UFC Performance Institute
OCT 5, 2017 @ 10:55 AM
Inside The New $14 Million UFC Performance Institute Revolutionizing MMA Training
Kristi Dosh , CONTRIBUTOR
I cover the biz of college sports, facilities, licensing and travel.
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Kristi Dosh
Inside the lobby of the UFC Performance Institute
This year the UFC took a major step toward unifying its operations with the opening of its new 15-acre, 184,000-square foot campus in Las Vegas. The crown jewel of the campus is the UFC Performance Institute, a $14 million, 30,000-square foot facility that serves as the world’s first Mixed Martial Arts multi-disciplinary research, innovation and performance center.
Already, the UFC estimates 30% of its current athletes have visited the facility, including Conor McGregor who used it as a training base leading up to his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather. The doors are open to all UFC athletes at no cost to the athlete.
The facility is on par – or better – than any facility I’ve toured in intercollegiate athletics. There’s no barber shop or miniature golf, but there are nap pods and plenty of other bells and whistles.
Kristi Dosh
Nap pods in the athlete lounge at the UFC Performance Institute.
The nap pods help athletes relax with soothing music and allow for a 23-minute nap, waking them with vibrations and sounds that become increasingly louder. The remainder of the athlete lounge is furnished with comfy places to sit and watch television or play a video game.
The rest of the facility is all business, staffed with experts in strength and conditioning, nutrition and physical therapy. Every nook and cranny is filled with something meant to enhance the athlete experience and provide world-class performance optimization.
My tour began at the “Performance Inspired Fueling Station,” where athletes can grab items like protein shakes, yogurt, fruit and supplements from UFC partner Performance Inspired. Free of charge, of course, like everything else in the facility.
Kristi Dosh
The “Performance Inspired Fueling Station” inside the UFC Performance Institute
The focus on nutrition and healthy weight cutting is evident in this new project. Clint Wattenberg was hired as the Director of Nutrition, a former wrestling student athlete and coach at Cornell who last served as the Coordinator of Sports Nutrition for the Big Red. In addition to the education and hands-on assistance provided at the facility itself, the UFC also offers remote consultations with its athletes on nutrition and weight cutting.
Next stop on my tour was a therapy room with two impressive pieces of technology: a NovoTHOR whole-body laser light therapy pod and a Cryosense chamber that can deliver both cryotherapy and heat therapy in a single unit.
UFC Performance Institute Kristi Dosh
The NovoTHOR whole-body laser light therapy pod
The adjacent room houses a Hydroworx pool complete with underwater treadmill and both hot and cold plunge tubs. The Hydroworx pool is monitored by a video camera that can project an athlete’s movement underwater on the TV screen ahead on the wall. There are also sauna and steam rooms available for use.
UFC Performance Institute Kristi Dosh
Hydroworx pool and hot and cold plunges
The emphasis on healthy weight cutting is evident throughout the facility and the conversations I had with my tour guides, vice president of operations James Kimball, vice president of performance Duncan French and Hall of Fame Forrest Griffin, who serves as the vice president of athlete development.
I was introduced to the DEXA machine, a $100,000 piece of technology that’s essentially a next-level x-ray machine that picks up lean and fat tissue in addition to bone. Combined with a metabolic cart that helps determine an athlete’s caloric expenditure, staff can advise an athlete on the most safe and effective ways to cut weight and the time needed to do so.
Kristi Dosh
The DEXA machine
The performance center has a dedicated physical therapist and offers a variety of options including dry needling, cupping and Pilates. UFC athletes who want to come rehab at the facility are able to do so with no expense other than travel and lodging, and the UFC has negotiated discounted lodging and shuttle services to ease that burden.
“They need to have some skin in the game,” says Griffin. “All you have to do is get here and put yourself up for the night.”
Griffin came to life when we entered the physical therapy space and the adjacent strength and conditioning portion of the facility. That’s because he was an integral part of the development of the performance center, able to give feedback from the athlete’s point of view.
“I had a physical therapist, a strength coach, you name it. But I didn’t have anyone managing that load,” Griffin said. “In the evenings my strength coach wouldn’t necessarily appreciate that I’d already had a hard workout.”
In contrast, the lean staff here means there are no barriers in communication. He believes this will allow all of the athletes – particularly those rehabbing an injury – to reduce the wear and tear on their bodies.
UFC Performance Institute Kristi Dosh
Impact wall and indoor track
Inside the strength and conditioning space is the usual assortment of treadmills, power cages, dumbbells, medicine balls and more. A few things stand out, however. There are bilateral force plates in front of each power cage and video cameras set up at each station, recording every repetition.
“Nothing goes unmeasured here,” said French.
UFC Performance Institute Kristi Dosh
Strength and conditioning space within the UFC Performance Institute
And on the opposite side of the room is a hypoxic chamber, used extensively by Conor McGregor in his preparations for the Mayweather fight. The chamber is able to simulate elevation up to 22,000 feet, which reduces oxygen levels to 50%. This allows athletes to train for an event in any locale.
On the other side of the garage doors at the far end of the strength and conditioning space is an expansive outdoor space that includes an outdoor track and community space, including areas to grill and lounge.
UFC Performance Institute Kristi Dosh
Boxing ring and bags on the second floor of the UFC Performance Institute
The second floor of the facility houses a full-size Octagon, full-size boxing ring, bag and mat training area, a tiered-seating media center with capacity for 65 people and a 100-person multi-purpose meeting space.
“We aren’t just a physical training center, we provide educational summits and messaging around media training, life skills, social media and more,” said Kimball.
UFC Performance Institute Kristi Dosh
The practice octagon inside the UFC Performance Institute
A tour through the facility reveals no expense was spared. Impressive when you consider all that’s included at no cost to the athletes themselves.
“This is not meant to be a revenue generator. It never will be,” said Kimball. “It’s operating in the red and was designed to do so.”
French adds that the facility is far more than strength and conditioning or physical therapy, there’s a focus on research and on developing new standards for optimum athletic performance.
“We want to position ourselves as a global leader in human performance right alongside the NFL and the English Premier League.”
The UFC would like to see the performance center become a hub where athletes from a variety of disciplines can cross-train. With the NHL staking its claim in Las Vegas this fall, and the possibility of an NFL team following suit in the near future, it might not take long for the UFC to realize that goal.
Kristi A. Dosh, Esq. is a sports business analyst, publicist, recovering attorney and author of “Saturday Millionaires: How Winning Football Builds Winning Colleges.” Twitter: @SportsBizMiss
Very impressive.
Josh Peter