MMA Interview with Joel Jamieson

Article by Matt Lord for 8countnews.com

 

In five weeks, I will enter the cage in Vicksburg, Mississippito engage in my first Mixed Martial Arts contest.  Unlike the pros who are fully engaged in a training camp at this point and devoting themselves fully to diet, conditioning and skill training, I have to make my preparation work around normal life. 

 

At my level technical skill and ability are very important, but conditioning could be even more critical. Realizing this, I've spent some time roaming around MMA sites and rummaging through the very few books on the subject of fight conditioning looking for all the advice and help I can find. 

 

In this pursuit, I believe I found the end all of my searching when I came across Joel Jamieson and his website www.8weeksout.com.  Joel is one of, if not the premiere conditioning trainer of MMA athletes in the world. His precise and scientific approach to training his clients is proven effective in their extreme level of nearly inhuman condition displayed in the Octagon of the UFC and other cages all across the globe. 

 

Joel has graciously allowed me to be the 8countnews personal test subject with his guidance to my personal conditioning over the next few weeks preparing for my fight.  As a part of this process he took the time to answer a few questions about his approach to training and his new book. 

 

 

8CN: Joel, tell us about what you do in the world of MMA?  We've talked with fighters, coaches and even agents...but, what exactly do you do? 

 

Joel: My role as a strength and conditioning is essentially to make sure that the fighters I work with have the conditioning and physical abilities they need to use their skills to the best of their ability as an MMA athlete.

 

They train hard to learn how to punch, kick, takedown, knee, elbow, etc. and acquire a broad range of skills, but without the physical abilities of strength, speed, power, aerobic and anaerobic fitness, they won't be able to utilize these skills up to their true potential.

 

I create training programs that improve the physical qualities of each athlete so that when the time comes in a fight they will be able to deliver the knockout punch, get the submission, or outlast their opponent until the last bell rings. 

 

 

8CN: What is your background and what brought you to your role as one of the premier trainers of MMA athletes?

 

Joel: My early background in strength and conditioning revolved more around the development of strength and power and I originally worked with a coach at the University of Washington named Bill Gillespie, a world record holder in Powerlifting, and focused mostly on football and the development of explosive strength.

 

After working with the Seahawks for a short while I opened my own training facility and got my first start in MMA working with Ivan Salaverry, a middleweight in the UFC at the time, back in late 2003.

 

Soon after that I began working with legendary MMA Coach Matt "The Wizard" Hume and all of the pro fighters out of AMC Kickboxing and the rest is history.   

 

 

8CN: Tell us some of the fighters you have trained that we may know as fans? Can you tell us any specific stories about your approach to working with these guys?   Knowing they already are in pretty decent shape, how does your training address their specific needs?

 

Joel: I've worked with a lot of top guys that many fans will know such as Rich Franklin, Spencer Fisher, Hayato Sakurai, Matt Brown, Jens Pulver, Ivan Salaverry, Maurice Smith, KJ Noons, Chris Leben, Jorge Gurgel, Yoon Dong Sik, Akira Shoji, and many more. Pretty much any top fighter that has come through AMC Kickboxing in the last 5 years or so I have worked with.

 

No matter what kind of shape an athlete is in, there are always things that can be improved that will make them even better. MMA is a very skill intensive sport and there are many different diverse physical qualities that they need to be successful. I've yet to work a fighter who didn't have a specific weakness they needed to work on. My training identifies these areas of weakness and then improves them through specific training programs.

 

 

8CN: Can you give us the nuts and bolts version of your approach to training?  What sets your style apart?

 

Joel:The nuts and bolts of my approach to training appears very complex to most casual observers but beneath it all the main principles are elegantly simple. Over the last 5 years or so I've developed a very detailed model of performance for MMA and my approach revolves around this model. You can think of this model as my blueprint for training really.

 

Through extensive physical testing on many different fighters I've been able to see exactly what makes them tick and which physical abilities are essential for success and which ones are not. By using these important markers for performance I can compare any fighter I work with to the ideal ranges and see where exactly their weaknesses are and what they need to do to improve them. No other coach out there has collected as much specific testing data or done as much analysis as I have. This unique approach allows me to eliminate much of the guesswork and gives me the ability to train each athlete very specifically and precisely.    

 

 

8CN: How critical, in your opinion, is such specific training to the success of a fighter and why?

 

Joel: Ultimately a fighter's success comes down to their individual skill level and their ability to use that skill in a fight. The sport of MMA is unique in that it requires not just strength, speed, and explosive power but also tremendous muscular endurance and cardiovascular conditioning as well.

 

This diversity is what makes the specific training of a fighter so important to their success.

 

Just as a fighter who has great striking but no ground game can have their weaknesses exploited once they hit the ground, a fighter who has physical weaknesses can also lose fights as a result.

 

I'm sure many fans have seen many fights lost due to poor conditioning, but there's also been plenty lost because of a lack of strength, speed, power, etc. as well.

 

To get to the top of the sport a fighter must have all the necessary physical qualities in addition to very well rounded skills. Today we see some excellent athletes in the sport but as MMA continues to evolve we'll begin to see even more.

 

Soon it will become common place to see the same level of athleticism we see in the NFL, NBA, etc. in the octagon and in the ring.

 

Specific athletic development training has been a big part of the reason we've seen the level of athleticism of the major professional sports rise over the past decades and it will also play a large role in the evolution of MMA as well. 

 

 

8CN: What are the best resources available for fighters or athletes who are looking to up their conditioning but do not have access to someone like you personally?

 

Joel: Well right now I'm in the middle of working on a book and a very unique project that will give every fighter the ability to take advantage of the performance model I mentioned earlier so that's keeping me very busy lately.

 

Soon every fighter will be able to use this same model that I've spent many years developing to determine their exact physical weaknesses and then have the tools to train specifically to turn them into their strengths.

 

This will be as close to working me personally as anyone can get and they will actually be able to have me developing workouts for them based on their test results.

 

 

To find out more people can check out my website www.8weeksout.com for upcoming information on the release of my book and this revolutionary training system.

Article by Matt Lord for 8countnews.com

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