Bruce Lombard, MMAFx, make lasting mark on Penn State football

Bruce Lombard’s relationship with the Penn State football program was entirely accidental. The developer of MMAFx, a hand fighting, and hand speed conditioning training program, Lombard intended to get out of the sport altogether after years of training and coaching. 

Returning to grad school to get his master’s degree in school counseling, though, Lombard found himself in State College for an internship. His advisor, a local high school football coach in the area, had been to a clinic with former Nittany Lion defensive line coach Larry Johnson Sr., who detailed the importance of hand fighting in the trenches during the session.

“He showed me a video of it, and I was like, ‘I recognize this stuff. And I think I can do a little bit better, I can evolve it even a little bit more,’” Lombard said. “That’s kind of how it just kind of started, with a fluke.”

More than a decade after that realization, Lombard has become a significant influence among some of the defining names of the Nittany Lions thanks to his off-campus training. Welcoming Penn State players into his downtown gym, the likes of DaQuan Jones, Austin Johnson, John Urschel, Carl Nassib, Evan Schwan, Chris Godwin, DaeSean Hamilton, Juwan Johnson, and Trace McSorley have all spent time working with Lombard and absorbing his training.

Making an impression

Developing the training, geared primarily toward defensive linemen, then offensive linemen, for sport-specific movement applicable on the field, was Lombard’s first challenge. But, determined to build an audience with some of the nation’s top college football players at Penn State, that side of the equation took persistence.

Initially working with high school teams in the region, Lombard connected with former Nittany Lion coach Bill O’Brien and strength coordinator Craig Fitzgerald. Simultaneously pitching his work to players via Facebook, a willing participant finally responded in Sean Stanley. The initial sessions turned into positive feedback directed back to Johnson, then still on the Lions’ staff, who visited with Lombard to enhance the program’s offerings. 

Seemingly as soon as the natural connection had been made between Lombard and Penn State football, though, O’Brien, Fitzgerald, and Johnson had all moved on from the program. As it turned out, the shake-up proved beneficial to MMAFx, with new head coach James Franklin and, maybe more important, then-defensive line coach Sean Spencer gravitating toward the unconventional training. And among Spencer’s new pupils, Lombard found his most natural and exuberant student for the training.

“Anthony Zettel was my main guy. He’s in my instructional videos and everything,” Lombard said. “He was amazing, he was a freak athlete, and he loved martial arts and mixed martial arts. So we engaged. 

“He was training four or five times a week. He got really good. At that point, a lot more guys started to come down.”

(Cue the video of Zettel roundhouse kicking a water bottle at the head of then-freshman running back Saquon Barkley in the Penn State locker room.)

.@BuzzFeed They should be freaking out over @Zettel98's ridiculous water bottle locker room kick. pic.twitter.com/OVIQW0ckcK

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) May 25, 2016

Defensive alignment

For the players who participated, position-specific techniques and teaching took shape. For defensive linemen, that meant a heavy emphasis on hand fighting, with a focus on timing and precision, with no wasted motion. 

“It’s baby steps. Rather than just throwing your arms and moving your arms, going crazy, it’s articulate,” said Lombard. “It can be challenging because it’s something you’ve got to do over and over again. But everybody’s lifting weights, and everybody’s doing footwork drills. What are you doing for your hands?

“Fighting is about rhythm and flow. It’s not about barbaric, punch as hard as you can reach. That’s why I try to tell these football guys who are all big, strong, and fast, We’re doing the little things here to make your rhythm and flow better. So if your rhythm and flow and your timing are better, then that speed and power with it, it’s just going to make you at the highest peak you can get.”

Offensive approach

On the other side of the trenches, offensive linemen Lombard’s MMAFx training is more closely aligned with boxing. While hand fighting is a condensed part of the training, the focus is on the lower body. Determined to transform big, strong linemen relying primarily on their upper body strength, Lombard said boxing techniques and drills are an avenue to unlock the use of their full bodies. 

“When they strike at their opponent, they’re using their full body, which means their legs and their hips are getting involved more, rather than just their arms. So we teach them how to unlock their hips,” Lombard said. “When I get guys, their hips are all locked in. They’re kind of stiff and they’re just bench-pressing everything. We’re looking to make a 300-pound offensive lineman like he’s a 160-pound boxer. 

“We’re trying to make his punches quicker, faster. Precision, timing, footwork, making his feet lighter. They have to be heavy with their feet sometimes. But sometimes you got to be quick, 

“So we’ll work that hand-eye-foot coordination, reaction timing, retraction on their strikes, so they get in there, snap, and get back, get ready for the next movement, whatever it might be, rather than pushing everything.”

The intended result is adding a quick, snappy punch, not unlike a jab in boxing, to jar a defensive lineman and take him out of his rhythm. 

“It’s about split seconds and inches,” Lombard added. “So in a split second, you can manipulate your opponent to where it affects their balance or their rhythm, then that’s to your advantage.”

The growing movement

Along the way of developing and refining his techniques and training, Lombard has been to the campus of Alabama, Oklahoma, Washington, and LSU, among other top programs in college football, to demonstrate his methodology in person. Most recently, that included a trip to Brent Pry’s Virginia Tech program earlier this month.

And at Penn State, the entirety of the offensive line, Dani Dennis-Sutton, Zuriah Fisher, and Hakeem Beamon have all worked with Lombard this winter. A welcome distraction from the grind of winter workouts, or the grind of all football, all-the-time, both players and Penn State’s coaching staff have embraced the intended benefit of outstanding workouts paired with crossover technique implementation. 

A fruitful pairing for Lombard, Penn State football, and the player participants who’ve gravitated toward the training, it’s a match born of an idea, circumstances, and a little bit of good fortune.

“MMAFx has been around for eight years now, with a gradual stalking of guys to get people to understand it and learn it. Now, it’s evolved,” Lombard said. “And I’ve been fortunate to be across the street here. They helped me. Now it’s just spread.”