Safety is an integral part of effective MMA training, and whether you or your students are sparring in an MMA Cage or on a mat, it’s something that should be handled with the utmost care.
There are well known fighting and training practices that are safe for athletes of all ages and skill levels. It is something that all MMA trainers and athletes care about, which is why MMA athletes are less likely to sustain major injuries than boxers.
Warming Up
Before even thinking about teaching students to prevent injuries during sparring, it is essential to teach students to prevent injuries that they can inflict upon themselves. While warming up isn’t the most stimulating portion of MMA training, it is important nonetheless.
A decent mix of light cardio, joint mobility exercises and dynamic stretching will help to prevent muscle injuries and get fighters ready for training.
When it comes to cardio, jumping rope and rowing help to loosen the body up and increase the heart rate to a good training point. Dynamic stretching and joint mobility exercise can range from holding yoga poses (switching from downward-facing dog to upward-facing dog) to squats and resistance band exercises, all will help to get the body ready for training.
Learning How to Fall
One of the most important MMA training lessons is learning how to properly fall. Even with a high-quality MMA mat, athletes can still injure themselves if they aren’t properly instructed on how to hit the mat safely.
Although the object of MMA is to never be taken down, falling is inevitable. And when a person falls, their instinct is to try to stop it from happening the only way they know how: they put out their hand.
Several broken wrists later and the point finally gets across: there is a proper way to fall.
Setting the Pace
The best way to stay safe, and encourage your students to do the same, is to know the limits of your abilities. If a person isn’t quite ready to spar, he or she shouldn’t. If a weight is too much to be lifted, it shouldn’t be lifted.
Mixed Martial Arts is about getting beyond the limits safely, and that is what should be stressed in every lesson at the gym.
Safety Relies on the Quality of Your Equipment
Healthy training is one way to stay safe; having a quality piece of equipment is just another piece of the puzzle. From mats to cages to custom flooring, Zebra has it all. See the difference that our equipment makes in MMA gyms and dojos.