Walk into almost any MMA gym and ask what an athlete needs to get better physically and you're going to get a lot of different answers. Get stronger Get faster Build your cardio Do sprints Lift weights Jump rope Get more explosive Improve your mobility Build your conditioning The funny thing is that almost all of those answers can be correct while still missing the bigger question. What does an MMA athlete actually need to be good at physically? I think this is an important q

Someone recently asked me whether wrestling against the cage is an advanced MMA tactic that isn't really as applicable to amateurs, or whether it should be learned right alongside the basics of grappling. To me, the answer is pretty clearly the second one. I don't think fence wrestling is some advanced skill that you learn after you've mastered wrestling, BJJ and striking. I think it's one of the fundamental skills of MMA. That doesn't mean I think a brand-new student needs t

A question came up recently: "What do you guys do in the days before your fight to get into the right headspace?" I've competed in wrestling for most of my life, and I think that prepared me pretty well for the mental side of competition. I've always been able to get relatively relaxed before competing. I'm not someone who needs to spend the entire day pacing around the room, psyching myself up for what's about to happen. But there is one question I've always asked myself bef

When people talk about mental toughness in MMA, they usually mean someone who doesn't quit. That's certainly part of it, but I think mental toughness is much more than being willing to suffer. MMA is going to make you uncomfortable. You're going to get tired. You're going to get hit. You're going to get taken down. You're going to get stuck underneath someone who is stronger than you. You're going to make mistakes. Sometimes you're going to be nervous before you train or comp

If you're looking for MMA classes, you probably assume that joining a gym that advertises MMA means you're going to learn MMA. That seems pretty obvious. But it's worth taking a closer look at what a gym actually offers. A lot of martial arts gyms advertise MMA. When you look at their schedule, however, most of the classes are Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, Boxing, Kickboxing, or Wrestling. They may have an MMA sparring class once a week, but very little actual instruction d

If you're thinking about starting martial arts at BLAST MMA, one of the first questions you'll probably have is: Should I train MMA or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu? Both are great ways to train. Both will challenge you. And both will teach you skills that you can continue developing for years. But they're also very different training experiences. At BLAST, we've found that the people who gravitate toward MMA and the people who gravitate toward BJJ are often looking for different thing

There are a lot of good Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu schools. Most have good instructors, good training partners, and plenty of techniques to teach. So what makes BLAST MMA different? For us, it comes down to how we approach learning Jiu-Jitsu. We don't think the best way to learn BJJ is to show up three times a week and learn three random techniques. That's how you end up knowing a lot of techniques but not really knowing what to do when someone actually resists you. Instead, we buil

I've been thinking a lot about how MMA should actually be taught, especially to beginners. At BLAST, we use a structured 48-lesson Core curriculum followed by a 72-class Development curriculum. There's a reason we chose to do this instead of simply teaching whatever technique seems appropriate that day. MMA is an enormous skill set. A beginner has to learn striking, wrestling, clinch, fence work, takedowns, ground control, escapes, GNP, submissions, etc. The problem with simp