I recently took a trip to Las Vegas to train my fighter, Kurt Pellegrino of UFC and now Bellator fame. In our quest for good training we ended up at Xtreme Couture. This gym is home to a laundry list of top talent. 90% of the guys in pro practice would be easy for even a casual MMA enthusiast to recognize. Kurt and I have been to a few gyms over the years. We know how stupid it can get going into another person’s gym. At times people will try to defend King and Country. This makes training a dogfight instead of training.
We went to Xtreme Couture before pro practice to feel things out and get some work in with Frank Trigg. Trigg is famous for lots of things but most notably for his fights with Matt Hughes. The 2nd fight was the first time I actually got up off the couch while watching fights to yell and scream at the TV, sorry Frank but I was up because you just got scoop slammed and choked. I still love you.
Frank Trigg was hands down the best thing we ran into on that trip. He was like an MMA Zen master. He had ideas about movement and mindset that just blew me away. As we finished working out we had to run the idea behind pro practice by him. We wanted to know if we were going to be ambushed or accepted as a training partner. His answer was simple, “We are all pros. We know how this works. You have nothing to worry about.” Man was he right. Xtreme Couture was the most professional training room I have ever been in with that many guys. Everyone was cool and everyone just wanted to get work in. Egos were checked at the door for sure.
Now why did I tell this tale of travel and training? Because, if you have never trained with professional martial artists you may have the wrong idea about how we operate. The average person tends to think pro fighters are blood thirsty animals. To be honest, some are BUT I don’t consider them professional athletes. I put them into the “we fight for money and fame” category. Professional athletes have respect for the sport and recognize that training must be safe and productive.
Pro fighters make their living fighting. If they destroy themselves in training they never make it to the fight which means they will never ever get paid. A truly professional gym is the safest place to train. It tends to be the most productive too. It may be more physically demanding then a recreational spot but you are not risking as much because the knowledge and training is top notch.
A professional gym should be clean, well equipped, staffed with top trainers, and provide everything one needs to be successful in combat sports. Real Elite is one of those places. We have the best strength and conditioning room for combat sports in NJ. Don’t believe me – Kurt Pellegrino stopped working with UFC 170 lb Champ, George St. Pierre’s coach, John Chaimberg, to work with us at Real Elite. I think that is a good indication of our ability. We also have a MMA room with cage panels, wall pads, heavy bags, and other assorted devices for the making of champions.
Warning! Just because a gym has fighters does not make it professional. Look close to see if its a gym with 1 or 2 fighters and a bunch of fans or a place with all fighters that like to scrap vs train. You are looking for the professional gym, not the fight club.
If you want to be challenged and to be your best, you need a system that gets results. Real Elite gets results without breaking your wallet or your neck. We check our ego and simply do good work.
Don’t be scared that we have a fight team. It means we know what we are doing.
Brian Wright
Real Elite