Did you start early?

So, there’s this theory. It goes something like this: if you started something before puberty, your body adapts, allowing you to hold those skills for life.

Think about the people that have been athletic in their early years. Chances are, they will retain that athleticism for life. Although that athletic ability may be covered in a few layers of fat, they will always have the ability to do those movements with ease. Think about riding a bike, generally speaking, people learn that when they are young but may go 20 years before riding again (most likely when you have your own child). You can just get on a bike and ride it; as the saying goes “just like riding a bike”. It is likely that if you’ve never been on a bike, it would take some learning as an adult. The same rule applies for swimming; once you know how, you never forget.

The same goes for fighting. If you’ve been striking since you were a child, the body holds onto those skills because they’ve been ingrained into the mind and body. When those skills are ingrained from a young age, they don’t leave… ever. Andy Ruiz, the current Heavyweight Boxing Champ, started boxing at age 7. He was able learn all the technique of boxing without fear creeping in and the curse of overthinking – something we as adults struggle from. Yes, there is fear as a child but the over the years we develop more experiences, and with that, comes fear and doubt. Being hit is as normal as talking to Ruiz. His body is designed for fighting, even if it’s covered with a bit of fat. He’s done boxing for a huge period of his life, so it is second nature to him. Boxing commentator Max Kellerman stated that when Ruiz was knocked down in his fight against Anthony Joshua and Joshua came to finish him, Ruiz had the advantage. Kellerman argued that Ruiz’s technique was just that little tighter and timing just that little bit better; these attributes got him the victory. Joshua started boxing at 18 and due to his amazing athleticism, picked the sport up quickly and got to the top of the boxing world. Kellerman was saying that Joshua vs Ruiz was athlete vs boxer. From my perspective, just because you start a sport later in life doesn’t mean that you won’t be good at it. Rather, you would not be as good as if you had started before puberty. (Makes me wish I had started wrestling earlier)

These differences become much more pronounced in MMA. An example is when you get a high-level grappler or wrestler against a high-level striker. In today’s MMA, everyone can do everything, the top strikers can grapple, and the top grapplers can strike. However, when the wrestler gets hit by the striker, they do not have the years of training and ingrained reactionary instincts. The naturalised muscle memory does not kick in, so the body often forgets the striking training it’s been put through. For someone that is not used to being hit (orthodox stance), when they get hit, their instinct is to turn to the right and bend over. The instinct is to turn away from a punch and get away from the pain. They literally look away from the punch (like when we look away from a needle during an injection). This instinct is in our DNA and takes years and years of training to react in a different way. A good example of this is Brock Lesnar. With his strong wrestling background, he would lower his level and turn away when he got hit (especially against Velasquez). This would prove disastrous for Lesnar, giving his opponents plenty of opportunity to keep hitting; something you can’t afford to do in the heavyweight division. As I took up wrestling later in life, I can attest that this goes both ways. When Kevin Randleman was having a fight in pride they told him his opponent was training with a wrestling Olympic gold medallist in preparation for their upcoming fight. Randleman’s reply stayed with me “he can train with whoever he wants for 6 months, I have been wrestling my whole life” and that is bang on. I got to a reasonable level in wrestling (for NZ) but when I went up against people that have been doing it their entire life they always had the answer and always just that little bit better in transitions (well mostly).

Therein lies the puzzle for MMA. You can’t be great at everything (well most of us can’t) so we need to make our strengths stronger and try to minimise our weakness. Everyone you go up against has an advantage over you and you over them – you must figure out how to keep the match in your strength and away from theirs. The tricky part is that they are doing the same thing against you. Personally, this is what I love about MMA, trying to beat people who have a different skill set and figuring out what to do about it in real time. Then trying to beat people at their own game – beat wrestlers in wrestling and so on (success is not as frequent when playing this game but rewarding as all hell). When Ruiz and Joshua have their rematch, I assume Joshua will use his reach and athleticism to stay away from Ruiz and it will be boring, but I can see Joshua getting the win. Basically, Joshua will use the skills he was born with, size and athleticism. To beat Ruiz, he needs to use these as Ruiz is most likely the better boxer. Starting early isn’t everything in a sport but it does certainly help.

Gareth Lewis

Head MMA Instructor