Issue 037

May 2008

World-class advice from the sport's top trainers

Secrets to success aren’t given out for free. The top coaches in the world don’t make a habit of handing out advice to all and sundry, as at an elite level even the tiniest of advantages can mean the difference between victory and defeat. 

A good trainer is one of the most important things in a fighter’s life. A trainer will plan the fighter’s preparation, formulate game plans, analyse areas for improvement and break down opponents’ styles. From the outside, a fight looks like a purely individual effort over 15 or 25 minutes – but nothing could be further from the truth. Though technically not a team sport, no fighter steps into the cage alone. He is backed by his team of trainers, cornermen and sparring partners. What looks like the efforts of one man is actually the culmination of months of hard work from a team of professionals. 

We spoke with some of the leading trainers in mixed martial arts (MMA) in an effort to seek out their wisdom, knowledge and individual tricks in making their athletes into world class fighters. 

Hone your hands 

When it comes to working your boxing for MMA, you need to be ready to be able to be fluid with all other disciplines. Using punches to set up takedowns and kicks is key, but at times you’ll be boxing for the sake of boxing – looking to score the big knockout with your hands. Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson’s trainer, Juanito Ibarra, knows a bit about this. His superstar trainee’s fists were the first to land on Chuck Liddell’s chin and KO the former UFC light heavyweight champ. 

In Ibarra’s opinion, the key element lacking in the ability of fighters to use their fists properly in MMA has nothing to do with their hands at all. “Foot work”, Ibarra states plainly on what fighters need to work on most to get their boxing to an elite level in MMA. Ibarra feels fighters are not working on their footwork enough to land the big shots needed to knock out their opponents. “One of the big problems this stems from is over emphasis on watching and reading how to fight, but not finding proper training. They [the fighters] are not being taught right; people are reading books on how to hold mitts and watching videos,” says Ibarra, who certainly doesn’t think top tier MMA training can be absorbed through book and video form. “They think that’s good enough, it’s not: The game’s way more advanced than that.”

Ibarra has honed his boxing training and adapted it to MMA, amalgamating all the aspects of the sweet science that work in a fight. “I invented my own system for MMA boxing,” comments Ibarra. “I’ve taken some things from traditional boxing and added some things for MMA and I think it works.” Michael Bisping and Cheick Kongo think so too. They’ve jumped on board training with Ibarra and Rampage. But Ibarra’s isn’t going to give up any secrets on how he’s transforming Bisping or Kongo, or let the cat out of the bag on what he’s done to improve Rampage’s striking. He’ll tell you in general though that he went back to basics, working on movement, and built from there. 

“Rampage still needs improvement but I took him down to basics and took him from there and he’s grown,” says Ibarra. “A lot of the basic principles that I teach I took him back to step one, made him understand his movement, and we basically grow from there, the basics.”

Work outside your comfort zone

John Hackleman took Chuck Liddell from obscurity and made him into one of the most dominant light heavyweight fighters in the entire sport. With a relationship that goes back over ten years, Hackleman is one of the sport’s most respected trainers, with fighters from around the world travelling to The Pit gym to get his advice. His advice is simple, and he gives it to everyone: don’t be afraid to work outside your area of speciality. “I would say the most important thing is to do everything. I think a lot of guys focus at being really good at one thing,” he says. “Nowadays, if you don’t know everything and you’re not good at everything, then you’re never going to make it. Being well rounded is more important than being really good at any one thing. 

“I get a lot of grapplers come to me for stand-up, and if you focus too much on that, then they lose what they’re good at in the first place. If you don’t get them some stand-up and they rely too much on their grappling, then they’re not going to succeed,” he explains. “Someone like Matt Lindland, who came to me a long time ago to work on his hands, but not neglecting his wrestling still; or someone like Chuck, who’s good at both. He’d rather stand but we focus on wrestling to not get taken down or get right back up. A lot of the guys, especially the older-school guys, they probably want to stay with one thing.” 

With this in mind, John makes sure fighters who come to him are made to examine every area of their game. “I say it’s better to be good at everything than great at any one thing.” 

As the sport evolves fighters are coming through with the complete skill-set, so much so that Hackleman thinks you can’t necessarily pin them down as to their area of expertise. “You could talk about fighters like Urijah Faber and Georges St Pierre, they’re great, well-rounded, you can’t even say what they are really good at or what their speciality is, because their speciality is being good at everything, and I think they’re doing much better than guys that are great at submissions like the Gracies, who maybe don’t practise so much stand-up; or stand-up guys who neglect the takedown defence; or any wrestler who doesn’t work on his submission defence. It’s more important, like the new breed, like Urijah Faber, Georges St Pierre, that’s what it’s all about.” 

Communication is Key

One of the head coaches at the world-renowned London Shootfighters, Paul Ivens has been ringside for some of Europe’s most high-profile fights in his role as a coach to fighters such as Lee Murray, Jean Silva, Mustapha Al-Turk, Marios Zaromskis and more. The one thing he stresses with all of his fighters is that communication is key. “I would say that they have to listen and follow instructions no matter what,” he says. “I think you’re on your own as a fighter, and there’s a lot of pressure on them. There’s two parts; one is in training, and you can let it get the better of you. There are certain athletes out there who can push themselves individually, like Dan Gable, but the majority of athletes will have their own doubts and worries. So they’ve got to get to a point where they trust their coaches. For example, before a fight you get to that stage where your body is really tired and you’ve got four or five days rest before you fight. Sometimes a fighter will say they need a couple of extra days off, but you have to trust your coach to get you through that tired feeling and that they’ve planned it right so you’re going to feel alright come fight time. Or you get guys who feel they should be training before the fight, that they need to do something extra. The coach has got to tell them no, you can’t train. You’ve got to have that faith.”

Beyond having a dialogue with your coach in the gym, fight time is just as important a time to keep your ears open and listen to your trainer. “There are times in a fight when you’re tired or you’re not sure what to do, and your coach shouts a move at you or shouts a combination, just do it, don’t even think about it,” he says. 

“I’ve heard some coaches say it doesn’t really make that much of a difference, I think it does and I think even just a voice saying ‘good job, you’re doing well’. The Ultimate Fighter is a good example because you can really hear the coaches. Giving certain basic instructions or saying ‘you’re working hard’ or ‘you’re doing a good job’, things like that can help. Sometimes having someone prompting you, someone you’ve heard before in the gym, it clicks. A coach is always shouting in the gym, always telling you what to do, your head gets in tune to those voices, and you speak to a lot of fighters, there is the roar of thousands of people but they hear their coach.”

Find your feet

It took him a while, but Shawn Tompkins is finally at the top of his game. As one of the head trainers at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, Tompkins handles a large stable of professional fighters. A big boost to his career, that helped to place him among the world’s elite trainers and earn him a spot with Couture’s camp, came after working with Dan Henderson. Tompkins’ coaching played a key role in Henderson’s knockout of Wanderlei Silva for the Pride title in February of 2007. 

With anywhere up to 30 or 40 ‘name’ professional fighters attending his training sessions at Xtreme Couture, Tompkins works with all manner of individuals, but one thing remains constant: he believes the key to sharpening your striking starts with a good base. 

“[The] most important [part is] footwork and stance,” he says. “Drills such as skipping and shadow boxing, I think, are two of the most important things for someone to develop their footwork, timing and their distance.” Anyone who witnesses one of the infamous pro sessions at Xtreme Couture will attest to that fact, as basic footwork plays a big part in Tompkins’ work with fighters such as Randy Couture, Chris Horodecki, Sam Stout, Wanderlei Silva and many more. 

Juanito Ibarra spoke with Jatinder Dhoot, John Hackleman and Paul Ivens spoke with Hywel Teague and Shawn Tompkins spoke with Ryan Kelly.