A fighter's mindset

[Dana Sheets]

How does the idea of combat psychology apply to women? Is our fighting "mindset" different from a manÕs?


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1. DEFINE YOUR MENTAL TRIGGER
What will make you want to hurt someone? What about killing someone? A threat to your family? A threat to yourself? Foremost in developing mindset is the defining of your own personal mental trigger-a point in time where you commit yourself fully to the use of force with the intent to stop your opponent at any costs.

2. CONTROL YOUR EMOTIONS
The mindset of a fighter is controlled, collective, and calculating. Uncontrolled anger or fear will allow your opponent tools to be used against you, even chide you into actuating your mental trigger. The choice to react with violent force should be your choice and not induced due to heated passions. This may seem contradictory to responding to an attack, but it is not. In all conflicts or events preceding, the choice to return violent action remains.

3. ACCEPT THAT YOU WILL GET HURT
Many let the fear of pain or physical damage, traumatize them to inactivity in a confrontation. Regardless of technical skill, you will at one time get hurt. Fear can control you and knowing that you may die can cause immobilizing panic. The fighter must accept the reality of possibly grievous injury and control his emotions.

4. KNOW YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
A small 130 lb. should not try to fight the way a strong 220 lb. would. A fighter must assess his strengths and weaknesses from a mental and physical standpoint. A fighter must be intimately acquainted with his art and choose his arsenal wisely.

5. KNOW YOUR ENEMY'S STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
A good fighter should be able to size up a combatant instantly and have a generalized idea on how that person will fight. This ability is developed through Combat Perception, which is also known as perception learning, and is comprised of three areas:

a. Situational Awareness
b. Environmental Awareness
c. Visual and Auditory Cueing

6. FIGHT YOUR FIGHT, NOT YOUR ENEMY'S
What is the common denominator in regards to the losers in most UFC matches? They disregarded years of training in their particular art and tried to emulate their opponent. Here, we often see strikers try to grapple and vice versa. If you're a Uechi fighter, use Uechi! The compliment of this is to force your enemy to disregard his own training.

7. DEVELOP YOUR OWN FIGHTING METHODOLOGY
Every fighter must take the time (over years of training) to develop a fighting strategy that works for that individual. It must never be stagnant, though, and the fighter must be willing to learn and change as needs be.

8. ADAPT TO YOUR ENVIRONMENT
Practicing in the dojo is nice, but what happens if you try that lovely shifting strike on loose gravel on a hill or in six inches of snow? This is a part of physical portion of Environmental Awareness, and the good fighter will have a fighting methodology or methodologies that adapt to any location.

9. INTIMIDATE YOUR OPPONENT
A fight can be won without a strike thrown if the opponent is intimidated. A good fighter should be able to intimidate with his body, his presence, and his mind.

10. ACCEPT MURPHY'S LAW AND NEVER ASSUME
MurphyÕs law: "If anything can go wrong, it will."

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Editors Note: IÕve made some deletions of Wing Chun terms that detracted from the content points of the article. Dana.

This list is adapted from an article by Michael Parriski. The full article can be found at: http://www.wingchunkuen.com/journal/columns/parriski/xtraining04_combat.shtml