The NFL's Atlanta Falcons Use MMA as Training Program

The Atlanta Falcons have become the first professional sports team to use their own team-sponsored mixed martial arts (MMA) training regiment during their off-season workouts.

The workout program is a voluntary one run by MMAthletics. MMAthletics is a company founded by FOX Sports NFL Insider Jay Glazer and former UFC champion and current hall of famer “The Natural” Randy Couture (18-10). As the popularity of MMA has risen , so has the number of NFL players who train in the sport in the off-season. These men are looking for that extra edge over their opponent. Working to become stronger, faster and more mentally prepared to do battle on the gridiron.

MMAthletics looks to bring that fighter mind-set to these men by breaking them down to build them back up.

“If you hit me once, I’m gonna hit you back five times,” Glazer said of importing a MMA mentality to the NFL. “When the cage door shuts, your job is to break the will of the man across from you. It’s the same with football. When the game starts, essentially that cage door shuts. It’s your responsibility not to lose. We find what a player’s breaking point is and re-establish it every few days. By the end, football has become easy.”

In today’s world there seems to be an MMA gym on every street corner. Some are good and others not so good. NFL teams see these men in which they have a lot invested in, going out and picking gyms to train with and what makes sense is to keep it in house. This allows the team to supervise the training and make sure that player safety is the most important thing. These workouts are done together as a team and coincide with OTA’s.

Head coach Mike Smith seems very impressed with the early results.“There’s a lot of carry-over to football with some of the disciplines they were talking about — wrestling, leverage (drills) and martial arts with the kicks to open up hip flexibility. That sparked my interest. I felt if guys were going to go out and do this on their own, why not bring this service into our team and make it available for the guys? I’m very impressed with what’s happened the first two weeks. I think the players are really enjoying it. It’s just another part of their repertoire of things they can do to prepare themselves for a long 16-game season.”

Preparing themselves for the rough grind that is an NFL season is always tough and any advantage a team can get over the others is one they will explore.

In a league where teams will copy what others do if it seems to work, all eyes will surely be on the Falcons this year. If they do well Fighters.com expects to see other teams utilize MMAthletics to integrate MMA into their OTA’s as well.

On a side note, this type of training could even bring more fighters into MMA after a football career. This would mean faster, stronger fighters who know all to well the art of war.

Stay tuned to Fighters.com and MMA Gospel Radio as we work to keep you updated on MMA in the NFL.