Denver’s DeMarcus Ware: I am a mixed martial artist on the field

Offensive linemen in the NFL are now typically around 330, some 75 pounds heavier than defensive ends, and 100 pounds heavier than linebackers. In response, some players have successfully turned to mixed martial arts training.

Arnie Stapleton has the story, which focuses on Denver defensive end DeMarcus Ware and his trainer Valentin Espiricueta. Espiricueta’s involvement with NFL players goes back at least to Randy White who played for the Cowboys from 1975-88. White fully understood the value of martial arts, and is on record as saying working Thai pads is the hardest physical exercise he has ever done.

White in turn passed on the value of martial arts training to Greg Ellis, a defensive end in the NFL from 1998-2009. Ellis is the figure who raised Ware’s awareness around martial arts. Ware in turn will undoubtedly influence other players. Given the increased flow of information today, maybe lots of them.

 Ware considers himself a mixed martial artist on the football field.

Ever since his rookie year in 2005, he’s spent as much time in the offseason working on his handwork with a second generation Bruce Lee student as he has working out at a traditional gym.

Ware is part of a growing number of NFL pass rushers who have adopted the grappling and striking techniques of MMA. It helps them outmaneuver the ever-expanding 330-pound tackles and get to the ever-quicker quarterbacks before they can throw the football.

Ware credits the moves he’s learned and refined under the tutelage of Valentin Espiricueta, owner/operator of AppliedMMA in Dallas, for helping him amass 127 sacks over his decade in the NFL.

“If I didn’t learn martial arts, I’d be just a basic dip-and-rip guy just trying to go around the corner,” Ware said.

Instead, Espiricueta’s star pupil and eight-time Pro Bowler uses swift swipes and whirlwind motions to set up and ultimately vanquish pass protectors. Like a fighter getting the best of his opponent in the octagon.

Sparring or grappling with technical fighters and their trainers teaches NFL players to swat away and otherwise avoid punches from O-linemen. It also aids their cardiovascular training, tenacity and acumen.

“Greg Ellis told me, ‘You’re not going to have this speed forever. But you can have the quickness.’ So, one thing I learned when I did have a lot of ability, like Von Miller, was I would actually just beat guys from here,” Ware said, tapping his right temple, “instead of beating them just with athleticism.”

Espiricueta, who studied under Bruce Lee student Dan Inosanto, has worked with numerous NFL players, but said Ware “took it to a different level.”

He developed a training program customized for football players in response to the league’s rule change in 1978 that allowed offensive linemen to open their hands and leave their arms extended rather than use the hit-and-recoil techniques like boxers.

“It was all about the hands and how to get their hands off you,” he said.

That rule change led to a transformation in the trenches as O-linemen ballooned past 280, 290 and then 300 pounds, overpowering defenders by sheer size. Nowadays, they’re typically 330 pounds and outweigh most defensive ends by 75 pounds and linebackers by 100.

So defenders either have to be fast enough to get around them or quick enough to swat away their hands when they punch.

A dip-and-rip or jab step just doesn’t always do the trick anymore. But with martial arts techniques, “you figure out what’s the best leverage point and he can be 350 pounds and it doesn’t matter, you’re going to beat him,” Ware said.

“The tackles now, they’re so big and they’re pretty quick,” Ware said. “And they use their hands to set you up or they use their arms for leverage because usually their arms are longer than a pass rusher’s. So, you have to figure out how to defend yourself from that, and with mixed martial arts, you sort of figure out how to set guys up and use certain moves so you dictate what they’re going to do.

“If you do it so many times, eventually, you figure out the timing of when they’re going to punch — because eventually they have to punch.”

And when they do, that’s when Ware will use his martial arts, maybe with something Espiricueta came up with called the “side scissor.” The pass rusher uses both hands to swipe away the punch to his chest and throw the tackle off-balance.

“It’s like a chess match. You’ve got to be patient,” Ware said. “Because if you beat him just three times and have three sacks in that game, you had a monster game.”

Read entire article… covers Packers pass rusher Datone Jones, Vikings pass rusher Brian Robison and much more.