MMA fighters’ technical-tactical preparation – fight analysis: a case study

Abstract

Introduction. An MMA fight gives the participating athletes an opportunity to show a wide range of tactical and technical skills from a variety of martial arts. To be successful in it, one must impose his own fighting style on the opponent and confirm its effectiveness. Materials and methods. The research material consisted of a hundred and eighty-seven technical attacks performed during a 13-minute fight of two MMA fighters (referred to in the paper as Athlete #1 and Athlete #2) belonging to the elite of the Polish KSW organization (Mixed Martial Arts Confrontation). The collected material allowed assessing the time structure of the fight as well as individual characteristics of tactical and technical preparation of the involved athletes. Results. Athlete #1 limited the technical elements in stand-up fighting to striking; Athlete #2 showed a considerably greater versatility of techniques in stand-up fighting. While fighting on the ground Athlete #2 limited his techniques to striking and more often won a dominant position on the ground obtaining a clear advantage in values of all the measured indices of tactical and technical preparation. An increase in the frequency of applied techniques (A) during the analyzed fight was also associated with an increase in the range of their use (W). Conclusions. During the analyzed fight the athletes showed a narrow range of techniques. The collected results allow developing an individual characteristic of athletes’ technical and tactical preparation enabling corrections to their training and preparation for the next fight.