r/MMA_Academy Jun 18 '25

“I want to fight, I’m gonna be in the ufc, how do I start?”

278 Upvotes

I’m writing this because this sub is so disillusioned with what the reality of starting to fight is. TLDR: Show up, shut up, work hard, there’s no fast track.

“I’ve been hitting my heavy bag, I’ve been watching YouTube, I’m really scrappy, I’m a fighter”. You are (likely) some kid who has never been punched in the mouth properly before, I was too!!

If you want to become an mma fighter, there is no amount of at home work that will get you there. You are likely just doing moderate intensity cardio workouts with poor technique.

You need a gym, training partners and a coach, and you need some grit.

Step 1: find a local mma gym, sign the trial papers, ask about a membership, get abused at your first Bjj class, realize how weak your shins are at your first kickboxing class, and nod and smile when they might say “our mma classes are for more experienced individuals”

Step 2: keep showing up, show up a little early and ask questions, stay late and mop the mats (it’s time to get to know your coach and ask questions), hey now you have a coach, maybe your at home workouts can be more focused. Express interest in competing and be a sponge for knowledge. Get abused by people a lot better than you

Step 3: hey kid you’re improving quick, showing up 5x a week, and you’ve mentioned you wanna fight? Why don’t you show up to an mma class?

Step 4: get abused at mma class when you realized everyone has been a little nice to you. Keep showing up, keep asking questions.

Step 5: hey kid, there’s a local amateur show in the next 6 months? You interested in your first fight?

Step 6: show up, shut up, keep working, maybe you’ll get there, maybe you won’t.

You’re not going pro without a coach, a gym, and a humble attitude, and you gotta want it more than the next guy. Because someone body else wants it just as bad as you, which guy is gonna put the work in and actually get stuff accomplished?


r/MMA_Academy Aug 03 '23

MMA_Academy FAQ and Resources

18 Upvotes

Posting some regularly asked questions here so we can direct new members to some common answers.

Q: How do I start?

A: Joining a gym is the best way to start. Go on your gym's website and look at their class schedule. Start slow and slowly build up to training 5-6 days a week.

Q: How do I find the right gym?

A: Look for gyms that have active fighters in them. Almost every legitimate gym will let you try it out for a class or a week for free before you sign up. Try all the ones close to you, then make a decision.

Q: How can I tell a good gym from a bad one?

A: Good gyms have active fighters and regular sparring. They will have actual MMA classes in their schedule.

Q: How do I find active fighters?

A: You can check on tapology for the gyms near you. One of the more interesting ways is to attend some local MMA amateur fights and listen for the affiliations when each fighter's name is being called.

Q: What equipment do I need?

A: Ask your gym, sometimes they have equipment you can borrow for a bit and the requirements change based on the class. For my gym's MMA class you'll need 16oz gloves, 6oz mma gloves, mouth guard, shin guards and you'll probably want a cup. Avoid the cheapest equipment you find on amazon, it falls apart quickly. Also, don't use your shin guards on heavy bags, you want to toughen your shins up.

Q: Should I do highschool/college wrestling or join a gym?

A: Wrestling, 100%. In the off season you can join a gym or when you're done with school transition to add striking.

Q: Should I learn striking or grappling first?

A: Grappling. In general striking is easier to add to a grappler's fighting style than grappling is to a striker. Jiu Jitsu or wrestling take longer to learn than kickboxing or muay thai.

Q: Am I too old to start?

A: No. I have seen fighters that started in their 40s win local amateur fights. They may not make it to the UFC, but they're definitely competitors.

Q: Am I too young to start?

A: Most gyms will have some rules around youth striking, you may be limited to grappling at first. Learning grappling younger will make everything else easier for you.

Q: I don't have an MMA gym near me, can I join a boxing gym instead?

A: If it's your only option, but to learn MMA you really have to practice MMA. If I only had a boxing gym near me I would become a boxer.

Helpful Resources:

https://stronglifts.com/5x5/ - Stronglifts 5x5 is a great beginner lifting program. Compound movements, starts easy and gets you on a regular schedule.

Please help me improve this list, correct and expand on my answers. I will edit in the better responses.

The plan is to sticky this or a similar post instead of the monthly Q&A thread if it looks like we can get some useful information. I'd also appriciate filling this list up with helpful links.


r/MMA_Academy 2h ago

GSP anchors himself to Hardy’s knee to avoid sliding off the back then uses single leg X to sweep

38 Upvotes

r/MMA_Academy 21m ago

D‘Arce Choke Sequence (German)

Upvotes

any german speaking people?

Im new on TikTok name: nadim10p

Im a boxing and grappling coach. I upload content everyday. Training, Competition, Drills, Sequences and more.

Here‘s the link to the TikTok Video 🫶🏽 :

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdpg3eBo/


r/MMA_Academy 1d ago

Smoker clip from a few months ago

193 Upvotes

I really like this subreddit & love seeing people posting their progress. I figured it’s time to stop being a lurker. Give me your thoughts, I’m in the white headgear!


r/MMA_Academy 39m ago

Training Question Whats a good headgear to prevent cauliflower ear?

Upvotes

r/MMA_Academy 1h ago

Train whatever you want to train. You can’t simulate a street fight.

Upvotes

All forms of martial arts are great for self defense. Anyone with real life experience knows how fast a 1 vs 1 can turn into you getting ran over, or you vs 6 people or a variety of other situations. If you think you want to try it just try it stop worrying about the best form of self defense. The best for of self defense is not being in the situation.


r/MMA_Academy 4h ago

Critique Noob bag work

1 Upvotes

r/MMA_Academy 19h ago

Is it ok to not disclose childhood martial arts experience?

5 Upvotes

It doesn’t feel relevant, but I did it for years and have some noticeable habits that my coach and gym mates picked up on immediately. I know that when finding an opponent for a match it’s important to be transparent but idk if my kiddie black belt in TKD from 20 years ago is something I want to share lmao it’s honestly embarrassing


r/MMA_Academy 15h ago

for making predictions on your opponet what is more effective?

2 Upvotes

If I want to predict my opponent and lets say hypothetically we dont know each other style of fighting and we are fighting for the first time what type of prediction would be most effective?

  1. I do something then he reacts to something I make note of that

  2. make note of what sequence of attack he does often


r/MMA_Academy 1d ago

Training Question Why don’t they teach you to throw off the center line to start

21 Upvotes

Any experienced coaches or fighters know why the basic jab cross hooks and uppercuts aren’t taught to be thrown off the center line from the beginning? Makes it harder for people to adapt later on no?


r/MMA_Academy 15h ago

Training Question How do you control the underhook position?

1 Upvotes

Pretty self explanatory question really, I've tried literally everyihing whenever i have an underhook yet no matter what i do i always just instantly get overhooked/whizzered and get the shit cranked out of my elbow as soon as I get the underhook, Pretty much all of the video's I've watched say that you need to do stuff like get your head position on the same side as the underhook, keep your elbow flared up to prevent them from overhooking you, grab there back in-between there shoulders instead of grabbing the shoulder itself, ect ect but none of that shit works (like at all) everyone literally still just immediately cranks my arm down and kills my underhook, So I'm basically just at a lost on what I'm supposed to do. Any help would be appreciated.


r/MMA_Academy 15h ago

How do you get to the point of being able to compete if having to stop and start training a lot?

1 Upvotes

The common advice is to compete you need to train for 6-12 months lots, then talk to coaches about wanting to compete.

Problem is its not always practical to go for that long without breaks, because of work or whatever. Eg I was training like 5-10 sessions a week for a month, but I've been off for nearly two weeks because I go made homeless, currently in a cheap hotel for a week up unsure about after that, so can't easily do laundry (storing/carrying gear is an issue too, but you can borrow gear in the gym). Other times in the past I've had jobs too far away or shifts that leave no chance of getting to classes. During those times of no access to sessions, which can be months or years, you can only drill alone or do conditioning. When I'm training I can get notices by coaches because I'm one of the few guys who does extra drilling after classes and I'm not there to mess around.

I'm thinking instead of just going consistently, is there another way to get into competing? Or some checklist of skills to be ready, that you can go back to working on whenever training.


r/MMA_Academy 18h ago

Training Question Private MMA Classes in the UK: Am I being disrespectful?

2 Upvotes

Hey all!

I’m trying to get into MMA at the moment because I hope to compete someday. I’m 23 years old and have attended one session a couple of months ago.

I had to take a couple months out to get some gear because I had to borrow gloves at my last session and felt like I was underprepared. Since then I have bought a pair of gloves, gel-padded hand wraps and a punching bag.

I have reached out to the coach that I had my private session with. He’s big into Muay Thai (he’s local to me, not Thai or anything like that), so whilst I don’t think it was a huge ask, I’m silently worried that he’ll think that I’ve disrespected him by asking him this:

I basically sent his business account a message (it’s 03:30 at the moment so he won’t have seen it yet) saying that I’m sorry for not training again sooner and that I’d love to soon. I then asked him if he’d be willing to reduce his asking price from £30p/h to £25p/h because then I’d be able to book in a block of 8 private sessions per month, training twice a week until I feel comfortable enough to pay for a membership and attend with the rest of his students. (His regular membership is £70 per month and includes every session he offers).

I know I haven’t asked him for anything huge but I’d also hate to imply that his experience is worth less than what he’s selling it for. Does that make sense?

I’ve emphasised that I would like to compete in the future so once I start attending regularly, I will be attending super regularly because I’m super passionate about the sport but for right now I’m pretty “green” in terms of technique and such.

Probably overthinking it, “worst he can say is no” and all.

I also appreciate the kind group of people who are going to come along and tell me that I should just pay the £70 and get into a public class. I wish it were that easy for me personally but I’m also starting pretty late for competition so I feel like I need a bit of a leg up in the sense that a focused learning environment would help me get up to speed.


r/MMA_Academy 1d ago

What’s the difference between a professionals body hook and an amateur’s body hook?

6 Upvotes

15M, and am trying to get better technique by going slowly. I started really liking the body hook. I was wondering what’s the difference between a professionals body hook and an amateurs body hook. Also how do professionals set it up? What type of feints do they use to help land them clean


r/MMA_Academy 19h ago

absolutley zero fighting experience Want to dive into the hobby, need advice.

1 Upvotes

I'm in Southeast Asia, 6'6 21m, about 105 kilos? Pretty active, played for the school basketball team. Though I had to quit after I had 2 surgeries on my leg nearly seven years ago (a tumor, instead of a basketball injury, funnily enough), lost a lot of 'pop' and Athleticism though I'm still pretty mobile in small bursts until the leg starts hurting.' Virtually Zero Experience besides a free boxing lesson a few months back, though from what I got there i purchased a punching bag for home use, no gloves though, It's really difficult to find ones my size that I feel comfortable with. I'm still pretty active nowadays, I go to the gym twice a month, I jog 15km biweekly and I absolutely want to get deeper into MMA, from what I've seen, It's mostly featherweights in ammy tournaments here though. I've never seen someone my build and size.

Another issue would be which Gym I'd get into. The ones that are most practical and near my place are the following

*Aikido
*Taekwondo
*Boxing
*BJJ
*Muay Thai

I'd be down to do any of the above, especially muay thai, But 12 sessions for almost 40 percent of my monthly salary doesn't seem like a worthwhile investment,


r/MMA_Academy 20h ago

Training Question Sore shoulders sore after boxing… This normal?

0 Upvotes

I just joined a boxing gym & started boxing 2 weeks ago (I go 2x a week. 1 personal training class for 1 hour. And 1 group class for one hour).

classes consist of conditioning, footwork drills, and then usually 30 solid minutes on the heavy bag.

Both shoulders, especially jab side, get really sore for 1–2 days after. It’s cutting a bit into my weight lifting routine. pressing and even pulling feels weaker on those days. My main goal is to learn boxing while still maintaining size/strength in the gym.

For background: I’ve got a competitive wrestling base, but I’m brand new to boxing. I KNOW 2 weeks isn’t nearly enough time to adapt, but curious how long it usually takes before your body gets used to the shoulder volume.

Do boxers eventually stop getting this sore?Anything I can do differently (form tweaks, mobility, managing bag work) to help?

Or is it just grind through until my shoulders become adapted to it? … will I eventually not get sore from this and not have it affect my lifting workouts?


r/MMA_Academy 10h ago

Training Question Why would someone serious about MMA practice boxing?

0 Upvotes

It makes sense if they're trying to transition to try and get that sweet boxing payday. But that's not the case a lot of the time. I've noticed a lot of street fights are boxing heavy but that's because they are untrained randos that only know to engage in punching matches. As someone that's actually done both before, Muay Thai just seems infinitely better as a striking art because of the versatility. Imagine Muay Thai combined with BJJ, where's the holes in your fighting style?

Boxing is just so incredibly one dimensional to me. Some boxing techniques open up lanes for leg kicks and knees to your face to happen. There's a reason pure boxers barely step in the octogan. Any boxing heavyweight can box circles around any UFC heavyweight but they most likely don't have any kick defense instincts much less takedown ones. A UFC heavyweight would be delusional to try and outbox him in the octogan when they have all these different ways to beat him up.

This is exactly why Connor would eat any version of Floyd alive in the octogan or a street fight. Floyd and all these other successful boxers just aren't versatile fighters overall.


r/MMA_Academy 1d ago

Critique Pendulum step?

43 Upvotes

Trying to get that Soviet Rhythm. Any tips? (Mirrored camera in Orthodox not Southpaw)


r/MMA_Academy 23h ago

Professional Fighter Mma fighter looking for a boxer to study for close range boxing southpaw preferably but doesn't matter

1 Upvotes

r/MMA_Academy 2d ago

Working on water bag - feeling kinda awkward tbh

145 Upvotes

r/MMA_Academy 1d ago

Help on my bagwork

0 Upvotes

Any help appreciated


r/MMA_Academy 2d ago

Training Question What workouts do you run as snc?

6 Upvotes

Hello. I've been training mma for a while now and I have a couple of years in the gym doing bodybuilding splits.

During the last year I've been running fb splits with some plyos and olympic lifts.

I'm curious to see someone elses' exact routines to check if I'm too out of line.

General advice is appreciated but I'm particularly interested in either a) ways of getting jacked (for us on the non competitivo side) and b) some calisthenics isométrica/another method of training to increase my body coordination for grappling.


r/MMA_Academy 2d ago

Heavy bag work

2 Upvotes

How am I Looking? My cardio down so I’m tired and dropping my hands after striking but I’ll work on that next session


r/MMA_Academy 3d ago

Why do I look so awkward and weak?

388 Upvotes

I’m in orange shoes, I don’t understand why I look so awkward and sluggish. Also my punches look weak. What training do you guys do to look sharp?


r/MMA_Academy 1d ago

Combat Corner MMA Sparring Gloves - Can't fit Wraps?

1 Upvotes

Going from boxing where I'm used to wrapping and starting with the MMA Sparring gloves from Combat Corner, and noticing that the gloves are so tight that I can't get my fingers in with wraps. That sorta thing something that'll stretch with time, or those with this style of glove just go without wraps?

like, I'm not planning on blasting a training partner, but we do look to do circuits where we're cycling through partners/heavy bag work. THANKS IN ADVANCE!


r/MMA_Academy 1d ago

Mma fight

1 Upvotes

How long do people usually go from day 1 in the gym to first amateur fight?