Fight Prep?

[smacktime]

Got a very hectic schedule of 3 fights in 4 weeks coming up.
How do those of you that compete prepare?
Things like pre fight meals, tapering, getting rid of nerves and so on?
post!

[El Presidente]

Personally I spend the day before clearing my mind of anything negative. Just calm yourself and prepare mentally for the fight. The day before is when the nerves set in. So that's essentially your 'first' fight before your actual fight.

Im no expert. But thats what gets me into the ring the next day without any shakes or excessive adrenaline.

WHat rules are you competing under? 3 fights in 4 weeks? Damn.

[smacktime]

Personally I spend the day before clearing my mind of anything negative. Just calm yourself and prepare mentally for the fight. The day before is when the nerves set in. So that's essentially your 'first' fight before your actual fight.

Im no expert. But thats what gets me into the ring the next day without any shakes or excessive adrenaline.

WHat rules are you competing under? 3 fights in 4 weeks? Damn.

I'm competing in Nihon Kempo, a small but pretty strong discipline especially in Japanese uni's.
The 1st tourney (seeded so if I make finals, maybe 4-5 x 2 min fights) is the area championships, 2nd week is a small tourney(again seeded) against Area's Shodan & under (Not important and will be done if no injury just for competition training). 3rd and final fight is grading and is 3 x 2 min bouts. ( this is the important one if I had to pick)
I have no experience with martial arts outside of Japan but our fight seasons seems to be either May & june OR Oct & Nov.

Nerves are my biggest enemy. I find it hard to eat food the morning of a fight due to these. I might have to try calming myself down the day before a bit more and see how that works.

Thanks for posting!

[El Presidente]

Whats the rules of Nihon Kempo?

Im gonna be in Japan next year and want to try out a variety of stand-up styles while still focusing on my MT. So Im busy scouting around for styles. Are competitions common there? I'll fight every week if i can when Im not teaching classes.

The way I got rid of my nerves for MT was competing in a LOT of point fighting competitions. The nerves are the same at first... then after a while it wears off with each new competition. Competition nerves are the same for full-contact or semi-contact... I just decided to wear them out on semi-contact competitions and leave me in a clearer frame of mind for future full-contact tournaments.

Also - right before your fight... give yourself 3 - 5 hard deep agressive Kias (into a towel if you dont want to make a scene). Blow out all that pent up nerves. And if you get the chance - kia whenever you can in the fight (if its allowed). Your focus will be much sharper after a few good ones.

my 2 cents

[Titan]

Nerves are my biggest enemy. I find it hard to eat food the morning of a fight due to these. I might have to try calming myself down the day before a bit more and see how that works.
Come fight mornings, I've basically stuck to eating fruit and not pasta, meat, or potatoes. It's very light on either a cool or upset stomach, and it doesn't take a lot for the body to break it down.

Nerves is difficult. It's basically "just" your mind that makes you nervous and how you perceive the situation. If I may suggest, go to the library and look up a book called "Psychocybernetics" (by Maxwell ... Meltz, I think his lastname was.) It talks alot about how to change your self-image and how to look at yourself and the tasks at hand. The book has actually been used by many professional athletes and is interesting. It just summarizes so much more than I can fit into one thread. :-) You think they'd have it at a local library or bookstore there, so you actually have the chance to read it?

[smacktime]

Whats the rules of Nihon Kempo?

Im gonna be in Japan next year and want to try out a variety of stand-up styles while still focusing on my MT. So Im busy scouting around for styles. Are competitions common there? I'll fight every week if i can when Im not teaching classes.


You should try it out! Rules are simple. 1 fight is either 2 or 3 minutes.
2 points are needed to win. You can get a point by punching,kicking or kneeing the in head or the torso area. (knees to helmet are not recommended!) We are also allowed to use judo throws and can still get a point if one opponent is on the ground. No low kicks.
Its everywhere, especially strong at university level then most guys usually continue and there are dojo's everywhere and unlike Seidokan or Kyokushin it doesn't rape your wallet every month. If you are interested let me know where you will be in Japan & I might be able to get info for you where the nearest good dojo is.

heres a pic of the kit!

[El Presidente]

Damn... thats quite some padding there. Never been a fan of headguards as they screw with my peripheral vision and create 'blind spots' opponents know how to exploit.

But I will give it a shot for sure. Anything goes with me. I'd compete in anything.

How many fights have you had in this and other styles?

[( o Y o )]

hey smack, I used to be friends with the Nihon Kempo Jr Japan champ; Yuhei Ootake. Damned cool dude...fought from a dojo is Nisshin, but was scouted to some uni in Kyoto last I heard ( which is about 4 years now ).

[smacktime]

This is pretty much my experience , but i recently found a place close by that had MT so I would really like to have a go at that to get a bit of influence from different styles.
I haven't been keeping count but if I remember its been somewhere between 40-50 fights in 4 years. Keep in mind that these fights are only1 round 2 minutes & if I do well in a tourney i might go 7 times to the final ( unseeded) or 4-5 times if i am seeded.
Padding is something that i am used to now, as its something that i have used since i started it doesn't really phase me, though it will be interesting to see how I go with it off!

[smacktime]

hey smack, I used to be friends with the Nihon Kempo Jr Japan champ; Yuhei Ootake. Damned cool dude...fought from a dojo is Nisshin, but was scouted to some uni in Kyoto last I heard ( which is about 4 years now ).

no way! Well my dojo is near Nissin.. @ Nagakute actually! I will ask my sensei if he knows this guy. Usually the boys come back to the dojo after their Uni stints so he might be around somewhere. Maybe he's even kicked my ass a few times!

[El Presidente]

Im interested in MT dojos in Japan... is it difficult for a foreigner to adjust to just any dojo or will he need to look for one that will cater to someone non-Japanese.

Fights here where I live are few, far between and plague by bad rules, inconsistencies and plain idiotic officials. Once I get to Japan Im hoping to make up for it and compete as much as I can without hampering my job.

[( o Y o )]

no way! Well my dojo is near Nissin.. @ Nagakute actually! I will ask my sensei if he knows this guy. Usually the boys come back to the dojo after their Uni stints so he might be around somewhere. Maybe he's even kicked my ass a few times!


Damned....You have an Otake sensei there? His father ran/runs the dojo in Aichi Gakuen Uni.....

My daughter goes to school in Nagakute. Small world indeed.

[smacktime]

geeez it's a small world! No Otake sensei at our dojo, but if he is the master of Aichi Gakuen then I know his face.
All my gradings & a few of my fights are at Aichi Gakuen (smaller comps) and the uni boys train with us and join our dojo after they leave Uni.

[( o Y o )]

geeez it's a small world! No Otake sensei at our dojo, but if he is the master of Aichi Gakuen then I know his face.
All my gradings & a few of my fights are at Aichi Gakuen (smaller comps) and the uni boys train with us and join our dojo after they leave Uni.

Cool....the ex Jr champ is his son so you have probably come across him in the past. Very cool guy.....kinda sad to have lost contact with him.

[Grant Ellis]

What my brothers, myself, and most of the people we have trained have done in the past for both sport jiu-jitsu and western-style boxing was to invite as many people as possible to our sparring sessions and get aclimated to having eyes on us and ruckus noise in the background.

Basically, competing with no people watching is no different than fighting with a lot of people watching; you and your opponent still decide the outcome.

On the personal level, to help calm nerves before hand (and to make sure I am in shape) I also dance before hand. This might sound funny, but I believe thai boxers and professional dancers have some of the best endurance in the world.

Dancers take hours and hours to warm up for their performances.
So, what we liked to do was dance. Dancing helped us to relax, calm down, maybe laugh a bit, as well as keep us in shape.

So, in conclusion, my advice is spar publicly, be open to fixing mistakes when your trainer criticizes, and dance your nerves away. :)

[El Presidente]

Public sparring... brilliant. Gotta try that.

[Adrian]

I used to compete in freestyle tournaments and I used to take a walkman with me to listen to some music before I stepped on the mat. I found it helped a lot. It saves you from looking around and wondering who it is you'll be matched up against.

Tournaments can be really dull places to be, so I always take something to read as well, some fruit and something decent to drink, because tournaments are usually in some rubbish sports hall somewhere which only has vending machines for fizzy pop and chocolate bars.

[Western Shootor]

bro, you're wearing so much gear, I dont know why you are nervous. Unless there are weapons involved, I wouldnt worry too much.

[( o Y o )]

bro, you're wearing so much gear, I dont know why you are nervous. Unless there are weapons involved, I wouldnt worry too much.

Nerves come at every sort of competition level. I doubt they are due to him being worried about being hurt.

[smacktime]

bro, you're wearing so much gear, I dont know why you are nervous. Unless there are weapons involved, I wouldnt worry too much.

Mate, like boobs said above, Gear and injury is the least of my worries, especially when I really want that next black belt or the title..

I used to get the same nerves before Triathlons/ surf comps etc etc too. Comes with competitions for me, though they fire me up once the gun/bell goes off.

With all the padding you'd think that there'd be no injuries right?
Well try punching a few steel bars with all your might and you might find that it hurts alot more than punching a bare face!