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Available soon to serious coaches in combat sports

The 8-week FMA™ combat sport Performance Director certification. mentored directly by Dean Amasinger.

The performance methodology developed by Dean Amasinger (former UFC Technical Director at the UFC PI Shanghai). Available soon to coaches, gyms, and organizations worldwide.

100+ combat sports athletes coached

Fighter, martial artist & athlete

What is the

FMA™ method?

The FMA-Model™ is the framework developed and refined over seven years by Dean Amasinger as Technical Director of the UFC Performance Institute Shanghai. Built and tested on real athletes: academy fighters at intake, professionals preparing for UFC events, international athletes from rugby, taekwondo, and Olympic programs who came through the UFC PI for training camps. This is not theory. This is a fully functional performance institute operating system, written down and now made accessible to a selected group of coaches.

Become a Performance Director

The 8-week FMA™ Pathway

1

Week 1: Introduction to the FMA™ Model

You are introduced to a holistic, systematic framework for preparing an MMA athlete across all qualities (physical, technical, tactical, recovery, lifestyle). FMA stands for the three dimensions that must be developed in parallel to produce a complete competitor: · F = Fighter — the mental dimension · M = Martial Artist — the technical and tactical dimension · A = Athlete — the physical dimension The first week establishes the why behind a unifying model in a sport that lacks one and gives you a scaffolding to build your own structure upon.

2

week 2: Leadership

Leadership is the pivotal capability that separates a Performance Director from just another coach. Before you can align other coaches, you need to lead. This week covers leadership strategies and styles relevant to a combat sports environment: defining personal and team values, organisational structure, creating a narrative and sense of purpose around the team's mission, and building inclusion so every coach and athlete feels ownership of the plan.

3

week 3: Coach alignment

With leadership established, you will apply it to the single biggest dysfunction in MMA performance: coaches not aligned on periodisation and structure, every coach wanting 100% intensity in their session, and no shared communication pathways. Whether you come from an S&C, technical, or broader performance background, this week positions you to step into the performance director role and equips you with the workflows, meeting cadences, shared planning tools, and communication structures needed to align the team around one plan.

4

Week 4: Periodisation for Combat Sports

The combined periodisation week covers training load management and timetable optimisation. It goes deeper on how S&C programming integrates concurrently with striking, grappling, wrestling, and sparring across the different phases of preparation (general prep, specific prep, fight camp, taper). It addresses interference, compatibility, and sequencing across disciplines, so that S&C complements rather than competes with technical work.

5

Week 5: Prehabilitation

You will learn to identify the high-risk areas in MMA (neck, shoulders, lower back, knees, hips, etc.) and build prehab strategies into your program. This week covers training modifications and return-to-play decision-making for managing injuries that occur without derailing your program.

6

Week 6: Fight Camp Structure and Peaking

Detailed fight camp programming: learn how the camp is structured week by week, the role S&C plays at each stage, MMA-specific conditioning strategies, and detailed fight week and fight day sessions designed to get peak performance out of your fighters.

7

Week 7: Recovery

Session-specific and periodised recovery strategies, matching recovery modalities to the type of stress imposed, rather than applying generic protocols. Includes breath work strategies for both recovery and visualisation.

8

Week 8: Real-World Implementation

Synthesis week. You will take everything you have learned from Weeks 1–7 and assemble it into your own operating system as a performance director: applied FMA model, established leadership identity, installed alignment workflows, built periodised plan, integrated prehab and recovery layers, and templated fight camp.

fma™ Performance Director

built for those who set

the standard

S&C Coaches

You've outgrown running good sessions inside a broken system. Step into the Performance Director role, the coach who sets the periodisation, aligns the team, and owns fight-night readiness end-to-end.

Technical Coaches

MMA, Striking, grappling or wrestling coaches who want the bigger picture. Learn the framework that integrates your work with S&C, recovery, fight camp design, and earn the seat at the table where the whole plan gets built.

Gym Owners

Bring elite-level performance support to your gym. Stop hoping your coaches stay aligned. Install the operating system that gives your gym one shared model, one periodisation logic, and one Performance Director leading the room, so your fighters arrive at the cage prepared, not patched together.

the application process

Spots on the FMA™ Combat Coach Certification are limited and offered through a short application process. This ensures every coach accepted is the right fit for the cohort and gets the most out of the mentorship.

step 1

Join the waitlist

Add your name to the waitlist to register your interest. You'll receive full course details, dates, and the formal application form ahead of public release.

step 2

application call

Shortlisted applicants are invited to a short call with our team. We'll discuss your coaching background, what you're looking to get from the certification, and answer any questions — making sure the course is the right fit for you.

step 3

confirmation

Successful applicants receive confirmation of their place along with onboarding details, course materials, and start dates. From there, you're set to begin the certification with Dean Amasinger and the rest of your cohort.

dean amasinger

Leadership in elite sports

Dean Amasinger has spent the last twenty years inside elite sport, first as a professional fighter on The Ultimate Fighter, then as the architect behind one of only two UFC Performance Institutes in the world. He has trained UFC champions, prepared Olympic athletes, and built the system that turns raw talent into fight-ready professionals.

Dean Amasinger

Founder FMA Performance Ex-UFC PI Technical Director

Join the founding waitlist

Enter your details below to be one of the first to become certified in the FMA™ methodolgy and get mentored by its founder Dean Amasinger.

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Trusted at the Top of the Sport

15 YEARS OF TRUST

Dean has been an instrumental part of my MMA career. He's been helping me for over 15 years, and I always feel confident going into fights knowing he's been guiding me through these hard camps. A full wealth of knowledge, deeply experienced, and a great person to work with.

Brendan Loughnane

PFL World Champion

@brendanmma

DEAN UNDERSTANDS WHAT IT TAKES

I've worked with Dean through some of the biggest moments of my UFC career. From fight camps to nutrition, recovery and weight cutting. He brought a level of professionalism that gave me complete confidence going into every fight. At the elite level, every percent matters, and Dean understood exactly what it takes.

Ross Pearson

UFC Veteran & TUF 9 Winner @rosstherealdeal

A WORLD CLASS PRACTITIONER

What sets Dean apart is his ability to design holistic training programs from the ground up. He layers every facet of performance in a way that delivers optimal results for athletes and teams. My understanding of how to structure training grew exponentially while working with him. Dean is truly a world-class practitioner.

Dr Dean Ritchie

Head of Performance Sciences, UFC PI @drdeanritchie

A RARE SYSTEMS THINKER

Dean bridges the gap between the technical and non-technical sides of a high-performance environment. He communicates across disciplines with equal confidence, whether sitting with a head coach or structuring an integrated programme that brings S&C, sports science, nutrition, and medical support into alignment.

Garry Hall MBE

High Performance Director, Inspire Institute of Sport

SHAPED MY CAREER FROM DAY ONE

Coach Dean is one of my earliest MMA mentors and has played an invaluable role in all my achievements today. He tailors exclusive training plans for every athlete, and his competition tactics are always well-designed, practical and effective. Under his strict guidance, I transitioned from a Sanda athlete to a professional MMA fighter within just two years.

Wang Cong

#12 ranked UFC Flyweight @wangcong1339

fma™ Performance Director certification

THE EMERGING OPERATING SYSTEM FOR COMBAT SPORTS PERFORMANCE.

The next decade of combat sports performance will belong to coaches who understand that fighters cannot be developed with systems borrowed from field sports, bodybuilding, or generic athletic preparation. As MMA continues to professionalize, organizations, gyms, and elite athletes are demanding a higher standard, one built specifically for the realities of combat.

To meet that demand, Dean Amasinger drew on years competing in MMA, working in elite sport, and coaching MMA athletes to formulate the FMA™ Model, an integrated framework built around the three dimensions of every combat athlete: the Fighter, the Martial Artist, and the Athlete. He then honed the model inside the UFC Performance Institute. Coaches who adopt this system early won't just coach with greater clarity and precision, they'll help shape the future of combat sports performance coaching.