Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on Intellectual Capital

Peter Marshall and Damian Gordon
MMA schools are not unlike any o<strong>the</strong>r organisation; <strong>the</strong>y have an abundance <strong>of</strong> knowledge in all
aspects <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir business. Knowledge is required at a high level in strategic decision making, as well
as everyday administrative tasks; all <strong>the</strong> way through to <strong>the</strong> grassroots coaching <strong>of</strong> its athletes. The
relatively recent commercialisation <strong>of</strong> sport has seen <strong>the</strong> potential financial gains increase. With so
much at stake, organisations must look at ways in which organisational knowledge can be exploited in
order to gain a competitive advantage. As <strong>the</strong> sport evolves, old organisational models have been
replaced by new ones. Sports managers and coaches must look at <strong>the</strong> wealth <strong>of</strong> knowledge with
exists both internally and externally to <strong>the</strong>ir organisations and find ways to harness it in order to
benefit <strong>the</strong> athletes, <strong>the</strong> teams, <strong>the</strong> coaching staff and <strong>the</strong> organisation (Toohey, Halbwirth 2004).
When considering <strong>the</strong> coaching dimension <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se organisations, difficulties arise in <strong>the</strong> acquisition <strong>of</strong>
this knowledge, when <strong>the</strong> student fails to pick up <strong>the</strong> various nuances required to accurately model
<strong>the</strong> tacit knowledge <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> instructor. The difference between a student‟s knowledge and that <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>
expert‟s level is known as <strong>the</strong> “zone <strong>of</strong> proximal development” (Vygotsky, 1978). The hypo<strong>the</strong>sis for
our research is that elicitation techniques from <strong>the</strong> field <strong>of</strong> knowledge management can help reduce
this gap, by exposing <strong>the</strong> tacit knowledge <strong>of</strong> an expert. To achieve that aim, <strong>the</strong> following objectives
were established. The first was to conduct a series <strong>of</strong> experiments in which KE techniques, found in
<strong>the</strong> literature review, would be applied to <strong>the</strong> acquisition <strong>of</strong> MMA techniques. The results <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se
experiments would be presented and critically analysed. From this <strong>the</strong> conclusions will be drawn and
future work in <strong>the</strong> terms <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> research will be identified.
3. Methodology
The MMA organisation in this study is Team Ryano in Dublin. Team Ryano is a MMA academy that
coaches students to compete in MMA competitions. Knowledge is a key asset extensively used in all
aspects <strong>of</strong> its business. Instructors from different disciplines use <strong>the</strong>ir knowledge to teach skills, help
<strong>the</strong>ir athletes apply strategies during competitions and improve <strong>the</strong>ir performance. The athletes
<strong>the</strong>mselves use this knowledge to acquire new and improve existing skills. The organisation benefits
from <strong>the</strong> collective knowledge <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> group in tasks as diverse as scouting to providing dietary
guidance for <strong>the</strong>ir athletes. This knowledge provides <strong>the</strong> organisation with a competitive advantage
which has led to success on both national and international level.
The core service <strong>of</strong> Team Ryano is to teach students skills required for participation in <strong>the</strong> various
martial arts that are taught. In analysing <strong>the</strong> acquisition <strong>of</strong> knowledge in Team Ryano, <strong>the</strong>re exists
many informal channels in which knowledge is acquired (e.g. socialisation between its group
members, internalisation <strong>of</strong> knowledge artefacts). However for <strong>the</strong> most part, knowledge is acquired at
an individual and group level through <strong>the</strong> use <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> traditional apprenticeship model (Vygotsky,
1978). In this model, students acquire techniques and strategies in <strong>the</strong> sport specific courses, through
an observation phase, a coaching phase and through practice.
The experiments were conducted at <strong>the</strong> Team Ryano‟s training facility in Dublin. The following steps
were performed.
3.1 Selecting valuable knowledge
The first task is <strong>the</strong> identification <strong>of</strong> valuable knowledge. The selection process is a key consideration
at <strong>the</strong> onset <strong>of</strong> KE activities. There is little point in eliciting knowledge that could be easily found online
or in textbooks, journals, reports, etc. (Okafor & Osuagwu, 2006). In rapidly changing domains, <strong>the</strong>
selection process is fur<strong>the</strong>r complicated when elicited knowledge becomes redundant before it has
been made explicit and distributed (ibid).
For <strong>the</strong> experiments, two very different martial arts techniques were selected that were used not only
by <strong>the</strong> MMA group but also by <strong>the</strong> Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) group within <strong>the</strong> organisation. The first
technique is a throw in Judo known as Tai-Otoshi; a throw used to take an opponent down to <strong>the</strong>
ground. The Tai-otoshi can be employed by all weight categories. The throw is highly versatile in that
it can be performed direct attack or can be employed in combination with o<strong>the</strong>r throws as part <strong>of</strong> a
strategy to take an opponent to <strong>the</strong> ground. Whilst more extensively used in Judo and BJJ, it has
been successfully employed in MMA. The second technique that was selected was <strong>the</strong> arm-bar. This
technique aims to hyperextend <strong>the</strong> elbow joint which can result in muscle, tendon and ligament
damage, even dislocation, or bone fractures, if <strong>the</strong> opponent does not submit at <strong>the</strong> point <strong>of</strong>
application. This technique is perhaps <strong>the</strong> most versatile <strong>of</strong> all <strong>the</strong> submission techniques and can be
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