Sean Strickland appears to have landed in the perfect gym for his training style.
For starters, his heavy emphasis on sparring is helped by how many fighters are always passing through the Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas.
He has also been able to develop a great relationship with the head coach, Eric Nicksick, who is able to handle Strickland’s zany energy.
Before he found his way to Xtreme Couture, the former UFC middleweight champion was training out of another top gym – but it didn’t suit him quite as well.
Sean Strickland Compares The Coaching Styles Of Eric Nicksick And John Wood
Syndicate MMA, also in Las Vegas, is another gym that has achieved a lot of success at the highest level of the sport.
Veteran coach John Wood has been in the corner of several UFC champions, including Weili Zhang and most recently, Merab Dvalishvili.
Strickland eventually decided to leave Syndicate before making his way to Xtreme Couture, for a few different reasons.
One of those reasons was his connection with Nicksick that was very different to the relationship that he had with Wood, due to their different coaching styles.
On a recent episode of Nicksick’s Verse Us podcast, Strickland explained the difference between them and why he felt more at home after making the switch,
“Let’s say John wrote an entire book on MMA and you’re like, ‘Oh that’s a good book,’ and say Eric would write a pamphlet, that pamphlet will take you farther than that book, you know what I’m saying? Because like Eric is a leader. He knows how to implement it, he knows how to push it and he knows how to do it.
“John, on the other hand, he’s more of like, I don’t think he carries the passion for it like you watch, you come to a Monday practice, Eric’s f****** involved bro. The amount of energy he brings, like he is f****** involved. You go to a Syndicate practice, it’s like, ‘Alright we’re going to do wall stuff for like five minutes’.”
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