What It Takes To Become An Elite Level MMA Fighter

[Blackjack]

How many hours of work on fighting technique including strength and conditioning exercises do you think it usually takes to become an elite level fighter? If a fighter were to train 3 hours per day, that would be just over 1,000 hours a year spent on developing MMA techniques and physical conditioning.

In "Outliers: The Story Of Success" author Malcolm Gladwell claims that to be great at anything it usually takes about 10,000 hours of practice. Would you say this is about right for MMA too? That's 3 hours a day of work for ten years to become an elite level MMA fighter.

 

[HOV]

An elite one...hell if I know
A succesful one...just talk all kinds of shit and you get yourself a title shot

 

[joeyjoejoe]

Usually a lifetime of dedication combined with a fighters instinct and other unique qualities would make up an "elite " fighter. Not just time in the gym.

 

[La Elefante]

Stop making threads. Jesus christ this is like your 10th shitty thread today.

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

An elite one...hell if I know
A succesful one...just talk all kinds of shit and you get yourself a title shot

Yep, several people have talked their way to title shots. But it is far from the norm.

Get over it and find something new to gripe abut please.

 

[HOV]

Yep, several people have talked their way to title shots. But it is far from the norm.

Get over it and find something new to gripe abut please.

Oh it doesn't bother me at all I'm just a fan sitting on his couch...I'm not the one getting assed out of anything...I'm just kidding around

 

[BisexualMMA]

Typical D-level UFC fighter: 10,000 hours.

Lebron James or Herschel Walker: Read one issue of Black Belt Magazine and do forty push-ups.

 

[Killhippies]

For MMA 3 hours a day is the minimum and probably more spent throughout their day, you have to take into account all the different kind of work that guys have to put in. Bunch of time consuming disciplines.

- Bag work alone can easily take up an hour or more.
- Cardio of varying intensity, 15-40 minutes.
- Grappling and rolling is another easy hour.
- Sparring for various rounds.
- Strength and conditioning can take up another hour in the gym with warm-ups and resting in between sets included.
- Technique specific strategies will also need to be worked on by the coach.

A ridiculous amount for any athlete, it why you see people bug out about steroids when you you see the body builder physiques on some of the guys. To reach that kind muscle mass is time consuming enough without the three other martial disciplines you have to train in and is extremely unlikely without drugs.

 

[HOV]

Typical D-level UFC fighter: 10,000 hours.

Lebron James or Herschel Walker: Read one issue of Black Belt Magazine and do forty push-ups.

Lol @ 40 push ups...they do that on one pinky with both feet in the air

 

[fight4ippon]

 

[Toxxus]

How many hours of work on fighting technique including strength and conditioning exercises do you think it usually takes to become an elite level fighter? If a fighter were to train 3 hours per day, that would be just over 1,000 hours a year spent on developing MMA techniques and physical conditioning.

In "Outliers: The Story Of Success" author Malcolm Gladwell claims that to be great at anything it usually takes about 10,000 hours of practice. Would you say this is about right for MMA too? That's 3 hours a day of work for ten years to become an elite level MMA fighter.

Guys that are hardcore are working on that stuff 6+ hours a day.

I was just a hobbyist back in the day and I would regularly do 6 days a week with 2-3 hour classes and another hour in the gym for weights/cardio.

Guys who make a big name for themselves are working out or studying MMA or focused on fighting/fitness in other ways most of their waking time. Easily 8+ hours a day.

 

[senyster]

I read once that in order to develop muscle memory, you need to correctly repeat a motor task 3,000 to 5,000 times. So I'm pretty sure that with 10 years of intense training you can develop the techniques necessary for participating in any sport, be it MMA or basketball. Also helps to start young and have excellent coaches.

 

[DragonRising]

a good chemist

 

[Blackjack]

Guys that are hardcore are working on that stuff 6+ hours a day.

I was just a hobbyist back in the day and I would regularly do 6 days a week with 2-3 hour classes and another hour in the gym for weights/cardio.

Guys who make a big name for themselves are working out or studying MMA or focused on fighting/fitness in other ways most of their waking time. Easily 8+ hours a day.

At 6 hours a day that's 2,000 hours a year for 5 years to reach 10,000 hours. Start at 17 and you'd be there by 22 years old approximately. For a steroid free athlete though, there's no way to grow in strength or size by working out with weights an hour a day if you're doing 5 hours a day of other physically demanding work. The athlete would be grossly overtrained and find himself getting weaker rather than stronger trying to maintain that schedule. The weights simply provide the stimulus for a growth in strength and size but the actual growth takes place while recuperating in between workouts. The schedule you described doesn't adequately allow for that for a steroid free athlete.

 

[Blackjack]

I read once that in order to develop muscle memory, you need to correctly repeat a motor task 3,000 to 5,000 times. So I'm pretty sure that with 10 years of intense training you can develop the techniques necessary for participating in any sport, be it MMA or basketball. Also helps to start young and have excellent coaches.

Excellent coaches would be practically essential because they key word in your first sentence is the word "correctly." If someone doesn't have a competent coach and practices something thousands of times but incorrectly, then the athlete not only has to still put in the 3,000 to 5,000 correctly performed repetitions of that motor task, but he also has the task of getting rid of the bad habits he's already ingrained in his muscle memory.

 

[spannered]

Guys that are hardcore are working on that stuff 6+ hours a day.

I was just a hobbyist back in the day and I would regularly do 6 days a week with 2-3 hour classes and another hour in the gym for weights/cardio.

Guys who make a big name for themselves are working out or studying MMA or focused on fighting/fitness in other ways most of their waking time. Easily 8+ hours a day.

This is a big misconception. You absolutely cannot train 6 hours a day, let alone 8+, even if you are on steroids. You might get away with it once or twice a week if you are already an elite athlete, but no one can train that frequently conistently. Not if you're training hard, anyway.

I used to train between 2-3 hours a night when I was doing MMA, and that was once I'd conditioned my body to that. When I first started out, I would get tendonitis, insomnia and fatigue from overtraining just from doing 5 x one hour classes per week. Once I got conditioned I could do 8 - 10 classes a week if I'm sleeping and eating right.

I'd train the same as the pro fighters, however they would stagger their training across two sessions (some might do 3), as it allows recovery between strength and conditioning, sparring and technique...but they are still only training 2-3 hours a day.

When you hear about pros doing 3 x 2hr hard training sessions a day, 6 days a week it's usually because they are on good 'supplements'. Most human bodies cannot take that sort of fatigue without adequate recovery, and it's not sustainable training 6 hours a day every day because you can't possibly recover in time to do it again the next day.

 

[Boomb]

Work, work, work....


As in every "field", talent is only 10%, the other 90% is hard work.

 

[Toxxus]

This is a big misconception. You absolutely cannot train 6 hours a day, let alone 8+, even if you are on steroids. You might get away with it once or twice a week if you are already an elite athlete, but no one can train that frequently conistently. Not if you're training hard, anyway.

I used to train between 2-3 hours a night when I was doing MMA, and that was once I'd conditioned my body to that. When I first started out, I would get tendonitis, insomnia and fatigue from overtraining just from doing 5 x one hour classes per week. Once I got conditioned I could do 8 - 10 classes a week if I'm sleeping and eating right.

I'd train the same as the pro fighters, however they would stagger their training across two sessions (some might do 3), as it allows recovery between strength and conditioning, sparring and technique...but they are still only training 2-3 hours a day.

When you hear about pros doing 3 x 2hr hard training sessions a day, 6 days a week it's usually because they are on good 'supplements'. Most human bodies cannot take that sort of fatigue without adequate recovery, and it's not sustainable training 6 hours a day every day because you can't possibly recover in time to do it again the next day.

I'm not suggesting that they are doing sled drills for 6 hours a day. But you can get a couple hours of drills in with out really taxing your body.

But I do agree with you in that they're not going hard at something (weights, intense training) more than a few hours a day.

 

[tucan89]

Head movement

 

[Sapp]

Depends on your division. Much easier to make it as a heavyweight than as a featherweight.