Mental Preparation for Battle

One of my biggest struggles when preparing for competition is the mental part. I tend to lack aggressiveness that can sometimes get me into trouble. I don't lack it during training, but when I have a high level match I psych myself out sometimes.

I need to get into "Kill" mode and be more aggressive. I just picked up some books that I think will help me with this. The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi and Warrior Mindset by Dr. Michael Asken, Loren W. Christensen, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman.

What do you guys do to prepare mentally?

Visualize yourself going through the actual competition matches.

That calm spirit is gonna serve you well in the long run, I think.

Go rin no sho is awesome! It's a little difficult to understand, particularly if you've never sparred with weapons. A few favorite quotes regarding this topic:

"Spiritual Bearing in Strategy

In strategy your spiritual bearing must not be any different from normal. Both in fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased. Even when your spirit is calm do not let your body relax, and when your body is relaxed do not let your spirit slacken. Do not let your spirit be influenced by your body, or your body be influenced by your spirit. Be neither insufficiently spirited nor over spirited. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit."

"When you take up a sword, you must feel intent on cutting the enemy....whatever attitude (stance) you are in, do not be conscious of making the attitude; think only of cutting.....the primary thing when you take a sword in your hands is your intention to cut the enemy, whatever the means. Whenever you parry, hit, spring, strike or touch the enemy's cutting sword, you must cut the enemy in the same movement. It is essential to attain this. If you think only of hitting, springing, striking or touching the enemy, you will not be able actually to cut him. More than anything, you must be thinking of carrying your movement through to cutting him. You must thoroughly research this."

"Direct Communication

The spirit of "Direct Communication" is how the true Way of the Ni To Ichi school is received and handed down.

Oral tradition: 'Teach your body strategy.'"

"In single combat you must not fix the eyes on the details. As I said before, if you fix your eyes on details and neglect important things, your spirit will become bewildered, and victory will escape you. Research this principle well and train diligently."

Check out:
To Hold Down a Pillow
To Release Four Hands
To Move the Shade
The Mountain-Sea Change

Enjoy!

http://www.miyamotomusashi.com/gorin.htm (in case you want to use the power of teh interwebz. You must research this deeply.)

I've been told about a great book, you might be interested in...."The Winning Mind Set" by Jim Brault and Kevin Seaman..Kevin is a legit martial artist and trainer....I think it has cd's too!

If you need motivation to get into "Kill Mode", just imagine your opponent banging your gf, or beating up your sister/mother/grandmother... something like that, whatever applies best to you personally... I know it sounds like a joke, but if you do it properly and repeat in your mind that this guy did something horrible to you, it's actually pretty easy to get into the kill zone. I do this myself and it works like a charm, at first I always have some sort of weird compassion for the other guy before we even start, but I imagine he fucked my mother and BAM, instant death! >-)

We use the matt hester philosophy, "Crush their soul" we train like we want to crush your soul, we roll like we want to crush your soul when we compete we want to crush you soul. Practice relentless attack you will get more aggressive. 10th planet is constant pressure so keep that constant pressure and CRUSH THEIR SOUL lol

Do you really need to be in "kill mode"? Isn't it better to be relaxed and calm? I have heard many interviews with top level fighters that talk about the importance of staying calm not thinking.

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Originally Posted by 3rdeye

Do you really need to be in "kill mode"? Isn't it better to be relaxed and calm? I have heard many interviews with top level fighters that talk about the importance of staying calm not thinking.

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Kill mode isnt necessarily reckless mode, it's just going for it all out, still intelligently and strategically and technically, but for the KILL YO! :)

Thanks for the feedback guys. I appreciate it. Miyamoto has some awesome philosophies. I like the crush their soul thing. If I think about them banging my girl though, I might actually kill them. ;)
Being relaxed and calm is all fine and dandy in the right situation. Although, in a 6 minute advanced point match with awesome 50/50 player and your tied with 30 seconds on the clock...it should be kill time. There is a time for relaxed and calm and a time for CRUSHING THEIR SOUL. I think part of what makes certain grapplers great is they know when to release which side. I myself need to learn to release the aggressive side a little more.

Its not kill mode, its win mode, there is nothing wrong with being calm and patient, the way i see it is we can be calm and patient and wait for our opponent to make a mistake or i can make you make a mistake or better yet force the submission (we do that in 10th planet), i'd rather not wait for you to get tired of waiting on me and rather work on making my opponent make a mistake.

great example, the rubber guard is not about waiting for openings and waiting for our opponent to get bored and decide to try and pass, its constant crushing pressure where our opponents are forced to react. Thats why i love it, Its about CRUSHING THEIR SOUL lol

I'm interested in this topic as well.. I used to be incredibly aggressive.. the whole practice how you compete(works well in other sports). Then I had to relax once I started jujitsu or I would have never learned anything let alone accomplish anything. But now when I compete I end up being completely ok with just laying there and relaxing.. My "aggression" when I see an opening is also nowhere near where it used to be.. my rolling and competing end up being the same amount of effort.

Not saying I'm a dead fish but nearing it.. The matches I win never actually feel right or deserved.

I think you should just be calm and patient yet explosive at the same time when you see a opening. Mental preperation is important in martial arts but you need the reps to really be comfortable in a fight.

you just need to watch a few episodes og dragon ball Z ...that will get you pumped up.

Visualize... I try to cover everything an my counters to situations. I also make a cheat sheet I look over before a match, things I might forget

It's good to have the ability to roll relaxed and technical. However, you can't roll like that all the time. You gotta roll hard, especially preparing for a comp. You need to have the cardio to push the entire match, and have the technique to back it up. You have to prepare yourself so that you have the confidence to push your agenda, your game. Don't let your opponent establish his game. You need a gameplan, believe in your gameplan, and execute at 100%, no less.

I'm with louis on this one. somedays you gotta test yourself and push the pace. also you need to a gameplan, a skill set with takedowns,sweeps,submission. staying focused and relaxed, also listen to your coach!!!

I like that crushing souls thing, I think it's rightly abstract. If you have a very static gameplan and your opponent is smart, he can use a "Moving The Shade" strategy to determine what your gameplan is and what you are good at, adapt a gameplan to beat you and commit to it 100%. If you have trained hard and have many resources at your disposal, if you know your opponent's resources and gameplan, you should be able to find a way to win. You must train diligently. ;)

NERD ALERT

Remember the movie "The Lion King?" You know you watched it and loved it. Don't kid yourself.

Mufasa teaches Simba how to pounce. How to hunt. Stay low. Don't let 'em see you coming. Then POUNCE.

Now everyone feel free to make fun of me for Lion King references.

Thanks for the feedback gentlemen. The key is determining when to be relaxed and when to crush their soul. I know how to accomplish this now....by watching the Lion King before tourneys.