Considerations For Training Principles and Modalities Within Martial Arts

Martial arts and combat sports is a broad concept that requires vastly different ways to move the body. This means there will be a lot of variety between a grappling practitioner and a striking art practitioners training. However, I believe there are a few broad concepts that we should consider when designing our training programme. In this context I use the term training programme to encompass all of our different training modalities and concepts.

Your first port of call is deciding what percentage of your weekly training hours should be placed upon the different elements of training. This requires working out how many hours you have available in your week to dedicate to training and preparing to perform your chosen art/sport. Deciding which hours or days you are going to dedicate to - technical/skills and drills, cardio, strength training, sparring, injury prevention/mobility, stretching/recovery, video analysis/mental training is hard, will change over time as you develop in your career.

Understanding which muscle or muscle groups are going to be put upon a greater demand compared to the rest of the body will help shape your training/strength and conditioning programme. The variety of demands put upon a practitioners body to perform the required movements contained within their sport or art requires different strength and conditioning principles and modalities e.g. Brazilian Jiu jitsu requires the ability to contract the pectorals and bicep for an extended period of time, when performing a rear naked choke. Taekwon-do requires a higher than average demand on your leg abductor muscle group such as the gluts and the vastus lateralis for kicking. Boxing requires conditioning the fast twitch muscle fibres within the triceps and rotator cuffs when jabbing. All of which will dictate a difference in the training programme from one athlete to the next.

These above mentioned muscle groups are at risk of overuse and have potential to become injurious. This is why I believe it is important to add slower, controlled resistance exercises to these muscle groups to aid maintaining the health of the muscle and/or joint. The exercises are similar to the exercises I prescribe for rehabilitation programmes. The term for this principle would be prehab. I often like to superset big compound movements with 'prehab' exercises. I find this to be more time efficient and hence more likely to be followed consistently (the slow resistance band exercises are commonly the first to be ditched given any time constraint).

Your time spent in different areas of training will change as you become closer to performing at a big event. Martial arts is harder to schedule for than a team sport as there is no defined pre season, season and post season to schedule around, due to there being tournaments available to athletes all year round, pus the requirements for non competitive events such as gradings. Somebody that only competes 3-4 times a year is easier to build a schedule around with the commonly favoured 8-12 week 'camps' preparation style. However there are lots of tournament style competitors who are competing every few weeks which requires constant moderations to their training modalities due to the variety within the competitors scheduling.

Key areas that every combat sports competitor should consider-

Skills & Drills - In recent times, more coaches and instructors seem to be allocating a larger percentage of training to technical drills and less time free sparring. However the style in which the skills and drills is delivered has modified recently. Whilst a beginner, or an intermediate that is new to a particular technique or concept, needs to spend a decent amount of time repeating individual and more isolated repetitions of individual techniques to build a solid foundation of correct and efficient movement. The advanced athletes are spending more time in what I call 'live drills' where the techniques or combinations are done in a more realistic manner against a partner with either more diverse reactions to said drills, or with light resistance applied. For example less static repetitive pad work, and more drills with a partner with the focus on a pre-prescribed technique, combination, counter attack, movement given by the coach/instructor, with a variety of outcomes allowed within the drills themselves.

Strength & Conditioning - A lot can be said and discussed regarding S&C. But some considerations for you. It is rarely not beneficial to have your more common compound lifts within your programming. It is rare that I don't programme in a deadlift, squat, bench or B.O. row into an athletes training. The art is to then decide what else to prioritise within the umbrella of S&C, to be in peak condition dictated by the demands of your chosen sport upon your body. As mentioned above, adding hip mobility into a Taekwon-do athletes programme would be a bigger priority (though still considered) than within a boxing athletes programming.

Another factor that will dictate the S&C programming is how the athlete reacts in regards to muscle soreness and changes within their performance. Some athletes bodies will have the ability to train hard in the gym 3-4 times a week alongside their sport specific training and keep increasing their output and athletic performance. However other athletes may start to feel burnt out or lacking in energy and verge on over training, and would create better performance results training for 2 days of S&C per week. The coach or trainer should have the ability to monitor and listen to the athlete and modify accordingly. Sometimes less is more.

Sparring - Although I previously talked about some coaches spending less time free sparring, obviously it is still a vital part of training. Sparring is required to develop good decision making and ring control which is harder to replicate within drilling. It is also (for most people) the thing that you are trying to be best at.. so you should do it a lot..

Age and experience are two of the largest factors that influence the amount of sparring you do. The older and more experienced you are, the less you have to spar due to ability gained from the amount of sparring rounds accrued over the years. Plus the higher risk of injury. Older more experienced athletes tend to lean more towards lighter contact drills to 'sharpen up' and less rounds of free sparring within a free sparring session. Sometimes during an up and down career, that most people will experience to a certain degree with very few exceptions, the main priority is to get to the event as injury and pain free as possible.

Recovery - There has been a burst in the variety of recovery modalities available to athletes including, but not exclusively- cold plunges, cryotherapy, saunas, manual therapy, cupping therapy, foam rolling and much more. And this is great! Having the opportunity to try different modalities and see what works for you is fantastic. People will argue with each other over the effectiveness of one modality over another. But I believe the most effective modality is one that you enjoy (or hate the least) and will do the most consistently.

Video analysis and mental training - It is important to spend some time, whether its once a week or every other week or even once a month to watch and write down the things that you believe are working well for you, and some key areas in which you need to improve. Having somebody else also analyse video will pick up on different aspects or come up with different solutions than just watching it yourself. It is a gift that live in a technological age in which we can easily record a lot of our performances whether in competition or training and hence have more footage in which to analyse and learn from.

I love that we offer a large and growing variety of these training and recovery modalities within the sport clinic. From injury treatment, to rehab, to S&C, to skill development, to event preparation, to recovery, there is something from each area of training available at the clinic. It is a privilege to help people, no matter if they are starting out their fitness journey or a seasoned pro looking to get the edge. We can help you improve in the area you feel needs the most attention.. if not all of them.

If you have any enquiries about your training or treatment, please contact us to discuss.