Why Strength & Conditioning Coaches Annoy Me!

Why Strength & Conditioning Coaches Annoy Me!

What's up, guys? Today, I'm gonna tell you why strength and conditioning coaches often times annoy me. I've found them very annoying in the past. I've worked with a few of them, and I've also had a lot of people that worked with strength and conditioning coaches very consistently, like high level fighters I know.

The thing that's annoying - and I don't think they do this on purpose, and I don't think they're bad people - is that a lot of them are trying to be more relevant or more needed than what they really are.

Over the years, I've seen strength and conditioning coaches be like, "Oh yeah, come train with me. I'll get your cardio right." And maybe they'll get you in better shape, maybe they will.

But honestly guys, let me tell you something about cardio and fighting. A lot of it is you need to have heart. It's that simple. Everybody gets tired. I don't know one person that doesn't get tired, and some people know how to suck it up and some people don't.

I'm not saying people's body types aren't different. Some people can go longer than others naturally because they don't hold as much muscle or they're not as fast twitch so they have more cardio. I'm not saying those things don't exist.

What I'm saying is everyone gets tired and some people can suck it up and some people can't. A lot of strength and conditioning coaches give fighters almost a false hope. They tell them, "I'll get your conditioning right."

I know guys that have did strength conditioning three times a week their whole career and still gas out. And it's mind blowing to me.

Someone needs to tell them, "Hey, quit being a pussy. Suck it up. Get some heart." It's crazy. And honestly, that doesn't mean these fighters aren't skilled. They may knock you out in the first round, they may be fast twitch guys that could knock you out in 30 seconds.

But as a coach, someone needs to tell them, "Hey, suck it up when you're tired." Someone should be telling them this during practice.

The answer isn't "Oh, I grapple and I gas out in the grappling round, so I'm going to go do more strength conditioning." No, the answer would be do more grappling rounds in practice.

If you take wrestling for example, offensive wrestling is probably the hardest part of MMA training as far as conditioning. Trying to take someone down over and over is very hard conditioning wise, very hard.

I'll see guys that have strength conditioning their whole career, 2-3 days a week, and they'll grapple and gas out. I could always do more rounds than them when I would grapple with them, and it blew my mind. And I never did a bunch of strength conditioning.

I've probably did about a year, year and a half my entire career. The rest of the time, I just did all my own stuff - natural body lifts, push ups, pull ups, dips, squats, jump squats, all body, not even real weights.

But I did develop an early foundation. I lifted a lot of weights when I was very young in middle school and high school. And that helped me throughout my fighting career.

The head coach needs to tell these fighters that gas out all the time: "You need to suck it up and you need to get more heart. You need to find it within yourself and you need to keep going."

If that means you have to come in and do three extra rounds every day, and in those three rounds you're so tired you get your ass whipped, then guess what? You get your ass kicked those three rounds, until eventually you break that, or you realize that maybe you're going to be done with fighting.

You need to be able to break that lack of heart in the gym. As harsh as that sounds, it's just true. Some people know how to suck it up when they get tired and some people can't. And no matter how much strength and conditioning you do, that's not going to solve that problem.

It's not a strength conditioning issue. It's a mental issue and a heart check issue that needs to be solved.

I'm not saying strength conditioning doesn't have its place. Not saying that some fighters don't need it. I think some people do need it, some people really don't need it.

But I'm saying that it's not going to solve the problem if you don't have any heart and you don't know how to suck it up when you get tired. Your strength condition coach basically lying to you and telling you they're going to solve that issue is not right.

Everybody gets tired, but some people know how to suck it up. It's that simple.

Strength and conditioning coaches need to quit lying and giving people a false sense of security. Your job is to get the person in shape, but you need to be honest with them.

If someone is going to strength and conditioning, their strength conditioning coach needs to be hard on them. They need to straight up tell them "suck it up."

You keep getting tired in fights, you're gassing out, you're giving up. I keep pushing you and you need to do more. You need to suck it up and show some initiative and show some heart.

That would be my advice to strength coaches that are trying to guide fighters outside of the actual martial arts fight training itself. Just my two cents there, guys.

Any other subjects you'd like me to talk about? Let me know. If you're new to martial arts, looking for a gym near you, trying to find a place to start training, get my book "The Ultimate Guide to Choosing Your Martial Arts School and Instructor." Very affordable - $4.99 on Amazon. Thank you guys.