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The UFC Performance Institute recently convened a group of 50 of MMA’s top coaches and listened to their complaints about the sport.

What they were most bent out of shape about, according to UFC Hall of Famer Forrest Griffin, were standups. More specifically, the lack of a defined rule on when a referee should reset a fight when the action has supposedly stalled on the canvas.

“I would like to be able to tell a fighter, hey, you have 12 seconds on the ground,” Griffin told MMAjunkie Radio. “If you don’t throw an effective strike in 12 seconds, you’re going to be stood up.”

While most seasoned MMA watchers would consider that too stingy a timeframe, the point was not necessarily to reach a solution. Since the UFC Performance Institute opened its doors in May 2017, it’s been gathering data on fighters in an attempt to find out how they can compete at their best, a sort-of best practices manual for the cage fighter.

Or, in the academic language of Ph.D. Duncan French, the VP of performance at the institute, “What we’re trying to do is, what are the determinants of performance that affect success?”

The institute recently released a 12-month study that takes the first stab at that question, measuring statistics gathered from fights with firsthand information gathered at its Las Vegas-based facility.

In a sport in which tribal loyalties abound, the UFC Performance Institute is neutral to the fighters it serves. Officials can get a bunch of coaches in the same place without a peace treaty.

The 81-page study breaks down fight stats such as duration and finsh rate per division. But it also goes into minute detail on the rate and type of injuries that occur and breaks down the process of training, offering recommendations on how to peak while avoiding injury.

The study largely bypasses the serious issue of weight-cutting in MMA, recommending only that fighter minimize the need for them by practicing proper nutrition and staying within 10 percent of their weight class after rehydration for a fight.

As the institute continues to gather more information, however, French said the staff will start to tackle bigger questions about the fight game. The result, he said, won’t just be of service to UFC fighters, but all participants in combat sport.

“It’s a huge consideration to start drilling down what are the respective aspects, the stylistic components that go into our sport,” he said. “Right now, what we’ve got the ability to present in 12 months is a pretty cross-sectional awareness of MMA. But we now have to start looking at how stylistic influences come into influence in this data, and changing the nature of fighting – what is someone’s trend in the preferred fight style.

“I think what we can do is support combat sport evolution holistically, not just in MMA. It’s a real different approach that we’re trying to take in the Performance Institute, and applying, let’s say, science to the approach and being truly intentional to support professional athletes.”

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

MMAjunkie Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia, Brian “Goze” Garcia and Dan Tom. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.