What It Takes To Become An Elite Level MMA Fighter

[nostradumbass]

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.

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.

Yeah, nobody trains that much, and they aren't doing all those different things every day. Maybe maybe like 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours later in the day with some days off. You start getting diminished returns if you train too much, where you can't retain anything and your body doesn't recover. It's usually split up throughout the week, which is why guys say they focused on _____ during this camp, meaning they practiced that more than everything else.

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.

That doesn't sound like a scientific figure, more kind of picking an arbitrary number to signify "a lot". To be "great" at something is a comparison to other people doing it, so there is no standard. It also doesn't take into account genetics and natural ability. There are plenty of guys who've practiced a lot more than someone who's better than them, regardless of what it is they're doing.

 

[wookie brawl]

Train every day for 6 hours for 2 years while competing as well. Make sure you do regional shows at least once every couple of months.
If you haven't made it in 3 years, you are not elite. Just quit & go back to studying or learn a trade.

 

[Rondas Pillow]

- Cardio of varying intensity, 15-40 minutes.

I didn't even know John Kavanagh posted here.

 

[Killhippies]

Yeah, nobody trains that much, and they aren't doing all those different things every day. Maybe maybe like 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours later in the day with some days off. You start getting diminished returns if you train too much, where you can't retain anything and your body doesn't recover. It's usually split up throughout the week, which is why guys say they focused on _____ during this camp, meaning they practiced that more than everything else.

Agreed, it's get really hard to not get injured if they work 100% at everything, they split it up of course to deal with fatigue. I think many fighters over train and that's why you see them pulling out often, as you mentioned. I still say they put about three hours a day at least though, that is a manageable amount to deal with recovery and have time for other aspects of their life.

 

[spannered]

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.

Yeah, sorry, as I posted it I realised I should have addressed that.

BJJ practitioners can train 5+ hours a day if they stick purely to drills and light rolls. I can roll for 30 minutes if the intensity is low and do another class after. I'm completely wiped at 15 minutes if we are wrestling or doing MMA rounds.

But you have to look at the training. Usually guys are doing a strength and conditioning sessions at least a few times a week (either integrating both aerobic and anaerobic, or splitting), and there's not much point to it if you're not hitting high intensity in the sessions. So there's 3 days a week you're limiting your sessions to a few hours on those days.

Same with sparring. You absolutely have to wrestle hard in live sparring (not saying you can't have more technique focused rounds), and you need to be doing a few high intensity MMA/straight stand up sessions a week. You can pad the rest out with lighter drills, but between S&C, wrestling, high intensity pad work and 100% BJJ rounds, you're spending at least 1/3 of your total training in the high intensity range.

That's why I'm a big fan of the pyramid training regime; having a low intensity day, middle intensity and then a high intensity day in succession, then repeating. You can train every day like that and you can maximise your training and recovery without needing steroids.

This misconception that people have though, where they think you need to be training 6 hours a day to be an elite practitioner, is just nonsense. With USADA I'm pretty sure all UFC fighters are now adopting smarter training with <4 hour days in the gym. Particularly when in camp, because you absolutely have to be doing regular high intensity training to get yourself in shape, and it's just not sustainable clocking in 6 hour days every day.

 

[j18lee]

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

Based on the legit responses, pretty much not a single person thought this thread was shitty.

 

[Killhippies]

I didn't even know John Kavanagh posted here.

Lol Shit if I know what fighters do for cardio, sorta just guesstimating there. I see some of them said that they do none at all outside of cardio gained from regular sparring and bag. Otherwise sets of short sprints being done and the old school 40 minute road run and everything in between so pick a poison.

Might be the old cross country runner in me, but I think any pro athlete should be able to whip out a 10k no problem and should be a semi-regular thing. My point pertaining to that post though was that it takes time out of the day to some degree so add it to the list.

 

[senyster]

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.

You are absolutely correct. I'm pretty sure you would require more than twice the time to get rid of old habits and develop new ones. With that said, I'm pretty sure if you have the talent and predispositions, a positive environment and good training facilities (i.e. if the stars align), and you start before your teens, you may become a top-level athlete.

I am NOT saying at all that what I wrote above is everything needed for becoming world champ in anything. I'm simply stating that you don't have to take up footy or any other sport before you can walk at i.e. 2 years of age to become champ.

 

[Blackjack]

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.

People vary greatly in recovery ability but training 6 hours day would grossly overtrain an athlete and he'd find himself getting weaker and slower over time as the overtraining takes its toll. Especially when it comes to high intensity work such as weight training. People have to realize the weight training is just a stimulus for growth. The recuperation time in between weight training workouts is when growth in strength and size actually occurs.

 

[Fight Professor]

A big overhand punch.

 

[Mikey Palangio]

Marketability. The ability to "put asses in seats" is the most valuable skill in MMA. Ask CM Punk.

 

[ikareteru]

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.

Genetics and quality of training is really important.

 

[Vergilius]

I doubt you can train martial arts for 8 hours a day with any efficiency. The original 10.000 hours idea stipulated that artists and musicians worked for 3 hours a day for 10 years to achieve mastery. That sounds about right for martial arts as well, though you'd probably need a rest day every week to recover. Also, when you are coming up as a martial artist, you have to work to make money and then there is strenght and conditioning...

 

[Rondas Pillow]

Lol Shit if I know what fighters do for cardio, sorta just guesstimating there. I see some of them said that they do none at all outside of cardio gained from regular sparring and bag. Otherwise sets of short sprints being done and the old school 40 minute road run and everything in between so pick a poison.

Might be the old cross country runner in me, but I think any pro athlete should be able to whip out a 10k no problem and should be a semi-regular thing. My point pertaining to that post though was that it takes time out of the day to some degree so add it to the list.

Oh, I believe some of them do no additional cardio.

I just figure if it is their job, then they'd put a bunch of time into cardio.. especially the ones that are known for gassing in 3 round fights. I get there has to be a balance, but all the strength and technique isn't going to overcome bad cardio.

 

[trunks]

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.

People don't understand this. It's almost a necessity to use some sort of PED in this sport. Also, for more "explosive" athletes, more recovery time is usually needed. Some extra testosterone takes care of those needs in a jiffy. A guy like Gil with his "physique" is popped, and we're not supposed to suppose the guys who actually look like they're on something aren't on something.