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Pre-fight jitters
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Date: 2007/03/12 21:32
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By: potor
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Status: User
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Karma: -1
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Si Dai
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Does anyone else get ridiculously stressed/nervous before a fight or comp?
If so, how do you deal with it/overcome it?
I'm not talking about an actual fear of being harmed or anything girly like that, but more 'performance anxiety', fear of failure that sort of thing.
I used to throw up before rugby matches and it's that sort of thing - basically a massive adrenaline spike that seems to sap most of my cardio.
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Re:Pre-fight jitters
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Date: 2007/03/13 18:58
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By: woong_tae
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Status: User
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Karma: 0
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Si Dai
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I too suffer from this, can be fighting fit, great cardio sparring hard for hours, technically have no doubts but come comp time it all goes. javonswebshite.com is place where you can find general shallow rubbish rehashed from around the web. The tips given there helped me a lot - then why I am subscribing to my own website, I really don't know 
Post edited by: Edward, at: 2007/03/18 04:50
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Re:Pre-fight jitters
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Date: 2007/03/18 04:39
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By: Edward
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Status: Admin
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Karma: 11
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Admin
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Hi
Although we don't really 'compete' in our association- SM is a style not best suited to polite-nesses of the ring - overcoming the fear of an aggressive encounter / dealing effectively with that encounter is often (but not always of course) foremost in the mind of a person exploring martial arts for the first time.
If you are looking for an accessible overview, Geoff Thompson has released numerous publications on the nature of this 'fear', and if competing is your goal you could do a lot worse than buying his stuff. This knowledge will also extend beyond the ring, since however harsh your opponent, the likelihood of your life being in danger in that scenario is relatively minimal.
Geoff suggests that 'fear' is actually a mislabelling / misgrouping (or vice versa) of a set of emotional / instinctual responses, and that by understanding the nature of these responses better (and exploring them effectively) that you can learn to overcome them - or at least get them under control. It's a very valid point, this cursory labelling of complex human responses is common in the English language. 'Jealous' is another.
In my old boxing days my coach would always remind us that the other guy is equally 'afraid', even if he appears to be cool as ice and carved from stone. He (or she) isn't - and if they feel nothing, then they would be better suited to a psychiatric hospital than an arena of combat.
Yes you can be hard as nails, have impenetrable defenses, and strike like a locomotive - but as we all know, it only takes one lucky strike and it's all over. Ergo, often the fear is 'what you have to lose' by losing - and this comes down to the loss of identity of yourself as a winner, a 'first rate fighter', 'not a p*ssy' - risking the worth of possibly a lifetime of martial arts training - AND all that in front of all your friends, family, and the general public.
There are also those of us with a tendency towards extreme violence which we keep locked safely out of harm's way, and the fear may be of letting this out of the box, doing potentially serious damage to another human being, and perhaps having to face the serious legal/moral repercussions. I don't know anyone like that though.
Bottom line is, humans are instinctively concerned about anything that they do not understand - therefore by persistently exploring these things (and getting back into the ring whether you win or lose), you will gain that understanding, and the fear will (should) gradually subside. I was absolutely petrified of the dark when I was very small.
Having some confidence in your art will also go a long way.
Post edited by: Edward, at: 2007/03/18 04:41
Post edited by: Edward, at: 2007/03/18 04:43
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