We buy Air Jordan's because we think that if Michael Jordan gives them the tick of approval, they must help with basketball performance. Similarly, we think that by following the training regimen of a professional fighter, it must help with fight performance. Sounds good on paper, but it will probably do you more harm than good. We are going to outline five reasons why following a fighters (or professional athletes) training regimen may be doing you harm.
1. Training Level - Most professional athletes have been spending their whole life training. The intensity and volume of training increases the more you train. Their body has adapted to the training load they have been subjected to over many many years. If you haven't undergone the same foundation work the athlete has gone through, you can't expect to perform the training routine that follows safely.
2. Honesty - watching Floyd Mayweather Jr. hit pads looks more like a choreographed dance routine then skill development for a fight. What we don't realize is that there is more to his training than what we are shown. The cameras are turned off before most sparring sessions, and we have never really seen him hit pads properly. So how do we trust what we read in a magazine?
3. Injuries - Combat sports are tough on the body. Injuries are common. Athletes have to learn to train around injuries to make sure they don't detrain. For example, the athlete may be avoiding heavy structural exercises because of a back injury. But without that back injury, heavy compound lifts would be used to improve sports performance. In addition, sometimes we have injuries of our own. Trying to implement a program designed for someone else is a recipe for making your injury worse.
4. Time Availability - Many professional athletes train as their job. They have time between sessions to recover, and often have access to sophisticated recovery tools. Most of us don't have the luxury of training as our job. We have social commitments and work commitments that will probably interfere with trying to employ a similar training volume to a professional. Sleep is considered a good recovery tool, but when you do it in the office, your colleagues or managers may not be too happy.
5. Variety - We often hear that athletes spend every minute in the gym, and sacrifice every social commitment they are exposed to. This makes it more surprising when they are caught DUI, or a video of them snorting drugs in the toilet comes out. Athletes, even at the very top, have periods where there training volume/intensity is altered. It is necessary to avoid burnout. Rarely do we see how the training program of a professional is sequenced, or recommendations on how long they should be using the program before switching it up.
So, with all that said are supposed to find our own way to reach sports mastery? Definitely not. If we take a step back, we can take three valuable things from those who have made it:
i) The Programming they employ: In an interview with Freddie Roach he outline that they have x amount of rounds to work with per day which is divided into shadow, bagwork, pads and sparring. The methodology coaches use with their athletes is something we can try and adapt.
ii) The intensity during training: the effort that pro's put into training IS something we should try and mimic
iii) The work ethic and determination: Perseverance is also critical for success. Missing a lift should make you more motivated to make it next time, losing a match should make you want to learn from your mistakes and win your next one. The resiliency that comes with sporting success is another characteristic which we should try and emulate
