Need advice from experienced fighters.

boxer.fan

Hi all,

Just looking for some experienced fighters and coaches opinions. I have been practicing various martial arts for quite a few years now ranging from karate to kickboxing to muay thai to amateur boxing. I have competed quite a bit in all of these, but cant seem to hit a winning streak at all. In the gym i have mixed it up with the best of them, but when it comes to getting in the ring i cant help but get stage fright or something. It just doesn't seem to happen for me.
Should I just resign myself to the fact that I am a "gym fighter" and not compete anymore, or is there some of you out there who have managed to shake this off?

Interested to hear opinions. . . .

paddyc

Years ago I saw this chap who was excellent in the gym, and his first fight, he just froze, just stood there and didnt do anything, needless to say he lost.

you saw me fight before


boxer.fan

some days its gonna work for you some day its not, a strong mind is just as important as a strong body. There are visualisation techniques you can do to get you over the fear of fighting, that and a few pints the afternoon of will have you sorted.

Pooing your pants before a fight is natural enough in these cases its good to have some poo/adrenalin pumping through your veins so I wouldnt worry too much bout it..


Read "gates of fire" then you'll know what over coming fear is all about


paddy

cowzerp

I remember Years ago as a kid i was boxing and i pissed myself before the fight, my shorts on an all, had to go in the toilets and make it look like i deliberatly wet myself if that makes sense!!

Anyway the point is i got in and knocked the other kid out in rd 1 so nerves are fine and they ease off with experience, maybe you need to treat your fights the same as you do your spars, relax and enjoy.

mark.leonard

Nerves are natural before a fight, I have never had a match where three or four hours out I wasn't going "Why did I take this fight?", once the match got underway the nerves tend to disappear and its all about getting the job done.

You could try competing more often, experience is often the best cure for this kind of thing

Jason Mc

I always think of Paddy Barnes the boxer from belfast who won an Olympic medal

He lost his first 14 amateur boxing matches

I'd say most people would have given up after about 3 or 4 losses.


Persistance is the key. If you are going to have to deal with these nerves taking away from your performance you are going to have to train even harder so if you do compete below your best it will hopefully be enough.

The main thing is enjoying it and not giving a $hit what other people think (which of course is easier said than done)

boxer.fan

Cheers guys, glad to see that none of you recommend to stop competing. I will continue and hopefully some of the hard work will transfer from the gym to the ring.

siochain

paddyc wrote: »

you saw me fight before


There are visualisation techniques you can do to get you over the fear of fighting, that and a few pints the afternoon of will have you sorted.

Look into NLP and some guided meditation for sports performance. Human body hasn’t evolved a whole lot over the last 50 years and while we can attribute a lot of the increases in sports performance to improved technique and lot has also been to sports psychology and the mental edge.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Just to come at this from another angle for a moment.

OP, what age are you and how long approx do you give one style before moving onto the next?.

I only ask because it seem's you've been through a lot a different styles.

Could it be a case that your just not spending long enough at one particular style (competing) before moving on?.

It takes awhile, sometimes years, to become competitive at fighting in your chosen style, until that stage most of us go through the doldrums of losing more than we win - earning your spur's so to speak!.

Like everyone else here I also go through a lot of nervous moments, and indeed the week leading up to a competition I can become almost depressed, I'll question everything from my fighting abilities, to my cardio & conditioning but through all that we've to look for positives too otherwise we'd never fight (or always lose!).

This week for instance, I sprained an ankle on Tuesday and thought I couldn't fight this Sunday, I went into the debts of depression believing it was all gone. Stupidly I went out and got drunk , never thinking for a moment I'll be fighting after all. But next morning went to see my physio, and hey presto I'm fighting :P - so what am I doing now?, cracking up I've missed three days training and had a hangover only yesterday, but as a positive I'll do 40 minute's light cardio tonight just so that I'm not completely dispondent over missing training... Sorry for that long post, but what I'm saying is 'Ups and Downs, Smiles and Frownes'.

You won't win or lose 'em all, but with experience you should start to see an improvement in your results over time.

Btw, what style are you training in now?.

boxer.fan

I am 28. Spent teen years at karate, then opened my eyes to fc kickboxing for a few years. A visit to thailand for a few months drew me to muay thai for a year or two, a change in location brought me back to kickboxing since. been boxing for past two years also.

The nerves dont bother me too much, they are usually pretty much gone when it comes to fight time. The few times I have won, I have won well. When I lose it just seems like my feet are stuck to the floor and everything is in slow motion. I have never been stopped, just dont do myself justice at all.

Its very disheartening to put in so much work at the risk of not performing on the day.

wudangclan

try a hypnotist or some books on NLP perhaps.

dudara

This was always a problem for me as well, only in patterns (never seemed to experience the problem in sparring).

I'd have the patterns smooth. Technique perfect, understanding perfect. I could help others. But put me in front of 3 judges and I made stupid mistakes and lost my control. I never really did as well in patterns as I should have. Funny, cause it wasn't a problem for gradings, just competitions.

Some good tips here from other posters about the NLP etc, well worth looking into and most importantly, don't give up.

subvictory

dudara wrote: »

This was always a problem for me as well, only in patterns (never seemed to experience the problem in sparring).

I'd have the patterns smooth. Technique perfect, understanding perfect. I could help others. But put me in front of 3 judges and I made stupid mistakes and lost my control. I never really did as well in patterns as I should have. Funny, cause it wasn't a problem for gradings, just competitions.

Some good tips here from other posters about the NLP etc, well worth looking into and most importantly, don't give up.

Not even remotely close to being the same thing. A pattern isn't going to punch you as hard as it can in the face.

subvictory

boxer.fan wrote: »

I am 28. Spent teen years at karate, then opened my eyes to fc kickboxing for a few years. A visit to thailand for a few months drew me to muay thai for a year or two, a change in location brought me back to kickboxing since. been boxing for past two years also.

The nerves dont bother me too much, they are usually pretty much gone when it comes to fight time. The few times I have won, I have won well. When I lose it just seems like my feet are stuck to the floor and everything is in slow motion. I have never been stopped, just dont do myself justice at all.

Its very disheartening to put in so much work at the risk of not performing on the day.

Focus in on exactly what disipline you want to fight in. Train your balls off. Compete often.

Roper

wudangclan wrote: »

try a hypnotist or some books on NLP perhaps.

Or just join a cult!

OP nerves are natural and everyone gets them. Sometimes just accepting that you're going to be nervous and that the other guy will be too is the best policy. I say one thing to the lads who are competing that most say makes a difference to them first time out- before you get in the ring you won't want to, but once you're in you won't want to leave. It's the prime of your life, you're competing in a sport you love- these are the times. Enjoy them.

wudangclan

Roper wrote: »

Or just join a cult!

if you're talking about hypnosis i suggest you read up on steve collins,the irish boxer.tiger woods is another sportsman who uses it, to give one other example.
in reference to nlp ,i was suggesting he read nlp textbooks which are available that teach self-hypnosis or visualisation techniques,how to set goals,stress reduction (and other techniques that nlp practitioners utilise in respect of sports psychology) that the OP may find useful.

arybvtcw0eolkf

boxer.fan wrote: »

The nerves dont bother me too much, they are usually pretty much gone when it comes to fight time. The few times I have won, I have won well. When I lose it just seems like my feet are stuck to the floor and everything is in slow motion. I have never been stopped, just dont do myself justice at all.

Its very disheartening to put in so much work at the risk of not performing on the day.

Ok, lie to us if you wish. But be completely honest with yourself (and I'm going to be honest with you too).

What is your conditioning like?.

Reason I ask is that those times when I've lost like you've just described, feeling your feet are stuck to the floor - honestly, I haven't conditioned properly, and what happens is this... Your body goes into defensive mode, you brain switches from attack to defence to conserve energy. Its a very natural reaction.

Could this be the case with you?.

Sorry to go so deep into it, but you've asked the forum for help so as usual we'll try hit this problem from direct directions in the hope of helping you.

Judomad

cowzerp wrote: »

I remember Years ago as a kid i was boxing and i pissed myself before the fight, my shorts on an all, had to go in the toilets and make it look like i deliberatly wet myself if that makes sense!!

Anyway the point is i got in and knocked the other kid out in rd 1 so nerves are fine and they ease off with experience, maybe you need to treat your fights the same as you do your spars, relax and enjoy.

go on outta that pissy pants

OP you sound like you've spent a short amount of time in alot of different arts, try focus on the one like thethe most/are best at....see how a solid 5-6years trainin that will improve your trainin/competing....as fot the guy who was talking about patterns, how can swanning around doing a pattern be the same as somebody looking to chop down on your leg in thai boxing, or taking a left hook from pissy pants above??

dudara

subvictory wrote: »

Not even remotely close to being the same thing. A pattern isn't going to punch you as hard as it can in the face.

Actually subvictory, it's about exactly the same thing - how to deal with stage fright. I just experience it with patterns, the OP experiences it with sparring.

The only real advice I can offer the OP is to keep up the training - train until sequences of movement become second nature. And then keep training more.

Judomad

dudara wrote: »

Actually subvictory, it's about exactly the same thing - how to deal with stage fright. I just experience it with patterns, the OP experiences it with sparring.

The only real advice I can offer the OP is to keep up the training - train until sequences of movement become second nature. And then keep training more.

wrong....i think the OP is talking about being fine in the gym but when it comes to fighting he gets a mind block.....completely different things, a "pattern" and not using your ability in a fight are far from "exactly the same thing" like you say......

Nothingcompares

I can understand where dudara is coming from. A lot of people suffer under examination. Some people are fantastic in the gym training but under perform at gradings/competitions and actual fights.

It's not unusual for competent drivers to screw up their first driving test making some kind of weird mistake they've never done before. Or people 'my mind went blank' in in their Junior Cert Maths exam.

Obviously getting into ring/cage etc. is different to sitting down and doing a few sums/patterns but the fundamental thing is the same - examination/pressure/exposure.

j walsh

OP have you kept a journal of your training routines for different fights, as said earlier by Makikomi your may not have training properly for some fights or injuries may have held you back,
But what I've seen a few times is people overtraining and peaking to early,
so if you can remember the way training went upto a fight, check out the way it went when you won your fights well as opposed to feet stuck to the ground.
lay off the super glue :-)

Cause if you don't think it's nerves then maybe this is your problem.....

Kevin Moran

j walsh wrote: »

OP have you kept a journal of your training routines for different fights, as said earlier by Makikomi your may not have training properly for some fights or injuries may have held you back,
But what I've seen a few times is people overtraining and peaking to early,
so if you can remember the way training went upto a fight, check out the way it went when you won your fights well as opposed to feet stuck to the ground.
lay off the super glue :-)

I'd have to agree with John, in fact he diagnoised the problem when I fought under him! A lacklustre performance was usually to do with overtraining and/or poor weight cutting/dieting rather than performance anxiety. If you've done your tough sparring sessions, gritted through your conditioning, you've done all you can, no point in worrying about your opponent, let him/her worry about you

arybvtcw0eolkf

Kevin Moran wrote: »

no point in worrying about your opponent, let him/her worry about you

Unless he's this size!.

I'm 6'2'' and 116kgs this morning - this guy was the fvcking monster!.

I've never fought anything as big!..

In the middle is little Shona McGuire (Rush Fighting Accademy).

wudangclan

j walsh wrote: »

OP have you kept a journal of your training routines for different fights, as said earlier by Makikomi your may not have training properly for some fights or injuries may have held you back,
But what I've seen a few times is people overtraining and peaking to early,
so if you can remember the way training went upto a fight, check out the way it went when you won your fights well as opposed to feet stuck to the ground.
lay off the super glue :-)

Cause if you don't think it's nerves then maybe this is your problem.....

+1 on the overtraining.
i had a few fights were i didn't give myself enough recovery time before the fight and had the same symptoms the op described,sluggish with energy seeming to drain away too quickly.
now i'll give myself 5 full days recovery ,at least ,before fight day.

arthie no no

try teaching a junior/ new student when training, this will open your mind to new ways of fine tuning your skills . who trains you, what new skills are you learing ,remember , you also have years of experience. the skills are there maybe teaching will gel everything together.

Horioni

Read Geoff Thompson's book Fear - The Friend of Exceptional People.

Deisekickboxing

most nerves would come from niggling doubts such as did i train hard enough ,will an old injury act up, is my fitness up to scratch, did i eat properly coming up to the big day ,is the support from my gym and coaches in place....
if all the boxes are ticked then there should be a focused confidence
on doing the job in hand and less nerves..