Sage Northcutt leaves Tristar Gym because it's too hard?

I seriously can't believe this. He goes to a real MMA gym and trains beside GSP, and the other great fighters at Tristar and his father pulls him out because he was "too tired" from the training?

How the hell does he hope to have his son succeed at the top levels of the game if he doesn't have a real camp? It's not just the idea of having a real camp that is the problem it's the ridiculous reasons for not staying.

Ridiculous. This will be his downfall. Which sucks because I honestly see a huge amount of potential in Sage.

http://www.mmamania.com/2015/12/2/9...m-tristar-ahead-cody-pfister-fight-dec-10-mma

 

I used to compete against Sage when he still was competing in Sport Karate. Really sad to hear that he wouldn't make the most of the opportunities given to him by training with somebody like GSP, but given how close it is to the Dec 10 fight, I can see a little bit of the reason why he would but still, it's a real shame. He was such a great competitor with insane work ethic back when he was competing against us, hopefully he'll go to Tristar again in preparation for his next fight but at least a bit earlier than say a week or two.

 

Thing is, Sage is a high profile fighter now, Firas would never run Sage into the ground, of course he will get time for recovery. They are known for switching to "tactical" in the week before the fight.

 

I see, I see, darned shame then that Sage is wasting this opportunity.

 

Just because Tristar works for GSP, doesn't mean its good for Sage at this point in his career.

So many of these MMA gyms do train too hard, hard-spar too frequently and the constant spate of injuries coming out of many (most) of them seem to bear this out.

What makes anyone think that Sage would be afforded the same level of treatment that GSP receives? GSP also brings in a lot of outside people/consultants, some who are tasked with the job of making sure the more zealous elements at Tristar don't ruin a very carefully prescribed regime.

Sage doesn't have that - he's still a babe in the woods. Him being at GSP's gym doesn't mean that GSP has the time or inclination to mentor him.

Going to a "name" gym isn't necessarily the best option for someone - everything really has to fit and maybe its just not the right one for him. FWIW, I think Jackson/Wink might've been a better choice - they seem to have a more modern approach and, reading between the lines of whats being said regarding Northcutt, "training smart" didn't seem to be the priority at Tristar - at least for the incoming noobs.

They all have their own culture - their own 'rites of passage' - their own way of dealing with a plebeian. Could be that Northcutt's dad saw something not healthy going on and instead of causing problems by discussing it in the media, he chose (wisely) to downplay it by saying Sage was getting tired.

Whatever Sage has been doing up to this point has worked. Why change it?

 

Sage is what, 6-0? And mentored by his father up to now. Something is working, which is not compatible with Tri-Star. I agree with Belltoller; ain't broke, don't fix.

 

John Kavanagh (Conor McGregor's coach), says they keep the hard sparring to a minimal amount. So McGreg does a lot less hard sparring than a lot of other MMA athletes, yet is still a top of his division. There is a real caveman mentality in a lot of other MMA gyms that lots of hard sparring = better MMA athletes. It's a complete falsehood and potentially very dangerous.

 

I agree, I wrote a research paper recently for an undergraduate medical journal where I found that most amateur MMA fighters re-enter training after a severe head injury a maximum of 3 days after the initial injury. Granted these are amateurs but this could attribute to the statistics being so. Most people within MMA aren't professionals, and the lack of information about concussions and other potentially dangerous injuries is concerning. Hard sparring that is often could result in concussions, either through knockouts or heavy impacts.

 

Kavanagh has been coaching for decades and has turned out 1 maybe 2 guys of note in that time, so with Conor as with GSP is it the coaches we should be listening too, or the single outstanding fighters that would be good no matter who they trained with

 

Good for him. MMA and the UFC in particular has a massive overtraining problem and the macho culture of the sport means people conflate training hard with training smart.

 

Well, time will tell if it was a good decision or not. There is always a bit of risk / reward in doing things differently than 'conventional wisdom'.

And when conventional wisdam is a lot of a macho mentality in MMA where you get these extreme almost self-destructive regimes that somehow are expected to result in better / healtier fighters. You have to work hard to get anywhere, but I'm not convinced that working beyond the limits will do anything other than make you weaker actually.

Just the same thing with the extreme weight cutting imo.

 

I think there's a bit of a difference in that
Extreme weight cutting when done correctly gives a fighter a massive advantage all you have to do is watch an American fighter (who typically weight cuts) v a Japanese fighter where there is no tradition of cutting to see this, whether its healthy is another matter all together, but then fighting isn't the healthiest of options either.
The juries still out whether hard sparring all the time is beneficial or not, we know its not healthy but again those are two different things entirely

 

I bet GSP is barely at Tristar. Following him on facebook he seems to do a lot of traveling, adverts and training at other places.
It's not like GSP is on the mat delivering nuggets of MMA goodness to Northcutt like some sort of latter day Master Po.
Probably popped in a couple of times to say hello perhaps.

I can easily see how training at a new facility under a different regime and trainer could mess up a camp this close to a fight. Even if that facility and trainer are amongst the best in the world.

 

Maybe they're style doesn't suit him. They seem HEAVILY combat based. Everything is about fighting. So they fight a lot. Sage I'm willing to bet trains cardio and prefers exercise seperate from fighitng. things like Crossfit but to a very high degree.

Wonder how often he cycles his steroids?

 

The hell?

 

Someone had to say it.

 

Those biceps are formed by chin ups and chocolate milk.

 

And prairie oysters

 

Did I miss something? Has he been busted before?