"A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory." - Arthur Golden
You hear a lot of people say that fighting/MMA/BJJ is 90% mental but I hardly hear it spoken about when training.
There are times when in training that people/me psych themselves out. My close friend James had blogged a while ago about having this issue when rolling with higher belts. I had this issue in the past in sports.
As a young kid, I hated gym class because whenever we played a sport where I had to catch, I would always drop the ball. I would try to hide as far out in the outfield as possible, hoping the ball would never come to me and when it did, I dropped it. I was so worried about dropping the ball and letting my team down that I never gave myself a chance. I eventually stopped worrying about it and got better at sports, mainly basketball. I would still have issues when playing someone I thought was good or better than me. I would let people psych me out without even trying. When I didn't care or worry about anyone being better, I did well.
I had a similar issue a few years ago in BJJ. I started out just wanting to learn and found that I had some skill. Soon, I was the best in my school, but my instructors also taught at another school longer then they taught at mine. Eventually we had an in house tournament with both schools and I won my divison despite being dehydrated. You would think this was a good thing, but it wasn't. Guys from the other school started to train at my school and it always seemed like they wanted to roll with me, and roll hard. Besides that, whenever a new student came in, I was always required to roll with them and they too had something to prove against the highest ranked student. It didn't take long for me to feel pressured to do well for my school, my team, and my instructor. It wasn't about learning any more, it was about me proving myself by winning. Unfortunately this led me to lose sight of making my technique better or learning new techniques. Soon I was rolling to not lose. I was nervous about rolling with certain people and actually stopped getting better. I was training less and really felt bad about myself. Injury lent a hand in make feel even worse and I came in 3rd place in a tournament that I was favored to win.
It took me a while, but I figured this out and stopped worrying about losing and just started doing what I enjoyed and got better.
Like my friend James, I still psych myself out when rolling with someone I think is better.
Lloyd Irvin Jr, BJJ Black Belt; said "It is very easy to be overwhelmed mentally when facing an opponent who is supposed to beat you. They're good, you know they're good and they may even be better than you. This can lead to self doubt, fear and nervousness which can be crippling to your ability to function properly in a match. You will be indecisive, tentative and will likely give too much respect to your opponent. Grappling is an extremely cerebral sport and having 100% faith in your game plan and your ability to win if properly executed does wonders for your state of mind. It doesn't matter if the person you are fighting is "better" than you or has a more well-rounded game overall. If you force them to play in the field you set, you have the advantage."
I agree with him, develop your game plan, stick to it, and you will do well, but there is more. Even with an air tight game plan you may still lose, but is that bad? If you think in terms of someone tapping you as a lose or a negative, there will always be that doubt. Training is just that, training. Develop your game plan and work it on a higher belt not worrying about the win or the lose. Forget the tap, just work your BJJ. My instructor "Marra" told me once "Brotha, trust in your Jiu Jitsu, no worries." If you lose you have something to learn from and get better. It is not always easy to do this as the ego is a powerful force, but I am getting better.
I didn't swim today but here is my workout:
Warm up:
Pyramid circuit - Push ups, pull ups, body weight squats - reps 1,2,3,4,5,5,4,3,2,1 no rest between
Chest - 3 sets of bar floor press x 6 reps
Grip - 3 sets forearm rolls? x 3 reps up and down
3 round circuit of the following:
Sprawls - 10 reps
Mountain climbers with hands on stability ball - 10 reps
Medicine ball slams - 10 reps
Jump squats - 10 reps
Dumbbell swings - 10 reps
Jump pull ups - 10 reps
Repeat
Repeat
1 min rest in between rounds.
Have a safe journey.
