UFC PI: The Importance of Sport

July 6, 2020 • Thorne

In our ongoing series, Bo Sandoval, UFC Performance Institute Director of Strength & Conditioning talks about the impact of losing sports during a time of crisis, the role of fans, and more.

Transcript

The video starts with a title screen. A maroon and orange gradient aura shifts in the upper right corner of the screen as words appear. They read “UFC PI: The Importance of Sport” and appear over a short resume blurb. The blurb reads: “Bo Sandoval: Director of Strength and Conditioning, UFC Performance Institute.”

After a few seconds the words pan up the screen as a question fades in from below. The question reads: What has the loss of sport meant for the country during the showdown?

Bo Sandoval:

Obviously the loss of sport, and so abruptly as well, it's strange because in the last hundred, hundred and 20 years, it's been a very, I would say, dominant or very just noticeable presence in life from the time you're three, four, or five years old, up until the day you step a foot in the grave. So, it's just always been around.

As Bo talks, words appear on the right side of the screen emphasizing his points. The text only serves to clarify what is being said and does not add any new information that isn’t already present in what Bo has to say.

Bo Sandoval:

However culturally involved you are with it, whether it's just, "I just tune in on TV every now and then," to, "Hey, I'm a die-hard fan. I buy season tickets, I'm at every home game, I'm at the Little League games every weekend," it depends on the level of involvement, but I would say it's very difficult to find a human being nowadays that has zero contact with an athletic event.

So, it is awkward. It's a little different. As human beings and the adaptable nature, I think that's what it's caused us to do, is shift our operations a little bit, shift our priorities a little bit, but we still have that need for competition that not only to participate in it, but to be able to observe it, to be able to critique it. Everybody's got an opinion on the best way to play a sport or who made what mistake in what game, and now they don't get to express those opinions because there's no games going on. So, you got this built-up tension of all these opinions you want to release, and so we're just going to adapt naturally. The humans, we're going to adapt and figure out another way to do that.

So as a company, as an entity, that's exactly what we have done, is our upper executive team has figured out how do we continue to put on contests within guidelines of what's going on, and criteria, and what's going on, all the logistical nightmares of what's going on. I would imagine there'll be other sporting venues and other sporting events that maneuver and are able to pivot the business and pivot their events and how they host them and how they broadcast them to a point where it can be done with whatever the stances are.

It's that much of an entity in our daily lives. Like I said, it's been around for over a century, so I think there's a willingness there to keep it a part of our daily lives. When you get into kind of what that does for us, I mean, it's an outlet for competition, it's an outlet for comradery. It gives people the ability to interact, to socialize, to network and expand. So, it goes down to the most granular level of a couple of eight-year-olds trading baseball cards, or I don't know if they do that anymore, that's what we did when I was a kid, but up to beer league softball, and then of course, were highly anticipating going to a Raiders game live here in Vegas.

So, there's so many levels to it, but I think just as much as there's been a trickle effect and the cancellation of everything, there'll be a trickle effect in the adaptation process and how global sports kind of shifts and pivots and emerges again and starts to come become back into that limelight. It'll take a little time. There's obviously a lot of obstacles to work around, but that's kind of looks like where we're headed.

Another question appears in text on the screen reading: “How does the lack of fans or an audience impact a match?”

Bo Sandoval:

When I go to one of our events live, my favorite part is when the main event starts, they drop our big intro for that event. It's about a six-minute long video, and this video is the same one, it's got the song on there from The Who, and it's the same one they've used for years, but they always update the video clips. So it's like new highlights, more recent highlights, but they still show some of the classics from back in the day. It's just an awesome thing.

Then when that thing goes off, the fans just erupt every time. It doesn't matter if it's a massive event with two superstars or another event with just a couple of maybe up and comers or whatever. As soon as that video goes off, the place just goes nuts. So, it's one of my favorite parts about going to a live event is hearing that roar. When that comes out, I mean, it just takes hype to a whole nother level.

Then now, I'm thinking in that area, I'm a spectator at that point, I'm like, "Man, that stinks." You're not being able to feel that, but so a lot of the fighters, especially the ones I've spoken to that have already competed in it, going into it, they're like, "I don't know what that's going to be like. It could be a little bit weird." Almost every one of them that I've spoken to afterwards are like, "I didn't even notice. I'm so dialed in." When you're locked in a cage and someone's coming at you and you're trying to, whether your approach is survival or this primal, go-to-war mentality, or we have some of the others that are just purely technical, "This is a competition I technically want to win," and that competitive drive kind of takes over. It just tunnel visions that out. It just kind of zones it out.

So in terms of affecting their mood or how they compete, I haven't heard a whole lot about that. What I have heard more on the positive side is they can hear their coaches a lot more now. So, there's a lot more bantering going back and forth between the coach and the athlete, where in previous fights, sometimes even the spectators, we can hear the coaches shouting out commands, but the fighters can't always hear it. Whereas now, we know they hear it because they're actually talking back.

You got a fighter who's in there going at it, and then he's communicating back, or she's communicating back, with her coach. That's been interesting, and I've heard some fighters say that that has been a very positive thing for them because that's how they do it in practice. Practice is very intimate.

So when they're sparring in training, the coach is saying something, you can respond to it. You can actually, I would say more times than not, do exactly what they're saying. So, that communication between the coach and the athlete in the actual fight, I've heard some positive comments around that. So, it's a little different for everybody. I haven't really heard any negative in terms of the fighters. Again, the hunger and the thirst to want to compete is there. So, it's not like, "Oh, you know what? I don't want to fight. There's not going to be anybody in the arena." We definitely haven't heard any of that, but we have heard some of them say that they, not that they would do it this way forever, but it hasn't been anywhere as bad as what they thought, I think, going into it would be. For some of them, it's been quite nice. They feel like they've been able to elevate their game a little bit. So, it's been interesting.

Closing text appears onscreen reading: “Make the most of your health while staying at home. Subscribe to our newsletter and get the latest content on COVID-19 along with insights, education, and advice you won’t find anywhere else.

The video starts with a title screen. A maroon and orange gradient aura shifts in the upper right corner of the screen as words appear. They read “UFC PI: The Importance of Sport” and appear over a short resume blurb. The blurb reads: “Bo Sandoval: Director of Strength and Conditioning, UFC Performance Institute.”

After a few seconds the words pan up the screen as a question fades in from below. The question reads: What has the loss of sport meant for the country during the showdown?

Bo Sandoval:

Obviously the loss of sport, and so abruptly as well, it's strange because in the last hundred, hundred and 20 years, it's been a very, I would say, dominant or very just noticeable presence in life from the time you're three, four, or five years old, up until the day you step a foot in the grave. So, it's just always been around.

As Bo talks, words appear on the right side of the screen emphasizing his points. The text only serves to clarify what is being said and does not add any new information that isn’t already present in what Bo has to say.

Bo Sandoval:

However culturally involved you are with it, whether it's just, "I just tune in on TV every now and then," to, "Hey, I'm a die-hard fan. I buy season tickets, I'm at every home game, I'm at the Little League games every weekend," it depends on the level of involvement, but I would say it's very difficult to find a human being nowadays that has zero contact with an athletic event.

So, it is awkward. It's a little different. As human beings and the adaptable nature, I think that's what it's caused us to do, is shift our operations a little bit, shift our priorities a little bit, but we still have that need for competition that not only to participate in it, but to be able to observe it, to be able to critique it. Everybody's got an opinion on the best way to play a sport or who made what mistake in what game, and now they don't get to express those opinions because there's no games going on. So, you got this built-up tension of all these opinions you want to release, and so we're just going to adapt naturally. The humans, we're going to adapt and figure out another way to do that.

So as a company, as an entity, that's exactly what we have done, is our upper executive team has figured out how do we continue to put on contests within guidelines of what's going on, and criteria, and what's going on, all the logistical nightmares of what's going on. I would imagine there'll be other sporting venues and other sporting events that maneuver and are able to pivot the business and pivot their events and how they host them and how they broadcast them to a point where it can be done with whatever the stances are.

It's that much of an entity in our daily lives. Like I said, it's been around for over a century, so I think there's a willingness there to keep it a part of our daily lives. When you get into kind of what that does for us, I mean, it's an outlet for competition, it's an outlet for comradery. It gives people the ability to interact, to socialize, to network and expand. So, it goes down to the most granular level of a couple of eight-year-olds trading baseball cards, or I don't know if they do that anymore, that's what we did when I was a kid, but up to beer league softball, and then of course, were highly anticipating going to a Raiders game live here in Vegas.

So, there's so many levels to it, but I think just as much as there's been a trickle effect and the cancellation of everything, there'll be a trickle effect in the adaptation process and how global sports kind of shifts and pivots and emerges again and starts to come become back into that limelight. It'll take a little time. There's obviously a lot of obstacles to work around, but that's kind of looks like where we're headed.

Another question appears in text on the screen reading: “How does the lack of fans or an audience impact a match?”

Bo Sandoval:

When I go to one of our events live, my favorite part is when the main event starts, they drop our big intro for that event. It's about a six-minute long video, and this video is the same one, it's got the song on there from The Who, and it's the same one they've used for years, but they always update the video clips. So it's like new highlights, more recent highlights, but they still show some of the classics from back in the day. It's just an awesome thing.

Then when that thing goes off, the fans just erupt every time. It doesn't matter if it's a massive event with two superstars or another event with just a couple of maybe up and comers or whatever. As soon as that video goes off, the place just goes nuts. So, it's one of my favorite parts about going to a live event is hearing that roar. When that comes out, I mean, it just takes hype to a whole nother level.

Then now, I'm thinking in that area, I'm a spectator at that point, I'm like, "Man, that stinks." You're not being able to feel that, but so a lot of the fighters, especially the ones I've spoken to that have already competed in it, going into it, they're like, "I don't know what that's going to be like. It could be a little bit weird." Almost every one of them that I've spoken to afterwards are like, "I didn't even notice. I'm so dialed in." When you're locked in a cage and someone's coming at you and you're trying to, whether your approach is survival or this primal, go-to-war mentality, or we have some of the others that are just purely technical, "This is a competition I technically want to win," and that competitive drive kind of takes over. It just tunnel visions that out. It just kind of zones it out.

So in terms of affecting their mood or how they compete, I haven't heard a whole lot about that. What I have heard more on the positive side is they can hear their coaches a lot more now. So, there's a lot more bantering going back and forth between the coach and the athlete, where in previous fights, sometimes even the spectators, we can hear the coaches shouting out commands, but the fighters can't always hear it. Whereas now, we know they hear it because they're actually talking back.

You got a fighter who's in there going at it, and then he's communicating back, or she's communicating back, with her coach. That's been interesting, and I've heard some fighters say that that has been a very positive thing for them because that's how they do it in practice. Practice is very intimate.

So when they're sparring in training, the coach is saying something, you can respond to it. You can actually, I would say more times than not, do exactly what they're saying. So, that communication between the coach and the athlete in the actual fight, I've heard some positive comments around that. So, it's a little different for everybody. I haven't really heard any negative in terms of the fighters. Again, the hunger and the thirst to want to compete is there. So, it's not like, "Oh, you know what? I don't want to fight. There's not going to be anybody in the arena." We definitely haven't heard any of that, but we have heard some of them say that they, not that they would do it this way forever, but it hasn't been anywhere as bad as what they thought, I think, going into it would be. For some of them, it's been quite nice. They feel like they've been able to elevate their game a little bit. So, it's been interesting.

Closing text appears onscreen reading: “Make the most of your health while staying at home. Subscribe to our newsletter and get the latest content on COVID-19 along with insights, education, and advice you won’t find anywhere else.