#1 - HUMILITY: The victory from last fight, quite simply, got to my head. Constant praise about my performance allowed me to believe too much in my skill on the ground. Subsequentally, I built myself up in my head and began spoon-feeding myself humble pie whenever a roll didn't go the way my ego wanted it to. Instead of asking myself "Why am I not doing well/better?" I need to ask myself "What do I need to do IN ORDER to do well/better?" The fight after mine was for the belt in my weight class and the fighter on our side spoke as a humble person spoke. His ability to work through adversity got him an armbar in the transition from back to mount with 30 seconds left in a fight he was losing. Afterwards, he proved his humility by showing respect to his opponent. Impressive considering an hour before he almost was not cleared to fight due to his heart rate being too high. (A small side note: the NLP mind-shaping exercise which I will talk about later was a large factor in what got him calmed down and cleared by the doctor after I lent him my iPod.)
#2 - Improve my conditioning: We work hard in our conditioning classes at my gym, but leading up to this fight we were doing a strength cycle. I did feel strong, but felt that I didn't have the peaked conditioning to apply that strength. The strength cycle helped me get my weight closer to where it needed to be, but I still wasn't heavy enough which I will discuss later.
#3 - Boxing, boxing, boxing: My footwork, head movement, and combinations were limited to walking straight inside, throwing a punch or a kick, getting tagged, and running straight back with my guard lower than it should have been. My teammates from our brother gym regularly go to a boxing gym, and one of my best friends boxes ~4 days a week, so I have no excuse to not work my boxing.
#4 - ESCAPES!!!: I need to work on my white and blue belt skills. My survival positions were loose and my escapes just wouldn't come to me. I ended up in too many positions where I went to my last line of defense escape when I should have used my primary. This falls into conditioning as well, but as tired as I was I should've been conscious of the fact that shrimping is almost always the easiest option energy-wise.
#5 - Wrestling: While I am confident my wrestling is good enough for the level I am competing at at the moment, I was too tired and not mentally tough enough to impliment it. Both boxing gyms available to me have/will have wrestling classes which is good technique/visualization/conditioning wise, but I should really find a place where I can drill takedowns with serious intensity.
#6 - Sparring: Without making an excuse and hopefully coming off as merely an explanation, I simply did not spar enough for this fight. I need to push myself and really spar hard when I do to get used to what fighting hard feels like. I have good fighters at my disposal and need to do my best to use them. This also falls into the area of mental conditioning.
#7 - Weight: Around October (my first fight) we renovated the kitchen in the area of the house that I live in (the downstairs), and I used my mom's kitchen area for a while. There was little space to include the foods I eat (see: Grappler's Guide to Sport's Nutrition) and I ate too many of her foods (see: Jenny Craig, Weight Watcher's, BS "healthy" food). I weighed 170 before the renovation, 165 after, and decided it was best to fight 155. Afterward, I got back to 165 and around 173 after Christmas, too light to fight at 170. Again, without making excuses, the guy I fought was overweight and cut down to 170 from his weight class of 175. There is no reason why I should not utilize that advantage myself.
#8 - Recovery: My work capacity feels good, my technique feels good, my mental state feels good, but the first thing to go for me is always my body. After about 6 months of training 4-5 days a week, I start to fall apart. I need to take more contrast showers, use A LOT more ice, stretch daily, do some quick GPP in the mornings, improve my sleep schedule, use more liniment, condition my shins and do prehab/rehab.
#9 - Preparation: As well as using my NLP, recovering better, getting my weight higher, being better conditioned, etc. I need to prepare better. My first fight was prepared for very well and I would do well to try and repeat it. Much of what happened this time was inevitable due to the Holidays but being with family does not mean that I can't spend 20 minutes a day game-planning what I need to do next to be ready.
#10 - Mental conditioning: I have a great neuro linguistic programming self-hypnosis audio track that really centers me and prepares me for everything (not just training) and I should use it more. Using it allows me to deal with difficult memories and program behaviors that I do not have into myself.