The Jack of All Trades Problem: Why MMA Fighters Need Breadth and Depth

MMA fighters are often criticized as being "jacks of all trades, masters of none."

I understand where that comes from. Take a world-class boxer and his boxing will probably be better than an MMA fighter's boxing. The same is true of wrestling, BJJ, Muay Thai or any other specialized discipline. But that's not really a criticism of MMA. It's a consequence of competing in a sport that requires you to solve a much broader range of problems.

An MMA fighter can't afford to specialize in only one area. A great boxer who can't wrestle has a problem. A great wrestler who can't strike has a problem. A great BJJ player who can't get the fight to the ground has a problem. The question in MMA isn't, "Who is the better boxer?" It's, "Who can solve the entire problem presented by an MMA fight?"

That's where things get interesting. MMA isn't simply boxing plus wrestling plus BJJ plus Muay Thai. Those sports provide many of the individual tools, but MMA creates another layer of skill because those tools have to interact. A punch can create a takedown. A takedown can create a scramble. A wrestling defense can create a striking opportunity. A clinch can become a throw, a takedown, dirty boxing or an opportunity to disengage. The connections between the individual skills are skills in themselves.

I learned some of this early in my own training. I came into Sanshou kickboxing with a background in boxing and wrestling, so I wasn't necessarily learning every individual skill from scratch. What was interesting was what happened when those skills were combined. A punch wasn't just a punch anymore because the opponent had to consider the possibility of a takedown. A wrestling entry could be set up with striking or catching a kick.

Combining the skills created possibilities that weren't obvious when I looked at each discipline separately.

That experience has stayed with me because you can become very good at boxing, wrestling and BJJ and still have difficulty putting them together. The connections don't necessarily teach themselves. At some point, you have to learn how one area changes the problems in another.

That doesn't mean depth isn't important. It is. Great fighters have things they're exceptionally good at. They have weapons they can rely on and areas where they can impose their game. The mistake is thinking that having a specialty means ignoring everything else. Your specialty exists inside MMA, and MMA will continue presenting you with problems outside of it.

So I don't think breadth and depth are opposites. You need enough breadth to understand the whole game and prevent major weaknesses, while developing enough depth to have skills that can become real weapons. The goal isn't to become equally good at everything. It's to become broadly capable while developing particular areas to a very high level.

There is also a difference between the way fighters had to develop in the early days of MMA and the opportunities available today. When I started training, there wasn't much of an established MMA development system. You generally started somewhere else and eventually collected the other skills you needed. Today, an athlete can walk into an MMA gym and begin learning striking, wrestling, grappling and transitions from the beginning.

I don't think the old way was wrong. It produced some incredible fighters. But we have an opportunity now to develop breadth earlier while deliberately developing depth as the athlete matures. We don't necessarily have to wait for someone to spend years becoming a specialist before introducing them to the rest of MMA.

That's ultimately what we're trying to do with the BLAST development model. We want athletes to build a broad foundation, develop depth in the areas that become important to their individual game, and then learn to integrate those skills under resistance. The progression isn't simply about accumulating more techniques. It's about learning the pieces, learning how to use them, and eventually learning how they work together.

Breadth gives you the vocabulary.

Depth gives you weapons.

Integration turns them into MMA.

That's the real goal. Not to produce someone who is equally good at every martial art, and not to produce a specialist with a collection of holes everywhere else. We want to develop complete fighters who understand the whole game, have real strengths within that game, and can connect those strengths when the situation changes.

So when someone says MMA fighters are jacks of all trades, I'm not particularly bothered by it. If they mean an MMA fighter needs a broader skill set than someone who specializes in a single combat sport, they're absolutely right.

But I don't think the goal is to be a master of none.

The goal is to develop enough breadth to understand the game, enough depth to have weapons, and enough integration to make all of it work together.