How Do You Become a Great Fighter?

How do you become a great fighter? There are obviously a lot of answers to that question. You need good coaching, you need to train consistently, you need physical attributes, you need the ability to deal with pressure, and you need the experience that only comes from spending years on the mat and in the cage. But if I had to break the actual fighting ability down into three fundamental pillars, I would start with three things: an excellent skillset, an excellent game plan or strategy, and excellent situational awareness. 

In simpler terms, I think about these as techniques, tactics, and analysis.

These three things are related, but they aren't the same thing. A fighter can be technically excellent and still have poor tactics. A fighter can have a great game plan but lack the technical ability to execute it. And a fighter can have both a great skillset and a solid strategy but struggle because they don't recognize what is actually happening in the fight. Becoming a great fighter means developing all three and, eventually, learning how to make them work together automatically.

Skillset: Techniques

The first pillar is the most obvious one. You need to be able to fight. That means developing a broad and deep technical skillset that allows you to operate in all of the situations that MMA can create. You need striking, wrestling, clinch work, takedowns, takedown defense, positional control, escapes, submissions, ground-and-pound, movement, and the ability to transition between all of those areas. It isn't enough to be good at one isolated part of the sport if your opponent can force you into another area where you don't have answers.

But there is an important difference between knowing a technique and possessing a skill. You can watch someone demonstrate a double-leg and understand every step. You can even perform the movement correctly on a cooperative training partner. That doesn't necessarily mean you have the skill to take someone down who is actively trying to stop you. Skill develops when knowledge is converted into reliable physical performance through repetition, feedback, resistance, timing, and experience.

This is also why I don't think becoming a great fighter is simply a matter of collecting as many techniques as possible. A fighter who knows 200 techniques but can't reliably execute them under pressure isn't necessarily better than the fighter who has 30 techniques that they can perform extremely well. The goal isn't to have the largest possible technique library. The goal is to develop a set of skills that you can actually rely on when someone is trying to take your head off or put you on the ground.

This is where practice becomes so important. You have to take techniques from something you understand intellectually, to something you can perform deliberately, to something you can perform under increasing levels of resistance, and eventually to something that is available to you without having to consciously think through every step. The better the skillset, the more options you have available when the situation changes.

Game Plan and Strategy: Tactics

Having a good skillset gives you options, but it doesn't tell you which options to use. That's the second pillar: tactics. Strategy is the larger plan for how you intend to fight, while tactics are the decisions and actions you use to accomplish that plan.

Imagine two fighters who are equally good at boxing. One fighter understands how to use their jab to control distance, create reactions, pressure an opponent toward the fence, and set up other attacks. The other fighter simply throws the jab because they were taught that the jab is important. They may have essentially the same technical skill, but they don't necessarily have the same fighting ability. One understands how the technique fits into a larger tactical system.

The same thing happens with wrestling and grappling. A takedown isn't simply a technique that you either hit or don't hit. You can use striking to create the reaction that makes the takedown available. You can use pressure to make an opponent move in a predictable direction. You can attack a particular takedown to force a defensive response and then attack something else. You can use the threat of a takedown to make your opponent more vulnerable to strikes. The individual techniques are important, but their value increases dramatically when you understand how they interact.

This is what separates knowing techniques from understanding fighting. A good fighter isn't constantly asking, "What technique do I know that I can use here?" They're thinking more broadly about what they're trying to accomplish and which tools give them the best opportunity to accomplish it. Sometimes the answer is a punch. Sometimes it is a takedown. Sometimes it is simply creating a reaction that will make the next attack possible.

A technically talented fighter can still be a mediocre fighter if they don't understand how to organize their skills. They may have all the tools but no real plan for using them. Great fighters don't just possess weapons. They understand how to put those weapons together into a coherent system.

Situational Awareness: Analysis

The third pillar is the one I think gets overlooked the most: situational awareness. I use the word analysis because a fighter needs to constantly gather information, interpret it, and make decisions based on what is happening. Fighting isn't a predetermined sequence. Your opponent is constantly changing the situation, and your ability to recognize those changes is a huge part of your effectiveness.

Your opponent is giving you information all the time. Maybe they consistently pull their lead hand back when you jab. Maybe they back straight toward the fence when you pressure them. Maybe they are beginning to slow down after defending several takedowns. Maybe they are reaching for an underhook every time you enter the clinch. Maybe they have started anticipating your favorite combination. All of those things are information, but information is only useful if you recognize it and do something with it.

This is why situational awareness is more than simply having good "fight IQ." A fighter needs to perceive what is happening, understand what it means, and select an appropriate response. The ability to recognize that an opponent is making a particular mistake doesn't help much if you don't have the technical skill to exploit it. Likewise, having a great technique doesn't help if you don't recognize the opportunity to use it.

This becomes particularly important in MMA because the situation can change so quickly. A striking exchange can become a takedown. A takedown can become a scramble. A scramble can become a submission attempt. A submission attempt can create an opportunity to stand up. The cage changes the possibilities again. The opponent's reactions change everything. There are too many possible interactions to simply memorize a sequence of responses.

You need to learn how to read the situation.

The Three Pillars Work Together

The three pillars aren't independent. In fact, the relationship between them is what makes fighting so interesting. Technique gives you options. Tactics determine how you want to use those options. Analysis helps you recognize which option is appropriate for the situation you're actually in.

Consider a fighter who is being pressured by an opponent. Their technical skillset might give them several possible responses: move away, pivot, counter, clinch, shoot a takedown, or attack while retreating. Their tactical understanding helps them know which responses fit their overall game plan. Their situational awareness allows them to recognize whether the opponent is simply walking forward, aggressively overextending, trying to cut off the cage, or setting up a particular attack.

The same technical skill can therefore produce very different results depending on the fighter's tactical understanding and awareness. A jab can maintain distance, disrupt an opponent's rhythm, create a reaction for a takedown, or help drive someone toward the cage. The technique itself hasn't changed. What changes is the purpose and the situation in which it is being used.

At a high level, these three abilities begin to blend together. The fighter doesn't consciously think through every step. They see something, recognize what it means, and respond. That apparent simplicity is actually the result of an enormous amount of previous learning, practice, sparring, competition, and problem-solving.

Why More Techniques Isn't Always the Answer

This is one reason I don't think the answer to becoming a better fighter is simply to keep adding techniques. Sometimes the problem isn't that you don't know enough. The problem may be that you can't execute what you already know, you don't understand when to use it, or you don't recognize the situation early enough to use it.

Imagine a fighter who continually gets passed from half guard. The answer might not be learning another half-guard escape. The fighter may need to understand why they're losing the position in the first place, develop the technical ability to address that specific problem, and then practice recognizing and solving it against increasing resistance.

The same thing happens in striking. If a fighter knows dozens of combinations but can't land them because they don't understand distance, timing, or their opponent's reactions, teaching them another combination probably isn't going to solve the problem. They may need to develop better range management, learn how to create openings, or become better at recognizing the moment when the combination is actually available.

More information isn't always more skill. Sometimes the best thing a fighter can do is become significantly better at the things they already know.

Great Fighters Learn to Solve Problems

Ultimately, fighting is a problem-solving activity. Your opponent presents a problem, you identify what is happening, you select a response, and you attempt to execute that response while your opponent is doing everything they can to prevent you from doing it. Then the situation changes, and you have another problem to solve.

That is one of the reasons MMA is such a difficult sport to master. The number of possible interactions between striking, wrestling, clinching, grappling, submissions, positional control, movement, and the cage is enormous. A solution that works in one moment can create an entirely different problem a few seconds later.

You can't memorize your way through that. You need a strong technical foundation, but you also need to understand what your techniques are designed to accomplish. You need to develop tactical systems that connect those techniques together, and you need enough situational awareness to recognize when the situation requires you to change your plan.

The best fighters aren't necessarily the people who have memorized the most answers. They're the people who have developed the ability to solve new problems with the skills they possess.

Building the Complete Fighter

When I look at a fighter's development, I think these three pillars provide a useful way of identifying what actually needs to improve. First, ask, "Can they do it?" That's the technical question. If they can't perform the skill, then they need more technical development and practice.

Next, ask, "Do they understand when and why to use it?" That's the tactical question. A fighter may be able to perform a technique perfectly but still have no idea how to incorporate it into an effective game plan.

Finally, ask, "Can they recognize what is happening and adapt?" That's the analytical question. Can they see the opportunities, recognize the problems, interpret their opponent's reactions, and make good decisions when the fight doesn't go according to plan?

These questions can also help coaches diagnose problems more accurately. When a fighter struggles, it's tempting to immediately teach them another technique. But sometimes they don't need another technique. They need better execution of something they already know. Sometimes they need a better tactical understanding of how to use it.

Sometimes they need more experience solving the problem against resistance.

The job isn't simply to make a fighter know more. The job is to make the fighter better at fighting.

From Technique to Fighter

There is a progression that happens as these three pillars develop. You first learn a technique and develop the ability to perform it. You then learn how that skill can be used tactically. With enough practice and experience, you begin to recognize the situations in which that skill is useful and make decisions about it in real time.

Eventually, the individual pieces begin to blend together. You aren't thinking, "My opponent just did X, therefore I will perform technique number 47." You simply recognize the situation and respond with an appropriate action. What looks instinctive from the outside is often the result of years of deliberate development.

That is what I think we're really trying to create when we talk about developing great fighters. We're not simply trying to create people who know a lot of techniques. We're trying to develop athletes who can execute skills, understand how those skills fit together, recognize what is happening in front of them, and make good decisions when the situation changes.

Techniques give you the tools. Tactics teach you how to use them. Analysis tells you what the situation is asking for.

Develop all three, and you're not just building a better technique collection.

You're building a fighter.