Every time you push yourself a little harder, every time you make the rounds a little longer and increase the pressure in training, you take yourself from a “familiar zone” to a completely new one, one that requires more attention and more work, one that is unpredictable and a lot less comfortable. It is then that you take yourself from a comfortable zoo, to the wild.

Whatever level you are on right now, whether you are fighting for the most prestigious promotion on the planet or whether you have not yet had your debut fight, you will always need to improve. MMA is a relatively new sport and athletes get better and better with each show. Whether you are climbing the rankings or defending your title, you must continue to improve in order to keep up with this ever-evolving sport. When you train, you will not grow unless you put yourself in positions where you feel uncomfortable, very uncomfortable. If you do not stretch yourself, if you complete your training sessions finding them easy, you are not growing, you are not improving. This is fine at times; for example, you do not want to stretch yourself on fight-week, or after an injury and on many other occasions and that is fine. But know that as you raise the bar, as you go up in ranking, as you aim at bigger goals, your game must change, your skills must improve and your training must get smarter and tougher for you to achieve these goals – both physically and mentally.

So be ready to go through spells of pain, feeling uncomfortable, finding yourself struggling in training. This can make many feel as if they are getting worse, as if the skills are decreasing instead of improving but it is in fact the opposite. Think about lifting weights; out of 10 repetitions with heavy weights doing crawls, which of the 10 reps is the hardest one? The 10th you may say right? Correct! Which is the one that makes you grow more? It is not the 10th but the 11th! When you push yourself out of your comfort zone, be prepared to feel uncomfortable, that’s okay, that’s why they call it “out of your comfort zone”. But that is when you grow!

When I resumed my training after the ACL surgery, I went from being an overweight, rusty and in-pain 36 year-old coming back from a 12 months lay off, to sparring and rolling with pro-fighters of international calibre without being ran over and actually getting some good rounds in. Most of the guys of the intermediate level were no longer as challenging as they used to be for me; I’d raised the bar!!! But to get there I suffered, I pushed and pushed to the point where I felt broken, almost as if I wasn’t really improving but regressing. One day, almost by coincidence, I attended a session with the intermediate level and it was only then that I realised how far I had come.

One of the most indicative evidences that you have taken your skills to a different, higher level, is when you find yourself rolling or sparring with someone who was once at your level and now they simple aren’t challenging enough for you. Unless they come from long time outs, they have not degraded, you have evolved and that is because you pushed yourself and they haven’t – it is that simple. Episodes like this can make us realise how much we have improved and therefore give meaning to all the hard times we had to go through. So, sometimes, stop for a moment and ask yourself: “how far did I progress since I began this process?, How far did I progress since six months ago? And how far did I progress even since last week”. It is important to realise your progress and fuel that desire to do even better.

Good luck.

Having recovered very well and quickly, I started boxing in September, Kickboxing in October and in January 2013 I was able to go back in full MMA training. On the 11 December I weighed 205lbs. Last Sunday 20 January 2013 (6 weeks later) I weighed 184lbs. That’s a cut of 21lbs and I have done it while making sure that I fed myself enough to train and not only maintain but increase both stamina and strengths.

In this post I want to share with you what I have done both in terms of diet and psychological work in order to make this an easy, sustainable and effective journey. Please note that you should always seek the opinion of a professional and of your doctor before you start a new diet or exercise regime. What follows is only my opinion and may not be suitable for everybody.

The Goal:

The first thing that I did is to make sure that I had a clear goal in mind. Without a clear goal you will be more likely to fail and that is mainly because of that fact that you will not be able to measure your results against a desired outcome, you will have no clear compelling vision and you will have no sense of temporal progression. So set your goal before you start (follow the Goal Setting guide which you can find at http://mmamindpower.com/why-mma-whats-your-goal/)

The Strategy:

You have to have a strategy; if you don’t you are several times more likely to fail! Having a strategy means knowing exactly what you need to do to achieve your weight loss goal. This must include:

• Your mile stone goals
  In my case I had to be 198lbs by the end of December, 183lbs by the end of January, 172lbs by the end of February and 155lbs by weigh in day at the end of March). This way it is easier to monitor your progress and adjust if needed.

• Your knowledge
  Make sure that you talk to someone who not only knows nutrition but preferably someone who has achieved a similar task to the one that you are facing! This way you will avoid putting all the effort in for something that may or may not work. Although the same diet may not produce the same results for everybody, you are more likely to succeed if you get advice from someone who has first-hand experience and can recommend supplements and small tricks which make all the difference. I was lucky enough to get advice about nutrition from an amazing athlete who has achieved and will achieve great heights – Thanks Jack Mason.  

• Your food
  Once you have your diet, you must plan for it! You must plan ahead what you are going to eat in the coming days; make sure that you monitor not only what you eat but also the amount of food you eat. If you plan ahead, you can shop accordingly; imagine that after a long day at the gym you get home at 10pm, ready to eat what you need to refuel and at the same time lose weight and all you have in the fridge is cheese and ham! Are you really going to make it out the house to buy the right food? Chances are slim! So you end up either eating what there is or skip the meal altogether; both very bad ideas! So plan ahead and shop accordingly. Lastly, planning allows you to prepare mentally for your meal.

• Drink at least 4lt of water + what you sweat
  Why? Just because! Just do it! This advice was given to me by another amazing athlete who is now in TUF17! – Thanks! Luke Barnatt 

• Have a “cheat day”
  A day of the week (typically weekend) when you can eat more freely. I personally prefer to moderately eat a little more freely at lunch and a little more freely at dinner instead of pigging out on only one meal and then right back on track after that. Check with the person who is helping you out with your diet.

• Your training camp
  This post is targeted at combat-sports athletes and so I assume that you are cutting weight for a fight. Therefore it is important that you monitor your performance in training in terms of stamina and strength. Make sure that you are not losing strength and if you are you must address the problem correcting your diet and/or supplement intake.
• Be realistic:
  It is important that you set a realistic goal! I am trying 155lbs for the very first time in my life; I have never made this weight before. My strategy is that if after having done absolutely everything I possibly can, I do not get to 172lbs by the end of February or the very beginning of March, I will change plan and fight at 170 instead! This does not represent an excuse to fail but rather a calculated change of plan at appropriate time in case I cannot make that weight (only because I have never done this before – so it’s is about weather my body can do it rather than weather I can).If you have made this weight before or if, because of your body fat percentage, you are certain that your body can make that weight, this point does not apply.

Your mental attitude:

Lastly, you must change your attitude towards food. You can do that in many ways, we have audio tracks and other programmes for that. However, one of the easiest ways is to follow the instructions outlined in the Goal Setting procedure and then create mental strategies which can help you associate pleasure to dieting as opposed to pain. Some tips include:

• Weigh yourself once a week one the same day at the same time (first thing in the morning – better the day before your “cheat day”). This would set some sort of competition which as an athlete you are likely to enjoy and be motivated by.
• Always write down what you are going to eat for the week ahead so that you do not have to make impulsive-emotional decisions bat rather rational ones. Then you will be only acting on what you have decided which takes away a lot of the temptation and the pressure.
• Reward yourself always after a good week. Even if just verbally or by buying yourself something nice, like a new piece of gear. This will create positive associations between dieting and results (happiness).

These above are exactly all the steps that I am following and that are bringing fantastic results. Not only have a lost weight and keep on loosing it, but I am also feeling stronger, faster, more durable and of course, because of all of the above, more motivated!

Good luck!

I personally cannot wait for the 22 January to watch the series and I bet many of you feel the same.

Read the whole story at MMA Junkie.com

The December issue of THFEMAG part of Fighters Only features my recent article on the new series of TUF which is due to air early next year.

Grab your copy at you local store or sign up for a convenient subscription HERE.

This piece written by Luca Senatore, was published on Train Hard Fight Easy Mag, part of Fighters Only in October 2012. Ge your subscription to THFE Mag today HERE.

On November 17th 2012, George St Pierre will finally climb back inside the Octagon to do what he does best: fight. However, the question on the lips of MMA fans worldwide is the same: ‘After more than 18 months of inactivity, will GSP be even close to the same fighter he once was?’

Even for athletes as experienced and as mentally prepared as GSP, ring-rust presents some concrete problems that may influence the way an athlete performs during a professional bout. Naturally, these include physical barriers, like the ability to push through hard rounds, react to difficult situations and movements, and keep up with the evolution of the sport and progress of other athletes.

But then there’s also the psychological aspect of returning to the big stage after injury, which is more to do with the mental state of athletes and their ability to get and remain ‘in the zone’ without being affected by emotional issues that may occur after long periods out of the loop.

One aspects which may affect GSP the most is the natural, unconscious ability to deal with the emotional aspects of what’s involved in a professional fight; from the media commitments, to weigh-cuts, weigh-ins, press conferences to the actual match-up on fight night. After regaining the title he lost to Matt Serra in April 2007, St Pierre has been fighting exclusively to defend the 170lb belt. For more than three years, he fought as defending champion as regularly as every four to eight months.

This inevitably set a, perhaps unconscious, pattern in the champion’s emotional approach to fighting. What I mean is, his unconscious mind would begin to recognize all these aspects and phases as more normal, usual and therefore predictable. Your mind would therefore be less affected by them. Then you stop, you don’t put yourself in positions where your mind gets these signals for a period three times longer than the average break in between fights. The conclusion that there will be some repercussions for most athletes is therefor only justified and logic.

GSP is considered one of the best combat sports athletes to walk the earth, the best welterweight in the world and top three pound-for-pound. So what steps could he have taken to minimize the effects of psychological ring-rust mentioned here?

Apart from sports psychology and mind coaching techniques, which can greatly help achieve healthy and balanced mind-sets, there are practical and simple strategies that athletes can take. For example:

CORNERING

Go to as many shows as possible and when possible corner teammates. This helps your mind stay as close to the ‘protagonists role’ as possible.

COACHING

Coaching other athletes helps to improve your game in your mind; you begin to see things from a different perspective. Without intentional purpose, you break down the various strategies and techniques in a way that allows these to become ‘cemented’ in your mind.

MENTAL REHEARSAL

Mentally rehearse fighting. Imagine that you are performing and your mind will remain more accustomed performing. Our unconscious mind does not know the difference between what is really happening and what is being imagined, that’s why dreams seem so real. Let’s just say that whatever you imagine and focus on becomes realized in your mind and your brain begins to send congruent messages to your nervous system. Mental rehearsal is a very powerful way to get ready for a fight and keep your mind attuned the idea of fighting. Find out more details about Mental Rehearsal HERE. 

Another important factor may be fight nerves and performance anxiety. Despite being considered one of the very best in modern MMA, GSP will also feel the pressure of having to prove it once again – especially with the fight being on home turf and against a former stablemate, who no doubt looked up to him. Here are some tips GSP will most likely utilize to keep his nerves under control until the bell goes:

FAMILIARITY

With Greg Jackson in neither corner, bot GSP and Carlos Condit may both be unable to recreate the familiarities they’ve both become accustomed backstage, but having trusted lieutenants and familiar faces in the locker room and at cageside always helps to reassure and settle anxiety.

ROUTINE

Fighters will often repeat the same steps as they close in on battle in the final few hours – meticulously packing kitbags, having their hands wrapped in order, striking mitts – which all breeds familiarity.

ENTRANCE

Whether it’s UFC whip Bert Watson’s call to arms, your favorite track filling the stadium, crawling into the Octagon Rashad Evans style, Tito Ortiz pointing to the mat, or the rolling wrists of Wanderlei Silva – being comfortable in the unnatural surrounding that is a professional fist fight is vital. Finding contentment in the belly of the beast is the challenge facing professional fighters at every level.

MMA is by far the fastest evolving combat sport these days, more and more people take up the sport and from time to time we see the super talented athletes making it to the top. Jon Jones became UFC champion only after three years of MMA, Chris Wideman is in the top ten only after three years in the sport and then there are others singed by smaller but high level promotions who demonstrate fantastic talent and great potential. Some of them I had the pleasure to work with, meet or simply watch fight; athletes like Arnold Billy Allen , Wendle Lewis, John Maguire and Jack Mason are among some of the super-talented MMArtists who will definitely go very far in their career.

But is it all natural talent as many people seem to suggest? Is it true that these athletes are luckier than others and have some sort of advantage? Often is easy to fall in the trap of drawing these types of conclusions without digging a little deeper first.

The Luke “Big Slow” Barnatt case

I had the tremendous opportunity to work and train with MW Luke “Big Slow” Barnatt, a MW pro MMArtist with a Pro record of 5-0 and a semi-pro record of 8-1. Luke is one of those athletes who will go very far in his MMA career, one who will most definitely make it in the UFC and one of those who many will one day call “overnight sensations”.

Our lives are entirely shaped by the choices we make daily, some choices are painful today and will lead to pleasure tomorrow, some others are pleasurable today but may not lead to as much reward in the future.

Most people tend to make choices which allow them to live a fairly comfortable life both today and in the future; few people make poor choices today which may provide happiness now but lead to poorer outcomes in the future and even fewer ones make choices which may be painful today but can potentially lead to greatness tomorrow. The latter type of people are the Future Champions; champions in sport, champions in business, academia or whatever other avenue they have chosen.

Over the past year or so and have been granted access to some of the life-style, training and routines that Luke Barnatt follows in order to grow as MMA athlete. This closeness to Luke allowed me to learn about some of his choices, the choices that put him in the category of “Future Champions” described above. To name only a few choices that Barnatt has made:

• Luke has left comfortable circumstances, gave up his business and gave up on a reliable financial income to become a full time Mixed Martial Artist. This sounds a lot more fan on paper than it does in real life. Since that moment, “Big Slow” has spent most of his awaken time, and often his asleep time too, in the gym.
• He didn’t go on holidays, he chose to go to Thailand to refine is Thai-Boxing or to Sweden to train with top level athletes or to The States to train with other elite athletes.
• He did not go out most weekends, he spent them training or recovering from training.
• Luke didn’t use the money that he made with his fights and with the private one2one sessions to buy a car, he chose to use the money to look after his body and mind, one2one sessions with top coaches and training gear.
• Originally from Essex, Luke did not even use the money to rent an apartment near Tsunamy Fight Centre in Cambridge, where he trains, he chose to sleep in the gym instead and use the money to pay for privates and anything that would contribute to the achievement of his dream.
• When Luke isn’t training he doesn’t spend his time in leisure, he chooses to coach and corner other athletes which is one of the most powerful ways to learn even more about the sport.
• I have seen Luke coaching beginners and he does so with the same passion that he coaches pro athletes; his integrity and professional approach wasn’t in his DNA, he chose to work for it.
• Furthermore Luke chose to accept whatever fights he was given, the harder the opponent, the better; not because he was naïve, overconfident or careless, but because he wanted to test his skills against the best challenger. He took no shortcut and chose the only path to greatness: vision, hard work, consistency and passion.

Your choice

But why am I on about this? Many other people work hard and do great things so why all this fuss about Luke Barnatt?

This article is hopefully a wakeup call for those who talk about “overnight sensations”, “naturally gifted athletes” and “freaks of nature”. This article is an invite to take responsibility over your future, an invite to stop focusing on what others have, on what life gives us and focus more on what we can do for ourselves; on the actions that we can take today to get closer to our goal tomorrow.

Ultimately, this article is an invite to understand the power that you have deep within, the power to literally choose what you want to be, have or do because I truly believe that you can become whoever you want and do whatever you want… if you make the right choices today.

Luke Barnatt has made all the right choices so far and will continue to do so and not because I say so, not because he has to but only because he chooses to!

Thanks to:

SPORTS311 “Visual Performance” are proud sponsors of Luke Barnatt. SPORTS311 is the sector of our agency that focusses on athletes and action sports. Our agency is FACTORY31. Photography by TOM FRAUD (www.tomfraud.com)

Pictures and videos courtesy of Factory 311 @factory311

Watch this amazing video of Luke “Big Slow” Barnatt created by Factory 311 HERE. 

This post is not meant to be a brag about how good we are and the changes that I am able to make with MMA athletes (oh well maybe just a little bit ); this post is about pointing out the difference between receiving help and using the help received – the old ” bring the horse to the water but can’t make him drink” story!

During the last year, we had calls, emails and messages calls of MMA athletes who wanted to thank me and the other guys at MMA Mind Power for the amazing results they achieved. I personally worked with athletes who used to suffer from terrible fight nerves, lack of confidence, paranoia about the colour of their clothing, limiting belief, inability to be aggressive and more. Most of the athletes I see achieve their desired change really quickly and that is most definitely not only because of the strategies and techniques used but because of the fact that these people actually adopted these strategies, they followed through and made a firm commitment to grow.

Some people resist to applying these strategies and that is down to two factors: 1. it’s all new stuff and they require a change. Change is always scary to a certain extent and therefore we tend to resist it. 2. it’s not complicated, it’s very simple stuff and that can sometimes be deceiving and give the wrong idea that if it’s so easy it cannot be that effective. Far from the truth – less is more! Once we overcome these two challenges and the athlete is committed to follow through, the rest is easy.

Here is an email which I received a couple of days ago from an athlete in Australia who I never met; he purchased our Audio Program The Warrior in You.

Hi Luca!

 

Many greetings from Canberra, Australia. Thankyou very much for MMA Mind Power. Just won my first MMA fight last night at a local show (Round 1 Standing TKO 2.10min)… Man your stuff really made me SO FOCUSED and PUMPED. I showed a strong chin and power with the ‘Warrior Suit’ and my combos landed clean with my opponent ending up spitting out his mouthguard then I hit him with an overhand to finish him off.

 

Thankyou very much and I look forward to more of your material…

 

Cheers mate!

Regards,

-Rob

So, apart from buying The Warrior in You now , this post is an invite to take action on whatever change you know you have or want to make, to follow through and be committed to do all it takes to achieve your goals.

Good luck.

I will keep this short… Jon Jones has already lost at UFC 152 when he declined the fight with Sonnen. Why?

Little to gain – much to lose

If he took the fight with Sonnen he would have avoided the criticisms which contributed to the negative aura that he created around himself and he would have fought a much less dangerous, smaller and less prepared opponent with a more compatible set of skills.

Now he has to fight a more dangerous man who’s skills are those which may give the champ problems (especially the hard and fast punches), who had more time to prepare (with people who know Jones) and with that much bigger negative energy around him. Vitor Belfort represents way more dangers that he does opportunities for the defending champion. And the other part of the problem is that even though Vitor is indeed a threat to Jones and is coming out of two straight wins, he hasn’t certainly been a LHW top contender in the recent months; he hasn’t fought any top LHW recently and has lost during his attempt to win the MW title against Anderson Silva at UFC 126 in February last year.So even if Jones wins, at least on paper all he achieved is that he won against a “non-contender” (rally a MW) who is stepping up at shortish notice. Hardly an accomplishment.

If he loses on the other hand, which in my personal opinion is more than possible, all the glory will go to Vitor and the not negative aura that Jones has created around himself with the DUI issue and the more recent UFC 151 ordeal will only escalate and simply destroy the “prodigy and people’s champ” image very rapidly.

So, if he wins, he has only beat a smaller guy stepping up and if he loses he lost to the smaller guy stepping up. Hummm… interesting.

The Mind Power factor

Well, although Jones is known for his ability to be mentally prepared before each fight, considering all that happened in the last few weeks to Jones and the passion and hunger which Belfort seems to show, the Mind Power at UFC 153 goes to Vitor Belfort.

VIDEO below – A little rehab work done daily, a little mental work again done daily and a massive wish to be back fighting, helped me heal up enough to be able to do some sparring less than 3 months after ACL reconstruction.

I was very pleased to noticed that, although I am slowed and certainly rusty, I could complete 15 rounds and considering that my primary weapon are my kicks, I didn’t do bad at all. A big thank you to the boys at CARISMA Kickboxing for having me there and helping me getting back.

I am certainly not there yet BUT, every day, I am… one step closer!

It is with immense pleasure that we announce that MMA Mind Power is now writing for Train Hard Fight Easy (THFE), part of Fighters Only, the leading MMA magazine in the world, distributed over 32 countries and translated in 3 languages.

The debut of MMA Mind Power’s column on THFE will be about “mental-ring-rust”. Luca Senatore, head coach at MMA Mind Power, will investigate the psychological barriers threatening the long-awaited return of UFC welterweight champion Georges St Pierre. The issue be will be on sale in the UK, Europe and via iPad on October 23rd. On sale in the US/Canada and South Africa two weeks later.

You can get your copy of both Fighters Only Mag or Train Hard Fight Easy by visiting http://www.fightersonlymag.com/ where you can also get a convenient subscription and be sure to never miss a copy.