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Considerations for Contact Sport
24 Jan 2010 3:42PM
One of the main areas I feel should carry great importance in contact sports is the actual conditioning process for the impending takedowns and impact that will be received. Working in rugby league and mixed martial arts I see a lot of athletes week in week out who need to be trained to deal with high impact contacts. Now clearly I think that you cannot condition somebody to receive blows to the face, however I do think there is a process of conditioning the body to produce and absorb these contacts.
Below is a list of some of the key areas I feel are important to include in the programme for athletes involved in contact sports. It is by no means an exhaustive list and I have not included conditioning and other areas such as flexibility, mobility, etc as they a given and are clearly part of a full programme. If you are interested in reading more on any of these aspects let me know and I will expand on them in the future. Click HERE to read more about MMA strength and Conditioning.
1: Build general and relative strength- This will help the body to
produce force. You will also develop greater muscle density
which will help in reducing the impact forces.
2: Develop eccentric strength- This will help the body to
decelerate more effectively and absorb the attempted
shots. Plyometrics, cleans etc are good choices for this.
3.Power production with a variety of loads: Bodyweight
plyometrics such as hurdle jumps and movement drills
are very important, but equally important is the
production of power with heavier loads in excess of your
bodyweight. You will always be competing with a body
that is equal to or greater than your own weight. Train
power with high pulls, cleans, jump squats, and
complexes. For upper body explosiveness use medicine
balls, bench throws and complexes utilising heavy to light loads. See my article on complex training and potentiation by clicking HERE.
4: Develop additional key musculature:
Anti-Rotation/Extension based core training as
well as some rotation work such as barbell
rotations, barbell rollouts, plank rows etc, eccentric
bicep work, rotator cuff. This will train the trunk
functionally as well as developing muscle in these
key areas which helps absorbing contact and
producing force.
5: Rotator Cuff, Bicep and Scapular Work:
Train to recruit the scapular stabilisers and
train the rotator cuff itself in an integrated
manner. Not isolated bandwork, unless
recovering from injury. Biceps should be
trained eccentrically for tendon and muscular
strength, not concentration curls!! Joint by
Joint training should be used to train the
body. This is an article in itself! There are
other areas to emphasise when looking at this, maybe this will be expanded on in the future!
6: Hypertrophy- If possible? Weight controlled athletes obviously not unless moving up a weight. Non weight controlled or heavy-weights should train to increase functional muscle mass to help with absorbing contacts.
7: Introduce tackle shield based conditioning into
sessions: This is an important one. Shooting in on
someone holding a tackle shield allows you to drive as
hard as you can whilst simultaneously training yourself
to shoot with correct posture and shoulder tightness.
All key aspects of training for contact. Resisting the
shoot whilst holding the bag really helps you to absorb
the forces safely through bracing and effective
movement. If you are not using this type of training you are missing out. There are a lot of drills you can use with these shields. They are also excellent for conditioning work. You can also change conditions with the tackle shied within conditioning sessions to really challenge the athletes such as hit and drive, hurdle jump and hit, hit and circle off, hit and drive then hit again etc etc etc.
8.Train Contact under fatigue: After contact work has been introduced this needs
to be worked into conditioning sessions stressing the impact and drive whilst under fatigue. Click HERE to read about skills under fatigue, a closely related topic.
9.Include some muscular endurance based work into the gym: Clearly metabolic
fatigue is a key factor in conditioning, but a lot of the fatigue in wrestling and grappling comes from the actual muscles themselves as opposed to the cardiovascular system. Muscular endurance work helps to prevent this.
Thanks for reading, click HERE to find out more about my MMA specific Strength and Conditioning programme.
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