Mazzulla, who's attended several
Ultimate Fighting Championship events, was recently seen
training MMA with esteemed coach Eric Nicksick at
Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas. He has revealed that he looks up
MMA gyms to train at while traveling through different cities
during the NBA season.

Joe Mazzulla uses MMA coaching practices in the NBA

Mazzulla believes MMA helps him build a fighter mentality, which is
required while taking on rival NBA teams in enemy territories.

“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,†Mazzulla told Ariel Helwani. “It just helps grow a
little bit of an edge, and every little bit helps.â€

Mazzulla is also taking specific inputs from Nicksick about
communicating with athletes. He believes there are similarities
between MMA and basketball in terms of coaches communicating with
the players and is learning Nicksick's techniques of in-game
communication amidst all the chaos.

“The thing that's interesting in the in-fight communication,â€
Mazzulla added. “I think communication can be distracting. I ask
Eric a lot about what his communication is during the round…
There’s a timeout component in communication, but also in-game
communication… 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. I think Eric does a great job of
that.â€