Training in Thailand
There's a great post over at Rmax International called, Mind Armour: Building a Mind to Match the Body. The post emphasizes the importance of a fighter's psychological state during a fight. Here are a few quotes that I found particularly helpful (my emphasis added). . .
[What's the primary reason people lose fights?] “From my experience, most fights are won and lost in the mind. Most fighters come prepared physically and technically, it’s the mental and emotional part where they defeat themselves.”
[Randy Couture said] “The psychological aspect of the fight game accounts for 80% of our success”.
To whatever extent a fighter is distracted from the exact and specific moment of what is happening in the ring/cage at that very instant they are operating below par. Being worried, surprised, afraid, distracted by the enormity of the event, personal issues, fear of loosing/looking stupid/getting hurt, etc. will contribute to a crack in the mental armor.
When a fighter suffers a loss in the ring, or a poor performance in sparring etc. more often than not the coach or the fighter puts it down to inadequate conditioning or poor technique (at least that's been my experience).
The fighter starts to think to himself, "If only I was faster, fitter, stronger etc." And the coach starts barking, "you need to turn your kick in more, keep your guard up, move faster etc." But these issues are rarely the cause of a bad performance. It's usually the mind that screws things up (the poor technique and loss of conditioning that are often evident in a poor performance are just consequences of a bad head, and not the actual root problems).
My time in Thailand helped me re-establish a strong belief in my own technical abilities and conditioning—I'm good enough and fit enough to compete and do well (even at my ancient age). The coaching staff at Tiger Muay Thai really helped in this regard. It was so encouraging to have a couple of ex-Lumpinee champs take me aside and tell me my technique was good—that I didn't need to focus on getting faster, kicking harder or keeping my guard up etc. What I needed to do was 'relax', 'believe in myself' and the rest would follow. In other words, I needed 'to get my head right' in order to see the technical and conditioning assets I've all ready attained actually start to work for me.
That's not to say I don't need to improve my technique or conditioning, obviously I do. But for the level I'm at (an eternal rookie) and for the things I want to achieve in muay thai (train hard and enjoy the odd fight in the ring), I just need to keep my head in a good space, and make sure when I do fight I don't let anything or anybody push my head into a bad space.
