Was looking to see if anyone has any specific theories or strategies,stuff on fear control and adrenaline, they like to use when going into a fight / competition. whether it be weeks before, or at the weigh in, or right before they call your name.......Looking for confidence boosters,relaxation techniques, anything to pyschologically do to off set an opponent? Theres the James Lange Theory of pyschology and physiology which can help raise certain emotion on your terms......Also specifcally for me fighting in mma I know some guys (the wiser ones) tend to have certain stuff they do at the weigh ins, like for staredowns and right before the fight. Wasnt EXACTLY sure where to post this but id figure here since anyone who competes in anything can benefit from it
the mental edge
- Thread starter hma123
- Start date
Train hard. Then train harder. Then train some more. So that, on the day of the competition -- you're able to relax, and trust in the training.
On the day of an event, I want to relax going into it. If it's a kickboxing style event, I'll watch some of the fights, then a bit before, warm up enough to get a light sweat going. Just enough to be loose, and burn some of the butterflies off. If I've got a several hour break (we used to have eliminations in the mornings, then the finals in the evenings), I may take a nap or watch some tv or just go for a walk. For the light contact/sport stuff, I like to do patterns/kata just to get the butterflies out. When it comes time for the sparring, again, a light warm-up. How much depends on the type of the event; round robin or continuous events, I warm up a little differently for the event. For single elimination/stop & go stuff... I get looser, but not as sweaty, if that makes sense.
On the day of an event, I want to relax going into it. If it's a kickboxing style event, I'll watch some of the fights, then a bit before, warm up enough to get a light sweat going. Just enough to be loose, and burn some of the butterflies off. If I've got a several hour break (we used to have eliminations in the mornings, then the finals in the evenings), I may take a nap or watch some tv or just go for a walk. For the light contact/sport stuff, I like to do patterns/kata just to get the butterflies out. When it comes time for the sparring, again, a light warm-up. How much depends on the type of the event; round robin or continuous events, I warm up a little differently for the event. For single elimination/stop & go stuff... I get looser, but not as sweaty, if that makes sense.
Happy-Papi
Green Belt
One strategy that my group use when we get the butterflies is to lift up the diaphragm on our chest. When I got scared, one of my seniors will go behind me and wrap his arms on my stomach (like a bear hug), bend me forward a bit and raise me up to pull up my diaphragm. When I'm alone I wrap my arms around my stomach or use the edge of a table or something similar to push my diaphragm up. I don't know if there is a scientific reason for this but it was taught to me by my seniors and it often did work for us. The medic in our team said that when we are afraid our chest tends to contract and diaphragm tends to drop and restricts the air flowing through our lungs. He said that by lifting it up will cause the chest to expand and get more air and will help the brain to control the fear. Then a little bit of stretching helps circulate the blood. A bit of positive thinking or some positive words from the team and I'm back in the game.
I never used the technique for MA competition but I used this technique on my son and some of his dojo mates during their MA competitions and they said that it helped.
On the psychological side, we have many weird techniques to control suppress our fears (which I cannot share sorry), and to pump up adrenaline. Aside from the meditation, praying, etc... On the adrenaline side, one simple tech is to watch lots of Rambo, Steven Segal's films and jack it up with something funny like Jackie Chan movies. Notice some guys after a Rambo movie, most of them are walking like Rambo and have the weird grin on their faces and seems ready to kick some terrorist's/insurgent's behind. Some of us watches cartoons like Bugs Bunny Vs Tasmanian Devil, some likes watching police movies, some likes listening to loud weird rock music on their cassette tapes or 8-track, one of my seniors like watching extremely cheap love-comedies. It's like the calm before the storm. These are just some of the things we used, but the best way is to have full trust and confidence in yourself that you can 100% win. Or just imagine you won and GF/wife, kids, family, friends cheering for you because you are a hero
I hope this helps you. Many thanks
I never used the technique for MA competition but I used this technique on my son and some of his dojo mates during their MA competitions and they said that it helped.
On the psychological side, we have many weird techniques to control suppress our fears (which I cannot share sorry), and to pump up adrenaline. Aside from the meditation, praying, etc... On the adrenaline side, one simple tech is to watch lots of Rambo, Steven Segal's films and jack it up with something funny like Jackie Chan movies. Notice some guys after a Rambo movie, most of them are walking like Rambo and have the weird grin on their faces and seems ready to kick some terrorist's/insurgent's behind. Some of us watches cartoons like Bugs Bunny Vs Tasmanian Devil, some likes watching police movies, some likes listening to loud weird rock music on their cassette tapes or 8-track, one of my seniors like watching extremely cheap love-comedies. It's like the calm before the storm. These are just some of the things we used, but the best way is to have full trust and confidence in yourself that you can 100% win. Or just imagine you won and GF/wife, kids, family, friends cheering for you because you are a hero
I hope this helps you. Many thanks
Happy-Papi
Green Belt
To our kind moderator, please delete my post if you think that this is offensive or just plain stupid. Peace
Got a PM from hma123 aking me why I couldn't share other methods on fear control. It's not really because this is a public forum but because some methods may be illegal, some are weird and some are just too stupid. But for laughs I will share some that I think no sane guy would follow, lol. Methods may be beneficial to some looney tunes but are useless to most. I don't know if you can use it for competition. Best to share here openly so that others too may get some laughs.
First if you can read my BS at the Meet & Greet section, this would help you understand my background
FEAR CONTROL: Using "medicines" is not good and is illegal especially for competition so let's pass on this OK... I'm no guru or expert and I'm just sharing this based on experience so please don't burn me... One method I learned but only tried it 3 times is to wrap my tiny gigglers and wear very tight undies to the point it that hurts so bad that receiving some blows doesn't hurt that much anymore. It was so painful and was in a very bad mood that all I wanted was to get done with it and release the tension. Actually I used it once during a friendly/stupid stick fight but the rattan sticks still did hurt but my main focus was still down there. The spar is just a small part because if I lose, I will expect some good jungle booting from my seniors who placed their bet on me and that was what I feared most. It was really primitive and stupid.
There is another tech that we use to control fear and it is by doing things to overcome our fears. If a guy fears heights, he will learn to love it. If he fears tight and dark places, he will be in the box. If he hates snakes, it'll be his new best friend. If he fears swimming at night, he will be swimming until morning or until he reaches the shore, etc. Before most of us hates dogs so the procedure was to be chased by some very angry drooling dogs. It was a small closed alley and the only escape was to climb the wall on the opposite side. Very good for cardio training. I'm only 168cms (your little sister is taller than me, lol) but thanks to this training that I learned how to run faster and jump higher. We did it so many times that we thought that it was funny especially when the dogs got bored of chasing us. Another is controlling the fear of the unknown (ghost, spirits, etc.). Yes some people can get very scared with the unknown especially those who are very religious. One very simple method is to watch many crazy horror movies alone at night where you reach the point that you find the horror movies like comedies. Or visit graveyards, morgues alone at night, etc... I don't know if you have heard or read somewhere that there are still people who believes in the "anting-anting/ orasyon, etc." (amuletets, divination, etc.) in the Philippines. I will not say my point of view on this subject fully but there are still some who are using it or believe in it. Many people are still very superstitious even to this day. Two of my bros are officers and they said that these people still exist... nuff said
One very good technique we use is to meditate and imagine that we are fighting with scary enemies and sometimes imagining fighting with monsters. Same as image training but here you use all your best and dirtiest fighting techniques. Maybe you can imagine that you will be wrestling with a huge scary opponent and will imagine using your best grappling technique, then he will counter it and again you will use another of your technique and it goes on and on until you win.
So if you are uneasy with bigger, uglier opponents then probably best to train with the biggest, ugliest guy in your team, HAHAHA!
Some found out that by going to the toilet to unload before a fight helps. Some don't eat that much. Some eat lemons (calamansi) or very spicy pepper (siling labuyo probably for fear control and adrenaline). Some bring their lucky rabbit's foot or a lucky coin, lucky towel, etc. My son gets uneasy when I watch his compes so I don't watch anymore... You just have to find what is good for you.
Since I don't compete, I find these techs now useless for me. But one thing I would like to share is my experience last year. I was bitten by a poisonous snake. I was so relax that my friends were the ones who was worried. I was helping a friend in the mountains and still continued to work after several hours and totally ignored going to the hospital and drove back for another two hours. When I reached the doctor it was about 6-7 hours after I got bitten. My hand was swollen like a balloon. The doctors checked my vitals and found that everything was ok aside from my swollen hand and the poison that may reach my heart but was wondering why it took me so long to go to the hospital. They said that I should have collapsed hours ago. Probably it was because that I was very relaxed. I even got scolded and said that I should care for my life more. I'm not really scared of dying to be honest and when I got bitten, my first reaction was to call my wife to check if I still have my life insurance because I was ok to hit the ditch as long as I can leave something for my family. If you want to see the cute snake, it's on my FB. Just PM me and you'll see it and my swollen hand The doctor said that many would have freaked out but there there have been similar cases mostly coming from Okinawa and most are martial artist. Probably martial artist have more control on our fears or most of us are just crazy, lol.
I'm still a very coward person and still finding ways to control my fears so please find yours too. You have a nice day OK! Train hard, fight easy
Got a PM from hma123 aking me why I couldn't share other methods on fear control. It's not really because this is a public forum but because some methods may be illegal, some are weird and some are just too stupid. But for laughs I will share some that I think no sane guy would follow, lol. Methods may be beneficial to some looney tunes but are useless to most. I don't know if you can use it for competition. Best to share here openly so that others too may get some laughs.
First if you can read my BS at the Meet & Greet section, this would help you understand my background
FEAR CONTROL: Using "medicines" is not good and is illegal especially for competition so let's pass on this OK... I'm no guru or expert and I'm just sharing this based on experience so please don't burn me... One method I learned but only tried it 3 times is to wrap my tiny gigglers and wear very tight undies to the point it that hurts so bad that receiving some blows doesn't hurt that much anymore. It was so painful and was in a very bad mood that all I wanted was to get done with it and release the tension. Actually I used it once during a friendly/stupid stick fight but the rattan sticks still did hurt but my main focus was still down there. The spar is just a small part because if I lose, I will expect some good jungle booting from my seniors who placed their bet on me and that was what I feared most. It was really primitive and stupid.
There is another tech that we use to control fear and it is by doing things to overcome our fears. If a guy fears heights, he will learn to love it. If he fears tight and dark places, he will be in the box. If he hates snakes, it'll be his new best friend. If he fears swimming at night, he will be swimming until morning or until he reaches the shore, etc. Before most of us hates dogs so the procedure was to be chased by some very angry drooling dogs. It was a small closed alley and the only escape was to climb the wall on the opposite side. Very good for cardio training. I'm only 168cms (your little sister is taller than me, lol) but thanks to this training that I learned how to run faster and jump higher. We did it so many times that we thought that it was funny especially when the dogs got bored of chasing us. Another is controlling the fear of the unknown (ghost, spirits, etc.). Yes some people can get very scared with the unknown especially those who are very religious. One very simple method is to watch many crazy horror movies alone at night where you reach the point that you find the horror movies like comedies. Or visit graveyards, morgues alone at night, etc... I don't know if you have heard or read somewhere that there are still people who believes in the "anting-anting/ orasyon, etc." (amuletets, divination, etc.) in the Philippines. I will not say my point of view on this subject fully but there are still some who are using it or believe in it. Many people are still very superstitious even to this day. Two of my bros are officers and they said that these people still exist... nuff said
One very good technique we use is to meditate and imagine that we are fighting with scary enemies and sometimes imagining fighting with monsters. Same as image training but here you use all your best and dirtiest fighting techniques. Maybe you can imagine that you will be wrestling with a huge scary opponent and will imagine using your best grappling technique, then he will counter it and again you will use another of your technique and it goes on and on until you win.
So if you are uneasy with bigger, uglier opponents then probably best to train with the biggest, ugliest guy in your team, HAHAHA!
Some found out that by going to the toilet to unload before a fight helps. Some don't eat that much. Some eat lemons (calamansi) or very spicy pepper (siling labuyo probably for fear control and adrenaline). Some bring their lucky rabbit's foot or a lucky coin, lucky towel, etc. My son gets uneasy when I watch his compes so I don't watch anymore... You just have to find what is good for you.
Since I don't compete, I find these techs now useless for me. But one thing I would like to share is my experience last year. I was bitten by a poisonous snake. I was so relax that my friends were the ones who was worried. I was helping a friend in the mountains and still continued to work after several hours and totally ignored going to the hospital and drove back for another two hours. When I reached the doctor it was about 6-7 hours after I got bitten. My hand was swollen like a balloon. The doctors checked my vitals and found that everything was ok aside from my swollen hand and the poison that may reach my heart but was wondering why it took me so long to go to the hospital. They said that I should have collapsed hours ago. Probably it was because that I was very relaxed. I even got scolded and said that I should care for my life more. I'm not really scared of dying to be honest and when I got bitten, my first reaction was to call my wife to check if I still have my life insurance because I was ok to hit the ditch as long as I can leave something for my family. If you want to see the cute snake, it's on my FB. Just PM me and you'll see it and my swollen hand
The doctor said that many would have freaked out but there there have been similar cases mostly coming from Okinawa and most are martial artist. Probably martial artist have more control on our fears or most of us are just crazy, lol.I'm still a very coward person and still finding ways to control my fears so please find yours too. You have a nice day OK! Train hard, fight easy
To our kind moderator, please delete my post if you think that this is offensive or just plain stupid. Peace
I doubt anyone will be offended.
Ill leave it to the intended recipient to decide if any of thats useful to him. As a general comment though, did you ask the other person why he didnt ask you that publically? He may have wanted to speak with you specifically.
Cirdan
Senior Master
I think some "boom-boom before big fight" might actually help...
