I'm just starting to get into training fighters, so far the main thing it's done is force my focus to narrow. It's one thing to be all over the board on what you work on and play with for your own training, but when you're prepping guys to go fight you quickly realize that there's just no time for extraneous bullshit. What is the essential technical repertoire, and how do you most efficiently get guys to learn and implement it?
Focus on the absolute core basics, accept that novice fights are very instinct fueled rather than technical, so with that said, you drill the most basic gameplan, one that they can do on muscle memory.
We basically have it drilled all camp day in day out so it drills in subconsciously.
For striking its:
- basic combinations (1,2,3,kick or 1,kick, 3,2)
- retaliating ASAP - ideally with the same combo
- double collar clinching - single collar is good, but at that point its still new. Once they get to elbows in intermediate single collar work is necessary
- pressing forward (ring / cage control)
- Focus on how to breathe - in fight, and during the break. Latter being more important imo
We also accept alot of fights at that stage end up in decision rather than KO, so ringmanship is very important as its tied with aggression (2 of 3 criterias). Thats to say we don't aim for the finish, but RC is a prime focus due to that.
*Basically you teach them how to "fight", then eventually technical prowess will stack on.
Yes its nice to do 1,2 slip, check hook, slip, long knee but thats way too much for new guys to do and they'll shut out midway and resort back to bad habits like spamming overhands. New guys are also EXTREMELY terrible at distance management. I think its a bad idea to focus alot on distance work for novice fighters (once intermediate [4-9 fights] they'll get much better), shit hits the fan and it ends up being a nasty brawl. About 80% of the time from what I've been through and seen, its, both guys press forward not wanting to back down, straights become hooks, and end up in a grinding clinch til the ref breaks. Repeat for the rest of the round. That cycle happens in about 10-20 seconds.
In BJJ I guess its an escape, sweep, and sub from mount, side, closed guard, and back. You know alot better about grappling than I do so you have alot more insight on that than I do.
When I first trained my guy all we focused on was what I've mentioned above. The "fanciest" things we added was dealing off a caught kick and clinch dumps, as his opponent was short and stocky whereas he was alot taller, so it was a likeable scenario, which did happen occasionally in his fight. Of course its a fight so we all expect alot of cognitive thinking to fly out the window, but the good thing is keeping the technique as simple as possible so in that event they have something to rely on.
Its extremely rare to come across individuals who remain stoic and calm in their fights who can think. Basing a GOAT complex gameplan and assuming alot can do that, isn't realistic. I've only met 1 guy in my life who was like that, everyone else was like I've said, myself included.
