Fight prep

[Dragn]

Cheers. I've come across some of Ross' material before. Thats where I got the idea for my 2 minute drills. I might order one of his manuals.

Aaaaaah what a week. Working morn till night everyday.

I managed to squeeze in a little training though.

Mon:

Shadow 4x2mins

Rest 1 rnd

Heavy bag 4x2mins

Abs/core work,

Tues: (dojo)

Shadow 3x3mins

sparring 3x2mins

rest 1rnd

heavybag rushes: 20 secs punching, 10 sec break, repeating for 3 mins x 3rnds

shadow 1x3mins

rest

abs

Fri:

jog 1 km

shadow 3x2mins

jog 1 km

Basically just trying to keep myself loose till the fight now.

2 days to go....

[Dragn]

Well so much for all that hard training. I lost.

I dunno what happened. One of my worst fights ever.

My opponent wasnt even all that good. Just really aggressive. Came at me non stop, and I just fell apart under the pressure. Couldnt think straight. Lost focus.Hesitated, swung wildly,and lost heart.

The worst kind of loss.

I can handle losing to an opponent because hes a better fighter. Its losing to myself that is so unforgivable.This has been a real issue for me in the past but I thought I had gotten over it. It seems not.

I landed some good hard blows and had some bursts of decent combinations, but spent much of the fight backpeddling, and my opponent just kept comming.

Its so exasperating knowing I have the skills to do so much better, but laking the mental toughness to back them up. In the ring I'm seldom able to fight to the degree I'm capable of. Of course thats pretty normal. But this time I wasnt even performing at 10% of my ability.

Everybody who trains with me expects so much from me when I fight, cause they know how good I am in the dojo. But I rarely produce the expected results.

Its a tough pill to swallow.I feel like I really let everybody down.Haaaaaah!

Thats full contact for you. It really forces you to face your weaknesses. I guess thats why I do it.

Well I'm going to have to really dig down deep to find the inner strength I need to be successfull as a fighter. Its more than just the physical training I need. I have to develop a never give up attitude.No matter what. Both in and out of the dojo.

I'll take a few days RandR and get back into it later this week.

[elbows_and_knees]

dude... who cares.

Losing is part of any fighter's career. But, there are several of them who will lose the will to keep fighting after taking a loss. You are analyzing and continuing. This WILL pay off for you. They say you learn how much heart a fighter has not by how many wins he has, but by how he handles his losses, and my friend, you handle them well. Good Job.

The aggressiveness of your opponent is something that can be dealt with, and I'm sure your coaches will have you training for that over the next couple of weeks.

[legkicker]

I haven't really followed this thread but was this your first fight? Don't beat yourself up too hard if it is. From what you described, you described what most green fighters go through(especially their first fight). It's learning how to deal with adrenaline, which takes some experience.

If you want to fight, keep on doing it but like elbows and knees said everyone loses at some point. You fight enough, you will lose, simple as that.

[bushido_man96]

They say that losing builds character. Well, if that is the case, I think I have enough for the lot of us!

Now I can start building other things, maybe.

[Dragn]

Thanks guys.

It wasnt my first fight. I've had a few now.

I felt like I was getting better at handling the adrenalin each time, but this last fight was like a big step backward. Thats what really got me down. And knowing that in the gym I would have torn my opponent apart, but in the ring I just caved in under the pressure.

I watched the fight on tape. Its obvious that my weakness is all in my head.

I could have beaten him but for some reason I seemed to loose the will to keep fighting at various times during the fight.

When I'm on the attack I'm fine, but when I take a good hit ,or my opponent just keeps comming at me even when I've hit him with a hard blow, it seems to drain my confidence.

Towards the middle of the second round I started thinking more about how much time I had to keep going rather than about trying to win. Thats where I really lost it. Came on strong again in the last 20 secs but it was too late.

In a way I'm kind of thankfull for the loss. Its made me more aware of the fact that much of my weakness is just comming from a lack of confidence in the face of aggression.

Also I just have to focus more on toughening myself mentally when I'm training. Not showing my fatigue or pain, but using it as trigger to push me forward rather than backward. I have to train my fighting spirit every day, rather than just expecting it to be there when I need it.

Above all, I need to develop more of a desire to win. Without that burning desire theres nothing to push me through those tough parts of a fight where its tempting to just stop trying.

I'm going to train with a fury like never before.

[KarateK]

Don't beat yourself up - we all have our bad days - you have to learn to push through those mental barriers that are preventing you from achieving your goal. Now before you say that sounds like a lot of self-help nonsense, I recently went through something similar under pressure - you either go forward from it or backwards. Make sure its not the latter x