What do I do the day of a fight and whats on my mind walking to the cage? Well, where do I begin... Like Ive said before, anyone that says they arent nervous, is flat out a liar. Everyone gets nerves, its on them how they channel them. When its fight day, I am secluded in my hotel room with my team, with no communication or connection with anyone else. Not my family, friends, partners or anything like that. My phone is off, my computer is off and Im dialed into the fight with zero distractions. We make time to eat, but outside of that, we relax in the room to keep everything at ease with energy levels as low as possible. We sleep as much as possible, discuss game plan with the fight, or keep our mind off things by watching movies and listening to music. As much as you dont want to think about the fight, its the only thing you can think of and cant stop it. At this point, weve lived our whole life for this moment and comes down to this day to move one step closer to your goals. My confidence is always high, but its natural for you to think what if this or that doesnt work, things go bad, etc. That is nerves kicking in, leaving it up to me to channel them in a positive or negative way that can make or break me. Obviously when a negative thought comes to mind, I just go through my plan A-Z and then realize it doesnt matter what happens, because no matter what, I can smash through any adversity that comes my way. Once it starts getting close to needing to report to UFC for my fight, you start watching the clock and it seems like the slowest day ever. Eventually, we pack up and arrive to the venue for the fight. At this point I am so dialed in, I dont even talk, nothing else matter, I just listen and acknowledge my coaches as I do nothing but play the fight out through my head. I listen to music to keep my mind at ease, but that just amps me up ready to get in the cage and unleash. The athletic commission follows you around everywhere and watches your every move as if youre going to sneak a weapon in the fight or something. The cut man comes back to wrap my hands and the ref comes back to give you instructions so everyone is on the same page. I usually see the refs lips move, but Im not even hearing what hes saying because I am ready to get in there, do what I do, get paid and have fun with my friends and family that came to support me. Once fully prepared, my coaches tell me when to start warming up and what to do. At this point, Im trying to break a sweat, watch the clock, still playing the fight through my mind and cant wait until Burt Watson (UFC hype man i.e. UFCs Liaison with the fighters) comes back screaming WE ROLLLLLLLIN! My nerves are at a high during the warm up but I start to loosen up the more I sweat. Im channeling all of my nerves to be a good thing, as Im using it to be a perfectionist to assure things go the way I want them to. At the same time I am now firing up all of my energy that Ive been saving to make sure my mind and body are firing at the maximum level of performance I am capable of. Burt comes back screaming WE ROLLING and my team and I get stuck in the hallway waiting for them to say its go time. I hate this part the most and cant wait until the camera light turns on and they say go. Once that happens and I start my walkout, every single nerve and emotion I had is all the sudden gone and Im ready to fight. I can hear my coaches perfectly and music but I couldnt tell you anything about the crowd or anything else at all. I have tunnel vision and 100% focused. Once the fight starts, my vision cant see outside the cage, Im zoned into my opponent only and I can only hear my coaches instructions. Once the ref steps in to end the fight, my mind just automatically stops, Im happy as long as I gave 110%, I go back to being my normal self by the time I get back to the locker room and I cant wait to see my friends and family. Form there, you play back everything in your mind and start to enjoy the thoughts of everything you went through and within a week are drooling at the mouth to do it all over again. TheTeamFury - JuryJJ #TeamFury - #JuryJiuJitsu - #TeamDeeZee
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 21:42:42 +0000
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