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Written by Paul Greenhill
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Thursday, 28 February 2008 |
"In competitions, I have a tendency to choke. It's not all thetime, but it occurs often enough that I'm concerned about it. When I'm battling for the takedown or the throw, I'm fine, when we hit the mat is when I have problems. I can usually secure a dominant position, or  Guard at the very least, but for some reason once I'mthere my mind shuts down and I go blank and forget my moves. And Idon't have to tell you what happens next. Anyway it's been a sourceof grief because it's something I've never dealt with before. I was an athlete in high school; I ran cross-country and never gotnervous before a competition. I also boxed as a teenager, again,never nervous before a match. So I don't really understand where itcomes from. Could it have something to do with the 5 year break Itook from martial arts a while back? Or is it something else? I'dappreciate any insight you may be able to offer. "
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I don't think your performance in the past has anything to do withthe 5 yr layoff that you took from grappling, but from something else. And since you've been competing at different sports over aperiod of years, it's not the competition environment that's causing you to lose focus. That leads me to believe that your problem is the way you prepare for grappling competitions (whichare both similar and different from the sports that you've done inthe past). And since you didn't mention anything about how you prepared or a competition game plan, I'm going to start there and suggest that's where the problem may exist.
You said that you've participated in other sports and never had those kinds of performance issues in the past. When you were participating with those others sports, how differently were youprepared for those events than you're preparing yourself for grappling tournaments? Do you have coaches preparing you for tournaments like you had coaching preparing you for track and Boxing...or do you just have an instructor that's teaching regular classes with no emphasis on competition preparation? Does your competition preparation account for best and worst case scenariosthat can (and will) occur during a competition? I'm willing to bet that you probably don't and you're make the mistake that so many grapplers do that compete in tourneys that have no type of competition gameplan other than "going out on the mat and seeing what happens." That is a strategy and you can do it, but it doesn't guarantee consistent performance behavior and it's my guess that's what you're experiencing.
To correct this issue, I would suggest that you start trainingusing the "Submission Thread" Concept that I teach in my classes and instructional DVDs. The point behind the submission thread isto drill a series of techniques together from a start-to-end point,generally with the starting point being a takedown and the end point being a submission (which I call the "finish line"). Thefinish line can change based on whatever position and submission you want to develop, but the concepts still re-enforces a start tofinish mindset that trains you to react without thinking because your body knows where it's supposed to be and what it supposed tobe doing when it gets to a position without having to think about it. For example, if I gave you a single leg to side control paintbrush thread, you would know that you have to drill the takedown setup, passing the legs for side control, and then settingup the paintbrush once you're in side control. The more you can automate your reactions without having to think about what to do,the more success you'll have in competitions. And the only way toautomate those reactions is by doing drilling conducive to the competition environment where you're dealing with noise, adrenalin,strangers walking around looking tough in their fancy team gearwhile trying to intimidate you, and the general anxiety that seems to wear on the average competitor's mental mindset. So, try the submission thread concept and let me know how it works out for you. I think you'll notice that your "choking" problemwill be a thing of the past.
Paul Greenhill
www.ihateyoungpunks.com
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