohn, one of the world’s top combat strategists reveals the art of game planning at Jackson-Wink MMA.

Greg Jackson and I are pretty much always on the same page with what we do. I don’t second-guess him on his overall strategy and he doesn’t second-guess me on my overall standup and clinch side of the strategy. It works out well because we talk about it. 

Even cornering between rounds, we’re constantly discussing how the fight’s going, what direction we need to go and the simplest solutions to the problem we have. It’s oiled and the machine’s running real fine so we don’t want to change a thing. 

As far as the overall strategy goes, Greg and I pick it to start with and then if the fight hits the ground it’s more Greg, if it’s more standup it’s me, but we both jump in with our ideas on each other’s specialist area.

Game planning is big. Sometimes you want to attack the guy’s weaknesses, but also – and Greg is a genius at this – it’s sometimes about attacking their strengths. Look at what Jon Jones did with Glover Teixeira. Glover wanted to get in the pocket and throw down with Jon, and thought Jon would probably fight from a distance, but what does Jon Jones do? He goes into the other guy’s world to beat him mentally.

People thought Daniel Cormier was going to take Jon Jones down more, and what does Jon do? He lifted him with his angles of attack, then he took Daniel down. So sometimes attacking their strength… it depends. It’s kind of a game. You have to look at the guy’s mindset as well as his physical tools. But there’s no doubt about it – it’s more satisfying to attack an opponent’s strengths. 

We enjoy our job, we’re all lucky to do what we do for a living. It’s pretty neat to be in the corner and put together a game plan and see it play out in front of you. Fighters know it – they give you that look and you know you’re a part of something. They do all the hard work, they take all the strikes and they have to do all the physical activity. Greg and I have the easy job.

I’ve always especially enjoyed making game plans for John Dodson and Jon Jones because it’s kind of like playing video games – we speak in codes and the guys will almost immediately do what we say. It’s pretty neat. People say it’s exciting to go and watch a fight – but we have the controllers, and that’s really exciting.  

Occasionally you get those guys who are sometimes very stubborn. It’s not so much in the fight – almost everybody’s almost 100% listening in the fight – but while they’re training. You know, the Keith Jardines of this world, and even Carlos Condit sometimes. In the old days I’d tell Keith, “Keep your hands up,” and he would be like a teenager, saying, “Oh yeah? Watch this, I’m going to drop my hands.” But in the fights it got real serious and he would always listen. Honestly, everyone’s been great when it comes to us cornering them.

Sometimes the game plan just goes out of the window, particularly when the leather’s really flying in the Octagon. While I won’t name one fighter in particular, I think all fighters have had those moments where if you asked them right there in the middle of a round, “Hey, what’s your name?” they would say, “Shoot, coach, I don’t know. I’m in a fight right now. There’s a big guy in front of me.” 

Problem is, they’re just going to do the same thing over and over. It’s kind of a cognitive freeze that all fighters have experienced and it’s hard to stay undefeated if that’s how you react.

When that happens it’s usually the result of overthinking. But if they stay relaxed, a good fighter can handle the pressure. It’s just unfortunate that when some fighters analyze a bout in training – when they read articles and social media and they put so much thought into it – it becomes so big and all-consuming, that’s when we see the big cognitive freezes. 

When they overthink things and they think so much about doing or not doing a particular maneuver or level change, whatever it may be, they do nothing, or they keep doing the same wrong thing over and over again. 

It’s tough to find that balance. One of the secrets of the trade is being able to snap them out of that cognitive freeze for a fight. That’s huge, and that’s one of the good things our camp can do… But I can’t reveal how we do it. We have to keep some secrets.