Dricus du Plessis’ head coach has a rather painful way to ensure his fighters don’t make mistakes.
During the recent UFC 305 Countdown video previewing du Plessis’ fight against Israel Adesanya, his coach Morne Visser showed off a cattle prod he uses to tase athletes when mistakes are made during training. Reactions to the revelation were mixed, with some believing Visser busted out the taser just for the cameras ahead of du Plessis’ title fight, and others being shocked (no pun intended) that a coach would use such a harsh tool on professional athletes.
It may seem crazy to some, but according to du Plessis, the taser is actually a preferred method of punishment compared to what Visser previously did to educate against mistakes.
“I mean, you don’t just become world champion,” du Plessis said with a laugh when asked about his coach’s unusual training methods during UFC 305 media day. “Everybody thought it was something that’s new for this camp. Not at all. It’s probably been part of the team for two and a half plus years, 100 percent. But we never filmed it. I don’t know why. I can see now probably why. To the rest of the world it might seem crazy.
“Coach used to leg kick us. He has a very strong leg kick. If you make the mistakes continuously, after he’s warned you a couple of times. But that takes you out of training. Not out of training, but it makes training difficult for a couple of days as he has a very hard leg kick. So the taser is much better than that, because the taser hurts a lot more in the moment but it’s over quickly.”
While he doesn’t remember the exact moment his coach started using a taser rather than leg kicking his fighters, du Plessis understands the method behind Visser’s madness.
In fact, du Plessis says Visser used the tool so much that fighters actually adapted to the pain from the taser, so that forced them to seek out an even more effective version.
“I can’t remember the exact moment it happened,” du Plessis said. “When I get in camp to the gym, he’s like, ‘I got this.’ I just went, ‘OK, great. This is it now.’ People were laughing like, ‘No, no, no,’ and I said, ‘Guys, might as well stop it, I’ve known coach for 12 years, the idea’s been set — we are getting tased from now on. Might as well get used to the idea.’
“In fact, we’ve upgraded the taser now because we grew used to the old one. He almost figured out that it doesn’t have the effect. He actually tased himself and he’s like, ‘OK, this sucks, but it’s not that bad. Get me a stronger one.’ That’s why we have the big one now. It’s a proper one.”
There are dozens of articles written by psychologists and sports experts — mostly coaches — addressing the impact of positive and negative reinforcement in athletes.
It’s almost universally recognized that both methods have a place in sports, although typically negative reinforcement involves the removal of punishment such as telling an athlete if they complete one task like hitting certain marks or measurements during a practice, then they’ll avoid something such as running wind sprints afterward.
In Visser’s case, he’s actually punishing his athletes for repeated mistakes, but du Plessis promises it’s never done haphazardly or without giving the fighters a chance to correct what’s wrong before he busts out the taser.
Like it or not, du Plessis backs his coach, because apparently it works.
“He doesn’t walk around just zapping people,” du Plessis said. “He warns you. It’s not a quick tase. Call it a South African sticky note. He tells you, ‘Dricus, your hand, it’s not high enough, you’re not covering your face.’ And even though I might feel my hands going to my face, it’s just too low. Or he’ll say, ‘Your foot’s not in the right spot, you need to do that, your base is not right, you’re too far leaning back,’ whatever. Chin’s in the air, whatever it may be. He’ll warn you and he’ll warn you again, and then the third time he’s like, ‘I’ve warned you twice about this, on your stomach.’ You just lie down, tase fight under the foot, there you go.
“He asks you or he doesn’t say anything and he goes, ‘Stop, if you can tell me what you did wrong, I won’t tase you. … What did you do wrong?’ I’ll be like, ‘My hands were down?’ He says nope, and then he’ll tase you and he’ll tell you what you did wrong. So, I mean, it’s a great reminder.”