Among non-fighters in MMA in 2015, probably nobody has dominated the headlines more than Ido Portal.
The Israeli movement expert was famously a part of the latter stages of Conor McGregor’s camp ahead of his UFC 194 knockout victory over long-time champion Jose Aldo.
McGregor has spoken at length about how focusing more on his functional movement is just as important as hard sparring and he’s not the only fighter to follow that philosophy.
Welterweight challenger Carlos Condit is also a vocal proponent of movement training and, speaking ahead of his UFC 195 title fight against Robbie Lawler, ‘The Natural Born Killer’ has explained how he’s been preparing by using the MovNat system.
“It’s a little bit different (to McGregor’s training), but I think the point is the same,” Condit told MMAFighting’s Shaun Al-Shatti. “Getting you to move better, flow better, be in better position. I think it’s great. It worked out for him (McGregor), probably in addition to other things, but it probably helped quite a bit. I like what it’s doing for me and what it’s done for my body, my rehab for my knee, and my overall agility and athleticism.
“I think it’s helped me just really getting back to the fundamentals of positioning and balance. A lot of times we work for strength and intensity, and we maybe bypass some more simple technical things. So it’s basically taking a step back and really tuning up different positions, different patterns.
“Even when I a kid, a lot of my wrestling practices were agility. My best seasons were the seasons when we would spend 45 minutes or an hour each practice doing agility drills, making you a better athlete. And then you can plug those skills into whatever athletic endeavor you end up pursuing.”
