What I Do for Mental Training

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

This was my answer to someone on Reddit who messaged me and asked what I do for mental training. I'm posting it here in case others have had success or experience, or if there are questions people have an would like to raise.

This is what I said: 

Thanks for listening to the whole interview and I’m happy it resonated with you. I’m still working a lot of this out myself and there’s a LOT of trial and error, just like with physical training. It’s also so much easier to slack off of mental training than it is getting physical work in. So whatever routine you figure out for yourself, really set a schedule and stick to it. Break it up into a 5-20 minutes various times throughout the day.

Hey, not selling this, it’s expensive. But it was an investment and it worked for me

I used this program for myself and found it really helpful: 14 Steps to Mental Toughness. He walks you through some visualizations, using imaginary waves to match rhythms to your breathing for relaxation. Something my brother taught me, also, is that you can practice and teach yourself how to visualize using more mundane things than your training or fight. I found it SO HARD to visualize fighting in a concrete way. So John asked me to describe in strong detail just walking around my apartment. Picking things up, where everything is, how it smells, the lighting, etc. Stuff I see literally every day. That way I see how to visualize with all that detail and can slowly start applying it to being in the ring. A fight is an “event,” but what you’re visualizing isn’t. You’re kind of exploring a space and possibilities – like playing GTA in your brain.

Something that really helped me from the tapes was writing down my thoughts before, during and after training, every day. So I’d get to the gym and immediately sit down and just write whatever I was feeling: “tired,” “sleepy,” “unmotivated but ready to work,” “strong,” “I”m going to kill my trainer on the pads,” etc. Then I’d check in and do some more mid-training, then again after everything but before going home. It showed me a few things: 1) My thoughts were really negative a lot of the time, for really no reason. I actually ended up naturally adjusting for this by writing the negative feeling but immediately countering it with “but…” and whatever good could come of it. I wasn’t forcing myself to be positive, I actually just started feeling like “I’m tired but I can focus on being relaxed in my movements” was better at driving me. 2) It showed me that my thoughts change over time in practice. I can come in feeling negative and end up feeling great at the end. Or I can come in rearing to go and then something that happens in training gets me down. Which leads to 3) I have control over how I respond to things. I just have to be aware of it – mindful of what I’m thinking and whether or not I want to keep thinking those things.

More recently I’m working on connecting relaxing breaths to active movements. So instead of holding my breath when I’m being hit or blocking or striking, I pay attention to breathe out and in with a rhythm to my movements. The point is to get my heart rate down under pressure, but it’s conditioning myself to do it automatically through movements I’m going to be using without being able to think about breathing. If you breathe while trying to drink water you choke. But you don’t think about “don’t breathe” in order to drink water – you do it automatically. So I’m trying to get my body to do those automatic things to stay relaxed under pressure.

As for a schedule, figure out where you need to focus your attention: how you talk to yourself, how you respond under pressure, visualizing, etc. and work out a plan to work on these things several times every day. I visualize when I lie down for a nap or sleep. I write when I’m at the gym. I breathe when I’m actually training.

 

[Damali Fraiser]

I find this post really really helpful.  Over 3 distinct fights I found that mental training was a huge contributing factor to my success and failure.  First time I had any suggestion to address the mental aspects of my training was from my strength coach last year who recommended I read "Relentless" .  At that time my fight that immediately followed that read was my best performance to date and I was not at my best physically but overcame with effective strikes, not gased, just overall feeling of accomplishment (unanimous decision WIN).  However, I left the book alone and did not follow up with anything following.  I had a surgery, took some time to recover and wanted back in, following a pretty 'meh' demo I took a fight against an opponent that for the most part I was expected to outperform just from power.  I had the worst performance EVER, I was so nervous after the first round I was so exhausted, just completely depleted.  I felt that I completely defeated myself before I even stepped foot in that ring (unanimous decision LOSS).... fast forward a couple months later to Muay Thai Classic and I began reading "Mind Gym" shortly before and again I had what was an amazing performance to me (Unanimous decision LOSS) I was relaxed, focused.  It was a clinch battle and I executed to the best my ability in the circumstance.... I'm looking for any suggestions to make a serious commitment to mental training.

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

I find this post really really helpful.  Over 3 distinct fights I found that mental training was a huge contributing factor to my success and failure.  First time I had any suggestion to address the mental aspects of my training was from my strength coach last year who recommended I read "Relentless" .  At that time my fight that immediately followed that read was my best performance to date and I was not at my best physically but overcame with effective strikes, not gased, just overall feeling of accomplishment (unanimous decision WIN).  However, I left the book alone and did not follow up with anything following.  I had a surgery, took some time to recover and wanted back in, following a pretty 'meh' demo I took a fight against an opponent that for the most part I was expected to outperform just from power.  I had the worst performance EVER, I was so nervous after the first round I was so exhausted, just completely depleted.  I felt that I completely defeated myself before I even stepped foot in that ring (unanimous decision LOSS).... fast forward a couple months later to Muay Thai Classic and I began reading "Mind Gym" shortly before and again I had what was an amazing performance to me (Unanimous decision LOSS) I was relaxed, focused.  It was a clinch battle and I executed to the best my ability in the circumstance.... I'm looking for any suggestions to make a serious commitment to mental training.

So much the same for me. It's hard to realize - like, really accept - that I have to keep working on the mental all the time, not just when it's been a hard time and I want something to make me feel better. You would never expect to just do 10 pushups a week before the fight and be stronger. You have to keep doing it, and then do 20, then more, etc.

My most recent fight I worked really hard on the mental practice. I'd lost 9 days prior and had no time to make physical changes, so I knew it was all mental. I worked and was very dedicated to the mental training. And while I lost again, I performed really well - same as you describe above. And I feel good, ready to learn and improve. But the physical side is so easy to design for yourself - watch some videos, read some routines off of athletes you like, make up your own circuit. But the mental isn't as intuitive. I think it's actually embarrassing to work on confidence and being kind to yourself - it feels narcissistic or something.

I asked my brother in my interview with him, "what is the 'couch to 5-K' of Mental Toughness?" Just the most bare-bones starter program. He talked about breathing and relaxation, recommended some books. If I were to ask myself that same question and have the gall to offer an authoritative answer, I'd say this: start with "act as if." Think about the kind of confident, strong, calm and collected athlete you aspire to be and then act as if you are that athlete. Confidence is an action before it's a feeling, not vice versa. That's something I believe wholesale. Being consistent with training and kind on days when my mind is weak (just as the body can be) is hard, but I've seen how worth it the effort is.