IT TAKES A TEAM
by Kevin Kearns

Last November, I became the fulltime conditioning and strength coach for UFC Fighter Kenny Florian. After losing a close decision for the Lightweight Championship in October, Kenny wanted to bring his strength and conditioning to a higher level. In many respects, the average person can greatly benefit by learning the conditioning approaches a professional athlete, like Kenny, takes.

After my initial consultation with Kenny, I knew we would need to take care of several, nagging injuries. The biggest concern was his back. In March 2006, he had to pull out of a fight with a devastating back injury. As it turned out, his back problems were a result of other conditioning weaknesses. At the time, a physical therapist, said of his body, "it was totally disconnected."

By working closely with Kenny's doctors, physical therapist and nutritionist, I was able to present Kenny with a consistent fight program that detailed his daily activities. This plan was not scattered in my head; it was prepared in document form, which made it a powerful force. We constantly referred to this document and made adjustments to it. Lesson: You can have the most ambitious goals in life, but if you don't have a plan, you won't get too far.

In order for his body to work in unison and to reduce the probability of injuries, we first needed to increase his muscle strength and size. Lesson: When you have a strong foundation, you can bring your conditioning up to new levels and focus on achieving specific goals.

For anybody, especially a professional athlete, getting injured can also be mentally challenging. They start being tentative when doing certain things, wondering if injury will result. Although he didn't say anything at the time, I could sense that Kenny's back injury in March still bothered him. After all, I often had heard him comment in interviews that a major component of fighting effectively was mental. Later, he would tell me that he avoided doing some key martial arts training regimes, because of the pain. This communication helped me understand specific areas of Kenny's conditioning we needed to address.

In December, Kenny tweaked his back. We worked around it until he felt better. In early January while training with BJ Penn in Hawaii, Kenny strained an abdominal muscle; we work around that. Before going out to Ohio in early February, Kenny got a staph infection in his knee, we worked around that. Three weeks before the fight, he popped a rib while rolling with his brother and coach, Keith; we worked around that. Lesson: When you face a barrier, don't stop dead in your tracks - acknowledge what the roadblock is and find a way to detour around it. You will become stronger than you ever imagined.

When fight night came on Thursday, April 5th, Kenny was in the best condition of his life - physically, mentally, nutritionally and spiritually. In front of a television audience of millions of people, Kenny went on to soundly beat his opponent. It was a great victory, but only the means to a greater end. The next week, Kenny went back to training.

Besides me, there were numerous people involved in preparing Kenny for his fight. There was Keith (MMA coach), Mark (Thai boxing coach), Elsie (physiotherapist), Chris (massage therapist), Jesse (nutritional coach), Ron( business manager), Neil (training partner), and the list goes on. The support of his sponsors and friends was also critical. It takes a team effort to be your best. One never just starts competing in MMA out of the blue. Typically, a fighter will train several years before he ever steps into the MMA ring.