Joe Mazzulla trains at Xtreme Couture, mines MMA for NBA edge

Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla has been seeking out MMA gyms across the country during the NBA season to train and study coaching techniques he can apply courtside.

Mazzulla, who recently worked with renowned cornerman Eric Nicksick at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, told Ariel Helwani that the sessions help him maintain a fighter mentality when his team plays hostile road arenas. "I think it just keeps you fresh, mentally and physically, so that when I'm helping the team, I have a little bit of that fighter mentality," he said, per Sherdog. "It just helps grow a little bit of an edge, and every little bit helps."

Mazzulla studies Nicksick's corner communication

The Celtics coach is especially interested in how Nicksick communicates with fighters between rounds. Mazzulla believes the parallel between cage corners and NBA timeouts is tighter than it looks — both require coaches to distill complex reads into simple instructions under pressure. "I think one of the hardest things in coaching is to relay, in a simple way, what you see to the players so that they can see it simply and execute," Mazzulla told Helwani. "I think Eric does a great job of that."

Mazzulla added that he quizzes Nicksick on in-fight communication, noting that poorly timed coaching can distract athletes more than it helps. He searches for MMA facilities in every city the Celtics visit, treating the workouts as mental conditioning as much as physical training.

The Celtics open their preseason schedule in October.

Reported via:

• Sherdog — Boston Celtics head coach shares his takeaways from MMA