But it hasn’t been easy for the team’s Tight End, who has been plagued by injuries including calf, knee, shoulder, ankle, elbow and hip problems.
Last season, Barner began training with Fox Sports NFL insider Jay Glazer, who also actively trains in mixed martial arts. Glazer often enlists the help of former professional MMA fighters such as Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Rashad Evans, etc. to learn wrestling, body leverage and hand fighting drills that translate into pass rushes, pancake blocks and Tush Pushes.
In a recent one interview with the Seattle TimesBarner and Liddell weighed in on the training.
“We did a lot of leverage stuff, under the hooks, being square and having a good base, hand fighting and stuff like that,” Barner said. “It’s also the toughness piece: late in rounds, late in games, being unbreakable.”
Liddell, the former UFC light heavyweight champion, added: “Instead of playing a sport, let’s make them fight. It’s that mentality: I’m trying to beat you. I’m going to win.”
After the interview, Liddell sent a voice memo with a more detailed definition.
“I want to make sure you understand what I mean by making it a fight,” Liddell added. “Because I think some people think that’s anger, the berserker, crazy. To me, turning it into a fight means treating it like a fight. You’re locked in. You’re trying to beat the man in front of you. You’re trapping him. You’re calculated. When I fought, I tried to kill you, but once it’s over, I hope you’re okay. So it’s not that crazy anger. It’s a controlled, calculated fight to win everyone.” play, every minute of the match.”
In five of seventeen games this year, AJ Barner has a touchdown catch (including one with more than one TD).
Liddell competed from 1998 to 2018 and is a former UFC Light Heavyweight champion (from 2005 to 2007). He is widely credited, along with Couture, with helping bring MMA into the mainstream of American sports and entertainment.
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