What does Baseball and American Football have in common with Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), besides the fact that they are sports? If the answer is absolutely nothing, try again. If the answer is everything, that is correct. In order for someone to get paid millions upon millions of dollars to play a kid’s sport, says a lot of the hard work of the athlete. Upon the copious amount of necessary skills that a professional athlete must possess, there are two that are the most vital to a player’s success in their respective sport. In MMA, conditioning and mental toughness are the core of the MMA fighter’s spirit, and without them, their time in the sport will be short lived. However, in order to be successful in Baseball and American Football, a player, above all, needs to have dedication and talent to have a prominent career in their respective sport. Now with MMA promotions such as the UFC/Strikeforce and Bellator gaining popularity among masses, professional athletes included, many are drawn to the many benefits. A good reason why professional athletes participate in MMA training - a monumental component of it - is to further develop their conditioning and mental toughness. After the completion of MMA training and leading to their respective season, the athletes that cross trained with MMA have had successful seasons.
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| Atlanta Falcons Team |
A prime example of MMA training proving successful for pro-athletes was seen in the 2010 Atlanta Falcons. Their overall record for the 2010 season was 13-3, one of their best seasons in franchise history. The whole team was introduced to MMA training prior to the 2010 season by the general manager, Thomas Dimitroff, implementing a program catered to MMA. “This was something we were comfortable with as far as conditioning but even more importantly the idea of having MMA help the players with their leverage, hand quickness, and things that could help them within the trenches taking on blocks and battling inside.” Implementing such a program proved to be an excellent idea for the organization and the fan base because the team made it to the post-season and was given the 2010 first-seed with home field advantage due to their outstanding season. A major contributor to the consistency all season long can be attributed to the mental and physical stress the players endured during training; for example, when the 4th quarter of a highly contested game was in front of them, the players would feel fresh since MMA training made them feel as if they were there on a daily basis, and taught them to ‘push-through.’ “You get some great conditioning out of it,” Lofton has said after a workout inside the Falcons field house. “Plus, there’s a lot of carryover to what we do on the field.
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| Patrick Willis |
Although there are many American Football players who train MMA such as Clay Mathews, Jared Allen, Mercedes Lewis, the one player that merits his own paragraph is Patrick Willis of the 5x Super Bowl Champions San Francisco 49ers. When the name Patrick Willis is said, many people will simply refer to him as a “Beast” – a term given to anyone who performs at a higher level than their constituents in their respective craft; in this case, Patrick Willis is a “beast” in his position as Middle Linebacker. Since his inauguration into the NFL in 2007, he has been selected to the Pro-Bowl 4x, 3x NFL Linebacker of the Year, and AP Player Defensive Rookie of the Year. When he incorporated MMA training to his regime that is when Patrick Willis started to become “more human than human” and everyone started to pay him more attention. A scout stated that, "Nobody in the NFL plays their position better than Patrick Willis, and that is saying a lot." His predatory instincts and good positioning on the gridiron (American Football Field similar to a Football Pitch) goes back to his MMA training and the similarities he saw between the two sports. “I see a fight and a guy goes to grab somebody and you look at how the other guy leverages, it’s just like football,” Willis commented. “You would think a lot of times a guy that’s 250 pounds and comes in on a guy that’s 235 pounds and just de-cleat him, but if he’s got good pad leverage you’ll just ricochet off him, and that’s what happens in (MMA).”
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| Batter Rushing the Mound |
Just like in American Football, Baseball is another sport where MMA training is flourishing for any player in different positions. “Adam Dunn of the Chicago White Sox, Brad Penny of the Detroit Tigers and Russell Martin of the Yankees have used the sport’s punches and kicks to improve their throwing and swinging.” In addition, since Baseball is known for batters rushing the pitcher especially if the batter felt it was thrown with malicious intent, the pitcher should have the confidence to defend himself from the batter. MMA fighter and coach, Dan Henderson stated “it might give Brad [Penny] a little more confidence when he’s pitching inside…And he’s prepared in case anyone rushes the mound.”
Beside the physical aspect of Baseball, each individual athlete should mentally prepare themselves for the strenuous schedule, injuries, and etc, that is the Baseball season. “In addition to improving overall fitness, Martin said, mixed martial arts can make an athlete mentally tougher.” With the long grueling season that Baseball teams are subjected to each and every year, the most important transferable skill that MMA training instills is, as what Russell Martin said, the mental toughness. Consequently, training MMA gives the player the mental capacity to overcome the injuries or days when the player isn’t feeling 100%, since they already know that nothing will compare to the training.
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