MMA Mental Training for MMA fighters and Coaches: Lesson One
Editor-in-Chief December 20, 2012First we need to know what is mental training? Mental training is the discovery and training of your automatic response system. This system runs your bodily functions such as breathing, blinking your eyes, digesting food and is born into you. It can however be trained as in reflex actions like jerking away from being burnt or injured. This a learned behavior and turns into reactionary behavior. Through repetitive actions the subconscious starts an automatic response to situational activities like fighting or other sporting venues. Like driving a car after so many times being acted we do things without conscious thought, these are now habitual acts. As a fighter this is exactly what I need to have: automatic response. The conscious mind can do only one thing at a time while the subconscious can do hundreds. So if you are tying to perform just using your conscious thought you will be to slow to perform at a high level.The conscious mind has only one task in most sports and that is aiming or measuring, for the automatic response system. This automatic response system has to be trained through repetition to perform the desired tasks automatically without thought.
Now the subconscious mind has been called the willing servant by some coaches and that means it will do exactly as ordered. So be very careful what orders or messages you are giving. For example people always say, “I cant remember names”, and they start saying this after a few failed attempts at recalling names. They start with an occasional problem of recalling names , and after telling the willing servant ( the subconscious mind ) “I can’t remember names”, it says “Okay, don’t recall names he said he can’t remember names.” Now this person is stuck with a bad habitual behavior, created by their own words to self. So start by watching your self talk and inventory your self talk. Write down every negative message you say to yourself and the negative messages from others. All of them past and present we are going to clean house start fresh and build a confident and capable athletic mind.
Until lesson two. God bless.
“Grandpa” Don Williams is a mental traing coach and a highly inspirational MMA fighter, who has competed until the age of 56 He can be reached at: mindcoach49201@yahoo.com
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