The Mental Aspects of MMA

by Leland Roling on May 27, 2009 12:43 PM EDT Comment 31 comments

One of the aspects that isn't mentioned very often when analyzing and breaking down fights in order to pick a winner is the mental aspect that each fighter brings to the Octagon. We generally look at a fighter's past performances as an indication as to what style, skillset and strategy said fighter will bring to the cage against their opponent, but the mental stability and toughness of a fighter also plays a heavy role.

One of the interesting quotes from last week's interview with Lyoto Machida's father, Yoshizo Machida, revolved around training Lyoto's mind for the fight game:

SI.com: How did you teach the mental aspects of martial arts and competition to Lyoto?

Machida: The first thing I taught him was his breathing. The way you breathe is very important. Once you get breathing patterns and the breathing process down, then you have to have your posture. And then the third thing is imagination, focusing and visualizing. Visualizing is very important part of how you're going to win the fight; when you're going to win the fight; what moves you're going to do to win the fight. And visualizing raising your hand. Basically, visualizing the entire process, from beginning to end. Blocking everything else out of your mind. A lot of people don't prepare the mental state of their body. So many people are focused on the technical aspect and strength aspect, and they don't work on the mental aspects.

This brings up some intriguing points. Breathing, posture and visualizing the fight are all things that require mental concentration in a fight because of their importance to the overall performance of a fighter. Imagine a fighter trying to control all of those things while being punched or actively fighting to avoid a submission. It surely can't be easy.

When I think of the mental aspects involved in MMA, I always turn to the execution of a gameplan as a real indication as to whether a particular fighter is strong mentally when he enters the cage or ring. Fighters like Randy Couture and Lyoto Machida display this mental toughness fight after fight, and we could even throw the more recent performances by Georges St. Pierre into the mix. Some fighters throw their gameplan out the window after being hit on the head with a punch, and those types of fighters can really detract from the perception of their overall abilities because we would assume they'd play to their strengths.

There are also those fighters in the sport that wear the emotional badge on their chests, and while it may make for some exciting battles in the ring or cage... it ultimately can lead to a losing effort. Tatsuya Kawajiri comes to mind as he has a tendency to either fully work a brilliant gameplan as he did against Gesias "JZ" Cavalcante at DREAM 9, or foolishly get into a massive slugfest with the underdog Eddie Alvarez at DREAM 5. While finding out that an opponent has ways to counter your original gameplan can definitely hinder the ways in which you believed you could win a matchup, it was evident that Kawajiri's aggressiveness went through the roof as he ate a few blows later in the matchup.

Xavier Foupa-Pokam also brought up the possibility that the "UFC jitters" could potentially play a role in newcomers to the UFC having bad performances. This is something that could also be attributed to the mental side of MMA.

What other fighters within the landscape of MMA have proven to show a mental stability and toughness recently or throughout their careers? I'd throw Gegard Mousasi in the mix as a fighter who has shown not only intelligence in his gameplanning, but as a guy who fully executed exactly what he needed to do in order to beat his opponent's weaknesses. I'm sure a lot of guys who have been in those types of battles in which they came back from the brink of a stoppage could be thrown in there as well. When you think of mental toughness, who pops into your mind?

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Hendo comes to mind immediately when mental toughness is suggested. He is a guy that always fights his fight, no matter what happens in the duration of his bout. I’d even suggest that the characteristic is most widely attributable to wrestlers; perhaps because they can always rely on their bread and butter when things go awry. Additionally, guys like Miguel Torres are never deterred and are so well rounded that they can defer to other strategies within the body of their fights. His, however, being an example of a fighter that suggests he does not strategize but, rather, approaches his fights organically. Which, interestingly, could benefit his mental strength in that he doesn’t have to worry for the failure of his deliberately calculated approach.

I poop rainbows.

by Blackout612 on May 27, 2009 2:19 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Here’s a small question. Henderson doesn’t revert to his Greco-Roman base, so would you say that could be considered a mental weakness… or is it simply that Henderson goes into fights with the idea that he can use his wrestling to counter takedowns instead of put guys continually on the floor?

Miguel Torres, I’d definitely agree with that, although at times, he tends to get into slugfests when it doesn’t really need to go that far. Torres seems like a guy that could go in with a gameplan, see it not working, and change his ways on the fly and still be successful.

Kawajiri, on the other hand, normally goes in with a plan of “crushing” opponents on the floor. If he can’t do that, the brawling begins. I’m not sure that’s his best strategy in the world. I can see where Torres is much better as a dynamic thinker on the fly though.

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by Leland Roling on May 27, 2009 2:38 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

With Torres, he’s clear in his philosophy of not game-planning guys, but rather using all of his tools organically to figure out his path to victory on the fly. Some would say that takes more mental toughness than executing a game-plan, but you’d have to have a pretty intense mental makeup to rely on your whole breadth of skills to such a degree.

Hendo is just a guy that’s battle-hardened and is never frustrated or shaken by his lack of progress in the rare occasion that what he’s doing isn’t successful. My belief is that his lack of reliance on his wrestling is because he can bang with the best of them, has a granite chin and can stuff takedowns. He prefers to dictate fights on his feet than to GNP and defend subs. I’d chalk that up to style.

The Crusher predicament does show a lack of fortitude. Some guys are mentally weak in a different way, though, and it could be the same in his case as in that of a Sean Sherk, where I’ve felt that he’s recently tried to prove he can bang it out and he’s more stubborn than mentally fragile. The Andy Wang’s and Jorge Gurgel’s of the world, so to speak. And the mental toughness of a guy like Machida is different than that of Hendo or some of the other guys mentioned. His could be likened to that of Anderson Silva or Fedor (and quite possibly Torres) where they are able to impose their strengths upon the opposition without fear of seeing cracks in their own armor. It’s hard to quantify when those guys are rarely in a position of adversity, but not for lack of opposition.

I poop rainbows.

by Blackout612 on May 27, 2009 3:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Solid points. I think you might be right about Sherk, but it’s interesting putting it into a mental aspect instead of stubbornness. The interesting part about this last fight was that while he wasn’t unbelievably effective in taking down Edgar, the takedowns he did produce were great. I found it a bit odd that Sherk didn’t begin to bait Edgar into coming forward so he could explode into the takedown a few more times. That could be attributed to stubbornness, but I find that hard to swallow when he had to have known he had lost those first two rounds.

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by Leland Roling on May 27, 2009 3:12 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The alternative with Sherk

And I’m not sure you saw me mention this in the other thread, but there are rumblings locally (from seemingly reliable sources) that he’s got bad knees and didn’t shoot as a result. I don’t know if I buy that. I think he’s been working so much on his boxing that he wanted to put Edgar away to justify the work that he’s put into it. I’ve seen some people say that Edgar shut down Sherk’s wrestling, and I find that ridiculous. He took him down with ease on his first shot and should have been wrestling him all along. If he wanted to be proud, he could have proved it with his wrestling; Edgar is a wrestler, too. That fight broke my heart, no doubt.

I poop rainbows.

by Blackout612 on May 27, 2009 3:33 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The problem for Sherk is that his reach hinders his boxing abilities so much. MMA guys don’t stand in the pocket because they know a shot could come for the takedown, and especially if you’re fighting Sherk. He needs to find a different way to score KO’s if that’s his plan. Boxing like that won’t do it, not with that short reach.

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by Leland Roling on May 27, 2009 3:42 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It’s too late in the game for Sherk to find a different way to win his fights. He’s been dominant in MMA because of his wrestling, and no one has ever called him an LNP artist, because he damages fuckers. He has to go back to that or drown. And if his knees are too bad to wrestle, then he’s likely done in MMA, sad as it is for me to say.

I poop rainbows.

by Blackout612 on May 27, 2009 3:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think you’re right. It is a bit late, and I don’t see any other way he can really do much else.

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by Leland Roling on May 27, 2009 4:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Note: I saw a pre-fight interview with Cofield and he mentioned he didn’t want his character in Undisputed to be a one-dimensional wrestler. He really has taken a liking to the boxing and wants to put it on display or wants to quiet the people who once called him a LnP artist.

by bigweeze on May 29, 2009 12:04 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

How did the 98 betting go for you?

by bigweeze on May 29, 2009 12:05 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Wins: Machida, Hughes, Roop, Yoshida, Larson
Losses: Miller, Sherk, Nover, Barry, Gusmao

On the bets, I had a large amount on Machida, Larson, Gusmao, Barry. But in the end, I was in the positive about $120 from the event.

The kicker is that I laid a bet with TheGreek.com on Yoshiyuki Yoshida at +365. Yes, you read that correctly… PLUS 365. It was evidently a mistake, so I figured I’d drop $400 on the line and if it was retracted… oh well.

The line ended up actually being honored, and I received an email the day after the event saying the site would honor it as apparently it was never noticed. So, I roughly made $1400 bucks on that bet.

A nice weekend of $1500 bucks in the bank. Without the screwed up line on TheGreek.com, I may have ended up down a lot. For some wierd reason, I only laid down $20 parlay bets, losing all of them, but was still able to make a big gain on Machida to put me back in the black.

Follow my analysis of all things MMA on BloodyElbow.com

by Leland Roling on May 29, 2009 11:08 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

As much as I like Torres, I don’t like his newfound willingness to move forward and bang.

When he uses the jab properly, he is damn near unstoppable.

by bigweeze on May 29, 2009 12:02 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

What really impresses me about fighters like Machida and Fedro, and recently GSP, is how focused they are before and during their fights. Watching Machida’s behind the scenes camera before his fight last weekend was really interesting.

A man should never waste an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.

by iiowyn on May 27, 2009 3:18 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Sherk’s fight raises some questions about when is the proper time to alter your gameplan. It’s an even tougher question for Sherk since his inability to finish fights gives him little options after dropping the first two rounds. I don’t know if Sherk’s corner was calling for a change, but there is some sort of mental deficiency in his inability to adapt his plan. The same stubborn “never stop” mentality that makes him so effective at training so hard, really hurt him in this fight.

by Graven Image on May 27, 2009 3:28 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

meant as a reply, oops

by Graven Image on May 27, 2009 3:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Exactly. This was what I was getting at. Maybe he was just mentally defeated since he knew he wasn’t getting anywhere with takedowns or boxing.

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by Leland Roling on May 27, 2009 3:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

In one of the last few TUF seasons, one of the fighters talked about the coach, on the day before the fight, having the fighter start in the locker room, do his entrance, enter the cage, basically practice the moments before the fight to try and fight the “jitters” come fight day. Its easy to imagine how much this would help.

And visualizing game plans, and backup game plans, and visualizing the fight itself will certainly reduce the chances that something unexpected happens to you. Visualizing in this sense is almost attempting to be a replacement for ring experience. Helping you remain calm and not freeze up.

But true mental toughness, I wouldn’t say is a completely inherited trait, but I would say it is much harder to learn. Its a much deeper part of one’s psychology. I guess what I’m thinking of is what they more commonly call “heart.” Some odd combination of stubbornness and confidence. And the person that comes to mind is Royce Gracie refusing to tap to Matt Hughes’s armbar (a family tradition of sorts, which only goes to show that it was a mentality taught to Royce from a very young age).

Dubious Quality describes “that moment when your will goes from flexible to fixed” (though in his case it was learning to unicycle). And I imagine that is the epiphany that comes with learning mental toughness. The opposite of this mentality are those who give up easily. And here lies, as Dana describes, the TUF contestants who upon getting to the house find out they really weren’t fighters.

by Graven Image on May 27, 2009 4:35 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs

I think very different things are being spoken about here. There’s focus and preparation, and then there’s instinct and comfortbility. Someone who may not naturally be able to do certain things is required to focus and prepare to be successful, but there’s a select group of people who either just genetically or through practice are “naturals.” There’s a reason that every coach, instructor or teacher preaches practice, because repetition promotes instinct; if you do something enough, it becomes part of your normal everyday muscle memory. I think that certain people reach different degrees of comfortbility with practice, and that’s where we see certain athletes who just seem like they do things naturally. Machida is a prime example of this. His history is well documented; his father training him in his own variation of Shotokan Karate since the age of 3, along with his other learned disciplines. When you watch Machida on the ground is nearly as fluid and natural as he is on his feet? Hug the man’s nuts or not, but there is no comparion. The difference is that there is no thought process or preparation, he just does when he’s on his feet. To him, it’s the same thing as walking and talking. I think that the poster was right in comparing this to wrestlers. Wrestling practice is some of the most grueling and repetitive around. How many sit-outs do you think Randy Couture, Dan Henderson or any other elite wrestler has done in his life? That movement, and the movements they’ve practiced over and over again, have become natural to them. Now, I think the other concept, the preparation and focus, are key into advancing other skill sets outside of this. It’s why Randy can stand and strike, and why Lyoto can use his wrestling and BJJ to win. On the other side is Sean Sherk, a man who seems to have turned his back on instinct in favor of a half learned ability. I hope that all makes sense.

by Gogo Platter on May 27, 2009 4:41 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I agree that with enough repetition comes the ability to do whatever skill (in this case fighting) largely unconsciously. You’ve trained your body what to do and it flows through the forms. You really see this when fighters get rocked. Matt Hughes could outwrestle many people while barely conscious. But does this replace the need, as Machida’s father describes, to have part of your training be mental? Is mental training only for those who haven’t reached a certain level of experience?

by Graven Image on May 27, 2009 5:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Don’t know if you saw the Countdown on Spike or not, but Machida goes into how he goes into the jungle and meditates daily. He speaks about how “he activates his psychological side,” while meditating, and then he uses a karate term, I’m probably going to slaughter, mooshim? Basically what Machida explains the term to to mean is that it’s a state of complete mental focus on the fight. I mean, he says it in a lot fancier way, but that’s the meat and potatoes of it. Do I think that meditation, the possible mental training, aides him in this focus? Yes, that is completely feasible. But athletes have been using ways to focus for years. In fact there is a really interesting book out that goes into how dominating athletes like Muhamad Ali and Michael Jordan had a tendency to compete with their jaws dropped. Apparently, there is a physiological connection between the relaxation of the jaw and increased focus. Machida also practices certain karate breathing methods, I wonder if there is some kind of connection.

by Gogo Platter on May 28, 2009 3:53 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

mushin

Mushin (無心; Chinese wúxīn; English translation “no-mindedness”) is a mental state into which very highly trained martial artists are said to enter during combat. The term is shortened from mushin no shin (無心の心), a Zen expression meaning mind of no mind. That is, a mind not fixed or occupied by thought or emotion and thus open to everything.

A man should never waste an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.

by iiowyn on May 28, 2009 12:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Thank you for that. I tried my phonetic best.

by Gogo Platter on May 28, 2009 12:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

David Faulkner

That’s exactly the kind of mental breakdown a fighter can have. Just shows that some of these guys just have to be tough as nails mentally to get through these fights.

Follow my analysis of all things MMA on BloodyElbow.com

by Leland Roling on May 28, 2009 9:26 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I’m surprise that Mark Kerr hasn’t been brought up. There’s a damn documentary about all of that.

"I see him beating Anderson Silva. I see him picking him apart. Him at a 131 years old...(trails off)." - Tito on Belfort at Affliction:DOR

by Rundownloser on May 28, 2009 11:32 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

My impression

Is that Bisping’s coaching could be directly effecting their poise and concentration. He’s too loose and may be having trouble honing them in on the matter at hand.

I poop rainbows.

by Blackout612 on May 28, 2009 2:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs