Mixed Martial Arts Film Study 101

Mixed Martial Arts has taken huge leaps forward in the last ten years. It started out as the idyllic martial art vs martial art, the purest form of the competition because both competitors had no clue what the other guy was doing, case in point (sorry I love that video)

As the sport progressed, fighters had rounded out their game and fighters are searching for a different kind of edge. Game planning and tailoring their training to fighting styles are nothing new but many fighters shy away from watching tape.

Many fighters come in saying they 'don't want to respect their opponents too much' or they 'want to impose their will' rather than change their game. But recent MMA has seen several fighters using video tape study to great success.

In 2008, preparing for his title shot against Rampage Jackson, Forrest Griffin noticed several combinations that formed the core of Rampage's arsenal while watching a film of Rampage's recent fights. Based on what he saw Griffin was able to compose a strategy consisting of high kicks to bruise and reduce the power of Rampage's right hand and low kicks to the left leg take away his mobility and base.

The result was one of the most memoriable upsets in UFC history as Forrest hacked down Rampage on way to a 5 round victory.

Similarly at UFC 102 two fighters entered the cage armed with a wealth of film study. Nate Marquardt is a member of the Greg Jackson fighting team, who along with Xtreme Couture, are leading the charge in film study.

Marquardt and Jackson noticed that Demian Maia like to throw body kicks but dropped his hands. Jackson had Marquardt drill straight punch counters to body kicks and when the time came in the fight Marquardt was able to execute the move to a devastating result.

Thiago Silva was faced with an enigma that had tripped up some of the best members of the Light Heavyweight division, Kieth Jardine. Jardine's claim to fame is his fighting technique or rather his lack of technique. Jardine uses his physical skills combine with his ungainly striking to achieve amazing upsets and disappointing defeats.

Silva studied the film on Jardine and noticed major deficiency in footwork which opened up certain counter opportunities. And sure enough, in the match, Jardine came forward throwing epic, Mortal Combat upper cuts and Silva slipped to the side and threw a short punch which leveled Jardine.

This in no way suggests that watching film is an instant victory, Forrest Griffin watched film of Anderson Silva obsessively and was crushed. Stephan Bonnar watched every fight that Jon Jones had participated in since middle school and he still was not prepared for the spinning elbow and suplexes that got dropped on him. Kenny Florian studied B.J. Penn like he was majoring in him, but in the end his essay thesis was just plain wrong.

Film study can't overcome every situation or fighter but it is an edge that can't be ignored.

Film study can have a huge impact on a career, it can give a fighter a signature win or prevent become someone's break out win. When Josh Koscheck took his match with Paulo Thiago, he knew next to nothing about the Brazilain Special Forces fighter. All he knew was that Thiago had several submission wins and trained in Brazil. Koscheck assumed he was primarily a Jiu Jitsu fighter, never watched any tape on Thiago, and went into the fight with the intent to strike with Thiago.

During the match it was very clear that Koscheck was shocked by Thiago's ability on his feet and was in the process of coming up with a new plan when a right upper cut and left cross combo sparked a stoppage debate that could have easily been avoided if Koscheck had known anything about his opponent aside from his name.

Much like in football, baseball, hockey and almost every other major sport, film study is the natural step in the professionalization of the sport of MMA.

It reveals weakness, strengths, habits and flaws in both opponents and yourself. Film study is something that was incorporated into my own sport of fencing in my time at Ohio State. You studied film of yourself to reveal flaws that can be worked out and looked for tendencies in opponents.

Only a few camps have embraced watch film reguarly at this point but look for it expand to the point when the film room is a critical part of the gym.