from amateur organization to professional MMA team
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Shooters MMA from amateur organization to professional MMA team |
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By Tue K. Trnka
The Genesis And The Pack Having trained Judo, Jiu-Jitsu, Kyukushinkai, Muay Thai, boxing and several other martial arts since the age of 12, the Swedish August Wallén was fascinated by MMA and went to the US, in 1995, to train and study the game of submission fighting. Back in Sweden, he founded the Shooters organization and opened up 2 schools in January 1996. Within months, he found himself giving seminars all over the country, as the interest for MMA was huge in Sweden and soon more schools joined the organization. Norway, Denmark, Finland, UK, Germany and Italy followed troop the following years, as the organization exploded from Sweden, to Scandinavia, to the Nordic countries, to the UK and then finally to Central Europe, with Shooters gyms. From the very get-go, the Shooters organization understood the importance of competition and education. The competitions started out in 1997, and ever since the organization has arranged safe amateur events. From the beginning, safety was the main issue, and the Shootfighting rules was more or less a carbon copy of the rules from the early Pancrase: open palm strikes, no knees to the head standing and no striking on the ground. The open palm strikes were used, because there were no suitable, quality glove for amateur MMA at that point. They started to arrange Shootfighting and Submission Wrestling events, so their competitors could fight. Every other couple of months, Shooters arrange events. This means the active fighters have a tremendous opportunity to get experience in actual fighting. They even started to arrange mixed style events, once or twice a year, so they could gather the entire martial arts society for a big event. These events would of course feature Shootfighting and Submission Wrestling, but also Muay Thai, Judo, Jiu-Jitsu, Kung Fu and other disciplines. The secret behind Shooters MMA´s success is without a doubt their concept and the philosophy behind their concept. The concept was developed by Wallén in cooperation with many of the team`s instructors and fighters. Several international instructors have contributed to the Shooters concept, but three have had major impact: Randy Couture, Roy Harris and Murilo “Ninja” Rua. The concept is a way to teach the basics of MMA (stand up, clinch, takedowns and groundwork) as simply as possible, without losing any effectivity. Whatever is being taught, there´s the same red line through it all. So, no matter what aspect you focus on in training, you strengthen the other aspects as well. One of the major strengths of the concept is this very structure.
The structure makes the concept easy to understand and remember. This structure also makes it possible for a trained individual from a certain background, BJJ for instance, to quickly adapt the strategies and techniques + actually use the concept in actual fighting. All techniques are adjusted for MMA and chosen for their effectivity. The moves are compatible with each other as they follow the same pattern of movement. Each technique is explained in details with all necessary mechanics. Drills and training methods as well as principles, theory and strategy are integrated in the concept. The Shooters concept is taught through state of the art courses. In order to educate new instructors, they arranged seminars at each school twice a year, in the beginning, but as the seminars grew and grew, an instructors course was started up at the Lupus Gym in Gothenburg, Sweden. Today there are instructors courses in each and every country. To guarantee the quality of the instructors at each and every gym. The instructors have to attend one course every year. The course itself, consists of 24 hours of training over 4 days. A real intense course! What makes the concept so succesfull, is their way of thought. The philosophy. Whatever works the best, will be used. So, if they see someone using a clever technique they haven´t seen, they will adapt that very technique to the arsenal, even though they might have another way of doing the same thing. The best is only good enough for the concept, and that way, they keep improving it, and thus improving their instructors and again their fighters. Unlike most schools, Shooters MMA does not have a particular style as their base. They are not based in a single style, as BJJ, Muay Thai, Wrestling or anything else, but have focused on all parts of the game from day 1. Shooters MMA´s logo is a wolf. Wolves live in packs and very loyal animals. They stand up for each other and hunt together. The Shooters function the same way. They are very loyal and can be viewed as a brotherhood, family or pack. They do fight each other in their amateur events, but never in pro fights. And even though they fight each other, they never view the other gyms and competitors as future opponents. They never hold back with information from their training routines and experiments. Two elements also make the members´ loyalty very easy: United via the weppage´s Intranet, all decisions are made via a democratic voting system and it´s the active fighters who are profiled, and not the top instructors. It is not expected from the instructors or teammates that the members should turn professional or fight at all. Some train for fun, some for the fitness, some for the challenge and some for their career as a professional fighter. If they choose to fight, they are alway honoured, whether they win, lose or draw. At ShootersMMA.com all results involving the organization´s fighters are posted. Anyone who steps into the fight arena, is honoured by this organization. The Evolution During 1999 and 2000, Shooters switched to gloved competitions, as the Slayer glove were marketed and tested. The Slayer glove is perfect for amateur MMA, because of it´s padding, open palm and quality. Of course, the glove brought Shootfighting one step closer to true MMA and as the fighters kept evolving, Shooters slowly started to transform into a professional MMA team. The top fighters wanted to fight professionally, and as they all were very experienced in Shootfighting, the transition to professional MMA rules, went very slick. While most fighters have to add 3 or 4 new elements to their style (BJJ, Muay Thai, Wrestling etc etc), the Shooters only had to add knees to the head standing and striking on the ground. Thus the Shooters excelled at a very high rate in the professional events, even though they aren´t the best at a single discipline, as BJJ, Muay Thay or Wrestling, but very good, over all. Shooters MMA is in fact only an amateur organization, which has produced professional fighters. Very successfull professional fighters, at that! Thomas Hytten, Lars Besand, Ståle Nyang, Martin Kampmann, Pierre Guillet, Joakim Engberg, John Oskar Hammer, Kim Hovgaard are just some of the top fighters, to come out of Shooters MMA, who have fought in such high-profile events, as Shooto, M-1, Absolute Fighting Championship, European Vale Tudo and Ultimate Combat. The solid foundation of education, competition, concept, friendship and loyalty is the strong base in Shooters MMA, and all the work, in the beginning, are paying off now.
By being so well-rounded, the organization´s fighters seem to be able to find their opponents weak links, and exploit that area. For instance, when facing a BJJ artist, the Shooters are able to play the submission game with the supposedly better man, and not get caught, as they are very capable at that area, too. The BJJ player might be better on the ground, but in a MMA fight it´s so important to be able to survive against the opponent´s forces. It`s absolutuely crucial in this game, to be able to hang on at certain times, so you can come back to enforce your strongest force, in a fight. And that´s exactly what Hytten did against BJJers Mario Stapel and Ronaldo Campos, Besand did against BJJer Bernardo Serrini, Nyang did against wrestler Chris Bowles and Kampmann did against Muay Thai dangerman Xavier Foupa-Pokam, to name a few examples. Over 300 amateur Shootfighters have all been trained in the concept, which has proved to be so efficient in MMA. Of course, the bigger part of these 300 fighters are not near the top level. But the thought of such a large number of fighters being trained in this constantly evolving and highly efficient concept, is almost frightening, when you think about what Shooters MMA`s professional fighters have been able to do in the ring or cage, with very little experience, as a professional. The Future Shooters MMA continue to expand and new gyms open up, all over Europe, and more and more members join in. The level of competition is upped at each event and the Shootfighting events get better and better. As the former amateur organization now has made the big jump to professional MMA team, the sky seems to be the limit. In addition to the instructors course, Shooters MMA now offers a Vale Tudo course to it´s members. It´s developed to educate their own fighters, so the leap from Shootfighting to MMA is minimalized, and is built on the already outstanding MMA concept. The concept is constantly improving, accordingly to the ongoing evolution of the sport. This will ensure the fighters who decide to fight professionally, that they have the best possible base for the hardest sport in the world. The organization has gone through a breathtaking evolution and as they´re never satisfied, they will continue to improve. Better techniques, better drills, better strategies. Better fighters! The Fighters More and more of Shooters MMA´s active fighters decide to turn professional, and as European Vale Tudo´s events are making waves across the world, this is an excellent opportunity for the fighters. But EVT is not the only event Shooters fight at. The organization´s professional fighters will fight in any serious MMA promotion, and has already made their mark in Asia, USA and Europe. These are some of the top fighters:
These are just some of the promising fighters, which Shooters MMA have trained up to the level they are at now. Besides their MMA fighters, Wallén himself have fought in 2 high-profiled matches under Shootfighting rules. He fought former UFC title challenger, Elvis Sinosic, and UFC veteran, Vernon White, at two different mixed style events, resulting in 1 loss and 1 win. Shooters MMA will continue to grow and as they continue to evolve, you can be sure that they soon will be represented at an event near you!
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