Modern UFC fighters going through Lions Den tryouts?

[777R]

Very old school. Not very smart to destroy your body like that, and not all Lions Den fighters went on to be champs so I guess it doesn't work for everyone.

Sounds like a recipe for lots of pain killers and rehab.

A lot more sparing and cardio with less muscle and tendon/ligament strain would have probably lengthened their careers and improved their records.

 

[CalvilloRay]

Lmao Ken Shamrock did stuff like this for his guys on TUF

While Tito was training them and evaluating and helping to make them better hahah

 

[Ogata]

I think this kind of "extreme" Red Bull energy drink training is retarded. All it is a test of endurance. Not skill, natural ability or talent...just brute gut strength.

I agree, Kens line of thinking for this type of training madness was that, if there is a person who is willing to push themselves hard and beyond their capability, then they are able to learn any and every martial arts skills because they have the will power to learn do anything.


In reality, you have to have natural talent for martial arts, you have to have nuanced understanding of the techniques. That being said, in all fairness, conditioning and brutal gut strength as well as heart does win you fights. I mean, the way I see it is, Diego Sanchez is the best example of what Lions Den was aiming to do.

A fighter with no significant skillset and yet this fighter possess insane amount of heart and determination to come forward and not fatigue. Not a healthy approach to combat sports but it is respectable if the fighter has durability.

 

[FinBJJ]

Very old school. Not very smart to destroy your body like that, and not all Lions Den fighters went on to be champs so I guess it doesn't work for everyone.

Every fighter becoming a champ is an unfair requirement for a training method to be effective. Can you name any gym/training method that has only champs? Or even half?

 

[scardera]

i call bullshit on this when Sham coached TUF his team barely trained at all just playing soccer and other stupid shit

 

[IIIIIIII]

wait, so warmachine passed that? guy had terrible cardio in most of his fights.

 

[Shadowthrone]

yea they did all that then sparred for hours, sounds real. real fuckin stupid

 

[Xaero]

A lot of people do crossfit which probably get you injured more than these tryouts/old school training.

 

[Pitier of Fools]

I think this kind of "extreme" Red Bull energy drink training is retarded. All it is a test of endurance. Not skill, natural ability or talent...just brute gut strength.

It's also a test of mental determination...

 

[maxi diablo]

Doesn't seem that bad except for the bearcrawls. I hate beat crawls because of my short arms.

 

[cumafish]

Coked up Jones could do that shit easy.

 

[Ogata]

i call bullshit on this when Sham coached TUF his team barely trained at all just playing soccer and other stupid shit

Problem is, Kens guys weren't listening to him. Tate Fletcher threw a tantrum about being over trained. Starnes wanted to focus on BJJ training only and other guys wanted to do kickboxing drills. While Ed Herman was getting drunk day and night.

Ken couldn't kick these guys out due to the fact that it was a TV show and they were adults who were undisciplined and whiny. Although I am a fan, there have been many times were Ken acted like a dick.. But I remember that season and Ken had the worse picks ever.

In fact, many of the early TUF contestant had some serious alcohol issues. They also had like 2 years of training and were tempted to do stupid shit pretty quick. It was disgusting because I have been around boxers, judokas and wrestlers and specially wrestlers have lots of temptation being in university and they have amazing discipline to do their workouts and stay away from drinking and drugs.

 

[CroCopsLHK]

Overtraining isn't a good idea

 

[90 50]

Overtraining isn't a good idea

That is t how they trained it was a tryout to make sure they had mental toughness etc.

Ken talks a lot about it in his book which I haven't read In probublay at least 15 years it seems but I remeber the concept.

 

[DaPunkMinowaMan]

There is a discussion about old school MMA training the old school trainers demanding insane work rate. One was Kens try out, he believed that cardio was and still is the greatest asset a fighter can have regardless of combat sports. I am curios to know, if all modern UFC fighters can go through the try out?

This is the requirements: (copy and paste)

• 500 squats

• 200 push ups

• 200 sit ups

• 1.5-mile (2.4 km) run

• Repeated runs up and down bleacher steps

• Bear-crawls up steep hills

• Lugging heavy barrels of water and sand bags up steep hills

• The candidates who were still left at this point would then go on to do as many pull-ups as they can without stopping.

• Candidates then went to the actual Lion's Den facility for several hours of sparring.

Shamrock wanted fighters that could get through this ordeal without quitting, even after their body had failed on them, in order to see how serious the fighter was about dedicating his life to MMA fighting


Here is the video of part 1, the rest are also on YouTube if you want to watch all of it.

Always felt Ken was more of a "Survivor" than the leader of a "Nation"... which is quite contradictory, when u remember how he always got his mates´ back (Mezger, for instance...)

 

[Sapp]

One set of 200 push ups? Seems pretty unreasonable.

 

[masterkiller214]

I dont think Ken himself could have done all that shit

Thats what I mean by bullshit

Its was a gimmick to get people into lions den

Ken was a natural athlete. He was able to bench 400+ and dunk a basketball in high school. He was a high level football player in college and was asked by the Chargers for a tryout. He could have done those exercises in his prime.

 

[TallGHunter]

Just curious, how many world champions came out of that program?

 

[kimocomplex]

You'd think eventually they would learn


Nope over trained and gave Guy Mezger a stroke smh

 

[Kung Fu Kowboy]

Funny stuff since Ken had the worse cardio in MMA. Talking about this makes me want to bust out the Tito-Lions Den beef.