So my favourite sport is MMA...

And while I'm not yet practicing it (for reasons irrelevant to this post), I am exercising in order to get ready for it.

So I work on whole body strength, explosive exercises, aerobic and anaerobic endurance, and whole body flexibility.

Should be more than enough for golf, right?

Have you ever practiced any martial art or combat sport before? I'm guessing not.

Pick one, golf or fighting. I like both, but believe me they don't mix. Unless you like playing golf injured all the time, and I mean all the time, because there isn't a day of training that you won't tweak an ankle or stub your toe or bruise your shins into oblivion, you'll be better off just golfing and maybe doing some minor workouts for that. If you choose to focus on fighting, you won't want to play golf. You'll be too focused on it and too banged up.

There's MMA and then there's traditional martial arts. For MMA, build yourself like a brick house and do cardio. The higher body weight doesn't matter and MMA is really just wrestling anyway. For most martial arts, you'll be doing flexibility and toning exercises, as well as possibly hard body training because muscle mass hurts you in the long run. Unless you're a very stocky build, go with a traditional art. There aren't any skinny successful MMA guys and reach won't be an advantage. Even the lighter weight classes are full of 5'6" guys that look like miniature tanks. On the other hand, you could be a good Karate or TKD practitioner whether you have a stocky build or a lighter one and you'll learn to make use of your actual body type. You can always supplement some other styles or elements like grappling if you want to be more well rounded.

For golf, it's all core training and flexibility and pumping iron will hurt more than it will help. And remember; you need to walk four miles to play golf, the swings being another matter. If your shins are bruised (probably the most painful fighting injury because it lasts over a week), or you have a broken toe, or a bad ankle, do you really think you'll be able to walk 4 miles, let alone put the injury through a considerable stress when you swing? Not to mention practice time that's sheer repetition.

You don't notice how big an effort the golf swing is when you're healthy. Get hurt sometime and try playing, and the next time someone says golf is an easy sport try running over their right foot in the cart before having them hit a bucket of balls. If you really like playing golf you'll want to quit MMA within a month due to time and injuries.

I also wouldn't try to learn the MMA they show on TV. It's terrible as a martial art and it isn't something amateurs can benefit from. You could learn a traditional martial art or two and supplement some grappling, for example. If you're doing it to learn self defense, you're better off not picking something you need to sleep at the gym to do, where you don't need to build 20 pounds of muscle that will require a lot of upkeep and fatigue you from the simplest tasks. Honestly if you do it right it won't matter what art you pick, you'll still get hundreds of injuries and I'm not talking about getting punched in the face.

Better response than I was expecting. I have trained a bit, nothing substantial - about two months' worth.

I'm not doing it right now because it's expensive to pay for training, money I don't have. How is it that I got into golf, you ask? It's practically free through my school, all I have to pay is for driving range balls.

But if I'm fit and healthy for MMA, then I should have no problems fitness-wise for golf, right?

And if you're flexible, how does pumping iron hurt golf?

If you're in shape for MMA, that generally means you carry a lot of extra muscle weight. On its own, that's not so bad, but it raises your metabolism and makes for a lot of maintenance if you're not built like that naturally.

If your genes dictate that you're 6 feet tall, 155 pounds, and 6% body fat for example, your bones, muscles, and tendons are built to support that build. Say that represents a Corvette. You can drop in the engine from a Mack truck, but the weight of the motor and the extra power will cause the tires to blow, the shocks to fail, and the axles and brakes to wear prematurely. Not to mention you'd be burning tons of gas. And that's just doing normal work; that car would never be built to handle the workload of a truck, even with the proper engine.

If you're naturally a bit heavier, you'll do better adding muscle but it's still a big strain. Carrying the extra 10-20 pounds of muscle is tiring, and the weight can strain your frame even though the muscle does more work. Imagine an NFL running back: one who is 180 pounds, regardless of muscle, can make sharper cuts and accelerate quicker than a 300 pounder. Now, the 180 pounder is not going to be agile at all if he carries the same 300 pound weight, but in terms of top speed and agility he has a huge advantage, and is less likely to hurt himself compared to a guy who has to cart around 120 extra pounds. The typical MMA build is closer to the second, but it mostly consists of guys who have an unusually athletic frame and are built to support the extra muscle. You can't bulk up to that weight and be able to move like the top guys do; they're beyond the typical standards and train an unbelievable amount. Not only are most of them pretty solid fighters, they're physical freaks and most couldn't imitate even their physique.

Pumping iron is not bad itself, but you need to be diligent with flexibility, core, and cardio and not try to add much muscle. You can do a lot more with technique and perfecting what muscle you have rather than adding mass. If you take that approach you can still be in good shape for golf, small injuries aside. Being bulked up, though, I believe to be inherently bad for the reasons stated but it probably won't hurt your golf except in terms of fatigue, injuries and practice time.

I did TKD for a couple years, among other things, and I got pretty good. My legs were so muscular that my center of balance was below my waist, and I could feel how heavy they were because of all the muscle. Throwing a shin kick was like a battering ram and would send the guys holding the pad back, even if there were two. Even when I wasn't as built up, I could do things with my kicks that 225 pound guys couldn't do. My flexibility, technique, and agility were bigger assets and it doesn't take as much to keep them up. As far as power, I could go toe to toe with the bigger guys and instructors pretty easily since we focused mainly on lower body. I have since learned more grappling, more upper body and self defense.

I've since sparred with bigger guys using only hand techniques and it's really hard! I can still win but I have to be really tricky and they can absorb full power body shots. I need to go for the head, use kicks and elbows, or use timing instead of power.

Now, I had a lot of fun while I trained in martial arts, and I love golf. I'm not saying that you couldn't make both work, but you'll have to either train very patiently and carefully or keep golf as a casual thing. After an intense day of training, I had a hell of a time walking up stairs or bending over to tie my shoes, let alone play golf and walk a couple miles. I always thought that making us do forms afterward was the more sadistic lesson over making everyone fight each other. So good luck to you however you want to manage it, I'm just giving my general opinion and experience. As long as you have fun it doesn't matter. But be aware that 90% of MMA are meatheads and you'll get peer pressure to bulk up.

Also, I am jealous that you get such cheap golf. I'd play every day if I could...

I've been a dedicated boxing fan since seeing the 1951 Robinson-LaMotta fight on a 12" black and white TV when I was four or five.

Old time boxing fans don't care for MMA very much as a rule.

I guess that I'm no exception.

Lol it's understandable in many ways.

I think the tide is turning now though. What do you think?

That's very possible.  The US Olympic team hasn't produced charimatic boxers since DeLaHoya way back when.  There's nothing charismatic about Andre Ward, for example.

The heavyweight dominance of the Klitchko brothers did less to pull in white fans than it did to turn off American fans.  I would have guessed otherwise, but I was completely wrong. That's probably a good thing.

As for MMA, I found it a little bit more interesting before they changed the rules for more action.

When an average size guy like Gracie could go into the guard for thirty or forty minutes until his bigger opponent was exhausted, and only then choke him out, that was sufficiently different from boxing to be interesting.

Now, the part up on the feet is more prominent, but  since the competitor has to protect more than the front half of the top half of his body as boxers do, the punching part can't be nearly as fluid and graceful as in world class boxing where, with a guy like DeLaHoya, you could name every punch and parry technique out of a textbook. He threw the jab like a piston, and when they ducked under it, the hook was there as a big surprise. (That's when he was young at 140 especially.)

Still, I must admit, youngsters really go for MMA and times do change.  Older boxing fans more or less stick with what we like, however., even though our PPVs are sixty-five bucks now.

I used to plan my vacations around big Vegas fights, but with the modern security hassles, I don't like to fly anymore.

That was good to read! I'm not a long-time combat-sports fan. Didn't like the MMA rules before because they were barbaric to the point of no enjoyment.

I like the rules as they are now. But you make an interesting comment... maybe MMA really is less about finesse than boxing, but it does make it seem like more of a fight, IMO, the fact that they have to worry about all aspects of fighting.

I've done both. I wasn't fighting MMA but I was doing Judo and MMA classes and stuff. I enjoyed it a lot. I was a fitness freak at the time and it helped me stay in great shape.

My favorite sport is Ice Dancing. just sayin...

In about a month or two, my favorite sports are going to be track, swimming, rowing, etc ... then I will not care about them again for 4 more years.

MMa is men hugging each other