It seems as if there are a lot of fighters who just never get better at one aspect of the game. I'm not going to name names, but a lot of fighters who have been training for years never seem to improve in the octagon. Why do you think this is? Lack of motivation to train? Needs better training partners? Needs to train differently?
who you talking about?
Heath Herring is a prime example. Pete Spratt, heck even Matt Hughes is the exact same fighter. The amount of time that these guys have been fighting, they could have gotten BJJ skills or gotten some wicked striking or wrestling skills.
They've plateaued.
Once you think you have reached the top of your game and you are unwilling to train with people that will beat you up and humble you.......you basically deny yourself a chance to improve.
You may be a fucking black belt, but if you always think like a white belt you will continue to improve.
A lot of the top guys start believing the hype and stop training with guys that make they look bad.....basically they stop really challenging themselves.
Why this happens? Not sure, but I know ego, and pride have a big part in it.
Herring is weird to me in that neither his BJJ nor standup look to be any better than it was when he was winning in Pride years ago.
His team was dutch MT guys too.
I think its because.. no matter how much cross training a fighter does.. inside the ring/cage a fighter always resorts to what they are comfortable with.. Like Ortiz or Hughes.. those guys have been around for a while and they know Muay Thai, BJJ but you rarely see them use it (or use it well), yes I know hughes has subbed people before but IMO it was all wrestling that set it up for him.
I think there's two reasons. The first is what outkast said. You have guys who run their own camps and never bring anyone who's better than them in (Tito). The second is guys who are just so good at what they do that they don't have to change (Hughes).
I think that new training partners makes a big difference. Look at how much Florian's kicks are since he buckled down and really started to focus on kickboxing. Same thing with GSP. He went from the best striker at 170 to the best wrestler at 170 in just over a year. Franklin obviously realized that what he was doing wasn't working and is training with Hume now. Even if you don't switch teams, it would probably help a lot of fighters to have someone new come in from time to time. It just depends on the fighter and how serious they are with being the best.