Jump to content

Mental toughness


Recommended Posts

My worst habit is being scared to kick high ( I’ve landed wrong and hurt my ankle quite bad ) now I have no confidence in throwing anything except the low kick, I know the problem is mainly in my head but I can’t seem to get past it

( I had bloody nose etc and that doesn’t stop me from sparring, even though I know apunch to the face hurts )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My worst habit is being scared to kick high ( I’ve landed wrong and hurt my ankle quite bad ) now I have no confidence in throwing anything except the low kick, I know the problem is mainly in my head but I can’t seem to get past it

( I had bloody nose etc and that doesn’t stop me from sparring, even though I know apunch to the face hurts )

LUCY!!!  :banana: 

 

Coincidentally this week's training was my coach and I focusing on throwing "mid/high kicks" Because of how short I am, I have been focusing on low/leg kicks and it became a habit of mine to just throw that move, which can be predictable obviously. 

So my coach and I were drilling mid or high kicks non-stop. During pad-calls, I've executed those kicks perfectly fine. But when I started doing technical-sparring with him, they looked like shit lol. Mind you, we didn't wear shin-guards as we decided to get the feel of moving around without any bulk, and we were going about 50% with pressure. I think mentally speaking, I keep thinking that: "Omg, I might hurt him  :pinch: " in my mind, I know he can take it and so can I. He just kept reminding me: "Jamaica, just fucking let it go. Don't worry I'll block it.If your kicks are sloppy, expect a hard kick back LOL" So I told myself, "OK shit - let's do this" Mins later after drilling the same move over and over again, I finally was able to kick mid/high properly.

On top of this session, I've also figured out how long my freaking distance was. I realized, holy shit, I can kick that far AND I can kick that high! 

Going back to mental toughness - I think it comes overtime; definitely something you can practice. Something I've been working on myself. I know for a fact during my Muay Thai journey, there was hesitation and fear of hurting someone. What helped me overcome those fears was learning how to always go 100% during pad-work, sparring like you mean it (obviously take account of not hurting your partners) and eventually, you'll get past it. My coach is the type of guy to give me a hard time...and I really appreciate why he takes that approach on me. There were times where I nearly puked from exhaustion, where I get beat up because of how sloppy my kicks/punches were... or how I drop my hands... but I am so glad he motivates me and pushes me to my limits. He definitely plays a key-role in boosting my confidence in a special way. 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

OMG I can’t explain how good it is to read that!

Pad work is fine I can kick high ( for my height ) and quite hard, but not in sparring as I just get scared. It wasn’t until I read your reply that I realised I’m the same, what if I do hurt him / her? Especially as I’ve just started at this new place and we are being encouraged to spar at 100% something I’ve never heard of before.

But thinking it through, if if I want to fight I need to learn how to hit hard and how to be hit or I’m going to get a shock in a real fight lol

Everything at the new place is the total opposite of what I was taught before so it’s going to take some getting used to and I’m still a bit hung up on before ( my last trainer banned me saying ‘you want to fight, but you’ll never be good enough, so I’m not training you anymore’ ) I’ve had nearly a year out sulking and putting weight on!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

OMG I can’t explain how good it is to read that!

Pad work is fine I can kick high ( for my height ) and quite hard, but not in sparring as I just get scared. It wasn’t until I read your reply that I realised I’m the same, what if I do hurt him / her? Especially as I’ve just started at this new place and we are being encouraged to spar at 100% something I’ve never heard of before.

But thinking it through, if if I want to fight I need to learn how to hit hard and how to be hit or I’m going to get a shock in a real fight lol

Everything at the new place is the total opposite of what I was taught before so it’s going to take some getting used to and I’m still a bit hung up on before ( my last trainer banned me saying ‘you want to fight, but you’ll never be good enough, so I’m not training you anymore’ ) I’ve had nearly a year out sulking and putting weight on!

So sparring hard is a wake up call to say the least

 

I’m so glad your feeling more confident? I saw on fb it’s not long until you go away, I’m so jealous, you must put loads of pics up and let me know how much your having

 

Well hopefully the next time you head back to train, see if anything changes! You are right - once you step in the ring to fight, your opponent is there to hurt you. And I think that pressure or intention should reflect on your sparring and pad-holding with your partners. Its even interesting that you get to spar at 100% in your new gym. It may take some time to adjust to your new gym. If you don't feel comfortable of sparring too hard, see if you can communicate with your partner or coach for any suggestions. I wouldn't even bother sparring with that other egotistical girl (I saw your other post lol). Nothing's ever worse of getting a concussion during training before your fight. You're all there to train, work hard and learn. Not fucking busting each other's brains and give each other trauma. 

Yeah, its quite the journey! After my most recent fight when I lost through a decision, my mental game was a little over the place. In my heart, I know I want to fight again; I love Muay Thai. But there those days when I question myself: "Should I continue?.... WTF am I doing...?!" In light of all of this, I haven't stopped training yet...I am still going to Thailand to train and fight... so what is there to be afraid of when I have gone this far already. 

 

Lots of pics will be posted on IG and FB hahahaha. Aren't you heading back next year!? 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Love your attitude, what is there to be afraid of? Nothing!

I’m going back in April, I can’t wait, I’m hopibg to train as much as possible ( do t think I’ll be ready to fight there ) but hopefully I’ll be ready when I get back to the uk

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lucy: your previous trainer refused to carry on training you 'because you won't be good enough for a fight'? WTF?! So he's saying he's no good as a trainer then? It's one thing to gently let someone down by explaining that perhaps their ambition outflies their likely ability (dear me, have I heard that more than once in my life before!) but you don't then refuse to work with the person (unless it's to say, 'Try working with this trainer instead, perhaps they'll click better with you and maybe they can advance you more than I can'). Good for you not letting that wreck you, and picking up your training again.

Then go back to that original gym and beat the **** out of that trainer...

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know it’s so stupid, but apparently I wasn’t the first person he had done it to.

I took about 9 months out as I was so upset and I couldn’t see the point in training, then I decided to go to a lesson ( miles away from home where no one knew me ) and thought I’d train just to lose a bit of weight. Fell back in love with Muay Thai within the first 10 minutes, and 3 weeks in Ive been asked to join the fight team!!!

Everything I’ve ever wanted, except... I have those nagging doubts of what if I’m not good enough? What if I kick and hurt the other person? Or what if I get hurt / injured? Then suddenly I lose all confidence and my ex trainer has won, it’s a vicious circle, I just hope it gets better and I reach my full potential, even if that means being limited to interclub s and not actual fights

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lucy: so what if you're not good enough? You're not planning on fighting for a living, are you; the idea is to enjoy yourself! Your new trainer obviously thinks you ARE good enough, and they won't put you forward unless you're ready, and you'll be placed against someone who should be roughly your equal, so the two of you won't be hopelessly mismatched.

As for injuries; well, injuries happen all the time, no matter what sport you do (or even if you don't do any sport). I understand your worries, but you have to just let them go. The referee and your trainer should make sure things don't get out of hand. I worry sometimes that by some freaky chance I get a good punch or kick through and hurt my trainer; but that's the job. Anyway, he's pretty damn tough!

I think when I get back to training again I may worry about hurting myself, but quite honestly it's not any potential injury that bothers me (as realistically the chance of a serious injury is very remote, and anyway I ride motorbikes and horses, so I have a high-risk lifestyle), it's my work's reaction if I end up with another prolonged period of sick absence (I do a physical job and cannot do it with a limb in plaster!) But then again, we're a long time dead, so we might as well throw ourselves into Life while we can.

If you want to do this, then you can. Believe it.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Most Recent Topics

  • Latest Comments

    • The Three Great Maledictions on Desire I've studied Deleuze and Guattari for many years now, but this lecture on the Body Without Organs is really one of the the most clarifying, especially because he leaves the terminology behind, or rather shifts playfully and experimentally between terms, letting the light shine through. This is related to the continuity within High level traditional Muay Thai, and the avoidance of the culminating knock-out moment, the skating through, the ease and persistence. (You would need a background in Philosophy, and probably this particular Continental thought to get something more out of this.)   And we saw on previous occasions that the three great betrayals, the three maledictions on desire are: to relate desire to lack; to relate desire to pleasure, or to the orgasm – see [Wilhelm] Reich, fatal error; or to relate desire to enjoyment [jouissance]. The three theses are connected. To put lack into desire is to completely misrecognize the process. Once you have put lack into desire, you will only be able to measure the apparent fulfilments of desire with pleasure. Therefore, the reference to pleasure follows directly from desire-lack; and you can only relate it to a transcendence which is that of impossible enjoyment referring to castration and the split subject. That is to say that these three propositions form the same soiling of desire, the same way of cursing desire. On the other hand, desire and the body without organs at the limit are the same thing, for the simple reason that the body without organs is the plane of consistency, the field of immanence of desire taken as process. This plane of consistency is beaten back down, prevented from functioning by the strata. Hence terminologically, I oppose – but once again if you can find better words, I’m not attached to these –, I oppose plane of consistency and the strata which precisely prevent desire from discovering its plane of consistency, and which will proceed to orient desire around lack, pleasure, and enjoyment, that is to say, they will form the repressive mystification of desire. So, if I continue to spread everything out on the same plane, I say let’s look for examples where desire does indeed appear as a process unfolding itself on the body without organs taken as field of immanence or of consistency of desire. And here we could place the ancient Chinese warrior; and again, it is we Westerners who interpret the sexual practices of the ancient Chinese and Taoist Chinese, in any case, as a delay of enjoyment. You have to be a filthy European to understand Taoist techniques like that. It is, on the contrary, the extraction of desire from its pseudo-finality of pleasure in order to discover the immanence proper to desire in its belonging to a field of consistency. It is not at all to delay enjoyment.   This is not unrelated to the Cowardice of the Knockout piece I wrote:  
    • This is very beautiful, listen with the sound on. I'm not sure she understood what he meant in the beginning, "take me for a walk", but just watching him teach and talk. So much beauty.    
    • Wow, Dangkongfah "moo deng" (as they call her) won again. It fits a beautiful way.   Always enjoy watching her fight. Such an interesting fighter, we know her so well. Her opponent fought valiantly, trying to solve Dangkongfah's frustratingly minimalist style, but it wasn't enough. Dangkongfah won an important, decisive exchange in the 4th that locked up the narrative win, and then coasted to close femeu in the 5th, what she's so good at, retreating and nullifying. It's very nice to see Patong stadium reffing and judging in the traditional style, holding the line against Entertainment Muay Thai. A very well reffed fight. The promotion looks so solid, right in the middle of Phuket's Muay Thai scene. Very cool. This was a great test-case fight for those kinds of differences. Two fights in a row (at least) down in Pkuket, I wonder if Dangkongfah has moved down there to live and train. If so, she'll have a substantive trad promotion to fight on regularly.
  • The Latest From Open Topics Forum

    • In my experience, 1 pair of gloves is fine (14oz in my case, so I can spar safely), just air them out between training (bag gloves definitely not necessary). Shinguards are a good idea, though gyms will always have them and lend them out- just more hygienic to have your own.  2 pairs of wraps, 2 shorts (I like the lightweight Raja ones for the heat), 1 pair of good road running trainers. Good gumshield and groin-protector, naturally. Every time I finish training, I bring everything into the shower (not gloves or shinnies, obviously) with me to clean off the (bucketsfull in my case) of sweat, but things dry off quickly here outside of the monsoon season.  One thing I have found I like is smallish, cotton briefs for training (less cloth, therefore sweaty wetness than boxers, etc.- bring underwear from home- decent, cotton stuff is strangely expensive here). Don't weigh yourself down too much. You might want to buy shorts or vests from the gym(s) as (useful) souvenirs. I recommend Action Zone and Keelapan, next door, in Bangkok (good selection and prices):  https://www.google.com/maps/place/Action+Zone/@13.7474264,100.5206774,17z/data=!4m14!1m7!3m6!1s0x30e29931ee397e41:0x4c8f06926c37408b!2sAction+Zone!8m2!3d13.7474212!4d100.5232523!16s%2Fg%2F1hm3_f5d2!3m5!1s0x30e29931ee397e41:0x4c8f06926c37408b!8m2!3d13.7474212!4d100.5232523!16s%2Fg%2F1hm3_f5d2?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTAyOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
    • Hey! I totally get what you mean about pushing through—it can sometimes backfire, especially with mood swings and fatigue. Regarding repeated head blows and depression, there’s research showing a link, especially with conditions like CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). More athletes are recognizing the importance of mental health alongside training. 
    • If you need a chill video editing app for Windows, check out Movavi Video Editor. It's super easy to use, perfect for beginners. You can cut, merge, and add effects without feeling lost. They’ve got loads of tutorials to help you out! I found some dope tips on clipping videos with Movavi. It lets you quickly cut parts of your video, so you can make your edits just how you want. Hit up their site to learn more about how to clip your screen on Windows and see how it all works.
    • Hi all, I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to be traveling to Thailand soon for just over a month of traveling and training. I am a complete beginner and do not own any training gear. One of the first stops on my trip will be to explore Bangkok and purchase equipment. What should be on my list? Clearly, gloves, wraps, shorts and mouthguard are required. I would be grateful for some more insight e.g. should I buy bag gloves and sparring gloves, whether shin pads are worthwhile for a beginner, etc. I'm partiularly conscious of the heat and humidity, it would make sense to pack two pairs of running shoes, two sets of gloves, several handwraps and lots of shorts. Any nuggets of wisdom are most welcome. Thanks in advance for your contributions!   
    • Have you looked at venum elite 
  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      1.4k
    • Total Posts
      11.2k
×
×
  • Create New...