“The difference between successful and unsuccessful athletes stems largely from the differences in their use of verbalization, imagination and concentration.”
-Jay Mikes, author Basketball Fundamentals
When we look at the most successful athletes in the sport of MMA: Wanderlei Silva, Georges Saint-Pierre, and Randy Couture. These men are masters of the mental game. We all have the same 24-hours a day to work with. Every coach has access to the latest information on nutrition, flexibility and functional strength training to take a fighter’s game to a high level. What most coaches don't teach is the positive use of verbalization. It’s an overlooked piece of the MMA puzzle. Most fighters’ self-talk is negative. Most of our conversation is about what we can’t do rather than what we can do. We talk about our mistakes and failures rather than our successes. The same is true for positive visualization. If we do visualize often it's a worst-case scenario. Don’t get me started on concentration. The attention span of athletes seems to get shorter with each generation.
Commitment to a regimen of mental skills training is essential in the traditional martial arts. Meditation was once a part of every martial arts class. Meditation was time that fighters spent focusing on positive imagination, positive verbalization and the development of concentration. Meditation on the surface appears to be old-fashioned and outdated, however, the ancient art of meditation bears very close similarities to the modern science of sport psychology. The mental edge that Olympic level athletes get from working with a sports psychologist are the same benefits that you derive from meditation. When you relax and gain a more focused state of mind, you achieve more. Meditation can pay untold dividends on and off the mat. You will find you have a stronger ability to see yourself winning-imagination. You'll find that your words are more positive-verbalization. You’ll find that an increased ability to concentrate will serve you well in the critical moments of a match. These positive words and images lead to a positive self-fulfilling prophecy.
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