Mental Preparation for Battle

[Jon Helton]

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?

[Brandon Mccaghren]

Visualize yourself going through the actual competition matches.

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

[Joshua Jarboe]

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!

[Joshua Jarboe]

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

[Jack LaBarge]

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!

[Matt "Gumby" Glach]

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! >-)

[Derek Stewart]

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

[Taylor Culbertson]

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.

[Matt "Gumby" Glach]

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.

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!

[Jon Helton]

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.