Take It to the Ground:

Strength Training Techniques for Building

Power in Your Takedowns

By: John Cooper, BBA, CSCS

We have all seen those fighters out there…the fighters that seem to attack their opponent’s legs with lightning fast takedown power. His technique looks no different than yours, yet the quickness of his shoots has you putting your fight DVD’s into slow motion to try and see what the hell just happened. You’ve been practicing your double & single leg takedown techniques and drilling your timing over and over, yet you just can’t seem to get the driving force in your takedowns that can put your opponent down hard. You’ve studied Mark Kerr, Matt Hughes, Tito Ortiz, and all the other takedown artists, but when the time comes you just need something more…more power! If you’ve ever wanted to get more power in your takedowns (and who doesn’t) pay close attention as I will show you how to prepare your body for executing powerful takedowns with one very important lift and a bit of physical preparation.

As a strength & conditioning specialist, helping combative athletes build powerful takedowns is easily one of my favourite challenges. Powerful takedowns demand that the body work as a synchronized unit with incredibly explosive movement. The goal of the takedown mechanics is to direct your body’s total power potential at your opponent’s body to either forcefully send him to the mat or severely disrupt his centre of gravity forcing a fall to the mat. Neurologically training all those physiologically maximized fast twitch muscle fibres to fire in a sequential manner with the goal of an explosive collision with another athlete is enough to get any student of the sport sciences drooling with excitement. But I digress. My point is that in order to build powerful takedowns, aside from actually drilling them, is to choose exercises, and movement patterns that work the body as single synchronized unit. I refer to these types of exercises as ‘structural power exercises’.

1. – Prepare Your Body to Train Explosively

One of the key factors required for optimal power development is the skill and ability to train ballistically with heavy weight. If your background is in the health & fitness industry this message of training ballistically with heavy weight goes against much of what you may have heard. That is, your typical fitness instructor/personal trainer is going to tell you to ‘train in a slow & controlled manner and avoid any ballistic movements’. This may be relevant advice for an individual who is looking to lose 10 lbs for their high school reunion but not if they are looking to compete in Full Contact Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) or any other combative or contact sport for that matter. That said, I am in no way suggesting that if you are new to combative sports or even new to strength training that you run out to your local gym and start throwing barbells around. Listen to me carefully here, before you even think about training ballistically I sincerely recommend that you follow these two tips. Number one, develop a base level of strength using free weights in a ‘slow and controlled manner’ for a minimum of 6-8 weeks with a repetition range of approximately 8-15 (see Table 1 for a detailed exercise prescription). This is very important as you need to give your tendons and ligaments a chance to prepare themselves for the rigors of ballistic movements.

Table 1 – Exercise Prescription for Explosive Ballistic Movement Preparation

Exercises	Rep Range	Set Range	Rest	Frequency
Deep Front Squats	10-12	2-4	45-60 seconds	2-3x/wk.
Classic Deadlifts	10-12	2-4	45-60 seconds	2-3x/wk.
Upright Barbell Row	10–12	2-3	45-60 seconds	2-3x/wk.
Dumbbell Incline Bench Press	10–12	2-3	45-60 seconds	2-3x/wk.
Bent Over Barbell Row	10-12	2-3	45-60 seconds	2-3x/wk.
Back Extensions	6-12	2-3	60-120 seconds	2-3x/wk.
Barbell Shrugs	8-10	2-3	45-60 seconds	2-3x/wk.

And number two, when you are first getting started with weightlifting and particularly when lifting the ‘Olympic Style” lift described below, it is highly recommended that you seek out the help of a well qualified strength & conditioning specialist or certified Olympic Style weightlifting coach. If you have already been strength training for at least 2 months prior with lifts similar to the ones described above then you might skip the 6-8 weeks of pre-conditioning and begin working on your technique. Once you have prepared your body for explosive movements, its time to learn one of the explosive lifts that I think will best develop power in your take downs. This is not the only movement for building takedown power, it is simply one that I have had the most success with and that lends itself to relative ease of learning when compared to some of the more technique exhaustive Olympic Lifts like Power Snatches.

2. – Learn the Explosive Power Clean

The Power Clean is not an easy move to master and requires dedication and commitment in order to gain proficiency in the execution of the lift. However, once you have put the time into developing your technique and add it to your strength & conditioning arsenal your ‘sequential structural power’ will increase at an astounding rate. Basically, you’ll be able to explode your body upwards and forwards with great speed and strength (strength times speed equals power).

There is one position and 5 key movements for the Power Clean that need to be explained.

1) The ‘Starting Position’ is basically the same position you would take to execute a dead lift. Standing with your feet between hip and shoulder length apart, hips lower than the shoulders, hands spaced slightly wider than shoulder width with a overhand (pronated) grip, keep your back as straight as possible, chest help up and out, head looking forward. (Figure 1A)

2) The ‘First Pull’ involves forcefully lifting the bar off the floor by extending the hips and knees. Be very careful not to let the hips rise before the shoulders and keep the torso angle constant. Keep your elbows straight for this phase. As the bar raises keep it as close to the shins as possible. (Figure 1B)

3) The ‘Transition Scoop Phase’ occurs as the bar reaches just above the knees. At that point you thrust the hips forward and slightly reflex the knees to move your thighs closer to the bar and you knees under the bar. Your elbows are still straight, and your head and spine in vertical alignment. (Figure 1C)

4) The ‘Second Pull’ occurs immediately after the scoop as you quickly extend the hips and knees to their fullest range of motion while simultaneously standing on you toes (plantar flexion of the ankles). Again, keep the bar near or in contact with the thighs and as close to the body as possible. Keep the elbows straight until the lower body joints are fully extended, at that exact moment you rapidly shrug the shoulders upward. Once the shoulders have reached their highest point, flex the elbows to begin pulling the body under the bar. Pull the arms as high and as long as possible. The torso will be slightly hyperextended at this phase and the feet may or may not lose contact with the floor. (Figure 1D)

5) The ‘Catch Phase’ is the point that the bar has reached near maximal height and you pull the body under that bar and rotate the arms around and under the bar. At the same time you squat down (basically a quarter squat position) and as the arms come under the bar you lift the elbows to position your upper arm (bicep & triceps) parallel to the floor, letting the barbell come to rest across the front of your clavicle and hopefully, resting on the front of your shoulders (anterior deltoids). At this point you should have an erect torso, with a neutral head position and feet flat on the floor. (Figure 1E)

6) The final phase of the power clean is the ‘Downward Phase’ in which you lower the bar in a controlled manner by lowering it with the arms, while you simultaneously flex the hips and knees to cushion the impact of the lowering bar. With the bar hanging in front of you, elbows straight, lower the bar to the floor using a deadlift technique to the ‘Starting Position’.

3. – Applying a Sport Specific Exercise Prescription to the Power Clean

The scope of this article was to introduce the Power Clean as a good addition to your strength training & takedown power development routine. I would like to briefly discuss how this lift could fit in to a combative athlete’s overall annual plan. An entire article could be dedicated to the topics of periodization and annual planning (and probably will, so stay tuned). However, in mixed martial arts we typically have athletes trying to pack a lot of training into their pre fight routine. I believe that this is one of the reasons that MMA is often plagued by injuries (and the fact that it’s a tough sport to train for). I wanted to provide an exercise prescription for an athlete that is training 4-6 days a week for a fight and doesn’t have much time to maintain his power and anaerobic endurance by lifting weights regularly. The prescription described below is designed to mimic the demands of an MMA or Submission Wrestling match. Basically the athlete performs one explosive power clean every 5 – 10 seconds on a repeated basis for 2 – 3 minutes for 1 continuous set, followed by a rest period and 1-2 consecutive sets (See Table 2). This program could be performed 1 – 2 x/week and would need to be supplemented with a rotational exercise such as a Russian Twist. This prescription format is not easy and demands the assistance of a qualified spotter. Once the technique is compromised the set stops. Always prioritize quality of movement over quantity. These are not ‘bicep curls’ and thus total failure is not the goal of training. Remember we are combative athletes not bodybuilders.

Table 2 – Example Exercise Prescription for the Power Clean

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6
Rest Period Between Reps	8 sec.	8 sec.	7 sec.	7 sec.	6 sec.	6 sec.
Duration of Total Set	110 sec.	130 sec.	140 sec.	155 sec.	165 sec.	180 sec.
% of 1 Rep Max.	40% 1RM	40% 1RM	35% 1RM	35% 1RM	35% 1RM	35% 1RM
Number of Sets	2 sets	2 sets	2 sets	2 sets	3 sets	3 sets
Rest Between Sets	65 sec.	55 sec.	50 sec.	45 sec.	40 sec.	30 sec.

Remember to always vary your workouts at least every 4 - 8 weeks and use progressive overload. Avoid the macho gym mentality that is predominant out there, and DO NOT try and lift too much weight with these lifts until you and your strength coach have determined that your technique is worthy of volume increases. For optimal development it is highly recommended that you obtain the assistance of a qualified strength & conditioning specialist to supervise your technique & develop a periodized conditioning program that meets your training goals. These techniques are for use at your own risk. Always consult your doctor before starting an exercise program.