Masakatsu Funaki #1 said:
Wow, This thread should be archived or something. I mean that on a serious note to. I am about to print off everything Iceman has posted in this thread. He pretty much summed up what I have been looking for, for over a year now. Great stuff man, you are get mad respect from me, being your knowledge surpasses your age by great heights. Keep on posting good stuff like that man! Holy crap, youre a good poster (I have to over emphasis to make a point that I have seen hundreds of crappy posters here on sherdog the past few years.)
Thanks Funaki, I do try to make my posts as helpful as possible. Some of the stuff I posted, I wish I had known before doing NAGA over the summer, or before wrestling matches.
I really suggest to anyone that they read up on mental preparation. This is my third year of wrestling and I'm only beginning to get down the right mindset. (I was never really a competitive athlete when I was younger, so competition outside of rolling in the gym does not come naturally to me) I recently lost a wrestle-off to a kid who I'm a much better wrestler than, partly because I made a mistake, but partly because I didn't have the right mentality. The next day, I wrestled at a scrimmage, and went 3-0 for the first time in wrestling. It sounds really simple, and to most of you, it's going to seem pretty self-evident, but you really truly need to believe you are going to win. It's more than just telling yourself "I'm going to win" before the match.
When you're in the middle of a scramble, you need to be thinking "I am getting this position" or "He is going to tap his hand." When I wrestled yesterday, I faced the toughest part of wrestling for me: matwork (takedowns and defense are no problem, but I'm much better at grappling than wrestling matwork). Every time I took someone down or defended their TD and ended up on top, I thought of saying to him "One way or another, your shoulders are touching this mat." Instead of worrying "Oh crap, what if I can't do that again?" when he rolled out of a pin, I thought "Good job, but you're going back in that position." As a result, I went 3-0, and didn't have a point scored on me the whole day. I know it sounds like I'm tooting my own horn, but it's for the purpose of telling you what mindset has been working for me.
Something else that I've noticed that happens to a lot of people is the intimidation factor. At wrestling yesterday, one of my teammates asked me "You haven't seen the kid I have to wrestle, have you?" I said "No, but who cares? Don't worry about him, worry about yourself." I warmed up with him, did some drills, and the whole time pumped him up by saying "It doesn't matter if he's your weight entirely in muscle; he'll just gas faster. You have the technique. Punish him for even trying to wrestle you."
A few minutes later, when it was time for his match, the kid who my teammate had to wrestle definitely was bigger. He definitely looked stronger, and taller from what I remember. Where some people would be intimidated by this, my teammate pinned him before the 3rd period. I've had similar experiences like this in wrestling. You can not be intimidated by anyone. I have to work to do this; I used to be pudgy, weak, and out of shape, and in the back of my mind, I still have that image of myself. When I see kids who my mind thinks look stronger than me, I have to take that extra little measure to tell myself I can beat them.
I saw a GREAT quote on GrappleArts, for those of us (like me) who get obsessive with what they like to do. I'm just going to paraphrase, but basically they said that you need to keep your priorities in check. If grappling brings happiness to your life, great, but don't let it become your life. Do you want people at your funeral crying, and saying "Well, at least he had a really tight side control?" This put things in perspective for me, because I'm a big-time daydreamer, and I have all these plans and dreams of one day fighting in MMA in Japan, and thinking about the kind of fighter I want to be. But now thinking about that quote, and after losing one of my friends to an accidental suicide, I try to make more time for family and friends.
You'll see a lot of inspirational material out there, about being a champion. There's a loooot of stuff about Dan Gable, because the guy was so dedicated, he would go running the day after winning a championship. He was unscored on in the Olympics because he was so dedicated. You should definitely strive to be the best that you can, for the purpose of self-actualization (an important component of mental health that most people never really get to), but remember to live your life, too. Most of us don't have this problem, but I just thought it was an important last point to stress.
