Is Detailed Gameplanning The Future Of MMA?
by Kelvin Hunt on Feb 5, 2009 10:00 AM EST
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PrintWell, B.J. Penn is a very fast starter and he has very fast hands. He's got small shoulders if you look at him, like boxing shoulders. So, I wanted to make the first couple rounds a wrestling match. A lot of clinching. A lot of moving around for him to carry my weight so the blood goes to his shoulders. His shoulders would have been heavy. His hands would not come out as fast as usual. Then, after that, pick him apart standing later in the fight.
GSP on the set of MMA Live after his victory over BJ Penn at UFC 94.
Of course a five round fight will allow you to implement this type of strategy more effectively. Usually fighters have two types of gameplans:
- They don't like to have gameplans as they prefer to adapt to situations as the fight unfolds.
- The gameplan is very basic. Attack their opponents weakness. For example, if a striker is fighting a wrestler the striker wants to keep the fight standing and vice versa.
In this age of MMA fighters where guys are training in all facets of the game, this method of gameplanning has to be implemented to a degree. In a year or so, the days of fighters mastering one discipline and then training in the others will be over in my opinion. I think fighters will have to become very detailed oriented as the game evolves. The fighters of tomorrow will come more equipped with a significant amount of weapons and defenses at their disposals. Do you think this type of detailed gameplanning is the future of MMA?
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Son, can you imagine what MMA will be like in say 5-10 years? When most if not all of the fighters have similar skillsets to what GSP has now? That’s going to be crazy.
http://www.mmaforreal.com
i didn’t think fighters were going into fights without gameplans, or fightplans as i like to call them, anymore. boxers have used specific fightplans since as long as i can remember, but that’s a more 1 dimensional sport. the nfl and nba teams always have gameplans but they are team sports. so should mma fighters have detailed fightplans going into the fight? hell yes. a fighter should always be trying to expose the other fighters weaknesses and to not playing into his strengths. it should’nt be that of the future, but of the here and now. gsp had a great fightplan, and it worked perfectly. bj penn was on the jim rome show and said that he did not have a specific fight plan and we all saw how that panned out. i cant wait to see what gameplan that gsp and greg jackson have next for thiago alves.
Surprisingly, quite a few fighters go into fights without specific gameplans…Fedor, BJ Penn and Lyoto Machida are three that come to mind.
http://www.mmaforreal.com
those are 3 fighters that are so naturally gifted, i can see in the past why they wouldn’t have gameplans. but now the fighters are catching up and everyone is becoming more well rounded. arlovski had a great fightplan against fedor and it worked great too, up till the moment he got ktfo. lyoto is amzing to watch, but somebody will figure him out and he will have to have a plan b. we’ll see in the future.
I think the Greg Jackson-approach is the approach for the future. There’s alot of variables to take into consideration for any given fighter — skillset, constitution, cardio, reach, height, frame, mental strength, intangibles etc. — when you device a plan to defeat him
I don’t know. Fighting isn’t a chess game. One lapse in concentration, one early punch can change everything.
Take the Herring-Lesnar fight for instance. That early shot surely set the tone. Lesnar didn’t do much later but whatever gameplan Herring came with would have gone out of the window when he got caught early.
Also, Rashad’s KO for Liddell was great but when two guys are throwing bombs, its just a matter of time before someone gets KOd. Liddell came pretty close to landing one himself.
I’m not going to subscribe to the whole gameplan theory just yet.
by cauliflower_ears on Feb 6, 2009 5:04 AM EST reply actions
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