South Wales Scorpions took advantage of their week off from Co-operative Championship 1 action by having an intense Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) session at the Fusion Combat School in the One to One gym in Treforest last Saturday morning.
The Scorpions take on Keighley Cougars at Caerphilly RFC this Sunday (kick-off 3pm) and they believe that this intense MMA session has helped them in both their fitness and Rugby League techniques.
“We had the MMA session at the One to One gym in Treforest on Saturday which was really tough,” said Scorpions’ skipper Aled James. “There was a lot of wrestling and a lot of grappling. It’s a new technique for us which was good to try out.
“We did a full MMA circuit which was tough so, even though we didn’t play a full 80 minute Rugby League game, it wasn’t really a week off for us.
“I think the boys came out of it a lot better because they had to buy in to it, compete and basically be honest with each other. It rounded off a good week of training for us to be honest.
“We did a lot of Muay Thai and Cage Fighting and a lot of it is wrestle techniques which helps our game of Rugby League. Obviously we can’t choke people out on the field but it’s more the process of putting people on their back and keeping them there and how to counteract people trying to put you on your back so it was really positive.
“It’s more the wrestle in the ruck and controlling the ruck area. There are some little techniques that you can use to get out of certain holes that we can incorporate in our game hopefully on Sunday. We’ll touch base on that again this Saturday and make sure that those techniques are well-drilled in the players’ mindsets.
“We’d like to thank Dave Thomas the owner of the Fusion Combat School in Treforest, Andy O’Brien the instructor and Lewis Long the MMA champion for all of their help and instruction last Saturday.”
Before the Scorpions v Keighley match this Sunday, there will be a Primary School Rugby League tournament featuring schools from all areas of South Wales. Full details of this will be confirmed later this week at www.scorpionsrl.com which is also where fans can buy tickets in advance for the match.
Finally Sunday is just the culmination of a weekend’s worth of Rugby League action at Virginia Park. Saturday sees a Valley Cougars double header where their A side take on Cardiff Demons at 2pm before their first team play Coventry Bears at 4pm.
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