Training notes - Pt 3

All the hard work, sweat, tears and blood have been shed. The endless rounds of drilling takedowns, guard passing, positional transitions, submissions galore, it's all over. The 10 week training programme has come to an end, there's no going back now, I've trained and prepared myself as best I can in the time available and am ready for the weekend.

No competitor can ever be 100% ready for action, there can always be more to do to improve, but I'm as ready as I'll ever be; I've been training jiu jitsu now for many years almost every day week in week out and many others like me do the same so we're in effect, always ready.

If you train the arts and find yourself in what's likely to be a live situation on the street, you can't speak to your potential attacker and say 'hang on a sec, I'm not really ready for this, I've had a few weeks off traing you see.' When it kicks off it kicks off and you better pray you're ready!

A jiu jitsu competition isn't a live street situation but you'll feel the same mental and physical effects as if you were in one; you'll have sweaty palms, dry mouth, butterflies in the stomach and many other alarm bells ringing and you have to deal with them all as you step on the mat and before you step on the mat, even weeks before the event.

In a live situation, it's normally escalated very quickly and you don't have much time to think or react before getting on your heels (the smart thing to do) or getting stuck in. Regards jiu jitsu competitions (or MMA or any other event for that matter) you have weeks to prepare for a fight and you'll have the dry mouth and dodgy belly for weeks on end, every day in fact if you're going to be honest and this can be enough to amke you start doubting yourself and giving in way before you step onto the mats.

The day I registered for the Scandinavian Open, my stomach started to churn and the tingles and dry mouth came back and it's been like that more or less every day and now the training's over, they're worse than ever. It's a natural physiological repsonse that many people feel and misinterpret for FEAR - that's all fear is, the manifestation of the jitters in your body, survival instinct kicking in telling you in your head to RUN!

It's the battle within yourself to hold this imposter back that is far far harder than any training or competing will ever be, the struggle with your Ego. Mr Ego is the daddy, the main man inside your head who rules the roost. Mr Ego tells you you've had a hard day, why not have a few beers instead of going training? Why not stay in and watch television with your girlfriend, instead of going to the gym. Mr Ego suggests you miss out on the sparring session at the end of class because you have work to do at home? Mr Ego has an encyclopedia of excuses unparallelled to throw at you to make you miss class and take the easier path in training and also in life.

ONLY IF YOU GIVE IN AND LET HIM!!!

And that is the battle that's going to be the hardest to win and we all succumb to this little sprite from time to time, some more than others. When training for a competition it's a daily struggle trust me I've been there a million times; many a time I'd have sold my family to have a day off training, days when every muscle is screaming out for rest. To go home and put my feet up and forget training and forget teaching for one day. Almost every week I could find a myriad of excuses not to train and not to teach, but that would be the easy way out, the way out that so many people chose and why classes fluctuate from busy to non existent. Mostly when people get their ass handed to them when they start rolling in class; their ego takes a severe beatdown and suddenly, jiu jitsu isn't all it's cracked up to be and the sofa and television becomes a more welcoming companion.

After fighting my ego all day I drag myslef to class and you know what invariably happens? I have the best training session and the best teaching class! I end up on top of my game and when teaching, I usually find something I hadn't seen before on a technique or a guard pass for example. Now just think if I'd have stayed at home, I'd have missed all that and that is what motivates me when I get tired and want to stay at home and take it easy and that's how it's been preparing for this competition.

So now, after all the hard work I can now say to my Ego - FUCK YOU, I WIN!!