r/MMA_Amateurs

Hey everyone,
I’m 19 and I’m getting ready to start my amateur MMA career. I’ve been lurking here for a while and figured I’d ask people who’ve already been through it: what do you wish you knew before your first fight?
A little about me:
Wrestling has been my main sport my whole life. I’ve wrestled since I was 4 years old in folkstyle, freestyle, and Greco, and I currently wrestle in college at 125 lbs.
I have a background in track (400m, 800m, 1500m, and steeplechase), so cardio has always been one of my biggest strengths.
I’m a 3rd-degree black belt in Kyokushin Karate.
I’ve recently started training Muay Thai, BJJ, and Luta Livre to round out my game for MMA.
I’m a southpaw and naturally like to pressure, mix boxing with low kicks, wrestle off the clinch, and look for submissions like the D’Arce and anaconda once the fight hits the ground.
I’ve officially been added to the roster for First Rule MMA and am currently 0-0. I’m hoping to get my first amateur fight soon. My long-term goal is to build a solid amateur career, and see how far I can take it.
Right now I’m trying to learn everything I can before that first walkout.

Any gear, recovery, or training tips that made a big difference for you?
I’m open to hearing the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’d rather learn from people who’ve already made the mistakes than make all of them myself.
Thanks in advance—I appreciate any advice.

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some outside perspective because I feel a bit confused.

I’ve been training MMA for a while. My goal is not to become a professional fighter, but to learn self-defense and stay in shape.

The issue is that in my gym, sparring is almost always quite hard. I don’t feel comfortable with that, and it creates a lot of stress for me. I enjoy training, but I don’t want every session to feel like “war” or to take unnecessary damage.

There was also a recent situation where I had pain in my arm/shoulder and told my coach I didn’t feel comfortable training or sparring. He still insisted that I should train, and I ended up doing it. Nothing bad happened, but looking back it could have made the injury worse.

I’ve also tried to set some boundaries, like avoiding hard sparring or situations where I feel there is a real risk of getting injured. But in practice, these boundaries are not always fully respected or understood.

In addition, my coach told me that from now on he will be less “accommodating” and more strict in pushing me to train and to go beyond fear and beyond pain, especially to overcome shyness and mental limits.

The thing is, I don’t know if the problem is me or the environment. I want to train, improve, and learn self-defense, but without feeling constant pressure or unnecessary intensity in every session.

So my questions are:

• Is this kind of approach normal in MMA gyms?
• Should I try to adapt myself more?
• Or is this simply not the right gym for what I want?

Any advice is appreciated.

Hey everyone

Gonna be starting MMA This weekend. As far as my schedule allows planning to train MMA twice a week (one day wrestling and one day Muay Thai).

Going into policing so thought it’d be a good idea to be trained in some martial arts.

Is training two times a week enough? How long of consistent training would you say until one can expect to be confident in scenarios involving self defence

I’ve been training for a while now and I’m pretty okay. I want to take my first fight but I just don’t feel like I’m a very dominant fighter. Last weekend we had 3 guys from my gym who fought and all of them won. One guy had an 8 second knockout, and it was his third mma fight and he has had less than a minute in the cage with all 3 fights combined cuz he just be knocking people out. Like I said I’m okay, but I just don’t feel like I am a very dominant fighter, and feel like I’ll get matched with a better wrestler, or someone with better jiu jitsu or striking. I just feel like maybe I’m not confident in my abilities, and I’m unable to get mean and aggressive in competitive fighting situations, outside of medium heavy sparring. Can anyone relate?

Just looking to get some info on which gyms might have a fighter house or dorms for fighters to stay at. Besides the obvious ones like Jackson's.

I don't care about the state, I really just want to train and fully dedicate myself to my MMA career. Also, if anyone here currently has an open spot in a fighter house or a spare room near a top gym right now, let me know.

which is a good MA for beginners? which focuses also on mental strength?

in school when I was 14 did one session in Judo. The Master said I had talent and should continue it, but I stuck with teamsport like Football and Handball

now, idk if I really had talent or the master just said that to get more students and i also dont know if I starting judo with 32 is still a good idea (2 years ago i had a knee injury, stopped playing football)

thank you for any tips!

[supprimé]

Guys, i need help. I think i have something called gynecomastia  where the male nipple become like swollen. I have tried many ways to get rid of it like doing 100 pushups for 2 and a half months straight and more but none of them seen to be working. For me as an amateur MMA fighter, its really uncomfortable and iv'e heard the only way to get rid of it is by surgery (which is the last thing I want to do) so please guide me so it can get better. thanks