Most people’s jobs and passions have been put on hold or hindered in some way by the COVID-19 outbreak. None however, seem to be more affected by the virus than the martial arts community. Some fight cards are still scheduled to take place, although the recent UFC Brasilia took place in front of an empty arena. Televised events have decreased drastically, and it looks as if this trend is here to stay for at least the next couple of months.

            MMA organizations across the globe aren’t just cancelling their events due to lack of a crowd, but largely because the athletes aren’t able to go through the training they need. Gyms are closing around the world, keeping professional fighters and martial arts hobbyists alike away from the mats. Social media feeds are littered with people posting their “at-home workouts” and their “10 minute body weight exercise” videos. Even UFC lightweight title contender Tony Ferguson posted videos of a very unorthodox exercise; which involved suplexing a large rectangle and squatting with what appears to be a monster truck tire on his back. Sure, Tony’s getting creative, but how can the rest of us keep up with training while our gyms are forced to close?

Tony Ferguson showing some of his unorthodox training methods

            It’s tough to substitute drilling with a partner, getting live rolling or sparring, but there’s a plethora of solo workouts to keep you active until your academy reopens! With a little creativity, we can cover some skill training, strength training and conditioning.

            Common household objects such as a tennis ball can make for valuable training tools. You can make an easy maze bag by attaching your tennis ball to a piece of string. Just hang it from a tree branch or a beam in your house and start working your head movement. Once the ball starts swinging, this is a great tool to practice slips, ducks, rolls, pulls and any combination of head movement that you’ve been working on. Tennis balls can also be phenomenal tools for training reaction time and hand eye coordination. If you have an open wall, play a solo game of wall ball. Just stand in your boxing stance throwing the ball at the wall and extending your hand in a punch motion to catch it. Keep in mind that the ball may ricochet in different directions so be ready to use some footwork. Another similar drill is bouncing the ball off the floor and catching it with punches. If you have someone else around (martial artist or not), have them throw the ball at you so you can practice your punch accuracy and timing. For this one, I recommend having multiple tennis balls so you don’t have to play fetch every turn. You can also apply this exercise to kicks, knees and elbows if you practice! Not only does a tennis ball help with reaction time, it’s also a great reminder to keep our chins tucked while shadowboxing or hitting the bag. Put the ball under your jaw and tuck your chin, holding the ball between your neck and chin. Do some shadow boxing rounds like this; you’ll be surprised how difficult it is!

            At Precision Boxing and MMA in Poughkeepsie, we’re always adding creative drills during our classes to keep our students minds and bodies engaged at all times. If you happen to have a partner, pool noodles are a tried and true method of improving head movement. Just take one noodle and cut it in half so you have one short noodle in each hand. These noodles represent punches. Have your partner try to hit you with the noodles as you use your head movement and footwork to evade them. The drill works realistic head movement and doesn’t hurt at all! The noodles give us the realistic feel of punches coming at our face in the safest manner possible.

            Another tool is one of the most classic training exercises of all time. This has been done by all the greats of boxing, MMA, Muay Thai and just about any other martial art. Go into any boxing gym in the world and you’ll see at least a few people doing this. Shadowboxing should be a staple in your training routine. Although it may appear as someone is just punching the air, there’s much more skill, thought and fines put into proper shadowboxing. Find yourself a good space where you can move around freely. Imagine your opponent in front of you, what would they be doing? What combos are they throwing at you? What movements will you use to evade? For conditioning purposes I like to use a timer. A good challenge is to set your timer for ten three minute rounds. Do two rounds of footwork, 2 rounds of head movement, 1 round of jabs, 1 round of counter punching, 1 round of speed combos, 1 round of power punching combos, one round of inside fighting with short and tight combinations, and one round of weighted punches. For the weights, you can use some small dumbbells, Egg Weights, or cans of soup work pretty well! This way, you’re training skills, strength and conditioning all in one!

            Shadowboxing is one of my all time favorite fight related exercises, but there’s one more that’s been around even longer. From Muhammad Ali to Conor McGregor, every good fighter finds the time to lace up their shoes and hit the road. Running is probably the oldest and most effective form of cardio training, and there’s lots of ways to do it. Whatever martial arts you’re training, running will give you a mental and physical advantage over your opponent. Choose a route that you like, whether it’s down the road or through a hiking trail and put some miles in! Living in the Hudson Valley area, there’s a plethora of beautiful places to run. I like to try and run at a pace that will be similar to a fight. When fighting, action usually comes in bursts, so I find it beneficial to have intense explosive moments, followed by a short recovery time. Again, use a timer to keep yourself honest. Try to strive for 25 seconds of hard sprinting, followed by a 15 second rest for five minute intervals. If you don’t have a timer, simply use the terrain to tell you when to turn up the intensity. Try sprinting up all of the hills on your route and slowing your pace for flats and downhill.

            I’ll also use some runs to focus more specifically on boxing related movements. Maybe instead of just taking it easy on flats and downhills, work in your boxing stance! Shuffle side ways, switch sides, run backwards. Put yourself through every style of footwork so that when you’re in the ring your feet will go through the motions naturally.

            Running and shadowboxing are awesome, but we can also get into some strength training without having to leave the house. Just because we can’t hit the bench press or squat rack doesn’t mean that we need to lose power! Probably the most popular body weight exercise would be the push up. Push ups are great, but I often see people cheating themselves by not going all the way to the floor or not pushing up to full arm extension. Make sure you’re going all the way down and all the way up, you’ll notice a difference! This same concept applies to pull ups. Make sure you’re achieving full arm extension on the way down and coming up so that your chin is above the bar. Think quality over quantity. Squats are also easy enough to do at home. If you have kettlebells, free weights, squat with those. If you don’t have any weights get some gallon water bottles. If you do happen to own kettlebells and some sort of strong pipe, you can make a decent home deadlift set up (my quarantine deadlift setup pictured below)

My home made dead lift set up for inspiration
precision black background logo

            We all can’t wait to get back on the mats, in the ring and in the cage. We can’t wait to watch our favorite fighters put on inspiring performances in front of roaring crowds again.  However, this is an opportunity to work on self discipline and hold yourself accountable to continuing a training routine. This is endless drilling time for the dedicated martial artists out there, so grab a tennis ball, some pool noodles, your running shoes and get to work! Looking for martial arts training near you? Check out the Hudson Valleys premiere martial arts academy Precision Boxing and MMA in Poughkeepsie!

Visit us online at http://www.precisionmixedmartialarts.com