Combat sports are hard. That seems obvious, but whenever someone talks about training intelligently, managing intensity, or taking recovery seriously, there is always someone who hears, "So we're supposed to take it easy now?" No. If you want to get better at MMA or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, you have to work. You're going to get tired, sore, frustrated, and occasionally get your ass kicked by someone better than you. There will be difficult rounds where quitting or slowing down wo

When I was wrestling, one of my coaches used to say that you needed three different kinds of training partners in the practice room. You needed the person you could beat frequently. You needed the person you could beat about half the time. And finally, you needed the person who could beat you frequently. I've thought about that a lot over the years, and I think it's one of the simplest explanations of what a good training environment should look like. Most people understand t