TUESDAY, MARCH 2

Logan's fifth blog entry —

Preparing athletes for MMA competition is significantly more difficult than preparing for my own bouts. There are simply so many more things out of my control as a coach that I am used to being able to control. I haven't quite figured out if a person can be taught to work hard, but I know that I can't force a person to give their all while training.

I do my best to prepare every fighter for each individual matchup. This includes giving extra time and attention during practice to help each fighter with their weaknesses or opponent's strengths. We will even change whatever type of rounds we are doing to help out someone who is about to fight. The guys who train just to be fit don't seem to mind the changing schedule and seem to take a little pride in preparing a fighter for a bout. Just because they don't compete doesn't mean they can't be a part of the team.

All of that preparation can be easily wasted if the fighter isn't truly pushing to the limits of his ability and living a clean fighter's lifestyle outside of practice. Making weight is a chore, and I have discovered that many adult males can't be trusted to accurately assess their own weight. I know that seems odd, but I really can't trust people to weigh themselves. Too many times guys have told me that their weight will be fine only to have them show up 10 pounds overweight when the rest of us are coming into the gym to drop the last couple pounds. A fighter must monitor diet and weight at all times.

Another way that training is wasted is simply through lost bits of time. The 10 seconds of a round a fighter skips at the beginning fidgeting with gloves or getting a drink or the five-second mutual breaks in rounds all add up to too low of a practice intensity. Fights are intense, so you need to train hard to be prepared.

Almost invariably following a fighter's first bout, they will be telling me how competition is much more difficult than they expected. They will also talk about how they will work their conditioning more in the future, never miss practice, listen to everything I say, blah blah blah. Sometimes they really change, and just as often they don't really change at all.

Some coaches put a lot of effort into inspiring people to give their best at the right time. I have no problem with those coaches and recognize that a lot of people feel the need to be pumped up for competition. For those folks, I have my high energy teammates. I prefer encouraging people to give their best effort in practice so that they are as well prepared as possible for competition.

But it is not my job to make people work hard in the gym. My role is that of a facilitator. I will provide the opportunity to succeed, but I won't hound people to get them to do the work. I try my best not to schedule fights for people who aren't properly prepared, but after a fight is scheduled, people sometimes disappear or don't feel a sense of urgency. I still expect them to fight because they have committed to it. I won't schedule them another fight, but they must honor their commitments.

My coaching style is largely influenced by my high school wrestling coach, Mike Mazzitelli. He is being inducted into the Minnesota Wrestling Hall of Fame this year, and I was a member of the last class of seniors who had the honor of working with him. He was also my backyard neighbor for years, but that fact only leads to a bunch of other stories.

Since I only got to see the last few years of his coaching, I don't know if he always had the same style of coaching, but I know that he expected us to work our hardest without having him hanging around to yell at us when someone was lazy.

I'm not sure if he is the right guy emulate since he had a few other interesting things to say. If he noticed more than a couple of athletes sitting around icing injuries during practice, he would remind us, "in my day we didn't have ice."

— Logan Clark