Mixed Martial Arts Training: Visualize Victory

I'll dispense with the introductory personal anecdotes and get right down to business. Mental training, it works. Practice it. The lower levels of competition are replete with guys whose prodigious physical talents are undone by their lack of mental preparation. Don't be the fighter from your gym the old timers are talking about when they say, "He's got a Ferrari body, but doesn't know how to drive". Or worse, "Looks like Tarzan, fights like Jane".

Don't misunderstand me. I'm not suggesting you abandon the blood and guts training of sparring and conditioning. Nobody ever lost a fight because they were too strong or fit. Still, elite MMA combatants know that the mind holds the determining factors in most tough fights, and so it is in mastering the mind that a fighter allows himself the greatest chance of giving a peak performance.

When fighters describe their mental preparation for fights, you'll often hear the term "visualization". Visualization, also referred to as imagery, involves using all the senses to create or re-create an experience in the mind. The fighter imagines himself competing at his maximum potential, or he re-creates a past successful, razor-sharp performance, recalling in vivid detail what he saw, felt, thought, heard, and even smelled. You can use visualization to improve your technical, tactical and emotional skill.

In this month's installment, I'll focus on a type of visualization called "mental rehearsal" and explain how it can dramatically improve your technical skill as a fighter. Mental rehearsal is a straightforward and effective method of programming the mind, which controls the body, to execute skills with optimal force, speed and precision. Research offers considerable evidence that mental rehearsal combined with actual physical practice produces better athletic performances than physical practice alone. And, as an added benefit, a fighter can mentally rehearse practically any time or place without exacting any additional wear and tear on his body.