The Tao of the Gridiron - Martial Arts and Football

In football, the slightest advantage can be the deciding factor between being an iconic legend or being an obscure answer to a trivia question. For a constantly evolving game that fields 22 players at once, football organizations have been forced to experiment with out of the box methods to find this slight advantage.

Breaking down film is all but necessary today, but it was revolutionary when George Halas began doing so as the head coach of the Chicago Bears. Paul Dietzel introduced weight training to his underperforming LSU Tigers that resulting in a 1958 National Championship and produced a Heisman Trophy Winner in Billy Cannon. When finding out that annual Christmas cards cost the Washington Redskins $3,000, head coach George Allen discontinued sending out card and put that money toward football operations.

Many of these methods were once considered unorthodox, but today are common strategies to improve an organization. Now, martial arts training is becoming an increasingly popular method to give the players an advantage on the gridiron.

Often times pundits on television make note of “half time adjustments” and praise teams for their awareness of “situational football,” indicating that many of the greatest teams didn’t succeed because they forced their strengths on their opposition, but rather for their ability to adapt their game plan to their opponent’s identity and exploit their weaknesses. This amoebic philosophy has been applied in all facets of life, and was largely popularized by the most notable martial artist in American history, Bruce Lee.

In his book The Tao of Jeet Kune Do, Lee wrote,

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.”

Lee’s approach to martial arts was to be styleless, to never rely on one discipline to teach you how to adequately fight or defend yourself. If you came from a Karate background, learn the throws of Judo. If you wrestled in high school, take boxing lessons to improve your striking. If you box, then learn to kick.

His ideas, however, transcended martial arts and certainly applies to the game of football, a game that is often referred to as a “battle in the trenches,” for martial arts training has provided numerous players training to exploit their one on one match ups.

Martial arts training has always been a form of recreation for football players in the offseason, as many of them worked as professional boxers or wrestlers when not playing football going back to the 1930s. Some simply decided to continue their martial arts training that they learned overseas during World War II, though little would indicate the training was beneficial for football.

The first known example of a martial artist tailoring his craft for the purpose of training football players began with Dan Inosanto. Having trained in a variety of martial arts since he was 10 years old, Inosanto also played football while growing up in Stockton, California, having been coached by Amos Alzono Stagg in his final coaching years. Inosanto played collegiately at Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington in the mid 1950s, where he met Bob Ward, a man he would eventually cross paths with over 20 years later.

Upon completing his education, Inosanto trained under various esteemed martial artist, including Bruce Lee and his hybrid art known as Jeet Kune Do. Over the course of the next couple of decades, Inosanto would make a name for himself in the martial arts community, teaching a number of high profile students and even appearing in minor roles in kung fu cinema.

In 1971, Inosanto would be reacquainted with Bob Ward, who was now the track coach at California State University at Fullerton. Bob Ward studied martial arts under Inosanto from 1971 to 1976, and would soon understand just how valuable his training was.

In 1976, Bob Ward was hired by Dallas Cowboy’s head coach Tom Landry as the new conditioning coach for the team. Ward immediately made an impression with the Dallas players and introduced them to his martial arts training regimen, sparking the interest of both the players and the coaches. Wanting to expand on their curiosity, Ward arranged for Inosanto and some of his students to come to the Cowboys training camp in Thousand Oaks, California and teach a few martial arts seminars to improve their quickness, hand placement and foot work.

In his piece about the Cowboys’ history with martial arts training, Mac Engel details Ward’s thought process behind his idea:

The NFL had just outlawed the “head slap,” which had been made famous by Rams defensive end Deacon Jones. It had been an effective, albeit vicious, move to stun opponents. God only knows how many concussions it caused.

Ward was looking for a “legal” technique to teach players to rip away from opponents. He found it in martial arts and wanted his friend Inosanto to teach it.

Inosanto, skeptical at first, agreed to do it. Though the players underestimated Inosanto due to his small stature, they quickly realized that his methods were not to be taken lightly. Thus, many Cowboys players, including Randy White and Cliff Harris, fully embraced his training and credit Inosano with helping them elevate their game.

Inosanto disciples Jerry Poteet, Tim Tackett and Larry Hartsell began to train players as well into the early 80s, and by 1983, had been enlisted by San Fransisco 49ers defensive line coach Bill McPherson to host seminars for his pass rushers to learn the methods of Jeet Kune Do and the Filipino martial art Kali to incorporate redirection, slap blocks and explosive footwork into their pass rush repertoire.

As the mid 1980s approached, more reports had come around the league that players were incorporating martial arts tactics into their game, most notably New England Patriots outside linebacker Andre Tippett, who’s credited his training in the Shotokan and Goju-ryu schools of Karate with teaching him leverage and mental discipline to thrive on the gridiron.

Furthermore, in an article for STACK, columnist Brandon Hall writes how one football pioneer adopted martial arts training after securing his first head coaching job:

Shortly after he accepted a head coaching position with the Cleveland Browns in 1991, Belichick hired Joe Kim as an assistant strength coach. Belichick wasn't interested in his weight room expertise, though; at the time, Kim was a fourth-degree black belt and a member of the United States National Taekwondo team. Kim worked extensively with the team's pass rushers, helping defensive end Anthony Pleasant go from 4 sacks in 1992 to 11 in 1993.

In a 2008 press conference, Belichick said, "When I got to Cleveland, I hired a martial arts instructor and he worked with the team. Anthony Pleasant was a big proponent of that and it really helped him. As it turned out, it didn't only help with the hand quickness and defensive attacking moves but also the flexibility training that the martial arts people use.

Kim’s success in Cleveland led to a three decade career with multiple other NFL teams, and following his stint with the Browns, numerous other martial arts experts found themselves teaching football players how to use hand to hand combat techniques for their match ups. George Chung, called the “Bruce Lee of the NFL” by former 49ers defensive end Andre Carter, improved the performance of multiple players during his time in San Fransisco, as detailed by Greg Bishop of the Seattle Times:

The proof, well, that's in the padding. The kind worn by the players who keep coming back to Chung to further improve their technique.

Guys like Derrick Deese, who played for San Francisco until going to Tampa Bay this offseason. After working with Chung, Deese didn't allow a sack in 35 games until Grant Wistrom blew by him for one last Sunday.

Or 49ers running back Kevan Barlow, who started working with Chung before this season and gained 114 yards and scored two touchdowns against New Orleans last week. Carter raised his sack total from 6.5 to 12.5 after working with Chung.

Chung’s influence would further be highlighted when one of his pupils, defensive end Chike Okeafor, was profiled in a 2004 issue of Sports Illustrated that detailed his martial arts training in Wing Chun that he credits for his improvement in his reflexes, power and strategy.

Today, however, it’s not just one style giving players an edge, but a mixture of various striking and grappling arts specified for each individual athlete pioneered by FOX Sports Insider, martial artist and gym owner Jay Glazer. In an interview with Inside Hook, Glazer’s motivation to train athletes came when his former boss discouraged him from competing in submission tournaments:

“I had to find another place to direct that energy and I decided to do it coaching guys. That is when I created the first mixed martial arts conditioning program for pro athletes. That was myself along with Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture, and over the years we have trained around 1,000 athletes, from NFL stars to fighters. It has just grown exponentially. Our gym looked like the Oscars when the Super Bowl came around to Los Angeles.”

After training his first client, All-Pro defensive end Jared Allen, Glazer saw the opportunity to give athletes the regimen to enhance their conditioning and learn skills from various arts, be it boxing, wrestling, or Brazilian jiu jitsu, that can get their opponent’s hands off of them and make the big play. His clientele has included Patrick Willis, Dashon Goldson and Odell Beckham Jr.

Martial arts training in football isn’t just limited to the NFL, however, for some college teams have also invested time into this practice that has proven to be beneficial. Paul McCarthy, the Instructional Program Coordinator for UCLA Recreation, worked with the Bruins defensive line in 2012, helping the team rank 7th in the nations in sack totals after being ranked 112th in 2011.

Additionally, Dr Nick Bourne in 2006 founded Martial Arts For Football, a website that has served as resources for coaches all across America who wish to incorporate martial arts into their programs.

Football, particularly on the line of scrimmage, entails significant hand to hand combat. Martial artists have been developing, practicing and refining hand to hand combat techniques for thousands of years. It therefore makes sense to draw upon the vast expertise and practical knowledge in areas such as evading and blocking strikes, striking and manipulating your opponent, wrestling and grappling, drive blocking, tackling, breakfalling (or falling to the ground safely) and conditioning and apply them to the game of football.

Having trained in various martial arts since the age of 14, Bourne decided to apply the techniques he learned from his Wing Chun training and apply them to football. While working toward his doctorate at The University of Texas in 2003 and 2004, he demonstrated his martial arts skills at the Texas High School Football Coaches Clinic and was employed as the Martial Arts Consultant to the University of Texas Longhorn Football team. Since then, Nick and his consultants have advised coaches across America, and have received testimonials from coaches and player at both the collegiate and professional ranks.

Evidently, as the game of football continues to expand and become more complex, there will always be an advantage to be gained through any means to improve a team’s performance. Without question, martial arts, one of the oldest form of human expression, has been effective for so many who have strapped on pads and put on a helmet, and will continue be effective for those with the discipline to study, practice and utilize the art benefit their game.

After all, Bruce Lee’s quote aptly applies to the game of football, and the games within the game:

Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own