Urijah FaberFiled Under: Instruction
One of my current favorites is fighter Uriah Faber. He’s hard working, tough, smart … what’s not to like? Aside from being a very exciting fighter (see his fight with Jens Pulver), you can learn a lot by watching this guy.
He’s got that rare mix of being both a professional athlete and a good instructor. Here’s 4 min’s of teaching about shooting techniques, something Faber does well.
Urijah doesn’t come from a striking background, which makes his current abilities more impressive. He’s got great hand speed – about 40-50% of his fights have been won via knockout – and endurance to keep punching hard for five rounds. Check out him working out in the video below.
Which reminds me – if you want to get good at striking, you’ll need a good coach, accessible partner and plenty of time working out (Faber’s got Master Andy Kay for his Muay Thai and Joe Urias for boxing). Unlike some classes in college, you can’t get a passable grade in the sweet science of striking by cramming during an all-nighter. There’s no shortcut.
If you’re an orphan MMA fan and don’t have any body to train with, call up your nearest gym and see if you can book a personal trainer who can at least hold the pads for you. The heavy bag, while good, isn’t enough. Jean Jacques Machado has a personal trainer (Favio) that he works with that just lets him perform hundreds of reps of his jujitsu submissions. No sparring, no instruction, just drilling the armbar X 1000.
And to finish up, what post would be complete without a montage?
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Tags: punching, Urijah Faber, WEC
- Permalink
- BartB
- 22 Oct 2008 3:15 PM
- Comments (1)
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Faber is probably my favorite fighter to watch and try to emulate as well.