Cleaning up my desktop and saw an old interview from last year that I did, thought it was a good one, so I figured to share it: 1. For athletes, whats the best way to prepare yourself for a challenging task, such as a big game or a challenging workout? (aka How do you get your head in the game? Before a fight I would go the first week to a special place, most of the time here in CA this was the beach (in Holland a forrest where I was as a kid). I would go there early in the morning and just stand at the water looking at the sun and soak it in, think only about happy things not one negative one, when you cant do this you have to come back and do it again. A good trick is do a very heavy running drill on the treadmill early in the morning, that will clear your mind and right after go to the beach. Then I would use that for when things would get hard in a fight, or even before a fight when your head is not in it. Needles to say when it works for a fight, it works for a workout as well. Going stressed into a workout is never good. They always say Go to another place, dont think about what goes on now, but I always thought What place?, so I created one myself. Also relax your mind with everything you do, when you stretch, never make a pain face, always keep your face muscles relaxed because that will keep your muscles relaxed, when I teach I call this poker face, I let my students hit a bag with a poker face, I let them block punches with a poker face etc. Once you start flinching you are telling your brain something is wrong and it reacts different. Last thing, when you injure yourself, lets say your right hand, dont stress, these are the Gods telling you that your right hand/arm is good enough, so focus on something different, this trick Funaki Masakatsu told me a long time ago, hes a famous fighter in Japan and I fought him twice, this trick wont make you angry when you have an injury, haha For me pushing myself is always been pretty simple, whatever I tell myself I am going to do, I am going to do. When I dont I can literally not look at myself in the mirror at night and since I dont like that feeling I always do what I told myself to do. Every workout that included weights or stamina exercises that you can write down, like running times reps with a certain weight etc, I would write down what I did and the next workout I would always try to break those times/reps/weights. I learned also though to really listen to your mind and body, I can feel very early in the workout if I am going to be able to break those times or come even close to what I did before, and when I cant, and when I cant, I tell myself that the body/mind needs rest and go do something light. This happened maybe 10 times in my whole career only and this took a while to learn but after overtraining myself a long time ago, I knew I needed it. (after I over trained I needed three months rest, couldnt do anything but rest, that will teach you!). I know, long answer..... 2. How can non-athletes make use of those same tactics? Just do it! Very simple, once you start doing it you become used to it, in a month you dont know different. You can cheat, but then you cheat yourself, the one person you should never cheat! 3. How does your frame of mind going into a task impact the outcome? Its everything, people used to say Fighting is 50% mental and 50% physical, but I always have said fighting is 100% mental, in order to get out of bed you need your mind, EVERYTHING, is done up there. Most important in fighting, and in EVERYTHING ELSE, doesnt matter what it is, is staying calm, for athletes, but also for business people, actors, musicians, anybody! 4. Whats the biggest mistake athletes make when they prepare themselves for the big game/fight? Never underestimate your competition, NEVER get comfortable, you need a little (dont wanna call it nerves) but you need to be on your toes. Once things come to easy for you, thats where you make the mistakes. Look at power lifters who pull their back by grabbing a simple 15 pound weight from the floor, they didnt respect the weight and BOOM, they are injured. How come? Normally they lift 1200 pounds? Well with the 1200 pounds they are paying attention, they are on their toes. As for NOT mental. Never try something new the day of, or the day before the event, whether its a drink, food, routine, nothing, ALWAYS do the thing that you did when you won. I know guys who trained for 12 weeks and decided to go the day before the competition to a shady sushi restaurant and got food poisoning, you will be amazed how many times this happens. Dumbest thing you can do, this is also part of your training, thats why when I fought in japan, I brought my own food and own water, food and water I bought, nobody else, so you cant blame anybody else but you when it goes wrong. Last thing, make sure you worked super hard on stamina, just that will take a lot of doubts away, knowing you can go the distance easy. In my whole MMA career I have NEVER ran out of gas, its UN acceptable, go run a hill, it is the ONLY thing you can control, stamina! Godspeed Bas
Posted on: Sun, 09 Feb 2014 02:43:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015