Yeah, when I mean work, I don't just mean training. I mean anything that helps them be a better fighter, like studying fights, shadow boxing, coming up with strategies, etc. A guy like Conor, for example, is obsessed to the point that even if he's not training, he's still thinking about fighting and trying to work things out, all the time. Probably has declined a bit now, but I'd bet he is still pretty obsessive. This obsessive behavior is much more clearly attributable, than just the somewhat abstract concept of talent, IMO.
It's also why I don't understand TJ getting shit for hitting pads on the baggage carousel. That's the kind of behavior I want to see from fighters. Fedor23
Fair, i understand that and i think i agree, being extremely passionate and obsessing about the martial art(s) is needed to make it to the top, or at least in pretty much all cases is needed, if one is not extremely lucky and hard and smart working in the other areas.
As for TJ: i understand both opinions on that, haha.
On one hand, it's great (and motivating) to see how much some guys do for their sport, but on the other hand, a day has 24 hours and i highly doubt that he did so much that day that he couldn't have done that same session with his coach in a gym/private room which would also be a better setting for most circumstances. (I'm saying most, because maybe he wanted to test TJ's sharpness in a situation where he feels uncomfortable, as strange as that sounds.)
I get that. The point is, there's a lot more to it than learning techniques to successfully implement those techniques. Also, you don't really need to learn that many moves with soccer, so why do you think they would be exceptionally talented at it, in general? The variety of moves implemented in MMA vastly outnumbers what you see in soccer. I think dancing is a much better comparison for abilities that are translatable to fighting . Soccer doesn't set a high requirement in that area, TBH. People aren't coming out with revolutionary new soccer moves for as far as I know. It's always basically kind of the same. There is much more creativity in MMA and a much broader field of techniques.
For sure there's more to it - but - and i want to make that clear one more time to avoid misunderstandings:
That's why i've been talking about soccer players having the talent to solely learn the movements in a way that allows them to execute the technique itself in a sharp, fluid manner - of course in a real fight you'd need to stay calm (enough) and all that things, but that's why i've been focussing (basically only) on pro soccer players talent in learning movements with their limbs and their body very fast and having a brain that allows them to calculate moving things with extreme precision.
As for the moves in soccer vs MMA: you're 100% right! There aren't many movements in soccer, not even nearly as many in MMA, but - and that's the catch - it's impossible to execute them in a way that is good enough for the highest level if you're not born with an amazing gift in hand/leg-eye-coordination.
I give my best to explain why, but let me just say to my defense that i feel it's hard to explain to someone (or hard to understand for someone) who hasn't played (correct my assumption if it's wrong please!) soccer in a club for a few years.
Alright, so as someone who's untalented in terms of hand/leg-eye-coordination, i was (due to a ton of practice relative to my peers) somewhat decent at passing (in terms of direction, not so much in terms of putting the perfect amount of force into the ball, which means that sometimes a pass was to hard/fast or to soft/slow) or shooting a ball accurately, that i had already under control; meaning that the ball was on the ground and didn't bounce.
However, problems began to arise very quickly, once i had to control a pass that has been played towards me, where the ball slightly bounced, was mid-air or had a bit more pace on it - when that happened, i was very clumsy and clearly levels below my teammates; it either took me longer to bring the ball intro control, or the ball - despite my hardest efforts - bounced too far away from me, which as you can imagine, is not what you want.
Additionally, when i ran with the ball at my feet, i found it nearly impossible to keep an eye on my surroundings, since i had lots of trouble running with the ball at my feet without taking my eyes of it.
On the contrary, i was extremely good at reading my opponents and anticipating their movements, but since i was so bad on a technical level (technical = everything in regards to what i do with the ball) it wasn't of too much help, not was the fact that i was somewhat fast and robust.
TL;DR: i had extreme trouble with everything in soccer where the ball moved somewhat fast and/or came to me in a manner which required me to precisely calculate/estimate it's path + speed and the fact that i was very good at anticipating things and read my opponents, was somewhat fast and robust didn't even remotely make up for it.
And in regards to how soccer translates to MMA, i didn't mean to say that the things you learn in soccer are beneficial to MMA, but that being gifted with a mega good hand/leg-eye-coordination is something that you can massively benefit from in MMA, more than anything on the feet (and to be precise: in striking exchanges) i would say.
But you're right, soccer doesn't require you to learn a lot of techniques (at all) - it just requires you to be able to do them in a way which just requires insane amounts of hand/leg-eye-coordination, if you want to become a pro there.
Of course there are several overlaps, but not so strongly that you can easily transition into MMA at a late age. There might be some exceptions of course, but as a rule I don't see it.
That's fair.
I think that for most divisions, we currently see a significant increase in skill in MMA overall anyways; in particular guys like Umar Nurmagomedov and Arman Tsarukyan jump to my mind; fighters who can do it all, but not just what you'd consider jack of all trades, but guys which are very technical in both grappling and striking, on top of being fast and having good cardio.
It's an oversimplification of how genes work. But to humor you, post sources for said fact.
This is where i must disappoint you and believe me, i wish i had something to show you here right now.
Most of what i've mentioned here is from things i've perceived or read, this goes from the fact that when we (my old soccer team) played different sports, the guys that were technical at soccer, also always happened to be great (from a technical standpoint) in other sports (be it basketball or tennis) to stories about (very good) basketballers getting into striking martial arts and making irregularly fast progress there, to a former pro basketball player who was obese and trained far less (in soccer) than me and still was a lot better, to other stuff - and in regards to the technically good soccer players who immediately were/became good at basketball and tennis, i have several examples.
In regards to how many genetic factors are at play, i can't tell you, i only know (again, from what i read and anecdotal + personal experience) that people who're (technically) good at tennis have a (technical) talent for soccer and vice versa, so it doesn't seem to be the case that the genes make a difference between leg, torso, or arm movement in terms of if you're talented, be it due to the limbs always being equally effected, the ability of the brain to process the visual information being the factor for hand/leg-eye-coordination, or both.
What i do know however, is that there's apparently no correlation between gross motor skills (which i'm terrible at) and fine motor skills (which i'm really good at).
Depends on the person. Can't give you an answer that fits all.
Ya, no big deal.
Cardio vascular fitness is just the ability of your circulatory system to provide your body with oxygen, which directly benefits your muscular endurance, because your muscles need oxygen to endure stress for a prolonged time.
Of course it benefits the muscles, but if it was the only factor, a marathon runner would also immediately have great endurance on the mat, although there seems to be some kind of overlap and if not in grappling, then certainly in striking martial arts.
I only know that there are three energy systems; aerobic, anaerobic (lactic) and anaerobic(alactic).
The first uses oxygen, but the others don't.
As far as i know, the first one (aerobic) needs to be good in order to have a base to build the others up upon though.
But i need to re-read some stuff and inform me more, if we wanna discuss this matter further. In regards to martial arts, it just seems to be the case that the guys with crazy gas tanks also always run a lot. (and not sprints, but longer steady state runs).
Sorry for that massive wall of text man, but i couldn't do it with less words, lol.
EDIT: i didn't mention it initially, but i have some training experience in MMA, so while i have way more personal experience in soccer, there's at least a bit of training experience in MMA.
