It’s always a fun time for me when someone gets angry about what I’m doing at ring-side. Just tonight, another person accosted me – wanting to know why I am writing things down before, during, and after a fight. Often times they think I’m with the news media, a recruiter (I get that one a lot, for some reason,) or my favorite – an undercover cop.
I can’t blame them, I do stick out and I understand that. Who else is at a fight, writing tablet in hand, taking copious notes?
‘If you have to know,’ I tell them, ‘I’m checking the pre-fight body language of both fighters and checking it against the end result.’ This usually gets their head spinning. I’ve been doing this a lot, recently. Just a kick I’m on (no fight pun intended!)
But seriously, I tell them, I’m doing research. Of course, they retort, “I don’t understand. What does that have to do with fighting?” Honestly, what else could it possibly have to do with? I’m five feet away from the ring. Also, how could they even begin to understand what I’m doing – since they don’t do what I do, right?
I say, “it has everything to do with the way the fight turns out.” They say, “Oh, I got ya. Kind of like
Georges St. Pierre. He’s big on the mental stuff.” Why is it always Georges St. Pierre? My personal favorite example is Chuck Liddell and his awesome comeback after working with a team of people including Anthony Robbins (Google Anthony Robbins and Chuck Liddell for the YouTube video.)
What I never tell, in the short amount of time the interrogation lasts, is that more importantly I’m calibrating the fighters’ state of mind. What? Yes, calibrating their state of mind. Your posture, stance, facial expressions, movement, focus, amping up routine, response to the crowd, response to their corner coaches, etc. are all indicators of your internal state of mind. Our bodies are an outward expression of our inner thoughts. There’s literally no hiding it. It’s just a matter of being trained to see it.
Calibrating is something I do so that when I’m working with an athlete, I am constantly matching what I’m seeing with the fighter in front of me (during a one on one coaching session)to previous memories of them before fights; and when necessary, calibrating against other fighters’ states of mind that are powerful. My commitment to my clients is that don’t stop until I give them the knowledge and power to access this powerful pre-fight state of mind on demand.
This pre-fight state of mind is only one moment of the fight that every fighter knows is crucial to their fight.
Do this, yourself. When watching fights, what behavior are the fighters engaging in before winning a fight. Calibrate to it (meaning match it and test, match it and test, until you’ve got what you want.)
Now get your head in the game!
P.S. What I’m doing before, during and after:
before (writing down the fighters’ names and making my choice,)
during (tracking down and writing down names still ’cause I didn’t hear it the first time) and
after (notating winner – loser)
Check out the original posting at Midwest Fighters Focus
