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Leagues and Governing Bodies

UFC, Pistons develop their own cross-training

The seeds for a cross-sport training program mixing MMA fighters with Detroit Pistons players were sown last year, when pre-fight injuries forced the alteration or cancellation of the main event in eight of 13 UFC pay-per-views.

Injuries happen in all sports. But teams do their best to protect their most valuable assets — the athletes — during training and practice sessions. UFC executives thought they might find parallels if they exposed fighters and their trainers to the approaches in other sports.

Former fighter Forrest Griffin is leading the effort for the UFC.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

One of the first such efforts kicks off this week, when six UFC fighters will spend four days in Detroit, working out under the supervision of the Pistons training staff at the team’s practice facility. Later this month, the UFC will host Pistons players for four days of MMA-style training at its facility in Las Vegas, with fitness sessions built around boxing, jiujitsu, wrestling and muay thai.

“What we saw [in 2014] was an impetus toward what we

Jessica Eye will be among the active fighters taking part.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

want to accomplish here,” said Lawrence Epstein, UFC chief operating officer. “If guys are getting injured and can’t perform, that’s not good for them, and it’s not good for us, either. It’s important to our business that guys show up on the night of the fight.”

The UFC contingent is led by Forrest Griffin, a Hall of Fame fighter who now spearheads the promotion’s recently launched athlete marketing and development program, which includes athlete education seminars and partnerships with sports performance companies such as Exos and Fusionetics. Active fighters scheduled to attend are third-ranked heavyweight contender Stipe Miocic, No. 6 women’s bantamweight Jessica Eye, No. 6 bantamweight Aljamain Sterling, welterweight Ryan LaFlare and Detroit-born lightweight Kevin Lee.

The workouts will be structured to focus on explosive movements that translate from basketball to the octagon, on preventive maintenance designed to protect the body from injury and on the general training structure that an NBA team follows in preparation for a season.

“They want to learn our process in the NBA,” said Jon Ishop, the Pistons’ director of sports medicine and head athletic trainer. “How do we get our guys ready? How do they recover? How do they eat? How do they fuel their body for workout and recovery? It was that type of trading of information and opening up of doors for a wider knowledge base that we were both interested in.

“All their athletes are independent contractors. So whoever you have in your gym, that’s who you have. They don’t have the umbrella of support like an NBA team. They wanted their athletes to see how that works.”

While the program fits neatly into the UFC’s athlete development initiative, the initial contact was driven by the Pistons players’ interest in changing up their offseason workout routine, Ishop said. Several players, including center Andre Drummond, approached Ishop about changing the dynamic of the voluntary sessions to make them more appealing. When they suggested MMA training, Ishop contacted the UFC, then went to Las Vegas to see the operation.

“We wanted to see what the UFC had to offer and what the gym was all about,” Ishop said. “It’s a great facility as far as weightlifting. And the instruction from the MMA side, you couldn’t ask for any better. Plus, Las Vegas is a destination city. Our guys are willing to go to a destination city.”

Once UFC executives saw the Pistons’ interest in MMA, they suggested a reciprocal relationship with the team’s training staff.

Because offseason workouts are voluntary, not all Pistons players will make the Vegas trip. But Ishop said he expects about half to show up, including the core of the team’s leadership.

The UFC hopes to expand the program to include exchanges with other NBA teams, as well as teams in other sports.

“There is with certain [MMA] camps an old-school way of training,” Epstein said. “And that may be the right way to train. They may decide that. But what we want to do is give our athletes more information so they can make better decisions on how to rehab and train at the highest level.”

 

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