The MMA Q & A – Shawn Tompkins

Xtreme Couture is a busy place with so many fighters getting ready

MMAMADNESS: You have a slew of fighters preparing for big fights in the coming weeks. What is the atmosphere like at Xtreme Couture right now?
Shawn Tompkins: There are a lot of guys who are on edge. It’s not easy always balancing everything at the gym because it gets close to a fight, everyone gets a little edgy. You step back and you take a look at it and we’re right where everyone wants to be. Everybody’s doing well, and everybody’s healthy is the main thing. We’re just having fun doing what we do.

MM: With such a deep staple of fighters, how to you balance everyone?
ST: First off, there’s a lot of sacrificing, a lot of hours put in during the day if you’re the coaches for the guys that are actually fighting. We split the jobs pretty evenly. I take a look over everybody’s fights and I look everybody’s camps. We have people like Gil Martinez, who does a lot of the boxing for some of the guys. He’s really worked a lot with Gray Maynard… Randy [Couture] helps out with a lot of the wrestling aspects and Neil Melanson, who did a lot of the jiu-jitsu stuff for Randy for his fight… There’s a lot of jobs to be done, just putting people in line, and everybody knowing what they have to do and knowing that this isn’t just fun anymore, this is the real thing. This is a real job.

MM: When you’re working with such high caliber athletes, does it actually make your job easier as a coach, given their skill level?
ST: The biggest thing is that everyone has been there before. There’s no feeling of, ‘Oh my God, is everything getting done? Are we doing the right thing?’ Everybody’s comfortable and relaxed. Ultimately what it comes down to is hard work, and as long as you’re doing that hard work and following the game plan, when it comes fight day the coaches are going to get you there. That’s a big part of it. The experience that they have, even if we have someone who’s only had three or four fights in the gym, they’re training with guys that have been to the big show and they get confidence out of that. Steel sharpens steel.

MM: How beneficial is it to be a young fighter in Xtreme Couture and have all of these experienced fighters to work with?
ST: Take a look at last weekend. Look at Evan Dunham from Portland, Ore. [UFC 102]. They showed his fight right after Randy’s at the pay per view. Look how quick that kid is and how dominant he did against a guy like Marcus Aurelio and it was only his second fight in the UFC. To me, that adds confidence that I must be doing the right thing. That kid trains very hard, but at the same time he went out there and showed such confidence. It looked like he’d been a champion in the UFC before. That’s what it comes down to, that’s what makes what I do so worthwhile.

MM: We all talk about how difficult it is mentally to fight on such a big stage. What do you do to prepare some of your younger fighters to enter that realm?
ST: It really comes down to who the fighter is that I’m working with. Some guys are more mentally prepared than others, but I deal with all aspects of the game. I’ve had the Randy Coutures, I’ve had the Vitor Belforts, I’ve had the Junie Brownings. I’ve delt with guys that don’t crack, I’ve delt with guys that crack a day before, I’ve dealt with guys that need their hand held in the fight. It’s just knowing how to balance those fighters, and knowing that they’re all different, and they’re all very good and even great at what they do, it’s just bringing that out of them. What bothers me are the fighters and the coaches that say every fight’s the same, we don’t train any differently. If that’s true, you’re not doing the right things. You don’t care enough, because every fighter is different, and every fight is different. It’s just finding the equation and bringing it out on fight day.

MM: There’s a debate about whether or not to use video to help prepare for a fight. Where do you stand as a coach on using tape?
ST: If a fighter says that, maybe it’s true, maybe they don’t look at tapes. As long as the coach is looking at fights, that’s all that matters. It’s us that puts together the game plan, it’s the coach that actually puts together the camp. There are fighters out there who I don’t want to watch who they’re fighting because it might affect the way they’re training, it might affect the last week of the training camp. What it comes down to is if you’re a good coach, you’re the one who’s studying it. You’re the one that’s making them do the things they have to do. I think studying tape is very important. I study tape both … our opponent and also the fighter that I’m training. Every day of my life I look at stuff, and I’m seeing if there’s a weakness or what their positive sides are, and just balancing that scale.