TUF fighters not listening to their corner

Watching all TUFs this became more and more clear to me these TUF fighters are really on auto pilot during their fights. To me this is kinda a new trend thats generally bad. The best fighters are those who can react on their own ofc BUT a huge factor in fights is listening to your corner and adjusting your game plan.

In TUF nations i felt no Aussie ever listened to Kyle Noke. In TUF 19 we got bullhorn Coleman and Edgar yelling alll kinds of good advice. Just no fighter picked up on that at all so far. This while the advice would give them a huge advantage.

Yes ok ok, these are all "new" inexperienced fighters who prolly never had a good corner to listen to. But tbh they should adjust to this asap. The sooner they learn the sooner they can implement that during fights and use it to their advantage.

What do you guys think, is this a new trend or have their been "bad" fighters like this all along?

 

I'm sure we've all seen this at one point or another with fighter's basically ignoring their corner....sometimes it works out for them and most times it doesn't. Some of the best fighters obviously have the best corners and the communication between them is a vital aspect in changing the tempo of a fight (in favor of the fighter listening to his corner).

Not all corners are equal and there are some that give some crappy advice; open the floor for those quotes we've all heard "your winning this fight" (while being down on two of three rounds), etc.

Having watched TUF over the years (only on TV), it seems like the teams who add in the yelling and screaming from the bleachers (other fighters) only add to the confusion and chaos in the fighter's head. I do recall (but cannot remember which season) a TUF coach doing all the talking and keeping his fighters quiet on the side so the fighter in the cage had one voice to listen.

Good question TS.

 

There is a balance at play.

You can't completely change your style over 6 weeks. You aren't going to learn anything drastically new either. All you can really do is sharpen the existing tools you have.

Wouldn't you rather lose fighting your own way, rather than lose fighting the way somebody else tells you to fight? Cody McKenzie on TUF 12 was told by his coaches that his only way to win was to shoot, even though he thought he could stand with Phan. He expressed disappointment that he listened to his coaches.

And then of course you have the opposite too, Forrest Griffin screaming at Tim Credeur not to attack the armbar against Riddle, and of course, Credeur finishing Riddle with the armbar seconds later.

So no, fighters not listening to their coaches isn't a new phenomenon, and coaches aren't always right. Some coaches have a bad habit of imposing their own view of how to fight on their students, rather than helping their students grow into their own individual martial artists. (COUGH EDDIE BRAVO COUGH)

 

At what point as a fighter do you tell yourself during the fight that your game plan is not working?

1. what you planed to do isn't working
2. your opponent isn't doing what you thought he'd be doing.

I don't think I need a corner man to tell me change the game plan.

Yes they were giving good advice during the fight.

 

are they still putting tvs around the ring so the fighters can see their position? I haven't noticed the guy on the bottom looking up much anymore.

 

Still the fighters are completely deaf to their corners. They offer good advice on how to move forward in their fight wich will give them huge advantages. Yet they are completely deaf.

Good fighters who listen to their corners become very scary fighters. These "new crop" tuf fighters have alot to learn, thats almost a given ofc. BUT listening to their corners would be a HUGE step up in their game!

 

I think a lot of it has to do with nerves. They're so worried about losing the fight they can't focus on anything else.

 

The corners are giving them specific advice, though, like "do this with your hands" or "you need to keep up the pressure". I have to say the guys in there this season it's part of a larger problem, like Dana said: it's the season of people who just don't give a crap.

It's like all they cared about was getting into the house. The introductory round had:
1 KO, 5 submissions, 4 TKOs, 5 decisions, and a by. The first round of fights on the show had 7 decisions and 1 submission. A lot of those decisions had people grappling without showing any grappling skills (i.e. just laying on someone or weird clinches). Most of the fighters are playing it safe, and would rather

A) be in a dominant position where they are at low risk or
B) be in a submissive position where they are at low risk.

The coaches are trying to get their players to take risks, either to get back into a standing fight or change positions, which goes against the low-risk, hold until decision strategy the fighters seem to have.

 

I did BJJ for 2 and a half years. There was a lot of times when I was getting advice from the instructor and couldn't hear, didn't know what he meant, or couldn't do what he was asking. Meaning I wasn't able to get my hand, leg, body, etc free to do it. There was also times when I didn't know how to do what I was asked to do.

This isn't easy.

 

Fuck their corners, they're not in there fighting. The best inventions ever made by man were not invented based on a consensus

 

The other day I saw two brothers (one late teens, one preteen) roughhouse, and the younger brother was trying to get a chokehold on his older brother. Of course, he was too small to get any sort of grip, so he was trying to jump or stand on his toes, and it wasn't working.

So I gave the younger kid some pointers to climb up and use his legs for leverage. This kid, having never met me before, followed my instructions and got into a much better position.

So if this kid can listen to a corner he's never met, these guys should be able to listen to a corner they've been training under for weeks. Just my $0.02

 

"Andy go for the single leg!" lmao that was the greatest

 

That's what I would think too. Also when you are getting nailed in the head I bet sometimes it's a little hard to listen and your focus is probably more on your opponent than what your corner is saying.

 

What was that from?

 

I think a lot of different variables go into this. One is the fighter just simply not listening or not thinking they can pull off what the corner says, one is not being able to hear the corner, not being able to change fight style, fatigue, and any number of other things. I highly doubt that most fighters have a world class coach in their corner, and would tell you they shouldn't listen to him.

 

Ohh yeah haha I remember that

 

The first thing I thought of was Warrior Andy Wang Gurgel-ing his way to a loss, and ignoring BJ's instructions. I do agree that this past season had some of the most boring, safe fights in the show's history.

 

I think now we know why nobody wanted to listen to BJ and his staff corner advices.Good lord,that stance...