Issue 093
October 2012
Rewire negative thinking to put yourself on the path to glory
Joe Bell
Sport psychologist
Joe Bell is a chartered sport psychologist and one of few leading mental performance coaches in the world specializing in combat sport psychology.
One of the most prominent characteristics amongst the pride of purebred mixed martial artists is, they all project high levels of confidence. But champions have more than this. They have self-belief. In psychology we call it self-efficacy: which is where a person has an unyielding belief or faith in their abilities that allows them to overcome whatever obstacle stands in their way.
Self-belief is knowing you can win even though you might be losing. During the first encounter between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen, where ‘The Spider’ was held down and systematically beaten for almost 23 minutes by his rival, Silva still believed he could win.
The distinction between confidence and self-belief is that if fighters find themselves on the back foot, confidence can be knocked but self-belief endures. Many combatants get frustrated during a fight because they know they’re on par, if not possess superior skill, than their opponent but they end up consistently getting picked apart, which targets their confidence.
The problem is, instead of resetting and getting back into the fight they allow themselves to fixate on their errors and this causes negativity to flood the psyche. ‘I shouldn’t have gone for the takedown,’ ‘He’s better than I thought,’ or ‘I’m going to lose.’ The danger with negative inner dialogue or negative self-talk is it results in the creation of a limiting self-belief, which can mutate into self-fulfilling prophecy.
It is agreed among the neuroscience community that we all walk around with an ongoing dialogue, or self-talk, of approximately 150 to 300 words per minute, which equates to 45,000-plus thoughts a day. Whether these are positive or negative thoughts, they literally etch themselves as they travel through our brain as neural pathways (imagine a network of minuscule trenches). Therefore if you want to improve limiting self-belief into empowering self-belief you have to dig new trenches the same way they were created, using affirmations.
Affirmations
Affirmations are statements of fact or belief that can guide you to your desired goal (i.e. defeating your opponent). It’s anything that follows ‘I am.’ So, ‘I am lightning fast,’ ‘I am going to be champ,’ is an affirmation. The sheer simplicity of affirmations causes them to be unheeded by most, but they are regularly used by most UFC champions – including welterweight kingpin Georges St Pierre.
The process for changing a limiting belief to an empowering belief using affirmations is a straightforward one. Training the mind is like any pad or submission drill; you need to repeat them constantly so they become ingrained. Affirmations use the same process:
Stage 1
Identify the areas of your fight game (a maximum of five to start off with) which are not working for you. For example, limiting belief in your wrestling, cage fright, or talk of the other fighter’s superior skill in a particular area.
Stage 2
Cement them by writing out affirmations that represent everything the way you envision them. These will be the instrument for creating new empowering and positive neural pathways.
Stage 3
Make sure your affirmations are short and to the point, easy enough that a child would understand them. They need to be positive, clear and in the present tense, as if it is already fact, for example, ‘I am an explosive fighter.’ The important thing to remember is these affirmations are yours to create and can change at any time.
Stage 4
Speak your affirmations aloud between five to 20 times (depending on the time you have and the number of beliefs you are paving). Times to say these aloud are as you leave or enter the house, in the shower, in your car, before you enter the gym, walking the dog, or bag sessions.
Have your affirmations positioned so you can’t avoid them. Maybe stuck on the fridge, sun visor, cellphone screen saver.
The key to success is by speaking your affirmations aloud you are wiring your thoughts to the brain’s electrical grid, specifically speech, and this occupies more of your brain by engaging two more of your senses: auditory and kinesthetic.
It’s vital you trust this process and give your affirmations time to entrench to give you your desired goal. Word of warning: concern and self-doubt as to whether your affirmations are a waste of time or that it’s something you see crazy people do, only communicates concern and self-doubt to your subconscious which is likely to cause the affirmation to fail.
When high levels of self-belief merge with skill ability and motivation within a hungry fighter, it becomes a lethal concoction that often dictates the victor because it allows them to persevere through adversity.
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