Combat sports have seen a dramatic resurgence in popularity over the last decade, primarily due to the rise of mixed martial arts. Defined as a full-contact combat sport in which both grappling and striking are legal, mixed martial arts, or MMA, began as small promotional bouts in the late 20th century, but has now become a fully-fledged sport that rivals professional wrestling and boxing in popularity.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, is the largest MMA promoter in the world, and features the most popular mixed martial arts fighters in the world. Featuring ten different weight divisions that are governed by the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, the UFC is valued at over 5 billion dollars and has exponential growth over the last decade.
The UFC has now held over 400 separate events in 22 countries around the world, and has spawned international celebrities such as Chuck Lidell, Tito Oritz, and Joe Rogan. As a result of the massive increase in the popularity of the UFC, MMA is now one of the most popular sports in the 18-35 age demographic, giving rise to an entire industry based around combat sports and MMA training.
The UFC has been quick to capitalize on this nascent training industry, and has recently opened the doors of a $14 million USD training facility based in Las Vegas. The new 184,000-square foot campus aims to become the new UFC Mecca, and is intending to deliver a multidiscipline scientific and holistic approach to the MMA training process.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the UFC Performance Institute and find out about its facilities, services, and programs, and learn how it aims to generate the next generation of UFC athletes.
About UFC Performance Institute
The new UFC Performance Institute is managed by James Kimball, the Vice President of Operations at UFC, and employs more than 250 people on a full time basis. The facility boasts a multi-million dollar budget and integration with a number of leading service providers, including the Cleveland Clinic’s Professional Brain Health Study and the UFC Anti-Doping Policy Committee.
The core goal of the new Performance Institute is to provide UFC athletes with access to the most advanced facilities in the world, fostering the growth of a new generation of MMA athletes that leverage the knowledge of international experts from a wide variety of disciplines.
Lawrence Epstein, the Senior Executive Vice President and CEO of the UFC, has stated that the new UFC Performance Institute has been created with three goals in mind- firstly, providing the opportunity for new fighters to access the most advanced new techniques in combat sports training. Secondly, the facility is designed to create an environment in which injuries are highly preventable, and thirdly, the facility provides access to best in class rehabilitation services that minimize the impact of injuries when they do occur.
The Facility
The UFC Performance Institute is built over two main floors, both of which are supported by supplementary service zones. The first floor of the UFC Performance Institute boasts a dedicated nutrition consultation suite that provides athletes with access to a DEXA unit and a metabolic cart, allowing for highly targeted nutritional strategization.
The Performance Floor also offers a physical therapy suite equipped with a biodex and a pilates reformer, as well as a hydrotherapy area that provides athletes with access to hot and cold plunges, sauna rooms, steam rooms, and a hydroworx pool. A recovery zone is equipped with a low level laser light therapy pod as well as a cutting-edge cryotherapy chamber.
UFC fighters will also benefit from a full strength and conditioning floor that is equipped with olympic lifting platforms, a cardio suite, and suspension functional training areas, all equipped with velocity tracking technology. The high-tech training facilities included in the Performance Floor even include an altitude chamber that delivers biochemistry capabilities and an advanced AlterG anti-gravity treadmill.
Finally, an indoor turf track and an impact wall, as well as an outdoor sprint track and a multi-purpose area providing space for any kind of training imaginable.
The MMA floor at the Performance Institute is fitted out with a striking area with strike impact and power measuring capacity, a regulation-standard octagon equipped with full 3D motion capture technology, and comprehensive video feedback capabilities. These areas are supported by a grappling area and a regulation boxing ring, allowing fighters to hone their skills on and off the mat.
The Supplementary Zones at the Performance Institute include a media center that offers tiered seating and fully retractable LED video board, a relaxation lounge with sleep pods, a performance analysis suite, and finally a cafe that delivers individualized meal solutions for each athlete.
UFC Performance Institute Services & Programs
The extensive facilities offered by the UFC Performance Institute makes it possible for the UFC to provide their fighters with a broad spectrum of services and training programs. Athletes are able to access the latest developments in health and wellbeing services, minimizing injury impact, as well as transform their performance capacity, speed up the recovery process, and develop their skills with world-class trainers.
Through the Performance Institute, the UFC offers four separate training programs. Fight Camp is a comprehensive training course intended to assist fighters in sharpening their skills before season, getting them in the best possible shape for competition, while Post-Fight uses a range of different recovery methods to speed up recovery and regeneration.
UFC Performance Institute Review Summary
The Out of Competition training program is designed to leverage the advantages offered by time in between seasons to fully optimize total body fitness and combat readiness, while the final program, Rehabilitation, is able to assist athletes in recovering from surgery or severe injuries.
As the new headquarters of the UFC, the Performance Institute is set to create a paradigm shift in the way new UFC fighters are trained, creating a new generation of high-performance fighters.
