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Subject: Athletic Vs. Technical ? Author: Ses [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 21:03:59 01/28/07 Sun Do you feel it's an insult when commentators describe a fighter as being athletic. Giving the impression as to that's why he win's. This becomes a question for me because they never seem to point out the balance between technique and attributes needed for fighting. As a matter of fact maybe we can even offer insight amongst one another to help determine What is "Technical" for MMA and what "Attributes" are needed for the sport as well. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

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[> Subject: Re: Athletic Vs. Technical ? Author: Brandon Weaver [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 16:06:05 01/29/07 Mon Well if you are insinuating Rashad Evans I do think it shortchanges him alot. He is a very, very technically proficent wrestler and has had some battles where he showed alot of mental toughness. In his case the term athletic is over used, and not enough credit is given to the level of technical skill he had and the new skills he is picking up now. The absolute best attribute anyone can have for MMA is mental toughness. I put explosive power as a distant second. I dont mean strength I mean zero to 60 explosiveness. I say explosive over quick because most every explosive guy I ever saw/trained with was also quick, but every quick guy was not explosive. Third I would say the intelligence to learn and adapt, but that is largely related to mental toughness. The simple fact is fighting, whether kickboxing, boxing, or MMA takes alot of hard work to properly prepare for. The best athletes dont always get to the top in any of these sports. IMO the best raw athletes in the world are in the NFL, most world class boxers (and I use boxers because they have the deepest talent pool compared to other combat sports) cant hold a candle to them in the "common" parameters of raw athletic ability. BUT because boxing is very technical and also requires a ton of mental toughness the best athletes wont always do well without the mental part of the game. It also takes a certain sort of person to get in front of others and risk getting their face mashed and try to mash some one else's. Surely everyone who teaches here and most of the guys who train have seen guys walk in the door who are athletic freaks. These guys rarely stick with BJJ, Boxing or Kickboxing. These types of sports are hard to learn, take a certain amount of time on task to get right, and require a swallowing of the ego for a while. No one like tapping to a guy they out bench by over a 100 lbs. No one likes eating inside leg kick-right cross combinations from a guy they can beat in the 40 by better than .3 seconds. But until you get solid ground fundamentals or good footwork/standing fundamentals those sorts of things happen. To summarize a lot of hot air blowing: 1. Mental toughness 2. explosive power 3. Enough intelligence/brains/coachability to understand the need to learn, grow and adapt. Everything else can be trained/learned from a physical/technical point of view. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Athletic Vs. Technical ? Author: Brandon Weaver [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 16:17:07 01/29/07 Mon Also I give honorable mention as a very important attribute to have : Balance/kinestetic awareness. Guys like Jeremy Horn have it in all positions (the guy is seriously under-rated in the physical talent department because of appearance, and people who fight should knwo better) and it is a great thing to have, but can be trained more readily than my "top three". [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: Athletic Vs. Technical ? Author: Ses [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 01:38:44 01/30/07 Tue Good points.....Rashad is one guy, Deigo Sanchez another, in the Golden era of MMA events; Kerr, Coleman,and Frank Shamrock. Genetic Freaks!!!! Explosiveness is either trained or you're born with it....!!! We've all heard that before but not enough is said about when these guys win because the other guy is doing something wrong, that takes technical awareness as much as it takes technical ability to exploit someones game. I feel that it's a balance of technique and ability, maybe not 50/50 but definitely not 90/10 split that Big Daddy Goodrich was guilty of never adjusting. Some of the other guys I mentioned seemed to make some adjustments in terms of technical skill by training with people that were technical minded in their skill sets....Shamrock became a much better striker by training with Mo Smith who is by nature a stalking; methodical; patient; and cunning fighter. Shammy's fight with Horn is a good example of a 50/50 mix in both fighters. Shammy won with Knee bar taking advantage of poorly executed technique.....he had to know that there was mistake to take advantage of....Horn took the fight to Shammy...action packed back and forth.....Like you said you can't measure athletics by the look of a guy...performance is usually the litmus test. MMA with never be a sport where you say this guy is going to clearly win because he is a Striker, a Grappler, is more athletic, Runs ten miles a day, Has a bigger Crank or whatever. Upsets come in all forms and that's what makes the sport so interesting.....the Mix. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]