As a martial artist or fighter there are really only 2 ways your MMA training can go; either up so you are facing tougher, more well rounded competition or down meaning you are getting worked over by the lower ranks and newbies.

Hopefully you are one of those people who wants to see themselves improve and get to that next level as a Mixed Martial Artist, either because you want to fight or just want to gain more knowledge and ability. Whatever your desire for becoming better there are a few simple steps that you need to follow to take your MMA game to that next level.

1. You need to have proper nutrition

Biggest Women’s MMA Match in the Last 3 Years

On March 3, 2012, one of the biggest women’s Mixed Martial Arts match ups will take place when Strikeforce Bantamweight Champion Miesha Tate is set to defend her title against Olympic Bronze Medalist in Judo and rising MMA star Ronda Rousey. This fight is going to be the biggest women’s MMA battle since Gina Carano took on Cris “Cyborg” Santos several years ago. All of the MMA sources are building up this fight and Mixed Martial Arts fans alike are counting down the days until these two feisty females step into the cage.

An early prediction from several sources is that Ronda Rousey will continue her winning ways and submit Miesha Tate in the same fashion she has done to the other four women she faced in her pro fights. Rousey is going to rely heavily upon her judo skills to beat Tate and will look to clinch early in the fight in order to get a throw and look for submission.

When you hear people talk about flexibility in the martial arts world the first thing that comes to mind is a full set of splits. The most plausible reason for this association is from all of those old school TaeKwonDo guys showing off their splits and high kicks. While a full set of splits is nice for show it isn’t the end all be all for success in mixed martial arts. If you train in MMA then good flexibility will give you an advantage over your opponent and prevent some injuries in the long run.

The most common display of good flexibility will be shown in the fighters kicks; how high and how strong. You don’t have to be able to kick your opponent in the head to be a successful fighter, but having the ability to do so doesn’t hurt your chances of catching him off guard. One great way to achieve this ability is through the use of stretching machines.  Flexibility in your hip muscles, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves will determine the path that kick will take when you launch it. The more you work on the flexibility (and strength) of these muscles the faster, higher and stronger you will be able to kick your opponent, hopefully landing that knockout blow.

Before you get in the ring – get a taste for the real thing!

Fans of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) are passionate about their sport and its athletes—so much so that many want to move from pure spectator to MMA fighter. MMA training is evolving constantly as coaches and athletes improve training and nutrition techniques. However, if you’re new to MMA training, you might be overwhelmed trying to keep up with the excess information and advice available to you.

That is why I’ve put together this handy Top Apps for 2012 for MMA Training list where you can find all of the pertinent information to help you train for the basics, learn new techniques, ensure you’re getting the proper protein and nutrients to build muscle, and to hear about the latest and greatest news in the MMA area, as long as you have a data plan!  If you are a Droid user you can check out the Best 6 MMA Droid Apps.

By Jillian Bullock

Although several MMA fighters, including Vitor Belfort, Kenny Florian, Lyoto Machida, Anderson Silva, Rich Franklin, Chris Leban, Cung Le, and Nick Diaz, fight as southpaws some of these guys were born a lefty and some are “deliberate southpaws.” They taught themselves to fight as southpaws because they found it to be an advantage to their mixed martial arts career.

Looking back in history, however, many cultures considered a person evil if he was left-handed. In fact, in Latin the word for left is sinister. Over the years the stigma surrounding being  left-handed grew. Re-education of lefties was promoted by everyone, including clergy, parents, the media, and others. And how many adults can remember growing up and attending Catholic school where nuns swatted their knuckles if they even reached for a pen or pencil with their left hand? Today, with ten percent of the population being left-handed the stigma has waned in most countries. And in sports, especially boxing and martial arts, being a southpaw can be advantageous.

Unless you have been under a rock it is likely you have heard about the death of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il. Although he was a very strange leader and had strange personal habits he always took his safety very seriously. He demanded that he have the toughest and most skilled bodyguards who trained all their waking hours to protect the eccentric leader.

This video from Lifeleak.com shows the regimen of the bodyguards which is built around becoming a rock like the comment by one man saying we hit things from the moment we got up until we went to sleep. They also have something over President Obama’s bodyguards in that I bet the U.S. bodyguards don’t practice dodging ‘shuriken’ commonly referred to as throwing stars. Check out this video to see the incredible work of Kim Jong-il’s bodyguards.

Over at Jeff Joslin’s blog he wrote a terrific on a mount grappling drill.  Most of us have experienced the basic grappling drill where you start off in a mounting position on top of your training partner.  You then have a specific amount of time and the fighter on the bottom works to free themselves and the one on mount works to keep the mount position.  When the time period is over the one who stayed in their starting position the most will win the drill.  This is a pretty basic drill in any wrestling practice that yields a great deal of learning and understanding on the part of the wrestler’s in the drill.

However, there are ways that you can shake this MMA Training drill up and make it more challenging and this is the part of the post that got my attention.  Jeff points out 4 different variation that you can do to spice things up when the original drill gets boring.  A couple of them are: Have the person on mount apply a submission hold as opposed to staying mounted.  The second variation is allowing the person on bottom to score when they get to 1/2 guard rather then to a full escape.  Third, is to switch and change the amount of time of the drills duration.  Fourth and last is to allow for a point system.   You can see the full article to see an example Jeff gives.

By Jillian Bullock

When people look at MMA champions Georges St. Pierre, Jon Jones or Anderson Silva, many MMA fans, commentators and reporters believe they are pound-for-pound the greatest mixed martial arts fighters in their division. Many also believe that since they are superbly dominant as fighters and they have the ability to go through each opponent who stands before them that there are no other MMA fighters who can actually beat these amazingly talented warriors during a bout.

The 29 year-old Welterweight champion, St. Pierre, 22-2, hasn’t lost a match since 2007. To understand how impressive St. Pierre is as a fighter, it should be noted that he has not lost a round, not one round, in over three years. What St. Pierre has going for him other than his unrelenting MMA cardio conditioning, which includes gymnastics in his regimen, but his striking game is superior. He is also considered one of the most disciplined athletes in the world, which helps St. Pierre stay focused even when his opponents trash talk him. He doesn’t give in to the mind games.

By Dennis Fratella

We all know ways to cut for a fight. Whether that is an easy way, hard way, as long as you weigh in at what you’re fighting at, that’s the ideal goal for fighting. Right? Not so much.

We’ve all seen fights where someone just doesn’t look like they’ve got anything strength-wise, and perhaps could be a result of that cut, and it usually is. I have a couple of suggestions to keep the weight off, while not compromising strength or your workouts, which probably go overlooked while cutting, and still getting you to weigh in right:

Always try to keep the high-glycemic carbs (sugars, breads, cereals) separate from the low-glycemic carbs. In fact, research is now suggesting that high-glycemic carbs while cutting is not the best route because it has been said to lower your blood sugar levels, resulting in quick depletion of glycogen (carbs in your muscles), making you tired – a lot faster.

By Jillian Bullock

When it comes to MMA training to become a top notch fighter the old way of training has become obsolete. Utilizing only basic weights, treadmills and elliptical machines have become old school. To build optimal strength and conditioning, along with the skills necessary to excl in Muay Thai, Jiu-jitsu, boxing and grappling, mixed martial artists must always look for new and different forms of exercises and equipment to aid their training skills and help them reach the next level in their fight career.

Below are some of the best pieces of equipment to help increase your strength, power, speed, agility, and endurance, along with transforming your body into an elite athlete and a MMA fighter, which will give you an edge over your opponent.