Problem solving for the MMA fighter

I had a great training session tonight. In fact, it’s been a great day altogether. I’m buzzing. The last few weeks have been frustrating. I’ve been feeling tired from training, and some things have just not been working for me. Then I had a weekend break, most of which I spent in the swimming pool with Luis. I came back feeling refreshed, and all of a sudden a few pieces have fallen into place, with a couple of realisations.

It’s like this. When something’s not working in MMA, or indeed any combat sport, there are three possible causes.

1. Technical – you don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing

2. Physical – you know what you’re supposed to be doing, but your body isn’t able to do it effectively

3. Psychological – you know what you’re supposed to be doing, and your body is capable of doing it, but there’s a mental or emotional block that’s stopping you from doing it

Part of the art of training effectively is being able to spot the difference. A huge number of frustrations come from mistaking one of these kinds of problems for another. There’s no point throwing a bunch of technical information at someone when what they really need is to hit the gym, lift some more weights or improve their cardio. Then you have the fighters who always seem to be tired in training but really are suffering from a lack of motivation. Conversely, poor conditioning often masquerades as (and often causes) a lack of motivation. Then there are the people who think they have a conditioning problem – they’re not strong enough, or fit enough – when in fact, what they need is to improve their technique so they’re more efficient.

Psychological issues come in many shapes and sizes, and however well adjusted we think we are, most of us have them. Motivation, confidence, fear, aggression, frustration… all need to be carefully balanced. To much or too little of any of them can result in things not going right on the mat. These can be some of the hardest problems to spot, and never easy to solve, yet if something keeps going wrong despite all your best efforts to improve it, it’s something to consider.

One of the things I realised just recently is that a lot of mental blocks can be worked through just by getting the right balance of success and failure in training. Too much success makes you lazy, too little makes you demoralized. If every time you try something you get punched in the face, you’ll find it hard to get good at it. Initially, it may be because of a technical or a physical problem, but sometimes even when you’ve sorted those out, you find that you still can’t do it, because your subconscious has (without your permission) convinced itself that you can’t. It doesn’t work because you expect it not to.

So change the drill. Drop the intensity, or the amount of resistance, or try shorter rounds, or get a smaller training partner. Whatever you need to do to get things working…. and then build it up. You need enough failure to keep you hungry and sharp, but enough success to keep you confident and motivated.

Sometimes when you shift that mental block, you find that the other pieces of the puzzle – the technical and the physical start to fall into place. You realise a whole bunch of technical stuff that was right under your nose but you couldn’t see it. Or you discover that what felt like a physically tough session is a lot easier to do when you’re confident and motivated.