MMA Workout Basics: Goal SettingFiled Under: Instruction
The Big Picture
Setting goals is by far the most important thing you can do when constructing an MMA workout. If you don’t have a clear picture of where you need to go, you won’t know how to get there, how long it will take, or when you’ve arrived.
Are you doing MMA workouts to prepare for an organized fight? Are you just doing them to get in shape? What exactly are you looking for in your workout?
If you’re like me , you probably already have a long mental list of things you want from your workouts. Do you want to develop knock out punches? Learn to dominate the clinch positions? As a mixed martial artist, the workout is your vehicle to achieve these goals.
It Is Not A Goal Unless It’s Written Down
By now, you’ve got a mental list of some things you’d like to have as a fighter. Now comes the brain work. Write your goals down, and prioritize them as best you can. Take the top two or three goals and for now, file away the rest. Later, you’ll need to choose exercises and drills that advance these goals, construct specific workouts, loads, rest periods, cycles … but like I said, later. My goal in this article is to talk about goal setting, capeesh?
Note:
If you’re starting out in MMA, exercising, or just martial arts in general, you’ll need to review your goals and adjust pretty often. You’re in a state of unconscious incompetence – you don’t know what you don’t know. It’s okay – we’ve all been there – but be prepared to shift gears often. It’s hard to determine how important something is, especially in relation to everything else … because you don’t know everything else.
SMARTY Pants
One way I’ve improved my goal setting is by using the SMART goals method.
“SMART” is acronym: that means your goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.
This works with the meta-goals in MMA and the workout sub-goals. A meta-goal could be, “I want to be the light-heavy weight UFC champion” and “I want to be a superb striker” would be the chosen sub-goal you’d like to focus on. But both of those goals are a tad too lofty – perhaps something like “I’d like to increase my leg power by 30% as measured by the squat and deadlift in 12 weeks” is “smarter”.
Certainly, you may not have enough knowledge to construction something like that yet, but wait grasshopper. It will come. Just remember: The workout is a vehicle to the ultimate goal.
If you’re trying to loose weight by doing MMA, pick and choose your activities to maximize that. If you want to be a great striker, your goal could be to increase hand speed.
If you know where you want to go, everything down the line will be much easier to figure out.
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Tags: conditioning, goal setting, workout, workouts
- Permalink
- BartB
- 16 Dec 2008 5:18 PM
- Comments (7)
December 22nd, 2008 at 6:51 pm
[...] Have specific MMA training goals. [...]
December 27th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
[...] all for setting goals. Really, I [...]
February 11th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
[...] may want to refresh your mind by re-reading the basics of MMA workout goals. [...]
March 24th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
awesome info about achieving your goals
July 9th, 2010 at 12:58 am
Goal setting is very important specially if you want to plan long term.;-:
September 24th, 2010 at 4:45 am
Good post.
Goal setting is the easiest and quickest way to get what we want from life, whether it’s a win in the octagon/ring, or simply a better job.
For this reason, it’s too bad more people don’t know how to do it properly!
Alex Work
YourGoalBook.com
July 12th, 2011 at 11:11 am
Goals are so important. It was once said, that a goal not written down is just a dream. Goals need to be measurable and attainable. Without goals were not moving forwards yet backwards.