Issue 121
November 2014
Has your performance dropped despite no rest in your efforts? Then perhaps you need to take things back to basics.
Losing a handful of fights back-to-back inside the UFC is a sure-fire way to almost guarantee your P45 will be in the morning mail.
The pressure of performing under the brightest lights and on MMA’s biggest stage is intimidating enough, but combined with back-to-back defeats you can be sure the anxiety in securing victory will become irrepressible if you’re not equipped to handle it.
Learning how to fight out of a performance slump is more often than not a mental issue, certainly at the highest level. If a fighter has made it into the UFC – or any other leading MMA organization – they can be sure they’ve arrived there on merit. So now is certainly no time to question their ability. In fact, that’s the worst thing they can do.
Overthinking your capabilities is another certain way to allow your performance dip to snowball. By second guessing the mechanics of your actions you’re immediately taking away your reactionary control and your opponent will use this opportunity to seize the initiative – and the decision.
Mental coach Dr Patrick J Cohn, best selling author and Peak Performance Sports CEO, illustrates the case in point. “Instead of MMA, let’s use a baseball analogy,” he explains. “Say you play baseball and you have a few bad at-bats and so you begin feeling anxious in the batter’s box about your performance.
“You work on your swing more in practice causing you to think more about your mechanics at the plate in games. You become so focussed on how you should swing that you can’t focus on recognizing pitches. Now you’re stuck in a practice mind-set.
“You become too mechanical and you swing late on pitches you normally would hit. Overthinking can keep you in a slump. Trying too hard and making a lot of physical changes can actually keep you stuck in a slump. Overthinking your game can keep you from making progress.”
Indeed Dr Cohn, who works with a glittering array of professional athletes from a spectrum of fields, insists the most successful way most athletes climb their way out of a slump is by keeping it simple and going back to basics. Or simply by focusing on what they’ve done well in the past.
And he’s not alone. Dr Bob Winters is one of the most sought after mental coaches working on the PGA Tour and specializes in performance enhancement. He agrees that going back to the original source of any inspiration for competition is a tried and trusted method to bounce back to form.
“You have to ask the athlete what is it that they really want and what are they really willing to work for,” he says. “Those two things right there are not necessarily the same thing because a person may want something very bad, but if they’re not willing to work and train and prepare for it, it will never come.”
He adds: “The great athletes, they have an inner drive, a passion for the pursuit of excellence. They don’t really compare themselves to anyone else; they compare themselves to their own standards of excellence, and they love what they do and they’re not afraid to go down and get dirty in order to achieve those goals. That’s what passion gives you.”
In MMA, unlike most sports, a slump can unfortunately all but KO a UFC stay. Yet that doesn’t necessarily mean the end either. As many fighters have proved already, the Zuffa roster is like one large revolving door.
Indeed plenty of fighters have come through rapid career deterioration to bounce back stronger than ever before. Leading UFC welterweight contender Robbie Lawler, for one, was cut by the UFC 10 years ago, and he couldn’t buy successive wins in his Strikeforce days.
And yet look at ‘Ruthless’ now. The number-one ranked 170lb fighter on the planet is awaiting a date for a second shot at Johny Hendricks’ UFC belt. “I didn’t have any doubts I would be back in the UFC,” Lawler confessed to FO last year. “What kind of mind-set would that be? There’s no way I would doubt myself.”
He added: “I always concentrated on fighting and thought that if I did that, the rest would take care of itself.”
Similarly, former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski failed to win a fight in three years between 2008 and 2011 yet kept this focus to finally string together a succession of winning performances – and also force his way back into the Octagon.
“When I was outside the UFC I knew I was going to be back in there one day,” he explained to FO just last month. “I have goals and I need to reach them... I’m just going to fight for myself, for my family and for my friends.”
FIVE TOP TIPS TO END A SLUMP
1. Stay committed to your goals. Being in a slump makes it easy to question your motivation and career targets, but don’t.
2. Focus on keeping your performance simple instead of making drastic changes. If anything, change up your training routine to keep it fresh.
3. Don’t panic and make big changes in your method.
4. Focus on your performance instead of the results. Don’t get caught up in demanding great results.
5. Step away from your sport for a bit. Clear your mind of it. This will give you time to renew your attitude and body before coming back into practice.
