Georges St-Pierre (often referred to as “GSP”) isn’t just one of the most lovable people in the sport of mixed martial arts, but he’s also one of the most successful MMA fighters ever – a former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion.
But what turned GSP into such a success story? One of the things was his approach to training, as explained by professor John Danaher (Georges’ ex-coach):
He was the guy that changed the game of mixed martial arts. He was the one who brought the idea of professional fight camps into MMA.
Before that, it was a kind of a cowboy approach where guys would just bring in a couple of buddies a few weeks before the fight… And do random training, they did what they thought was appropriate – and then they’d go in there and fight.George was the first person to bring in specialized experts, who deployed strategies and tactics.
With that said, GSP was also one of the most energetic and pleasant people to be around. Coaches loved training him, because he was always on the side of “mutual benefit”:
George is an embodiment of the old martial arts principle of “mutual benefit”.
Everyone who came to his camps benefited and he benefited from them. And that was the core principle of everything that he did in martial arts.
