Get humbled

A big part of being a martial artist is staying humble. However, the more you train and the better you get, the harder that becomes.

MMA has been the most humbling sport I’ve ever done. I started my fight career in kickboxing and its there that I had the most success in any one sport. Consequently, toward the end of my fighting days, I was far from humble. This was partly due to me, and partly due to seeing how the top fighters acted and thinking I needed to be like that. Long story short, I got in the ring against a guy and someone forgot to tell him that I was supposed to win. I was the better fighter, but he didn’t care – he came to fight. I did manage to get the win, but I made it much harder than it should’ve been; due, in no small part, to my arrogance. That fight was a great lesson for me. I learned that within your fight journey, being at the top of the food chain can the worst place to be, even though I always wanted to be at the top. When I think back, I realise I did not go looking for challenges because I liked my comfort zone (I didn’t think this at the time). Then I started MMA and was beaten in BJJ and Wrestling. To my surprise, I both loved it and hated it.

Fast forward to now, and I am constantly looking for new people to train with, new things to learn and try; constantly seeking to add new tools to my belt. For me, now, learning is more important than winning. Training with new people is a great thing; think of when someone new and skilled comes to your club. You can probably remember training with them and what you did against them from months or even years. If you try and remember who you trained with two weeks ago – good luck. Different people bring different challenges and as skilled as your instructor is, they have one perspective seen through one pair of eyes. Their style flows down and every club has some distinctive style. When you go to another club, they have a different style and different moves, so it becomes fun going up against these people. That is something that I really like when going to another club. Regardless if it’s striking, grappling or wrestling, each club do things slightly different. For example, Lockdown is very much a takedown, control and ground-and-pound club. There are people who do more stand up, there are people who play guard, but overall it is takedown and punch. That style comes from the top as the instructor is a takedown and ground-and-pound guy. In Wellington, there are two main BJJ clubs and they are very different in terms of styles, not one being better, just different. That’s why rolling with good people from both clubs can only be a good thing.

If you have been fight training your entire life, chances are, you’re pretty good. You could most likely walk into any style and do quite well. This is based on a punch being a punch and kick being a kick, they may have little differences, but overall, they have the same intent; to hit someone. Speed, timing and distance are also easily transferrable from one style to another. Therefore, if you really want to get humbled, try a new skill and get put at the bottom of the pile. I do not mean give up fight training in order to do this. Although Lomachenko’s father made him do dance lessons and put boxing on hold and that seemed to work out. I am talking about adding in something that is 100% new and makes you really challenge yourself. The options for this are endless. Arnold Schwarzenegger used ballet to help him with posing for body building, NFL offensive linemen also used ballet to help their footwork. Doing something that is not fight orientated is great, the instructor for the new skill does not care about fighting. All they care about is you getting better at your new sport. All of sudden you find that your footwork isn’t what you thought it was, your brain gets stuck and confused with these new moves and you can’t quite get a grip of the moves as easily as you thought you would’ve. Do not fret though, this is great because you’re creating new neural pathways and creating new skills.

For me, the most important part of a new skill is being at the bottom of the heap and seeing how high the mountain is. It’s good to be humbled and understand that fight training is only one part of your life, it does not define who you are; it just adds to you as a person. The more skills we can pick up along the way and the more people we can train with, the better we will be at the end of the day. To be the best we can be is as good as it gets.

Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor