What Can Trainers Learn From Mixed Martial Arts?

Bettering yourself at anything requires the imagination to find inspiration in unlikely places. As a fan of the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, I have come to appreciate the level of preparation that these athletes and trainers put into a 5 round fight. The type of preparation trainers and instructional designers feel when spending weeks to build a 30 minute WBT.

Georges St. Pierre is a French-Canadian fighter out of Greg Jackson’s camp that embodies the brutal arts better than anyone. His pre and post fight interviews are the embodiment of calm; calm that can only come from intense preparation both on the physical and mental side.

A sublime example of this preparation was a 2009 fight against arguably the one of the top pound for pound fighters at welterweight BJ Penn. After a one-sided victory St. Pierre gave a post-fight synopsis that sounded like a biology lesson. It was evident that his training involved a physiological assessment of his opponent. But the man behind the fighter was the voice of the “trainer,” Greg Jackson. In most fights you hear the din of three or four corner men shouting orders. Jackson rarely interjects during a round and if he does it is the perfect instruction.

In-between rounds when an exhausted fighter gets his brief moment from the onslaught of dangerous exchanges Jackson really shines. He usually starts by telling his fighter to focus on breathing then allows the fighter to make his statement about how the fight is going. If Jackson disagrees it is with a direct statement either in agreement or sharp contrast but always calm.

The fundamentals of fight preparation clearly arc into both instructor-led training and online training. Trainers in the instructional design world may not have to worry about defending against submissions but we have to know how to find a balance between psychology, science and instinct. If we all devote time to immersing ourselves in disciplines on the periphery we will be better at everything. When St. Pierre was asked by a sports writer if he was worried about his opponent the night before his title defense, St. Pierre calmly responded, “I train to fight an army, why would I be worried about one man.” Badass.