This week’s featured IMMAA coach is Head Coach of Compound Martial Arts (CMA), Brazilian Jiu Jitsu & Karate Black Belt and coach to multiple national champions, Oisin McCabe.
Oisins introduction to martial arts began at age 5 when his mother enrolled him and 4 friends in kempo karate classes in North Dublin, which he continued until the age of 18, eventually earning his Black Belt after 13 years of consistent training. At 16 years old he was introduced to full contact kickboxing for 2 years but had no access to regular training while he lived in, and attended college in Carlow Town, instead forming a training group in Carlow IT that would become his first group of adult students. After graduating Carlow IT he attended Dublin City University (DCU) where he earned a degree in sport science and immediately founded the DCU kickboxing club. He recalls “I started the kickboxing club because that’s where my interests lay at the time and there was no full contact club within DCU or nearby. There was another club in the college called the DCU Martial Arts Club that didn’t specifically mention what style they practiced. I popped down one day to see what they were training and to join in. It turned out to be Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, taught by Andy Ryan of Team Ryano. There were 5 of us on the mats and I still remember my first rolls. In my first round I was swept backwards and grabbed my partners legs for balance only for Andy to shout at me “NO LEGLOCKS”. He gave me far too much credit as I didn’t even know what leglocks were but ironically that would go onto be a speciality of mine in years to come, thankfully with Andy relaxed his no leglock policy for me as time went on haha. My 2nd round was with a woman with a little previous experience and I foolishly underestimated her abilities until she almost tore my arm off with an Americana shoulder lock. I couldn’t believe how vulnerable I was and from that moment a fire & curiosity was lit that has only grown over the decade and a half since. Andy passed the coaching duties on to one of his students Michael O’ Hagan who was extremely supportive and really helped the obsession take hold. I was aware of the UFC at the time although I’d never seen an event, but a friend of mine had bought me “Ultimate Knockouts 3” on DVD as a birthday present and I saw some brief grappling exchanges. I began training regularly at Team Ryano as well as in DCU and amalgamated the kickboxing and martial arts clubs to become the DCU Kickboxing and Grappling Club, so named because the college wouldn’t allow us to call it an MMA club due to the misinformed barbaric reputation the sport had gained amongst the general public. I coached there throughout my studies, and continued after I graduated while working full time. I’m still involved with the club which has now been running for 14 years (longest running and largest 3rd level MMA club in Ireland) but one of my assistant coaches & pro fighters, Aleksandar Yankov, who started training with me in DCU has taken over the vast majority of the coaching there.”
Oisin has consistently trained in Team Ryano since shortly after walking into his first DCU class and with the exception of a 2 year period on the injury list, restricted to coaching duties in DCU only, Oisin has been a constant presence for almost 15 years in Team Ryano and has received all his belts from the hands of one of Irish MMA’s founding fathers, Andy Ryan, culminating in being awarded his BJJ Black Belt in December of 2019.
” I have won a fair few grappling & kickboxing bouts/tournaments in my time (and hopes to win many more in the future) but my highlight is the success of my students and the growth of our team. We have a real family & friends vibe in Compound Martial Arts as well as being very competition focused. We’ve started from very humble beginnings and have grown to the point we are now together, with a belief that we are still only getting started. There is so much more to come. Everyone is there for each other and develops and shares a deep passion for the martial arts.
Speaking about how he came to found IMMAA club Compound Martial Arts (CMA), Oisin says, “I founded Compound Martial Arts in my Strength & Conditioning gym in 2017. Strength Training was my profession and I loved it, but my true passion in life has always been Martial Arts. I made the decision to focus my time entirely on Compound Martial Arts in 2018 and have been working incredibly hard to get us to the point we are now, with a full time facility, thriving team and plans to expand into a bigger facility in the near future. While competing as a college club (DCU MMA) we had the opportunity to open our training up to non DCU students also, so our classes became a hub for 3rd level students all over Dublin, as well as non students. The progression from DCU MMA to Compound Martial Arts came as a result of the great success of our competitors and realization that we were out growing the facilities that DCU could offer us & would have Professional fighters in our ranks in the near future. As a college club we weren’t getting any offers of title shots for our fighters despite their success but that rapidly changed after the foundation of CMA. Within a year and a half we held 9 championship belts including ISKA national titles in K1 kickboxing, multiple Cage Legacy & Cage Ring Championship belts and were regularly seeing our grapplers top podiums all over the country.
Speaking of the athletes he looks to for motivation within the sport Oisin stated “I’m an absolute nerd when it comes to martial arts and have an obsessive personality to boot so I spend a huge portion of my day on the mats as well as 4-6 hours daily off the mats researching techniques, developing systems, or examining successful sequences and approaches to training. I have taken inspiration from fighters in many different ways. The high percentage approach of Georges St Pierre, the imposing will of Couture/Khabib/Sonnen, the showmanship of Genki Sudo, the razor sharp striking of McGregor or Adesanya. I’m a fan of any effective approach or technique more than the fighters themselves. When I was younger and a participant more than a coach, I used to take an interest in the fighters personalities a lot whereas now I care far less about their personalities and the dramatic side of the sport than I do about the technical aspects. I take great inspiration from my own coaches and training partners. Watching the rise of Team Ryano under the guidance of Andy Ryan has been a privilege and witnessing the work ethic of Irish MMA greats Paul Redmond, Neil Seery and the young up and coming stars like Adam Darby, James Sheehan, Ivan & Constantine Blanita has been incredible.”
On the topic of day to day motivation Oisin said, “My own students are by far the greatest inspiration that I have. For example, despite kickboxing and karate being my original background, I became obsessed with BJJ to the point that I underutilized my striking experience as a coach and it was actually three of my students, Alexander Yankov, Solomon Simon and David Ola who reawakened the passion for striking arts within me and brought me back to a competition focus in that area. They came to me and asked to compete in kickboxing specifically and that quickly re stoked the fire inside of me for the striking arts. What started out as a request to do a kickboxing fight quickly became multiple title runs and simultaneously conquering three national weight classes. Not bad for a small college club. The success of my students has all come as a result of incredible discipline and hard work on their parts. I create systems and share technique but their work ethic and ambition is what creates results, and what really inspires me the most. I regularly came into the gym an hour before training sessions were due to start and as soon as I would walk in I would hear the sound of the heavy bag rattling. It would always be one of those three students – Alex, Solomon or David in full sweat working tirelessly to perfect one small aspect of their game. Now it’s a lot more than 3 with that level of drive. We have a team full of talent and the future is very bright”
When asked about the advice he would give to an aspiring MMA fighter Oisin stated “My advice would be that technique is king, cardio is mandatory and systems are the key to successful rapid progression. Years ago I used to teach one cool technique one day and another the next day without linking them together much. As I became more experienced I began to understand the importance of applying systems to link techniques together. I think of it a bit like a puzzle. If you give someone the pieces of a puzzle randomly it will take them a long time to figure out which pieces go where, but if you give someone pieces in order and that slots in directly next to the last piece they will form the picture much faster. I don’t just give fighters the nuts and bolts to build their game. I give them the nuts, bolts, power tools and instruction manual. I believe you can apply effective systems to each area of the sport, for striking, wall wrestling, takedown defence, grappling top game and bottom game. We’ve found this method to be very effective in our training, and has resulted in exponentially speeding up the rate of progression of our students and their competitive successes.”
Speaking of the benefits that martial arts has had on his life Oisin claimed “Martial arts has given me drive, purpose and happiness, it’s a pursuit that I can never hope to complete. It’s far too vast. I could live three lifetimes and still somebody on their first day could ask me a question that will make me rethink everything I thought I knew on a technique. It’s the most ridiculously in depth physical art in the world. I realize that while I have a lot of knowledge, I also know very little of the vast array of martial technique out there and that excites me. There is so much to learn. The wisdom is in identifying what is most effective for a particular fighter/artist. I view this sport as a true art, and I think if you can find a way to express that to someone effectively then they will fall in love with the sport. It’s impossible not to, once the curtain is pulled back and the skill is revealed.“
Explaining how he and his members have coped with the closure of gyms during lockdown Oisin explained “We set up a youtube channel to keep people’s minds and bodies active during the lockdowns, organized outdoor training and runs when within restrictions, set goals for competitors fitness and did a lot of technique breakdowns on video. I put a huge emphasis on the mental and learning aspects of martial arts, it’s not all about trying to strangle your friends or laugh while trying to gently tear their arm off, although that is a very fun part of it. The breakdown videos of matches and techniques, explanatory videos of specific moves and their variations as well as workout videos seem to have been a great help. There’s a ton of content uploaded on our youtube page (Compound Martial Arts) that’s available for the public to see, it’s not only for our members.”
Addressing his plans for the future Oisin revealed “My personal goal is that I want to be the best martial arts coach in the world. I think I can be and I believe I will be. I’m only 34 years old so I’ve got plenty of time and I’m working like a man possessed. I want to share my love of martial arts with as many people as possible. Martial arts has had such an incredibly positive effect on my life and many others and I want to be able to share my love for martial arts with as many people as possible. As a competition team, Compound Martial Arts will take over the competitive Irish MMA, BJJ and Kickboxing scenes, take our competitors international and to be known as the greatest combat sports team in the world. We have a rising team of competitors who you’ll start to see on the amateur scene very soon with a huge amount of talent and drive and I genuinely believe that we can achieve all of our goals in time. We’re also aiming to continue to grow our team. We have had huge support since Covid arrived and even through lockdown our membership has grown by nearly 50% since March thanks to word of mouth which makes you wonder just how much we could have grown if the lockdowns had never happened. “
On CMA fighters to watch out for Oisin says, “Our most established and seasoned fighter is Aleksandar Yankov, who will be making his professional MMA debut on Clan Wars in March, those in the MMA community will be familiar with him as he’s been training and competing consistently for eight years now and is one of the very best in his division. He is an extremely talented MMA fighter, national kickboxing champion, jiu jitsu purple belt, excellent wrestler and one of the hottest prospects on the Irish MMA scene who deserves all the success in the world given all of his hard work. There’s a lot of excitement to watch his career progress. We’ve also got Robert Barrett (1-0 in MMA) on the same show, who is returning to action post injury. He never left the mats and has been quietly expanding an already formidable skill set since his debut, but he’s back fit and healthy now and ready to go. You can expect big things from him as well. We have a lot of promising young fighters who have yet to compete in MMA but are chomping at the bit. The future is bright for our team and all of our members and I am certain they will all have their moment to shine when the time is right.”
On IMMAA – “I would like to thank all involved with IMMAA for their hard work behind the scenes in trying to secure recognition for our sport and developing opportunities for our competitors past present and future.”
The Irish Mixed Martial Arts Association would like to extend our sincerest gratitude and appreciation to Oisin for his ongoing support of the association and wish him and his team at Compound Martial Arts the very best of skill and luck and they strive to accomplish their goals and contribute towards the success and progression of Irish MMA as a whole.