[tommyfretwell]

As the title says, I think Conor needs to be assessing how he spends his time going forward. I ponder in this article whether his use of Ido Portal should be phased out? Especially if he makes a move to 155. He already moves well, for me, his use of a movement coach is like Mark Kerr using a personal trainer to work on his traps.

"Who do you train with?" - After his long frame and black belt Gracie Jiu-Jitsu swamped the McGregor mystique at the MGM Grand on Saturday, it is a question that not only Nate Diaz is asking. Diaz's jibe was a swing for the perceived lack of talent in the training camp of Conor McGregor, especially in comparison to his own locker room, and especially to the calibre of Conor's ground game. But the most questionable piece of McGregor's training camp, one that has received a host of mixed reactions, is his use of Ido Portal, Conor's movement coach. The practice and theory of movement has seen something of a resurgence in MMA over the last 12 months, but like vinyl to music and beards to the common man, I believe movement is purely a fundamental, a foundation of martial arts.

If Conor moves up, he needs to move down, quite literally, body down, on the canvas, work. The only notable grappler that Conor trains with is Gunnar Nelson, who currently sits out of sight in the UFC welterweight rankings and was completely out classed on the mat by Demain Maia at UFC 194. If McGregor drops back to 145 and successfully defends his featherweight title, for me, it's a chapter closed in that division. Some could argue that he needs to fight both Aldo and Edgar before he can turn that page, but why would a fighter who is consistently moving forward want to loiter in a division that he conquered so resoundingly. Conor moves up to 155 permanently after he defends at 145, and should this successfully happen, he absolutely needs to remove Portal and bring in some high level mat work.

Conor naturally moves well, you only have to look at him against Marcus Brimage, before he introduced Portal, he cut angles whilst fighting backwards and still found that sweet spot. So why would you want to place so much time and focus on movement, when you already move so well. It's like Mark Kerr bringing in a personal trainer to work on his traps. Of course you want to hone your skills, and improve where you can, but surely to become a complete mixed martial artist you need to fill in the gaps, find the missing pieces.

So is this misguided direction a pitfall of Conor's attitude, his disregard for others, or is it the erroneous training methods at SBG - to not train for any particular opponent, but to be ready for all. I think it's both. Conor needs to respect the ground game more, I would have thought a lesson was learnt after the Mendes fight, but his height and range ultimately dug him out of that grave. But with Diaz, his length was nullified. Therefore I must question SBG. To not train for a specific opponent, especially if Conor moves to 155, is simply a ticking time bomb, one that we saw explode last Saturday. Conor should have fought a smarter fight against Diaz, as oppose to a one dimensional chin seeking mission. SBG should have developed a smarter game plan, we know how heavy Diaz stands on his lead leg. Conor needs more tools on the ground against bigger opponents, Nate rolled and flattened him far too easily.

But casting this all to one side, for all of Portal's involvement with Conor, did we really see a marked improvement on Saturday? No, if anything I thought we saw regression at times. If Conor is to move to 155 he needs to reconfigure his time, more dojo, less Ido.

https://www.the-newshub.com/combat/conor-mcgregor-more-dojo-less-ido-portal

 

[DonRifle]

Ida Portal didn't tell Conor to throw all those haymaker left hands and burn himself out, he's being unfairly attacked for this loss. Conors movement was good in the first round, he got on the inside of a taller longer guy and landed shots, his footwork was good.
Fairly simple for me is that he just loaded up too much with the elephant gun and it cost him. Ido Portal is not responsible for that. People just like to spread hate wherever they can.
On one day they are hating on people who don't want gay marriage, the next day the same people are hating on a trainer calling his training methods gay for no real reason other then someone else said it and they like to get on the hate train. Flip floppers on hate wherever they can get some.
Im not having a go at the author of this post, but since the fight all I've heard is how much of a *** Ido Portal is and how his training methods are gay and useless, when really he has nothing to do with Conor's strategy and mistakes. Stupid shit that just shows how fickle people are.
Cue a little more hatred diseminated in the guise of 'fun'!

 

[tommyfretwell]

Hey, appreciate the response.

I agree, his movement initially looked good, but I didn't necessarily see anything innovative, anything that made me think Ido's input was giving him something different. And just for clarity, I am not rubbishing his methods, I am simply saying I think there needs to be an adjustment on how much time Conor spends with him.

You are right in that Ido doesn't make the call for Conor's strategy, but I've also touched upon SBG's responsibility here. I am certainly not here to spread hate and I don't think my words did that.

 

[DonRifle]

Hey, appreciate the response.

I agree, his movement initially looked good, but I didn't necessarily see anything innovative, anything that made me think Ido's input was giving him something different. And just for clarity, I am not rubbishing his methods, I am simply saying I think there needs to be an adjustment on how much time Conor spends with him.

You are right in that Ido doesn't make the call for Conor's strategy, but I've also touched upon SBG's responsibility here. I am certainly not here to spread hate and I don't think my words did that.

No they didn't spread hate, Im just saying Portal has been hated on unfairly for this loss all over the place in the last week.
The fact is that Conor brings him in a week or two out from his fights. He's not hard sparring and getting injured like everyone else, he is showing up and fighting anytime, anyplace anywhere unlike most of the roster which everyone conveniently ignores when they feel like it.
He spent a 2 month camp preparing for RDA, did all his sparring and training for a completely different type of fighter. 2 weeks out from a fight I can't see any problem with movement training flexibility. Maybe he should have done more technical sparring, who knows how he spends his whole day. Of course he could hard spar but Im pretty sure fans would actually like to see him fight unlike the endless list of fighters pulling out within 2 weeks of a fight these days because of caveman training methods. Nobody was hating on Ido Portal after 13 second KO a few months ago.

But overall the talk of Ido Portal is merely reactive, and speculative. Nobody really has a clue what they are talking about here, they are just guessing at reasons for the loss. But we all watched the fight and we all know he loaded up too much trying to take Nate out, thats why he gassed and eventually got subbed. Nate didn't load up, he boxed with better technique that didn't gas him out, simples.

 

[Liddellianenko]

Ida Portal didn't tell Conor to throw all those haymaker left hands and burn himself out, he's being unfairly attacked for this loss.

Actually that's almost exactly what he did. He did tell Conor to throw haymakers ... with his feet.

Those dumbass Capoeira kicks Conor whiffed and gassed with all night? Yeah thank Ido Fakename for that.

 

[DonRifle]

Actually that's almost exactly what he did. He did tell Conor to throw haymakers ... with his feet.

Those dumbass Capoeira kicks Conor whiffed and gassed with all night? Yeah thank Ido Fakename for that.

He was doing those long before Portal came into the picture. He tried one of those vs Brimmage

 

[Killz]

He was doing those long before Portal came into the picture. He tried one of those vs Brimmage

He didnt try 8 of them though :confused02:

 

[hadoq]

well, in anything, 2 months of training don't make you an expert.

I don't think there is a case yet in deciding whether or not that movement thing is working for him or not.

I mean, it's like when you take a 2 months old white belt, put him in a fight, his BJJ doesn't work, so you can decide that, yea, BJJ don't work in a fight.

let's be realistic for one moment.

is there any human physical activity that can be mastered in such a short amount of time? I don't think there is.

one doesn't just become an expert on movement after effectively practicing for a few months.

but yea, I'm saying this alot lately, but again, haters gonna hate

 

[Spite]

I don't think Ido is to blame, Conor has a head coach who he should be listening too. I wonder what John Kavanagh thinks of Ido?

My worry for Conor is that he is falling in Love with the fun aspects of Martial arts like the movement training and Capoeira. Maybe he is spending to much time with these niche aspects of MMA when he should be hitting the road or improving his ground game or adding to his strike game.

I'm not saying that he does spend to much time on the niche aspects, but given how much he talks about them, and how much he demonstrates them in videos and open workouts; I'm lead to believe he does.

 

[oldfan]

To be fair to Ido fakename (I'll have to hit you back liddel) what he does has very little to do with goobers performance in a fight. It's just a way to stay flexible and in shape. Movement is good.

For goober rolling would be better.

 

[DonRifle]

To be fair to Ido fakename (I'll have to hit you back liddel) what he does has very little to do with goobers performance in a fight. It's just a way to stay flexible and in shape. Movement is good.

The corner is finally turned on Thursday :laugh:

 

[Liddellianenko]

He was doing those long before Portal came into the picture. He tried one of those vs Brimmage

He didnt try 8 of them though :confused02:

What Killz said. Conor was into Capoeira but Ido is probably the guy that made him go overboard on it, probably because that's the only martial art the guy knows.

Ido is alright as a general "expand your flexibility, range of movement and muscle groups" type guy similar to guys doing yoga, animal style kung fu drills, advanced calisthenics, or gymnastics like GSP did. And Ido has a decent mix of drills from such disciplines combined with new agey mumbo jumbo marketing glitz.

He is, however, terrible as a martial application of movement guy, the guy has never fought a fly. Some of the complete bullshit he was having them spend large amounts of time on ... ridiculously telegraphed Capoeira trips, cartwheels, hopscotch, "gorilla hand fighting" drills or whatever nonsense.

While he can't be blamed for Conor's loss entirely, Nate is just the better fighter, the dude is obviously too high in the preparation priority list ... I mean having a "movement coach" in your actual corner during the fight? The heck is he going to tell you in the round breaks? How to cartwheel into mount?

Not all movement is "useful movement". It's ok to expand your horizons but if you think flapping your hands wildly will get you the same benefit in the cage as an hour with a BJJ black belt or a Muay Thai lumpinee champ, you've let your own farts get to your head.

Muscle memory is about the most important thing in fight training, and if you spend hours drilling flashy capoeira kicks every day, that's all your body is going to instinctively respond with when you're under pressure.

 

[Voiceless]

I do think Portal's movement training is certainly beneficial to the MMA training, it's just a question of how much time you use for it. Should you replace your regular MMA training with movement¿ Hell no, of course not. Your regular training is still the fundamentals you need. But movement training (like i.e. physio therapy) can help you to get a better awareness of you movement and body and thereby help you to better understand and apply the stuff you do in your MMA training. It's usually helpfull to watch beyond your own nose and have another POV so you don't get stuck in routines.

A lot of what I've seen in Portal's movement training can be used for the warm up in training and after training for your cool down. It's certainly better than just stupidly running in circles.

So spening half an hour of movement training for your warm up / cool down or some recreational break in between training to get your head free certainly isn't counterproductive.

What's probably right is that McGregor should get some more high level training partners into his team. Some wrestlers would do good.

The OP sounds too harsh on Nelson though. Dude is a legit Gracie black belt who tooled all his opponents but Maia once it hit the floor. Nelson actually was basically the first fighter who actively wanted to grapple with Maia as far as I remember. Yes, he lost those grapple exchanges, but being handled by Maia is not an indication whether you suck at BJJ or not.

 

[Spite]

Muscle memory is about the most important thing in fight training, and if you spend hours drilling flashy capoeira kicks every day, that's all your body is going to instinctively respond with when you're under pressure.

Dan Hardy calls that training your reptile. The reptilian being the part of the brain that instinctively acts under pressure.

 

[oldfan]

The corner is finally turned on Thursday :laugh:

Because I don't blame Ido for goober being a fraud and a bitch? ...OK then corner turned :laugh:
As I said Ido had little to do with his performance. It's his overall training that is to blame. His training and talent have made him glorious at closing the distance against T-Rex arms and delivering beautiful strikes. Unfortunately it hasn't taught him to fight. It hasn't taught him how to defend himself or how to react when he gets rocked. That's what hard sparring is for. He's bought into this new age “i can be a fighter without getting punched in the face: bandwagon everybody wants to jump on.

I get it. Most of us, including myself HATE to get punched in the face. It is truly difficult to keep volunteering for more. So when somebody comes along and says you can be the best fighter you can be without sparring everybody wants to believe but it just aint so. The gym where I used to train was well known for hard sparring and gym wars. So much so that we would always pack the house on friday sparring night. More than once I caught myself making silly excuses for why I couldn't make it.

In that gym they called what happened to goober in the standup, “talking to jesus” and nobody in that gym ever advanced beyond green belt without talking to jesus. One thing those guys recognized was that a LOT of KO's are tied to fatigue so hard sparring was limited to 2 minute rounds. there were a lot of religious conversations but few hard KO's.
If it weren't for getting punched in the face even I or Ido Portal could be a great champion.

if goober had talked to jesus in the gym he might still have his flock believing he's a champ.

 

[ReptilianSlayer]

I do think Portal's movement training is certainly beneficial to the MMA training, it's just a question of how much time you use for it. Should you replace your regular MMA training with movement¿ Hell no, of course not. Your regular training is still the fundamentals you need. But movement training (like i.e. physio therapy) can help you to get a better awareness of you movement and body and thereby help you to better understand and apply the stuff you do in your MMA training. It's usually helpfull to watch beyond your own nose and have another POV so you don't get stuck in routines.

A lot of what I've seen in Portal's movement training can be used for the warm up in training and after training for your cool down. It's certainly better than just stupidly running in circles.

So spening half an hour of movement training for your warm up / cool down or some recreational break in between training to get your head free certainly isn't counterproductive.

What's probably right is that McGregor should get some more high level training partners into his team. Some wrestlers would do good.

The OP sounds too harsh on Nelson though. Dude is a legit Gracie black belt who tooled all his opponents but Maia once it hit the floor. Nelson actually was basically the first fighter who actively wanted to grapple with Maia as far as I remember. Yes, he lost those grapple exchanges, but being handled by Maia is not an indication whether you suck at BJJ or not.

Jake Shields out grappled Maia. Agree with the rest of your post though.

 

[Liddellianenko]

Dan Hardy calls that training your reptile. The reptilian being the part of the brain that instinctively acts under pressure.

That's actually a very insightful vid and Hardy is quite articulate.

I agree with it too, that's why I'm a big fan of full contact sparring ... you will never activate those instinctual strikes if you've never used em under pressure.

I've seen so many Traditional Martial Arts guys drill katas for decades absolutely freeze and swing weak haymakers from distance in an actual fight because they've never reinforced anything into that instinctual part of the brain.

And yes the biggest switch for that seems to be getting socked in the face ... after that it's almost autopilot, it's almost like a lot of times your arms and legs fly on their own as you've trained them to, they see the familiar signs or openings and go.

And that's why it's probably not the best idea to incorporate too much ineffective flashy stuff during sparring, because then that stuff will become your go-to move under pressure.

 

[TheNinja]

Conor needs to do the following imo:
1. Improve his cardio or not blow his wad in 5 minutes
2. Stop with the Capoeira kicks
3. Use Leg Kicks
4. Throw more body kicks
5. Learn how to throw the fast Anthony Pettis Head Kick
6. Don't stay in the pocket with better strikers

 

[Spite]

That's actually a very insightful vid and Hardy is quite articulate.

I agree with it too, that's why I'm a big fan of full contact sparring ... you will never activate those instinctual strikes if you've never used em under pressure.

I've seen so many Traditional Martial Arts guys drill katas for decades absolutely freeze and swing weak haymakers from distance in an actual fight because they've never reinforced anything into that instinctual part of the brain.

And yes the biggest switch for that seems to be getting socked in the face ... after that it's almost autopilot, it's almost like a lot of times your arms and legs fly on their own as you've trained them to, they see the familiar signs or openings and go.

And that's why it's probably not the best idea to incorporate too much ineffective flashy stuff during sparring, because then that stuff will become your go-to move under pressure.

He talks more indepth about it on the London Real show. Its long, but if you get a spare 90 minutes or so its worth listening to.

 

[Liddellianenko]

He talks more indepth about it on the London Real show. Its long, but if you get a spare 90 minutes or so its worth listening to.

Nice, thanks. I'll put it on in the background when I'm doing some less concentration work.