The funny thing is…That’s where the power is. The mental strength and inner confidence that all fighters would love to get a hold of are hidden in these hard to deal with areas.

So let’s get rid of the stigma here and now.

Emotions are simply E-Motions. Which stands for Energy-in-Motion.

Think of something that brings a smile to your face. A simple happy memory will do the trick.

Once you have that, notice where it is located in your body. Now give it movement, is it spinning, rolling, pulsating or moving in any other way?

And lastly give it a colour. (Intense emotions such as anger and fear are usually red)

This process makes tricky emotions easier to handle and process.

Next time I’ll be sharing a specific method for increasing positive emotions or decreasing negative ones.

Let me know how you get on.

Brian Masters

Most athletes are aware of what visualisation is and have heard of it. But very few have actually used it.

Or even worse, some athletes use it incorrectly, which is counter productive.

The form of visualisation that has the best results for fighters is this:

Visualise the fight as vividly as possible. This means using as many of your senses as possible. See the opponent in front of you, Hear the sound of the crowd and the noise of the fight. Feel the temperature of your body, and the textures of everything around you. Even notice the smell of the arena, and the taste of your gumshield in your mouth.

Take 5 mins to do this before you go on to the next step.

Now picture you and your opponent, and the crowd around you. And as your mind-movie plays, graduallly increase the speed at which everything happens. Play the visualisation at an extremely high speed. And as the fight is going super fast, also have everything outside the ring going at a snails pace, slow motion only. This makes every thing in the ring seem even faster again.

This will give you a feel for what it’s like to fight at insanely high speeds. Although this may seem a bit odd there is method to the madness.

Playing the fight super fast has the same effect as when you drive at a 140mph for a journey, then you head into a different speed-limit zone and drive at say 60. After driving at 140, when you drop down to 60 it feels much slower than it actually is.

Because relatively speaking, it is very slow compared to the 140 that you were used to. Now in the visualistion we simply apply the same relativity.

Play the fight at super speed, then the fight will seem like it’s happening much slower than it actually is.

Your brain will be so used to fighting at high speed, that the normal speed of the fight will seem easy and slow.

Imagine what it’s like to be even half a second ahead of your opponent for the entire fight.

So there you have it.

Visualisation is one of the best forms of mental preparation, and this specific method is the best way to visualise, bar none.

Let me know how you get on with it, and remember that the more you practice it, the easier and more powerful it becomes.

‘Till next time,

Brian Masters

And it comes in a step by step formula…

1. A fighter must realise that in order to get into the “zone”, they must be in the right state of mind. Because, fighting to you full potential depends on what mental state you’re in.

2. Search out every single method that gets you in the mental state, that you find most effective. (There’s at 20 on this blog, at the time of writing). Each fighter will have a different method, so find one that works for you.

Wise fighters will see that this 2 step process is simple on the surface yet complex underneath.

Not-so-wise fighters will dismiss this as “too simple to be effective”

Now a question…

If you could be in any state of mind before a fight (or in training); and there was a 100% guarantee that you could get into that state you choose, what would it be?

Imagine there is no chance of failure, whatever state you decide on will happen for you.

Now…

Imagine every training session and fight you ever have, and what it would be like with your mind in the PERFECT  state.

I promise there is a way to have that state you want. Just go and find how to get into it…

and try use everything you can, hypnosis, NLP, meditation, prayer, visualisation, the list is endless

Happy hunting

Brian Masters

There was always some nutjob or maniac on the loose who would fight anyone and belonged in a mental asylum.

Whenever he was getting beaten, he didn’t care If he was winning, he wasn’t that excited. He just loved to brawl and fight all day. Win, lose or draw, it didn’t matter to him.

Most of the other wrestlers were usually afraid of this character, because even if they were beating him physically, the lunatic would never be dis-heartened. The Lunatic fought no matter what!

Although this wrestler was only playing a character role, there is a lot to be learned from that approach.

If you had to adopt the mental strategy of any wrestler, ironically the lunatic would be near the top of the list.

Fighters who are a little bit wild and crazy, are not nice to fight against.

So be wild and crazy.

Imagine how difficult it would be for your opponent to feel good about that front kick he landed, when you react to it by letting out a little roar and launching straight into a brutal and unorthodox attack.

All your competitive opponents will be humans, all humans fear the unknown,

if you fight unpredictably, you will be feared.

The Way of the Lunatic. Insanely enjoyable.

Keep it Wild.

Brian Masters

“In order to create focus and efficiency in a martial artist, have the fighter concentrate on one part of his opponents body”

If you got one piece of advice like that every day, and put it into action in your training; You would be a phenomenal fighter.

So there you have it. When you come up against a fighter, pick his left ankle for example, and concentrate all your efforts into striking it, twisting it, whatever. A focused fighter is very hard to defend against.

I feel kinda proud of that tip. Definitely one for the “greatest hits collection”

Stay focused,

Brian Masters

When we fight, Our bodies go into a heightened state of awareness. The adrenaline kicks in and gives you extra energy.
But what also happens, if your not careful, is the adrenaline, kills off your immune system. This is easy to remedy, a few extra Vitamin C  Tablets and you’ll be OK.

But other more harmful hormones also kick in when you fight.  For example: Cortisol. A stress hormone that can lead to depression and anxiety. Sure there are ways to medicate yourself into never feeling down, but none that are truly healthy.
The most effective strategy for not letting cortisol beat you into depression is…
Effective Mental Preparation.
If fighting or sparring or simple Martial arts training is something you associate stress with, you are building your stress levels. And I’m not just talking about feelings or emotions. I mean real, powerful, actual liquid hormones flowing through your veins that cause sickness, depression, and in major cases, disease.
And all of these awful physical side effects, are caused simply by poor mentality,

It all boils down to this…
If you don’t enjoy fighting, your body will have a major negative reaction.

So…
What are you going to do about it?

I recommend planning an effective mental training schedule, Because all these negative side effects are also cured by simple mental training strategies
There is enough advice and tips on this blog to get you started.

You have to be healthy before you can be fit or strong.
 So Stay Healthy,

Brian Masters

This little gem of wisdom goes like this…

“Your opponent only fights as well as you let them”

Beautiful ain’t it?

It puts all the power and responsibility in your hands.

If your a beginner and your fighting a champion, There is a way for you to win.

You can prevent any martial artist from displaying a peak performance. No matter what level you or they are at.

Just accept that you can, and believe that there is a way.

I’ll leave it at that for today,

If your into the areas of sports psychology, mental preparation etc..

subscribe to the blog for a daily piece of wisdom,

or check out www.demandvictory.com to dive in at the deep end.

Brian Masters

PS: The quote is from Billy Walsh, High Performance Boxing Coach of Ireland. A man who knows his stuff.

For a martial artist, the time spent in the gym sparring, weight lifting, circuit training etc… Is time spent AT training.

But the best fighters in the world also spend time and energy ON their training.

Which involves things like…

Researching new mental techniques, nutritional information, training methods etc…

The fighter that only spends time AT training and not ON training suffers in the long term.

It’s like the lumberjack that never stops to sharpen his axe. Eventually the axe becomes blunt, and less and less powerful every chop.

So every once in a while, stop and sharpen your saw. Look up the latest breakthroughs in nutrition, mental preparation, MMA, NLP or hypnosis. There is an infinite number of ways to increase your skills overnight.

Can you imagine the possibilities if you discovered one per day?

Brian Masters.

PS. There’s some here… www.demandvictory.com

PPS. Let me know if you find some really good ones !

He asks the class a question… “What’s the moral of this experiment?”

Different answers come back, and all of them say the moral is something like…
“There’s always room for more”

The real moral to the story?

“If you don’t put the big things first, you’ll never fit them in”

In other words, the important things have to come first, or else not at all.

And as a fighter this is a vaulable piece of advice. Your mental preparation is the most important aspect of your training. If you don’t put it first and foremost it will be lost forever.

A short and sweet post for today. but still powerful none the less.

More tomorrow, or if you can’t wait until then check out…

www.demandvictory.com

Brian Masters

“Think of a car key. That small piece of 200 gram metal turns the ignition, the ignition turns a starter motor, the starter motor turns the engine then the 1 and a half tonne car moves. In order to move that 1.5 Tonne car, you need a 200 gram key. Well the same goes for all the major tasks in your life. If you want to be a champion at your weight division, in your martial art, you need to find those little keys that lead to major results. And you’ll find plenty of keys here ”

I couldn’t have put it better myself.  There are an infinite number of mental keys out there.

There is actually a key for every major struggle or goal you could have as a fighter. There’s keys for, boosting confidence, eliminating fear, staying focused, maintaining healthy eating plans and training regimes.

And the beauty of it is, all these keys are small and easy to manage. Yet they lead to major things.

It’s yours for the taking.

What key have you discovered today? You need to be constantly improving your mental condition and finding these keys, if you want to compete at the highest levels.

www.demandvictory.com

Brian Masters.