MMA fighters’ technical-tactical preparation – fight analysis: a case study

Abstract

Introduction. An MMA fight gives the participating athletes an opportunity to show a wide range of tactical and technical skills from a variety of martial arts. To be successful in it, one must impose his own fighting style on the opponent and confirm its effectiveness. Materials and methods. The research material consisted of a hundred and eighty-seven technical attacks performed during a 13-minute fight of two MMA fighters (referred to in the paper as Athlete #1 and Athlete #2) belonging to the elite of the Polish KSW organization (Mixed Martial Arts Confrontation). The collected material allowed assessing the time structure of the fight as well as individual characteristics of tactical and technical preparation of the involved athletes. Results. Athlete #1 limited the technical elements in stand-up fighting to striking; Athlete #2 showed a considerably greater versatility of techniques in stand-up fighting. While fighting on the ground Athlete #2 limited his techniques to striking and more often won a dominant position on the ground obtaining a clear advantage in values of all the measured indices of tactical and technical preparation. An increase in the frequency of applied techniques (A) during the analyzed fight was also associated with an increase in the range of their use (W). Conclusions. During the analyzed fight the athletes showed a narrow range of techniques. The collected results allow developing an individual characteristic of athletes' technical and tactical preparation enabling corrections to their training and preparation for the next fight.

Ultimate Full Contact: Fight Outcome Characterization Concerning Their Methods, Occurrence Times and Technical–Tactical Developments

“…In the fight outcomes by KO, head punches and kicks were, respectively, the predominant skills. This is in line with another MMA study, which showed that one-fifth of all wins by knockout before the end of the regular time results were through head punches [34]. In addition, in the fight outcomes by TKO, the ground and pound was the most used skill, which is in line with a study in which in ground fighting, fighters using the ground and pound, which is associated with a dominant position on the ground, had a clear tactical and technical advantage over their opponent [34].…”

“…Furthermore, in the present analysis, the majority of the fights (68.8%) ended before 5 min (300 s) by submission, TKO and KO, respectively. In fact, it is known that in MMA, one-fifth of all victories through knockout before the end of the regular time occur in the first minute from the beginning of a round [ 34 ]. In contrast, in regard to the frequency of judo dynamics in the time function, the lowest offensive activity was observed in the first minute of the fight (i.e., 0.17 with the lowest effectiveness 0.03) [ 24 ].…”

The physical demands of mixed martial arts: A narrative review using the ARMSS model to provide a hierarchy of evidence

“…(Miarka et al 2015) n = 2,097 male professional bouts Effort time ( Female participants spend longer in competition engaged in low intensity standing movements than male participants, less time in low intensity standing and grounded movements than males. (Adam et al 2015) n = 1 professional, regional bout between two male MMA competitors ( Lactate (mmol•L -1 )= 9.25 ± 2.96; W:R = 1:1.01; bout winners takedowns = 3 ± 1 (attempted 4 ± 2), bout losers takedowns = 0 (attempted 2 ± 2)…”

Determination of model characteristics of martial mixed arts fighters

“…In addition to the time characteristics, the analysis of technical and tactical actions of athletes attracts the attention of researchers [9]. Thus, a technical-tactical preparation-fight analysis for athletes belonging to the elite of the Polish MMA organization was conducted and the structure and composition of athletes ' actions in combat and their effectiveness were considered [10]. It is worth noting that the work considers the top athletes who are in the leaders of the UFC rating.…”