Baby got back
In most areas in life, telling someone they have heavy hips is likely to result in sharp slap across the cheek. Or, at the very least, you’ll be on the other side of a very dirty look. However, when said in an MMA context, you’re being paid a large compliment.
How do heavy hips apply to MMA? First of all, when it comes to MMA striking, your footwork may not be as light as it once was. This is because if you are up on your toes with a shorter stance – kickboxing style – you are asking to get taken down. Meaning your stance is lower and wider, giving you a more stable base to work from. From this solid platform, your balance is on point and you can produce a lot of force through your punches. Any good puncher gets a lot of power from the hips. Think about throwing a ball without moving your hips and see how far you can throw it. The hips produce a lot of force and transfer the force from your legs through to your upper body. Without this hip involvement, your punching power will be significantly reduced. Next in MMA striking is having the ability to keep the fight standing. If someone gets hold of your legs and you have weak hips, then you’re are getting taken down for sure. Having heavy hips allows you to sprawl on your opponent and put all your weight on them. When spawling, if you can keep posture and drive through your hips, forcing your weight on your opponent, you will have a very good chance of staying on your feet.
When you get to the ground your hips are even more important. Heavy hips help when maintaining top position. Top position is key in any fight, if you are on your back, you are losing. Within BJJ, Wrestling, MMA, and Striking, if you spend the round on your back (especially striking as you have just been knocked down) you are losing that round. We will look at this section from a wrestling/MMA perspective. If you have top position and keep your hips level (think of laying on your belly on the ground, your hips are level, then if you roll to one hip your hips are now tilted, keep that in mind). When in top position, if you can keep your hips level then you cannot get put on your back and gives you a big advantage. For someone to roll you, your hips need to tilt and then with a little more momentum you are now on your back. Having someone on top with heavy hips means you have to try something big to get out of the position and this can put you in a worse spot. People with good hips use this to win transitions and to get a better position just by having heavy and better hips.
In BJJ, things have changed (from an MMA perspective) as the BJJ guys are no longer the gold standard. You need BJJ for MMA but being a BJJ black belt is not a sure pathway to MMA glory as it once was. This is down to wrestlers who have great top control learning how to avoid submissions. It is very rare that a BJJ player gets a submission in MMA from their guard (or off their back). This means that the BJJ guys need to get top position as well. Consequently, being under a top submission fighter who now has position is a very daunting prospect. This means that to survive against the good BJJ guys, those hips are more important than ever. If you get swept (which is going from top position to being on your back) you’ll likely end up in survival mode. However, if you can keep those hips level and move to side or change your balance to stay level then you have increased your chances of winning by 70%.
For me, position is everything in a fight. If you can keep a good position, then you have a greater chance of winning. In stand up, it is all about ring/cage position and getting in to hit them without getting hit yourself (ring/cage position helps with this). If you keep your stance and position, you’re difficult to hit and harder to take down. On the ground, keeping top position is the key. With everything being equal in MMA, the person who has top position will win the round. That is also the case in wrestling and BJJ. The position battle is the most important battle within the fight and whoever wins that will more often than not win the fight. Your opponent will have a position that they are happiest in and one they want to avoid, the same goes for you. If you can keep the fight in the position that you are happiest then you win that fight. Keeping that position is all about the hips – heavy, stable hips will give you a greater chance of getting and keeping those key positions which leads to victory.
Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor