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