BTG 160 - Doing the Mental Legwork

[Music] Hello and welcome to another episode of Breaking the Guard. On today's episode, I want to talk about one important factor into winning any contest, particularly in matches, and that is mindset. In particular, I was watching the UFC BG3 a couple weeks ago and there was one match where I felt like, oh, this definitely happened where Andy Varela versus Daniel Satler. And you can see Andy really broke down Daniel pretty quickly, pretty much after one round, just with heavy collar ties and putting lots of pressure. And you can tell Andy was feeling himself cuz in between rounds rather than listening to this corner, he's like he shushed them and he just started dancing. He already knew he had in the bag, right? He knew he broke his opponent. And you could tell watching his opponent was broken because the way he postured himself and kind of receded and it made for an finish by Andy where he was able to use the wall to do a slide by and then jump right to the back where Nick could choke. But the victory was won before that slide by, right? It was won by his presence. It was won by his mindset. And it's something that you have to be attuned to, right? And it's gone the other way, too. I've seen Andy get beat mentally early and then lose, right? So it could happen to anybody but you have to be aware of it. I can tell you times where myself it affected me and the one match I know it happened to me with was with Paul Harris for sure because at that time I wasn't training the same that I normally did which I I I had some injuries. I didn't have as many of the like really really tough sparring partners. So, I was playing a lot when I was training versus battling, right? I was like, you know, going through different things, flowing around, moving. I wasn't going kill kill kill. And that translated into my competition. I did win my first match uh by submission, but when I went in there with Pal Harris, he obviously doesn't follow any rules and just was crazy collar ting me like dudo chopping style and threw me off my game a bit. And normally I'm the guy throwing collar ties or whatnot, but uh I got roughed up there and you know he ended up scoring a taked down off my farne block attempt and I just I didn't get off on the right foot. I wasn't I was playing instead of fighting, right? And to me that was a broken mindset, right? I I'm going to lose to somebody who's killing if I'm playing. Similarly, I feel like Daniel against Andy, while he might not have been playing, he wasn't fighting to the same level that Andy was. Andy was being very rough. Boom. Boom. And going hard. And if you let someone rough you up without giving them some of that heat back, it's not good, right? Like you're psychologically losing this battle. You're getting big dogged, which is not good, right? That means that you're conceding like, "Oh, he's got the this ability over me." You have to get right up in their face and match that intensity. You don't want to be a gentleman in competition, right? If someone gives you a hard clap, you clap on them right back so they know that, oh, okay, I'm not going to just do whatever I want. Like, I have to respect this guy in front of me. That's my take anyways. And from personal experience, I can tell you I've I've been on both sides of that coin. I've roughed people up and I can tell like when they just checked out early cuz they weren't about that life. And like I said with the Peris is the one incident I can recall where like I got uh I got roughed up on on the feet. So that's one aspect of mindset. But there's a second part which is framing right and I've also had an incident of this where in ACC 2009 in the absolute division after I had won the bronze medal in my mind I was done. Um, I didn't have any plans to do an absolute division as you may have heard me in the past talk about the weight cut was particularly rough and I definitely felt some of the effects on that second day. I and I was a bit fatigued. So, I was happy, you know, I had a very close match with Gavalo. I had the submission win over Lovato. I'm like, okay, I'm done. That's a that's a good way to end on on a W. And uh you know I was feeling satisfied. It was my best performance to date. You know I got three out of four submissions. Almost had a fourth one. So I'm good. But unknowing unknowingly my brother submitted my name into the absolute division. Uh and I got accepted and then they're like, "Oh, okay. David, you got another match." I'm like, "Oh, god damn it. Do another one." I was I was good, man. you know, because I had done them every year before and fortunately I was accepted on each invite, but the other two years, 2005, 2007, you know, I didn't make it I didn't make it to the podium. So, I definitely wanted something more. Uh, this year I got to the podium, so I was a little I was feeling myself a little bit. I'm like, okay, I'm good. But then my brother put my name in, got me in there, and then I drew a guy that was also in my same city in Miami, Roberto Cyborg Brew. So I was like, son of a right? Like, okay, this is a tough match. Heavyweight, silver medalist at that or was he silver or bronze? I'm not sure, but he meddled, right? And I'm like, okay. uh and in my mind what I had told myself I can't lose to a guy in my city who is you know has a school in my city not good right that was good framing I ended up winning that match in overtime probably by the hair of my chinny chin chin right like it was a very close matchup I ended up winning I think based more on aggression than anything else because I was just putting a lot of pressure. Uh I had a take down. I think he had a back take and then he got penalized uh for stalling. So again, very close match. Unfortunately for me, like has always happened to me in the absolute divisions, they don't give you rest between matches, especially when you're running long. And unfortunately, I had an overtime, so I ran long. So I walked from one mat to the next mat. And my next match was with Gunnar Nelson. Gunnar Nelson only had one match on day one because he lost his first run. And then he had a match on day two which he dominated uh in the absolute division against uh Jeff Bonson. I think he choked him or something. So and then he went with me. So I'm like crap, he's going to be a lot fresher than I am. Uh, and I told myself the f the framing I had in my head was, I'm not going to let this match go into overtime. That was what I told myself. I'm not going to let this match go into overtime. As I told you, I was already fatigued in my mind. Like, if I let the match go run long, it's going to be a problem. I want to get this guy out of here, you know, whether I win by the decision or I submit him. And I was thinking submission heavy because this is going to be the first guy that I get to face in the absolute division. That was my weight class. Every time it's heavyweights or light heavyweights like or basically 219 or over, right? Like finally someone who is in my size, I can submit this guy. So, in the match, I had a few bites. Had a guillotine bite that was all right. You know, it was okay. Not great. I had a dog bar that was pretty good that he, you know, he rolled out of, but he was out hustling me as far as he was able to scramble out of everything. I I was getting good looks, but I didn't have the hustle I needed to get the finish or to score. So, he kept squeaking out of everything. About less than a minute left in the match. It's 000 and all signs are indicating we're going into overtime. Remember the framing I had? Do not let this match go into overtime. What did I do? He shot in a bad shot. I sprawled. Now, I could have played it safe there. Worked the front headlock, you know, perhaps try to look for the back. Chances are I wasn't going to score, but we would have made it overtime easy. Instead, I forced a kimora that was very sloppy. It was terrible actually. And in the process of doing so, I exposed my back. He ended up and I Well, now I'm sorry. When I I rolled for the Kimura and I went to my back rather, but I completely lost it. So then he ended up on top. I brain farted there because I forgot that well that's going to be a guard pull or a takedown depending how the ref sees it and now I'm going to lose by points and I responded very late to the scramble because I heard my brother say points and I'm like oh crap I turtled then he got my back and he wrapped a rear naked choke very quickly and I was forced tap there because otherwise it would have been night night. And I walked off the mats. I'm like, such a dumb move, you know, like I strategically made a terrible call, but then I remembered what I told myself. I'm like, I fulfilled my promise. I didn't let the match go into overtime. I didn't specify that I'm going to win the match in regulation. It was an important caveat because my subconscious took the instructions literally. Me winning or losing the match in regulation was within the parameters of the goal I set. So to my subconscious like you did what you wanted. you you didn't go into overtime. It's like making a a wish with a genie. If you're not too specific, you're going to get screwed. And I got screwed that because that's a match I know I could have won. Uh I played it dumb, right? But that is because of the framing I put on that match. So, you have to set the proper goals and expectations and be very specific with what you want to happen because especially when you're tired, you're going to fall to, you know, the lowest level of your expectations and goals. than I did, you know. So, I I say that to warn people, you know, like you you have to be careful what you think and what you say to yourself and how you approach matches because the mindset is everything, right? Um because because there's matches like that where I'm like, man, that that was a match that I easily had within my skill set to win and I I I fumbled it cuz it's not always the better man that wins is the one who who wants it more, who is more determined and comes with a better strategy. And to Gunner's credit, he had a great strategy. Put a lot of pressure, kept moving, didn't let me hold anything. And it it was just a matter of time cooking me before I goofed up. That's also going to play into like my bad decision- making is also partially because of fatigue. You get tired, you start making mistakes. So, you have to make sure before you're very fatigued that you have made good mental decisions or you've properly set yourself up for success because once you start getting tired, you're not going to be making your best decisions. And I've been on the reverse side of this also, which is I'm the guy like well against Cyborg, I was kind of doing the reverse where I was the guy putting lots of pressure in them, making them tired as the bigger man. Same thing I did to Zanji, right? Like putting lots of pressure on them, getting them worn down so that they start making bad moves and I capitalize and went off that. I I've been a guy who's been a cardio machine. So I used to run between five No, it was about 5 miles a day for that ACC 2007 run. So I definitely have the cardio where I I had it where I can just pressure someone and just break them down over time. And that's a mindset in itself too, right? Like you that this is my point that you have to have the the framework for how you're going to win a match, how you're going to fight it, how you're going to deal with adversity set up well before you step on the mats because that's going to dictate in a large part how the match will play out. I can tell you someone like Andy when he goes out there, his mindset, he's going to go out there and he's going to big dog somebody. He's going to club club bully them, you know, he's going to flex on them. And uh that's his way of imposing his will. And if he's able to do that and you let him do that to you, you're going to be in a lot of trouble because now you've seated a lot of ground, not just physically, but mentally. And if I see if he starts dancing and having a good time and I'm still like, man, you're in a in in a world of hurt now cuz he's just got the game controlled. So, you have to be able to break somebody's facade of alphing you, right? Because that's pretty much what he did. He just big dog this guy. You can't let someone big dog you, right? And it starts with setting yourself up for success first. Understand like what is my strategy for this match? How am I going to combat this? you know, like what type of mindset do I have here? If I'm going to be the technician, I have to have certain things. If I'm going to be, you know, the guy who wins by attrition is another strategy, right? If I'm looking for the quick finish, right? Like you you have to tailor your mindset to the way that you plan to win and be specific in doing so. I think people that just go there, I'm just going to show up and do whatever. Well, guess what? Whatever could happen and whatever could be you losing by sub in 30 seconds. No, be specific in how you expect things to happen. It's not always going to work out that way, but you have better chances of getting towards that than if you didn't. As an example, that would be like, well, you're you want to have, let's say, a pool built in in your backyard. But rather than hire a contractor, you know, and to like make a plan and take measurements so they know like how deep they can go, if they're going to hit any plumbing or wiring or whatnot. You're like, I'm just going to go out there and just do whatever and see what happens. Like, man, like there are a lot of things that can go wrong, right? And you could totally goof this thing up. if I come out there and get a plan and all that, it's not a guarantee that things won't go wrong, but it's less likely to, right? And you might not get the pool that you ended up wanting, but you're going to be closer to it than if you just willy-nilly. And there's a lot of people like, "Oh, yeah, I just go and when I compete, I just do whatever." Like, man, that's Yeah, you're being lazy. That's not like, oh, how like how on guard I am, how cool that I can just not worry about those things. Now you're being lazy because you're not doing the mental footwork so to speak to prep yourself properly. This is the same thing I would say and you've heard me say this before with training. Like some people just go to training and expect the coach to just spoon feed you everything. So you don't have to make any preparation beforehand. You just go there and let them, you know, move everything for you. It's better than nothing but still lazy, right? Be an active learner when you show up to the class to or you show up to training. Have goals in mind. You know, get yourself ready mentally, physically, emotionally, right? Like I don't rely on people to warm me up anymore. You guys know that. I warm myself up, you know, uh before I'm going in there. If it's a tough training session, I'm giving myself hype up, you know, tips. you know, to get myself primed. Uh, I have goals in mind like what am I trying to hit today? You know, what am I trying to avoid today? I'm not going in there just, oh, let's see what happens. I'm not uh leaving that to chance. I'm going to throw in my two cents early on how I want this to happen. Now, is it going to go out that way? Maybe, maybe not. But I'm giving some direction. Otherwise, you're pretty much you could be the best grappler in the world, but if you go in there with no instruction, no direction, it's like being the best marksman and being blindfolded and then spun in the 360 and then say shoot. It's like, I don't know where I'm going to end up shooting, right? I'm blind. And that's how you are when you don't set yourself up for success. You don't have uh a goal. You don't have a plan. You don't have expectations. You're flying blind. And I wouldn't recommend that. Go in there, do the the the leg work. Write down what you want from whether it's training or competition. What's the the strategy, the tactics, how you going to get there? What is the mindset? How do you need to be? Do you need to be aggressive? Do you need to be calm? Do you need to be in the guy's face or do you want him to be do you want him to be one that's very aggressive to make mistakes? Right? Like all these types of things you have to draw out of yourself. And I say that's why most people don't like doing it cuz oh like it's thinking, you know, like yeah, we got to exercise that brain. uh if you don't do it, someone else is going to do it on you. Anyhow, that's my my thoughts on that, right? And breaking somebody mentally usually requires this type of leg work, right? You have to get them into areas they don't like. And that takes some calculations, right? you think and you plan and it's a beautiful thing as a fighter when you break somebody because you know you've employed a successful strategy and I've done that many times and it makes the fight very easy cuz once I've broken somebody now it's just run them through. They're just waiting to be finished. Some of them will go into survival mode and you just have to hold out or some of them will just start opening up opportunities to get finished because they want to check out already. That is when you've perfectly crafted a strategy and mindset that would overcome your opponent and break them. And I feel this is something that many people can learn from and utilize. You don't need to be a great fighter or grappler or martial artist to have good tactics and mindset. That obviously helps, but it's not a prerequisite to have a high skill level physically, to have a high skill level mentally. They usually come together though, but it's there's nothing that would make that. So, I think it's just the more experience you have naturally, the more skilled you are and then the more experience you have, the more likely you're going to learn these type of lessons and utilize them yourself. But you could potentially cheat this learning curve by just starting to build that mental skill set faster than the physical skill set. And the nice thing is that you can build the mental skill set quicker because it doesn't require the physical exertion which can be brutal. Anyhow, if you guys like that type of stuff, I would definitely recommend that you check out uh well, a lot of my philosophy posts cover stuff like this, but my brother's book uh Black Belt Psychology, which I believe we have on the website on video as well, covers just about every corner of combat sports psychology. And it was something that we made a prerequisite for all the fighters to to read. And I think it has been a great benefit to our fighters because they're they're all older now and most of them have grown out of the fight career, but beyond the fight career, they've all had great success in business and in their family lives. So I feel like it it encapsul en encapsulates the whole virtue set of the martial arts. So I would check that out. Otherwise, I'll catch you guys next