Hey everyone how are you doing today. My name is â??Crazyâ?? Tim Credeur and I was asked by my good friend Alan Belcher to share some of my secrets and tricks to creating MMA/BJJ athletes that maximizes their Performances on the Mat and in the Cage. I hope you find my insights and my philosophies helpful on your path as an Elite Level Athlete.
I want to start off by saying that I am a huge proponent of both Strength and Conditioning training although I do believe people today throw those terms around pretty loosely without any real focus on what they truly mean and whether or not it is helping them achieve their specific objectives with their athletic endeavors. All of us know that CrossFit and other Functional Fitness type training scenarios have been exploding onto the market for the last couple years and many fighters and athletes have turned to these methods as a way to supplement their training.
I am not for or against CrossFit, Kettlebells, Plyometrics or any of these other training methodologies that can definitely help athletes in many areas of their sport. I have a problem with Athletes not being able to get through their Sport Specific Skill set Training and Live Sparring Training Cycles because they had a tough day finishing their HELEN workout at the local CrossFit gym. In my opinion this is a recipe for failure both on the Mat and in the Ring. No athlete ever attributed their success in their specific sport to kipping pull-ups, running with sand bags or Wall Balls. These exercises and training evolution should be ancillary to their core sport specific training methodologies.
Sport Specific Training that build skills, power and stamina
Many practitioners of MMA and BJJ participate in what they call drilling. Drilling is defined as disciplined, repetitious exercise as a means of teaching and perfecting a skill or procedure. I have witnessed thousands and thousands of practitioners in both BJJ and MMA participate in what they describe as â??drillingâ??. Let me break it down, they see a technique on YouTube and then they meet with there friend and practice the move 10 or so times while they are talking about the latest UFC fight or BJJ Match and then BAAM they’re done and they are now Masters of the technique! I have even witnessed people who went through this same scenario then go into teaching the same technique that they have just â??Masteredâ??.
In my opinion this is completely insane! This is not by any stretch of the imagination what I consider drilling. I would rather call this evolution practicing. Practicing a technique is when you have very recently learned the move and you are trying to figure it out with a partner. The goal is to understand how it works, what are the moving parts, how does your body fit into the position best and what does the technique feel like when you are doing it. This is called PRACTICING but is by no stretch of the imagination DRILLING! Practicing will not make you faster, stronger, more capable, or more technically smooth with a position or movement because it lacks the reality of live training.
â??Hard Drillingâ?? is the key conditioning element to maximize Sport Performance
To truly gain speed, power and skill with a technique you must begin â??HARD DRILLINGâ??. â??HARD DRILLINGâ?? is when you have already practiced a move to the point that the technique is second nature and now you can begin the process of practicing the technique at 100% speed against a cooperative partner that is allowing them to work on the movement but at the same time giving them a â??realistic lookâ?? while there doing it.
HARD DRILLING must be composed of 3 elements
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You must be working at Full Speed
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Your technique must be flawless every time
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You should be sweating and working at a pace that doesnâ??t allow you to talk while your HARD DRILLING.
This type of Drilling is what is done at the OTC by our Olympic Athletes in every single sport that we play. Olympic Gymnasts do not talk while they are training their routine for the 7000th time, they are HARD DRILLING. Hard Drilling can be an exhaustive strength and conditioning training scenario. Let me explain. If your game is to set up your take downs with punches let me give you a perfect training scenario.
Drill 1: Jab, Cross, Double Leg Take Down (lift the partner over your head each time) on a partner with mitts 100x
Drill 2: Cross, Hook, Single Leg Take Down (take the opponent down to a dominate position each time) on a partner with mitts 100x
Drill 3: Jab, Cross, Lead Uppercut, Cross, Body Lock Takedown ( lift the opponent off the ground each time then get to dominate position) on a partner w/ mitts 100x
Finish up with a round of Jump Rope, a round of Shadow Boxing and a round of Shadow Shots down the mat.
This work out is brutal and it will prepare you for your sport. Instead of spending the majority of your energy reserves doing exercises and moving objects that are not related to your sport spend your time â??HARD DRILLINGâ?? and moving around bodies that are related to your sport. If you want to be the best in the world you are going to need to begin on your journey to spending 10,000 hours training in that sport. If in a week you train your sport 12 hours and do CrossFit 6 hours and I train in sport 18 hours here is what happens in a year. You have spent 624 hours building skills for your sport and 312 building skills for CrossFit. I have spent all 936 hours building my skills for the sport. Over the course of 10 years you have spent 6240 hours in sport and 3120 building CrossFit skills, I have spent 9360 specifically geared toward building skills for the sport. In 10 years I have eclipsed your sport specific training by over 3100 hours. When we get in the ring or on the mat do you want more time invested in the sport that your about to fight for your life in or less. You decide!