Week 25 - An Exercise of the Mind - Part 2

Let's start with an interesting week on the scales.  A few points of note.  Weigh in bottomed out at 98.8kg.  First time in the 98s.  Only dropped 200 grams in that space.  My average weight was 100kg on the nose.  I was busting to drop that average weight figure to double digits, but, I guess I will have to save that happy dance I had planned for next week.  It does however, represent a 400 gram drop in average.

So...there is a challenge on the horizon.  At some stage in September there will be an ammateur MMA competition in Sydney.  Entering in the competition, irrespective of the date has been a goal for me as part of this process.  I contacted the organisers and they are yet to set a date.  Based on the timings of past events I suspect it will be in September at some stage.  So here is the nervous challenge that is before me.  How to go from the weight I am today to 93kg in 5-8 weeks?  If it's 8 weeks, then I breathe a little easier even if my heart rate is still a little above resting.  If it is closer to 5 or 6 weeks.....badabom....badabom.....badabom you can probably hear it beating from where you are now.

I consulted briefly with my dietician and she was confident that I could achieve the weight I am looking for without sacrificing enough muscle to have an impact on my performance.  Comforting from an outcomes perspective, but, possible does still equal a lot of work and dedication from here to the official weigh in time.  Something that both excites and scares me a little at the same time.  Nothing like a serious challenge to inspire some equally serious motivation.

Realistically, I am targetting 95kg with a view to sweating out a couple of kilograms prior to weigh in for the event.  It should leave me enough time prior to the competition to rehydrate properly and perform well from a physical perspective at least.  I know from experience that dropping 2kg in a session is not hard for me.  Doing so without impacting performance the next day is something I am thinking more about at the moment.

Seeing something like this on the immediate horizon is exciting, terrifying and extremely motivating all at the same time.  I don't have the time, space or vocabulary to fully account for all the emotions that it evokes.  I think those three are probably the strongest.  Now to work with them and get through the routine and responsibilities of daily life, while trying to really up my game in all aspects of preparation for the competition.

Putting all that to one side, last week I wrote about parts of the mental aspects of training and preparing to compete in MMA.  After being part of my coach's preparation in the past few months and first competition over the weekend, I have plenty of new material to work through in my head.  However, this week I wanted to go back to some of the other revelations that presented themselves during Coach Richie's recent visit to train us.

Some of my favourite posts to date have centred on the concept of "The Good Training Partner" .  Following that link will take you to them (this one will appear at the top of that search link, so just scroll past it if you are interested).  Between learning how to control my intensity to suit the situation and training partner at the time and the desire to 'keep it playful' in exploring all positions, dominant and inferior, on the grappling mats, the efforts on this front have been some of the most rewarding.  To those ends, I feel like I have learned a great deal about measuring and changing levels of intensity when practicing grappling for example.  To the point where perhaps I had found myself comfortable and maybe even overconfident at times in being able to get out of difficult positions on the mat.  On one side of the ledger, the logic for me has always been about experiencing the bad spots in training so that if and or when I found myself in those same positions in competition (or perish the thought worse), I would be at least familiar enough with the situation so as not to panic.  The key objective being to maintain my critical thinking and use it in executing what technique I may have to put towards reversing the situation.

This strategy has really opened the door for me in terms of the variety of people that I am now comfortable training with and perhaps most importantly from the perspective that I am generally not afraid of hurting training partners any more.  I used to be so worried that I was going to break everyone through my inexperience.  I feel like I have learned enough so that people can walk away from training not cursing my name.  That's got to be positive right?  The other immeasurable benefit is how much I am learning in this approach.  I am no world beater, but, it really has helped my development more than would have been the case otherwise.

Arriving centre stage to this happy story is one Coach Richie.  At his recent visit I had the opportunity to roll (practice grapple) with him.  I worked up the courage to actually take it this time!  I learned so much in those 3 minutes and I would say that nearly all of it was in relation to what was going on in my head.  I've always been impressed with the knowledge Coach Richie has as well as his openness to share it.  He was also one of the first people I saw in the flesh whose movements, in my mind at least, put the art in martial arts.  So fluid and precise.  But enough stargazing no good giving the guy a big head!

What struck me when we started was Coach Richie was coaching straight away.  Natural enough when you think about it I suppose.  A quiet word here or there like 'posture' or 'relax' showed me that he was in the place that I usually try to go, that of slowing things down to the point where you're comfortable and you're seeing more than just the basics of what is in front of you.  Of course I am nothing like as practiced at it, but, it is something that I constantly aspire to do.  I was pleased with some aspects of what I did in that I could recognise a couple of occasions where Coach Richie left a door open for me to walk through if I knew how and at least from what I discerned, I took my chances when they presented.  He was never threatened by anything I did I know for sure, but, it was nice to know that I could at least improve my position at times, even if they were gimmes.

Conversely there was not one moment where I felt safe.  Not that I felt in danger of being hurt or anything, but, more that I felt that Coach Richie could have ended the competition at any time he wanted.  It's pretty clear to me now that this was in my head before I started and quite clearly affected what I was doing.  At one point he paused at told me to relax and control my breathing.  I was snapped out of whatever world I was in and straight away saw that I was breathing far heavier that I had noticed and have been used to under normal circumstances.  On the pleasing side of the ledger, I was not in danger of gassing (a common word for fatiguing) as my fitness has really improved.  But, there I was, breathing hard like I was running a race.

When the 30 second call was given indicating that there was half a minute left in the round, I suddenly became aware of the hands and arms tightening around me in a submission hold forcing me to tap out.  The simple gesture of a couple of light taps on my training partner's back indicating my acknowledgement of defeat.  Absolutely validating my suspicion that I was indeed never safe and had been at the simple mercy of that same training partner.  Who had of course had his coach's hat on the whole time and had been silently teaching me throughout.

At the end, we exchanged a few simple words.  Coach Richie reinforced the message that I needed to relax and not try to strength things, which is a common flaw in bigger guys.  I explained that I was quite nervous.  At the time, this was about all I could express of the ideas and concepts about what had taken place that were starting to whizz around in my head.  I remain fascinated at just how much of an impact it had on me.  To both learn from and 'compete' with someone so vastly more experienced and skilled than me.  All those things that I have been working on in terms of keeping my head clear, controlling my breathing and exploring the experience generally, left me in the heat of the moment.  It reminded me just how much of a mental game it really is and the impact that your state of mind has on your physical performance.  The ability to stay calm and evaluate the situations critically can make or break the outcome of the competition.  It reaffirmed my commitment to the path I have been walking in relation to training myself to remain calm and practice dominant and inferior positions with a diverse range of people.  Those that really challenge me for different reasons.  To work on varying the intensity at which I practice to ensure that I remain alert to opportunities to grasp onto.  Whilst ultimately searching for victory in live competition.

Even though this is a huge post, it really is cutting a long story short, because I took so much away from the experience.  Thanks for sticking with it if you made it this far.