Inside my head

Over the last few weeks, people have brought up the topic of my “fight brain.” Even though it feels weird to talk about, this is what goes through my head on any given session.

For most people, whatever their ability is, they generally feel it to be normal – that is, their talents can feel generally unremarkable to them. Then, within that talent, there are lots of people that are better, and a lot that are worse, so it ends up being nothing special inside their own head. Therefore, I have never thought that what goes through my head is any different to anyone else. It turns out that the way some brains think, and function tend to work better for fighting than others. It is important to say, though, that I am no Angelo Dundee, Emanual Steward, or Greg Jackson with an elite level fight IQ, I just seem to be able to help people out.

When I’m training, generally speaking, I’m trying to win or improve all the time. This means I am trying to beat you with every bit of ability that I have, or I am trying to beat you with something that I am not that good at. The consistent theme though, is that I’m trying to win. It goes with out saying that I do not win all the time. Even though I hate losing, I also love the challenge and will make sure to compete against those that are better. When I get caught with something, be it a punch, takedown or submission, it immediately gets stored and I try to figure it out. Think of it like poison berries, I have eaten some berries that have made me sick, so I make sure to remember those berries and trees, so I do not make that same mistake again. The good thing with the fight world is that you get immediate feedback when things go bad, be it a punch in the face which equals pain. A takedown which means defeat or a submission which also means defeat. Regardless, you know you have just made a mistake. The good news is none of these things happen out of the blue, each move needs to be set up and you need to react to allow your opponents moves to work. During the round, after the round and after training my brain is ticking over on what they did to get the success. The actual event is not the concern – I am not overly concerned with the individual punch, takedown or submission, it is the all the things I did wrong that led to it. If you look at BJJ and wrestling there are usually 5 things you did wrong to get caught, in striking there can be fewer. 

Here is one situation that I had to deal with recently against a guy that is a better grappler than me. I grapple in a gi once a week so I can get caught with grips that I am not used to. This gentleman would lock on the cuff around the wrist of my gi and arm drag my right arm to the left side of my body. When he would do this, I knew what he was up to so I would keep my right arm heavy and my elbow tight to my body. However, he had a counter to every defence I had and sooner or later he would get my arm to other side of my body. This would lead to something that I hate, getting swept on to my back. This got under my skin, so I thought about how to deal with it. Taking a quote from a Lee Child book that read “survive this second and worry about what happens next, next.” This meant when he got my arm, I would do what I had to do to avoid getting swept on to my back. This led me to do something that is not exactly in the textbook – I moved to my right and sprawled out on my belly. This meant that I could not be swept, then I noticed there was an opening I could make the most of. If I got lucky, I could reach his arm with my left arm keeping him in place and it would help maintain a position and sometimes would end up in a good position. After this he would still beat me, but at least it was not through the arm drag to sweep. Wrestling is more or less the same, when I get caught, I just replay what happened and avoid the bad berries. In wrestling that can be a position on the floor, close to a wall for example, or in a position where you opponent has an under hook. When I see that situation happening again, I will do something anything to make sure that the outcome is different. Even if I get taken down again that is ok, just as long as it is a different takedown. Then next week I will make sure to avoid that first and second takedown. With striking, you hit me with a punch, I will sort my defence to not get hit with that shot again. This might mean I get hit with other shots but as long as it is a different shot, I am ok. 

Obviously, this doesn’t always work for me. But in general, this is what I am trying to do. Mistakes aren’t the problem; I just try to make different mistakes the following week rather than repeat the same mistakes. The other thing that really helped me was understanding that the things that worked on me worked on other people. That means that when I throw a punch and someone would move their head and I would miss punches it made me lose confidence with my other punches, as they made it look easy to avoid my punches. Then when I would move out the way of a punch, I thought it was a fluke or the next shot was on its way and I would get caught. Then sooner or later it clicked that when I moved my head and the opponent would miss punches, they would lose confidence and get frustrated just like I did. Then I started using that against people – this translates to the sports as well (Wrestling and BJJ).

Overall, I don’t like getting things wrong and in fight sports you find out right away when you get something wrong. This motivates me to not get it wrong again. This happens throughout my life, be it as a parent, a partner or at work. I am sure everyone can relate to a behaviour that led to an argument with their partner then next time you adjust your behaviour to get a different outcome. This is the blueprint for what I do in fighting. 

Gareth Lewis

Head MMA Instructor