UFC Specific Conditioning Master Circuit A

I have been awarded the honor of being the head conditioning and sport psychology coach for Alberto Crane and his comeback UFC victory January 23, 2008. We are now at the sport-specific phase of his peaking cycle in his training. The following is an example of how he has been preparing with me:

Master Circuit B: 666 Protocol - named for the fact that in order to survive, all personal demons will be faced. This is not a “friendly” protocol. As we start heading into mental and emotional, more buttons will be pushed attempting to knock him mentally out of the game.

Six 6-minute rounds with 60 seconds rest of the following circuit, 30 seconds per station:

Two-Handed Clubbell Shoulder Throws
Stretch-band Shoulder Throws
Medball Spiral Slam Walks
Sandbag Umpas
Tornado Ball Figure 8s
Low-Resistance Stretch-Band Striking - Standing with Hand-mits
Low-Resistance Stretch-Band Striking - Ground on Heavybag
Sandbag Two-Leg Kick-Offs
Heavybag Single-Leg Kick Offs
Medball Takedowns

In this blog, I’ve attempted to describe my approach of peaking professional fighters through the Training Hierarchy Pyramid. Although the THP was originally inspired years ago by strength and conditioning author Tudor Bompa, my levels, application and design are very different, which this blog has made obvious.

The higher up the pyramid, the more confusing it has been for most athletes, primarily because of the relative void of professional coaching in mixed martial arts and submission fighting competition. Judging by the incredible feedback and even success of remote athletes following along, it seems to be helping a lot of folks, so I’m going to continue to describe these more seemingly ambiguous levels of peaking performance in fighting.

The General Physical Preparedness (GPP) micro-cycle shores up any conditioning deficits needed for the athlete to train for the sport: power, strength, agility, coordination, stamina, cardio, endurance, etc.

The Specific Physical Preparedness (SPP) micro-cycle addresses the specific energy system of the intended sport, so this is where the protocol - how you train - becomes as important as the exercise selection.

The Sport Specific Preparedness (SSP) micro-cycle makes the energy system specific to the event (round and rest duration), and the exercises selected are within the range and depth of motion of the actual skills needing to be augmented.

I coach athletes through 3 phases of SSP:

Phase I: the ranges are categorized into programs; for instance, striking, groundfighting and takedowns. In this phase, I determine which ranges are leaking force and power; a deeper assessment and enhancement than the GPP and SPP can accomplish. Hopefully, I catch any small leaks earlier, but they absolutely must be calked closed during SSP.

Phase II: the ranges are sequenced into programs; master circuits rotate through the sequence of the ranges, i.e. within one master circuit striking to takedown to groundfight to striking and repeat the sequence with different exercise selection to make sure the leaks are holding. This phase concentrates on the new leaks which appear in the conditioning when the fighter transitions from one range to the next. For instance, how fluid and centered is Alberto’s conditioning as he transitions from the ground fighting back to stand-up. This only becomes a scramble if the movement speed and quality if not prepared in conditioning. No scramble = 100% control.

In the SSP Phase II, I’m honestly more concerned about the walls holding then building stronger walls: the weakest link deteremines the strength of the chain. Although young coaches may focus on increasing strengths as far as possible for as long as possible, experienced coaching reveals that this only leads to diminishing returns, decreased performance and eventual injury.

80% of the gains are deliberately made during the GPP and SPP micro-cycles. Most young coaches hit the 80% “plateau” and keep banging their athletes against that wall, thinking that if they work them harder, longer or more often that they’ll keep gaining, but never do. The remaining 20% are eeked out indirectly during the SSP and MEP micro-cycles, specifically make focusing all coaching on keeping the leaks cemented shut. A balanced fighter performs better, reaps much more satisfaction from the sport, and fosters greater career longevity. Any young coach can take a car wreck to a bush-league demolition derby. At my age, I’m more concerned with bringing a high-performance formula one racer to the Gran Prix… year after year.

I feel very fortunate to be awarded this contract with Alberto Crane, not merely because he’s an elite athlete, but because he’s an elite athlete who applies the coaching as administered. Unless you’ve actually been coaching for as long as I have, especially on a national team level, it’s really hard to communicate how important tracking data is. Different variables can seem arbitrary, and as athletes we often think that we know best. But that’s not entirely accurate. As athletes we know better what we’re experiencing, but we don’t fully understand why and how to modify or amplify that experience.

In the months that Alberto and I and the rest of the team have been working together, we’ve developed a strong enough rapport that we can get on the horn, discuss the feedback on drilling, sparring and conditioning, and make the necessary mods immediately. That dance usually takes years of one-on-one work. But remarkably, with Alberto it has only taken months. It’s an honor hard for me to describe.

Scott Sonnon,
Ultimate Fighting Championship Coach
www.ScottSonnonLIVE.com
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• Alberto Crane Training 1

Low-Resistance Striking Drill Standing vs Mitts designed to "assisst" return speed of strikes.
• Alberto Crane Training 2

Low-Resistance Striking Drill Ground-and-Pound on heavy bag designed to "assist" recovery speed of strikes in order to increase total volume of strikes.
• Scott Sonnon's 3D Performance Pyramid

Scott Sonnon's Coaching Model for Peaking Performance in Fighting