Fighters Only

Issue 081

November 2011

Win the fight within your own mind and the world is yours

It’s not often we hear UFC commentator Joe Rogan use the term ‘heart’ but, when we do, it’s a label we usually associate with mental toughness. It’s reserved for those few fighters who posses an unbreakable will that point-blank refuses to stay down.

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.

You’ll struggle to find any greater examples inside the Octagon than Cheick Kongo’s insane half-unconscious KO comeback over Pat Barry. But there is much more to it than just Rocky-style comebacks. Psychologists, combatants and coaches agree that mental toughness is the prime psychological characteristic a fighter must posses in order for them to survive the increasing emotional and physical demands of MMA’s extreme competition.

Some may argue you’re either born with it or you’re not, the physical side of fighting can be taught, but not ‘heart.’ However, having worked with fighters from across the globe I’ve learned heart takes place from the neck up and is simply a state of mind which can be trained, just as stand-up, groundwork and conditioning can.

One stand-out member of the emerging super-breed, Jon ‘Bones’ Jones, may not have been backed into a corner yet, but that is mainly because he is developing and embodying the key psychological constructs associated with the mentally tough elite.

Fight psych tips

Focus: ‘Centering’ techniques can reduce stress and panic. It allows you to pay attention to your body and breathing, redirecting focus from the anxiety causing the distraction. As with all mental exercises, find and focus on your rate of breathing as it floods the bloodstream with O2 and energies the brain. Create a key word or short phrase to repeat that helps you center the mind on the task at hand. For example ‘stay sharp’ or ‘take your time,’ ‘steady.’ Do this for competition or even media appearances.

Self-Belief: Or self-efficacy is the core mindset in having faith in your fighting ability and the confidence to execute your game when the challenge presents itself. Self-belief relies on a catalyst, which is simply ‘choose to be confident.’ Champions know this and consistently exhibit their ABCs ‘Always Behave Confidently.’ Once you understand this, your confidence levels will feed directly from improvements of your performances allowing you to evolve.

Warning: Overestimating confidence is only a problem if you cut corners in training because you believe your abilities are better than they are.

Sacrifice: Is knowing that the fight is really with yourself and letting nature take its course. In the lead up before his clash between ‘Shogun’ Rua, Jones spoke at length that the fight was with himself and that his mental preparation embraced ‘fight my fight’ philosophy. In a sport where the tide can turn in a nanosecond, the best fighter does not always win; it is the athlete who fights the best. By removing the gravity of the situation and not making the fatal error going into the bout with the ‘this is it, do or die’ or ‘tomorrow never comes’ attitude Jones was able to relax, leave it all out in the Octagon and fight his fight.

Enjoyment: If you don’t enjoy it, find another sport. If you do, the ‘zone’ welcomes you.

Remember, cultivating mental toughness requires practice and time to develop. You have more heart than you realize, your job, alongside your coaches’, is to unearth what you have inside. Developing mental toughness could allow you to unlock your body’s true fighting potential.