Thread: how do i get started

im 23 been training on me own for quite a while now. Im in the gym at least 5 times a week and with every session i do about an hour on the weights, then straight downstairs and spend about an hour on the bags with little circuits mixed in. I always watch other people to pick up on little teqniques then practise them, the more i see of the mma the more i want to get in the cage i love it but i dont know how to go about settin up my first fight or even if i need a trainer or can i do it off my own back if anyone can give a little advise that would be great

Do you have any formal MMA training?

Really you need a little experience practicing and sparring the various techniques with other people because watching others do it and trying to pick it up is a world apart from actually practicing it with others and when you do spar with people you will realise just how difficult alot of these techniques are to do against an opponant who doesnt want to get hit or wants to resist you.

Dont be too keen to compete, or at least dont ruch into it until youre ready. If you are dead set on competing then you owe it to yourself to be prepared and that means hard work and practice first and foremost because even at an amateur level the competition is full of credible fighters and I would venture that if those fighters have months and years of mat time and sparring behind them they will probably beat you if youre unprepared so you need to get some of that yourself.

Start by finding yourself a good club in your area, find a bunch of decent likeminded folk and practice, practice, practice. A few months of that and you'll probably be ready to look for your first amateur bout.

My advice would be knock the gym on the head, find an mma gym near you and spend the gym money on proper training mate

weight training, and hitting a bag does not make you an MMA fighter, sorry to be blunt but its laughable that you think you could get into the cage and simply rely on any strength you have, do you know how to block or deal with someone kicking you, have you done any jiu jitsu at all, any thai boxing, wresting, anything ?....have you ever sparred with anyone ?

you need to get yourself into some martial arts training and give yourself the tools to compete otherwise you will get beat time and time again, i dont know if your a big guy or not and you think you could beat most people in a fight, but in this you have weight classes and the people you face will be just as big as you, only they will know how to make you submit on the ground, know how to maximise power in every punch, etc etc etc

The above is all true.

I had a very similar attitude to yourself when I first started out thinking all my hours in the gym would be enough to get me by against all these little fellas - boy was I wrong! I suffered about 6 months of being chucked around the mat and tapped out like crazy before I was anywhere near capible off holding my own and learned that lesson the hard way.

Dont get me wrong, being fit and fast and strong are never bad things but training, technique and experience are more important in my opinion.