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Mark Hatmaker

Levi Wampler: Hello. This is Levi Wampler with MMAStrikingCoach.com. Today on the line, we have Mark Hatmaker. He is the author of the bestselling series MMA Mastery as well as a series called Boxing Mastery . He also has a self-defense book called No Second Chance. He has produced 40 instructional DVDs and I believe Amazon says you have a new book coming out called the Boxer s Book of Conditioning and Drilling . Is that correct?

Mark Hatmaker: That is correct, yes.

Levi Wampler: Awesome. How are you doing today?

Mark Hatmaker: Im doing just fine, Levi. How about yourself?

Levi Wampler: Im doing real good, ready for this one. So first off, could you tell us how you got started with martial arts?

Mark Hatmaker: Well, a boring story. Its probably like most people is the odd combination of well, this will date me here. Im an old man now. Im 46. A combination of watching the Bruce Lee movies when youre a kid and the odd happenstance of having a grandfather who had boxed and wrestled. Nothing professional at all. He called it scuffling. He was a coal miner from Virginia and this is more of a thing they did along the camps and around there. He was passing that along to whichever want to be my cousins that were running around there who were interested and at that time, it was just about three of us who decided to enjoy it. Out of that, only two of us stuck with it. It kind of grew from there.

Levi Wampler: Thats great. What started your interest with mixed martial arts and training?

Mark Hatmaker: Well, actually, I think it has always been around. You know, the mixed martial arts the turn of the last century was already in view, you know. Several times, we had the boxers. We would be going against grapplers and vice-versa. Then you had some of the American wrestlers going against some of the great Ju-doku of the old days and at the time, the matches were called combination matches.

So, I think having been first introduced to some stories from that from my grandfather before it just came down and be called mixed martial arts. I guess I always had a huge interest in those sorts of mixed up matches. I believe you can also think of some of the old stories of Gene Lebell in the 60s doing some of those matches against other artists and such. So I guess just the match against styles, the conflict of style I think has always been interesting to me, probably to everyone.

Levi Wampler: Thats great. As a trainer and a coach, can you tell me what you think is the best practice for mixed martial arts specifically for competition?

Mark Hatmaker: Well, conditioning first and foremost. I mean almost any coach in the world. I mean youre really a coach yourself and you will know these fights or one in the gym not in the ring or the one again in the ring, not in the cage. Its going to be conditioning. You know, the more specific we can get, the better. We know theres going to be some crossover from some general preparedness physical condition to make that transfer but thats primarily it. I mean you can track this all, all the technique you want in the world. If you dont have the conditioning based back it up, its just going to be all for naught. Then beyond that, its just getting right down to basics and not we know one of the novice mistakes is to assume that hey, look Im throwing a punch, Im hitting the bag or Im just kicking the bag. You cant fool yourself to think that youre actually boxing or kickboxing or actually practicing Muay Thai.

As you well know, theres a lot more science. You know, some people would call it art. Im more comfortable with the word science than there is to just flying your hands out there. A lot of people throw things that would look like punches, that would look like kicks but it may not necessarily be the real animal.

Levi Wampler: So what would you think is the biggest mistake? Like would it be how you said if theyre not really practicing the art and thinking about the strategy, theyre just throwing hands?

Mark Hatmaker: Thats probably it. There is some really great work in Cognitive learning now called deliberate practice. Forgive me if youre already familiar with it and I hate to bore everyone by going over it again. Its not so much the fact of doing constant repetition work. Its paying attention to every step and detail along the way. It seems that there are not necessarily natural athletes or really natural talent in any given endeavor. Its the kind of abilities or discipline that someone brings to the table.

So sure, we can for example, we can have an athlete who says Im going to throw a thousand leg kicks against the banana bag every single day and then thats going to make me a master kicker. Well, it will definitely give you some conditioning and there will be some improved facility in the kicking but thats quite different from having someone whether its a coach or just someone whos really self-motivated finding all the proper form, all the proper mechanics about throwing the individual kick. They might be able to reduce the workload in throwing that one thousand kicks a day, down to as many, as low as 500 or 250 a day as long as theyre having absolute mechanics. Its not always just the sheer repetition. Its not just the practice. Its getting that practice as close to perfection as we can get, if that makes sense.

Levi Wampler: No, I think it does. Youre basically saying you need to have somebody that explains all the mechanics to you and its not just practice in general. Its perfect practice makes perfect.

Mark Hatmaker: Exactly, exactly and perfect as close as we can get into a chaotic sport because theres if I got the quote right, I believe this comes from Mike Tyson. Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face. So everyones kicks look great. Everyones punches look great and then we know this is just a chaotic sport. Your job is a way to exert your will but you got someone whos just as determined to exert their will. So no matter how perfect you are in the gym, it doesnt mean anything when you actually get in there and fight.

Levi Wampler: Oh sure. Yes. Now your book, No Holds Barred Fighting: Savage Strike, I believe it was in the beginning. Im not sure exactly where in the book. You mentioned training for what happens when you miss your strike. Can you explain the concept to us a little bit?

Mark Hatmaker: Sure. Again I hate to bore. Like I said, I know youre as just yes, all strikers out there know that when youre actually competing, you miss way more than you hit. Whenever you are drilling, you get to hit 100 percent of the time or worst case scenario, youre 99.99 percent of the time but youre hitting the heavy bag. You know its right there. Thats the beauty of for example something like a double end bag that can humble you a little bit until you start getting the rhythm down and then it starts becoming a bit more predictable. When youre banging focus pads, usually, we have even if youve got a fairly good active focus pad coach, theyre still putting the pads out there for you to get but we do know that whenever you actually move into the match, we just talked about that competition, the two individuals trying to exert their will just as youre trying to hit them. Theyre trying to hit you. Theyre trying not to be hit and youre trying not to be hit. Even the best of boxers, the best strikers, the best kickboxers, the best MMA fighters, they miss way, way more than they hit. So were still a big part of accurate training. Getting prepared for the chaos is to actually put miss training in and some people might think that shadowboxing will take care of that. Well no, thats a miss that youre prepared for.

So what we like to do often is we have really, really active focus pad drills in the sense that you may have pre-arranged strikes, pre-arranged combinations or pre-arranged counter punching combinations; but when we start moving to intermediate level, we force the misses about an 80-20. Well 80 percent of the time youre going to be biting the pads but there will be just these random surprising misses and pullouts because when you miss and when you really thought you were going to hit the heavy bag or really thought youre going to smack that pad, it can really pull you out of position. If you get used to being able to recover, being pulled out of positions in your drills and youre training in the gym, it should serve you much better when you actually get inside the ring or the cage.

Levi Wampler: Thats great. Thats great. So we really need to practice for our mistakes. Give us a little information about how maybe youve set up one of your focus pad drills where the person is going to miss?

Mark Hatmaker: Yes, exactly. Lets say well take a basic combination. Lets say were going to go with the jab, cross. Were going to have someone step outside and then throw perhaps a hook to the body and then all along the way, we all have our focus pad player. The feeder should be firing back occasionally to check for holes.

So lets say were going to run this as a three-minute round so jab, cross, step outside, pivot, bang to the body, checking for holes the entire time. Just randomly and sometimes whenever were feeding that jab, cross, you might pull or deny them that cross. You will feed the pad. You will see the target as it comes in. Pull out a play, drop it out of position and see if you can make them hit some sort of overreach and then fire your own shot back at the ribs or just see if they get too overextended and lose their good stance or sometimes when they move to the outside, theyre throwing that hook to that body.

You pivot along deeper to the inside and deny them that angle and again these should all be random. You never say ahead of time, hey, Im going to make you miss right here. Your job as a good feeder is to try to figure out where it looks like your athlete is getting too grooved into the drill because its so easy to get into that tit for tat, pitter-patter sort of thing like Im going to do this now, you do this. So again that occasional chaos, that occasional miss. If it happens at the gym, you feel like youre going to be a lot better off when you get to the ring where as we said youre going to miss more than you hit.

Levi Wampler: Oh, yes. Thats great. Thats great advice. Lets see here. What would you say are your favorite training materials, equipment, books, DVDs, anything that you would want to recommend to subscribers?

Mark Hatmaker: OK. From our own repertoire or just anything out there, if were talking as to a piece of training material, you know, another human being. Gear is great but having good training partner or partners is just you got to have this since it is a context for the combat sport and you have someone else across in front of you or down on the mat with you. Thats it. Thats the way to go.

Now if youre talking about material that you know, I would have to do my mandatory sales pitch. If youre not already familiar with our material, I guess a good introduction again you can have a look at our book titles and any of the book titles. Theyre fairly low price so take a look at those. If youre not familiar with how some of our stuff works, I would say the DVD called Down and Out. Its a fairly low price and its a good introduction the way we chain and move everything from any boxer or striker, should know to put punches-in-bunches put your strikes in combination and usually every good grappler knows that youre supposed to be chaining your material on the ground.

Down and Out will show you how we take and kind of push that idea to its limits where we have complete chains. We went from striking to shooting chains, the ground chains and we dont segment them. Well, we put the mix where we can in the mixed martial arts. So I guess if youre not familiar with our work, Down and Out would be the one to take a look at to see if what we do is your cup of tea.

Levi Wampler: That sounds great. Now where is that available?

Mark Hatmaker: You can take a look at our website at ExtremeSelfProtection.com and I think Paladin Press. I think its Paladin-Press.com, I believe. Its also available there but, you know, just as easily go to our site ExtremeSelfProtection.com. I think we got a slightly bit lower point of purchase for that particular title.

Levi Wampler: Sure, sure. Its great. Could you share with us some of the best advice your mentors have given you in the past?

Mark Hatmaker: It has always been about the work. I mean from my grandfather, anyone you worked with, its just that work ethics, someone whos wiling to push or is anyone who boxes or wrestles or rolls or does anything, anyone who has who put themselves through that grinder and push hard and still has a good attitude about it and gets up and does it again. Thats it. Just be willing to do the work and keep going on. So I wish I had something more esoteric or philosophical. I just say no, its all about the hard work and thats it. I wish I could tell you something different but thats not true.

Levi Wampler: Yes. Its a great secret to success in just about anything. Work hard.

Mark Hatmaker: Amen to that. You got it.

Levi Wampler: It has been awesome. It has been great talking to you.

Mark Hatmaker: My pleasure here my friend.

Levi Wampler: This is Levi Wampler with MMAStrikingCoach.com. We were speaking with Mark Hatmaker. That website again is ExtremeSelfProtection.com. All right well, thank you Mark for talking with us today.

Mark Hatmaker: My pleasure.

Reasources mention by Mark Hatmaker in the interview:

Down & Out

Looking for an introduction to MMA training that you can take from the gym into the cage? Don't fall into the trap of cross training. In Down & Out, renowned grappling expert and best-selling author Mark Hatmaker shows you how to mix or match all the major aspects of the MMA game striking, clinching, takedowns, shooting, ground and pound, and defense into an integrated, customized training program.

Down & Out

No Holds Barred Fighting: Savage Strikes

No-holds-barred (NHB) master trainer and strategist Mark Hatmaker turns his attention from the grappling mat to the stand-up side of the arena, providing explicit instruction in a devastating array of strikes that will enable you to knock down and knock out your opponent, whether you're faced off in the ring or on the street.

No Holds Barred Fighting: Savage Strikes

MMA Mastery: Flow Chain Drilling and Integrated O/D Training

In this book, Mark Hatmaker emphasizes the mix in mixed martial arts. Intelligent fighters the world over are wisely choosing the best aspects of formidable combat arts boxing,

Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling but can encounter problems when it's time to

integrate these disparate tools.

MMA Mastery: Flow Chain Drilling and Integrated O/D Training

MMA Striking Coach AssociationLearn From The Best Coaches In The World!

MMAStrikingCoach.com

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