Best High School Sport to Precede MMA Training? (other than wrestling)

[Jon Watkins]

I think basketball has been good for my NoGI Jiu Jitsu mentality with the endurance and focus and explosive speed it requires, but I don't know how well it would transfer over to MMA.

[Daniel Patrick]

Chess

[BrianStuebner]

Tell him to bang as many cheerleaders as possible....great cardio!!!

[Enrique "Kiko"]

Tell him to bang as many cheerleaders as possible....great cardio!!!

+1, make sure he wears his rubber guard every time though

[chronic_jiujitsu]

In my opinion.. I would say swimming would be pretty good. Its a great exercise and gets you in great shape. Plus it does more than just work out our legs like a lot of sports. You learn to control breathing pretty well also. So just for cardio and contitioning sake.. id say maybe join the swim team.. (plus it gets you used to wearing those tiny shorts in public :P)

[stlnl]

Judo, but I think Hawaii is the only state with HS Judo.

No other sports will translate directly to MM/grappling. However, I think two common ones can help alot. One is football, the sport itself has jack shit to do with fighting (other than the player learns to be assertively aggressive, and this is only for some positions) but alot of HS football teams S&C their players religiously, so he gets 4 free years of plyometrics/explosion/strength training. The other, though I never played, is Soccer. Soccer has ALOT of running, and not jogging, but constant start and stop running, and every former soccer player I ever knew who took up fighting, had decent leg/hip power and could kick decent out of the gate. This in addition to being conditioned mentally to run all the time (so roadwork isnt such a chore) is an asset IMO.

Any sport is decent though, as one develops physically no matter what, and give a future physical base to grow from, but the only practical application sports will be Wrestling, and Judo.

[Jason Eisner]

Home Economics is solid.

[Jason Hyatt]

Chess

Interesting you mention that. I used to play chess a lot and hadn't in years. I picked it up again just about two months ago for my phone. I'm hoping spending more of my day making my brain think strategically will pay off a little when I can be back on the mats more frequently.

[Matt "Gumby" Glach]

I was a chess tournament player and champion when I was much younger, I like that suggestion a lot! My bro is already pretty good at chess, gives me a run for my money, but I'll make sure he keeps at that.

Great advice guys, keep it comin.

[Jack LaBarge]

Mark Schultz, 3xNCAA National champ, World Champion, Olympic Gold Medalist. Started wrestling his junior year in high school (pretty late for most wrestlers). Was known for his freakish strength. Mark did gymnastics before wrestling, and credits gymnastics for his insane strength. I don't know about starting out in gymnastics at 15 years old ( a little late).