After the Silverbacks’ impressive 4-1 win at the IFL World Team Championship Final in Connecticut on December 29, 2006, Knucklepit.com decided to catch up with two of the men in the Iowa team’s engine room to see what goes on behind the scenes of this extremely successful team. What we found were two outstanding coaches: Nate Schroeder and Steve Rusk, hand picked by MMA extraordinaire, Pat Miletich.

In this article, we talk to Nate about his background in MMA, and the role he plays at Team Miletich and with the IFL Silverbacks’ team.

It was back in high school when Nate first started off in the martial art of tae kwon do: “I picked it up because I had nothing to do in the spring, and I was getting ready for college football. I started that almost twenty years ago,” says Schroeder.

“Then when I finished college, I commenced with the karate school out here. And one of the guys from that school said, ‘We’ve got this guy, Pat Miletich, who’s training for an ultimate fight.’ I said, ‘I want to go see him.’ We’ve been working together ever since. I’ve been with Pat for about 12 years now.

 “I actually started training with Pat before his first ultimate fight – maybe a month before his first fight, I started training with him. I’ve been with Pat since before the beginning.”

Nate’s own fighting career is presently stored in mothballs, but when he was competing, he achieved victories over such names as Paul Buentello, Rob Webb and Mike Radnov.

These days Nate is probably best known for his outstanding work as a coach in Bettendorf; but is there a chance we will get to see Nate Schroeder, the MMA star, fighting again?

“I’ll tell you right now, I’ve retired,” says Schroeder, “But since I started coaching, that competitive flow just gets you, and I’m thinking about making a comeback. It’s hard to sit down in the locker room with all those guys, and it makes me want to get back in that gym, get back into shape, and start training again. My last fight was a loss, and I’m almost sure I don’t want to end my career on a loss.”

Nate Schroeder on right

Nate, would you look at an IFL Superfight?

“Possibly.”

There appear to be some variances in your MMA record on the net. What is your record?

“I’ve seen different records posted for me, and I don’t know where they get them. My real record is17-8.”

What is your role with the Silverbacks?

“I’m really the day-to-day guy: I’m the one who teaches the daily classes and runs the school on a daily basis, and that gives Pat a chance to get a lot of one-on-one time with his fighters. He doesn’t have to worry about taking the classes, who’s going where, and who’s got to be taught what. So I work with the guys in practice, and with a lot of the bigger guys like Mike C (Ciesnolevicz) and Ben Rothwell. I wrestle and spar with them, but it’s not just the IFL team – it’s everybody here. Pat then gets a chance to work throughout the day with all the fighters because I run all the classes.”

Mike C said you and Steve Rusk are a big part of why the Silverbacks are so successful. Do you and Steve work in together with the training?

“Yes, definitely. Steve’s a great wrestler… I think he’s really helped us get along with our weight cutting: Nobody’s ever in danger of not making weight, because Steve was a wrestler for so long, he really knows how to help them cut and get down. He’s a great wrestler: When we’re fighting teams who are very good grapplers and they all want to take us down, he certainly helps out the guys with that stuff.

“I’m the catch-all guy because I’m a good wrestler, a good grappler, and a pretty good striker. I’m not strong in one spot, I’m fairly good everywhere. But I have a lot of experience: I’ve seen many fighters and fights, so I know how to train people for different situations. I know how to fight against a grappler or stand-up guy.”

So you’re more MMA and Steve is more the wrestler: Is that the case?

“He’s a wrestler/grappler, yeah. He’s learning striking… I mean he’s not a great striker, but he hits like a freight train… He’s a big, strong guy.”

You fought as a heavyweight. When you train with other heavyweights, like Tim Sylvia and Ben Rothwell, is that grappling and submissions, or are you mainly involved in stand-up sparring with them?

“I do spar with them, but it really depends; because I’m a good stand-up fighter I have really good kicks, and for this next fight of Ben’s with Krzysztof Soszynski, Soszynski is a good kickboxer, so I’m probably going to stand up and fight with him a lot.

“Usually, I play a role when I spar with Tim and Ben. If they’re preparing for a bout with a kickboxer, then I’ll move around and throw a lot of kicks. If they’re training for wrestlers, like when Tim was training for Jeff Monson, or Ben was training for Devin Cole, I don’t throw a lot of punches, I shoot more.”

Nate Schroeder on right demonstrating stance

You play the role of their opponents.

“Definitely, and I try to watch tapes of the other guys to see what their tendencies are going to be. You can never totally know what another guy is going to do, because he’s also training for you – he’s working hard to learn new things to beat you. But if you watch their previous fights, you know what their tendencies are going to be. And usually when guys get smacked in the face they’re going to revert to what they normally do.

“When I work out with our guys, I role play so it feels natural for them when they get in the ring with their opponents. They don’t have to think too much about it.”

Have you, Pat and Steve run through the IFL Final’s fights with team members?

“Not yet. Everybody’s kinda scattered to the winds: They should be coming back in town this week.”

Then you run through it with them?

“Yeah, but really, the fights come so fast now, and we concentrate not so much on the mistakes, but what they can do to improve. And we also try to look into who the next opponent is going to be. At this point we’re really concentrating on the Anacondas –not what went on a couple of weeks ago.”

Does it surprise you that the two teams in the final were probably the two most team-orientated sides?

“No, not really. I just think we work hard together, and I think Matt Lindland is a tough guy: He’s got tough fighters and they work really hard. It’s hard to beat having a lot of good workout partners.

“A guy might be the greatest fighter in his gym, but if he doesn’t have anybody good to work with, it’s hard for him to be a top fighter. When you have a stable with a whole lot of good fighters, then there’s always somebody good to work with. There’s never going to be a day when you can’t get a good workout because there’s nobody good to go with. You’re always going to have a lot of tough guys in the room, and we work well together. We’re all good friends, so it’s real easy for us to be good, I think.”

Do you believe the team spirit lifts the individual fighter’s game to a higher level?

“I think so… I mean, fighting’s an individual sport – just like wrestling, but you’re also fighting for your teammates: You don’t want to let those guys down.”

Nate, is there anything you’d like to add?

“I think we have a lot of great guys and I really hope we can keep our team together. It doesn’t seem like anybody wants to leave, and I think the IFL is just going to get bigger and better all the time. And if we can hold our team together, I think we’re going to keep winning championships.”

And bringing in teams from places like England and France is just going to make it more international.

“And South Korea: We’ve got two Asian teams now. If we can hit off in this next season and the new teams are going to do their Legends Championship, and we bring them into the League, I just think it’s going to be incredible. It’s going to be the next thing in fighting.”

Nat Schroeder demonstrating hand technique