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| ISSUE #1 - July 9, 2003 | We're looking for new writers. [Click here to apply] |
| This e-zine is not intended for readers under the age of 18. |
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by Muay Thai Guy Phase 1 - Getting the fight Phase 2 -
Phase 3 - Before the fight Phase 4 - Fight Night Phase 5 - The Fight 1) Getting the fight:  You've been training regularly and hard, you push your body to the limits, you sweat, you bleed, maybe you cry? And what for? Any fighter will tell you that it's all about living for the fight!
If you're like me then that is quite literally what life is. You eat, sleep and breath training! ok I'm just obsessed (but I've heard recently that obsessed is just a word lazy people use to describe the dedicated ;) ).
Usually, in the best scenarios, your instructor will give you decent notice about your fights, opponents, weight etc and thus begins the training cycle that is Fight preparation.
2.1) Training The key to preparing for a fight is the training itself. As the old saying goes, the more you sweat the less you bleed, right? Well that is one of the wisest things you can keep repeating in your mind as you gear up to prepare for a fight. Training for a fight differs from just regular training in that now you HAVE to push to your limits and beyond. Can you really afford to have too many bad days in this period? Not really, as complete focus and dedication is required to get ready for the fight. Training for a fight will include an increase in cardio to get you in the peak of fitness. For me this means, no excuses, wake up one hour earlier than I normally would (and believe me that's early). This alone will tell you whether you have the dedication and determination needed to make it in the game. Okay, at this point I'm not going to confess to drinking raw eggs like Rocky, I like the movie but I'm not going to take it so far. Running will usually be stepped up a few paces and will include Sprints (100m/400m), Hill sprints and Fartlek training. After the run, I will loosen up with shadow boxing, add some plyometrics and then a good stretch, shower and eat and off to work. Evening training would also be stepped up a gear. Extra rounds on the pads, more sparring, more bag work and more shouting were always the ingredients to fight training at my last gym. Make sure to bring two pairs of shin pads! Pad work alone will take it out of you if you do it at high intensity but add 5-10 rounds of sparring and you'll sleep like a baby that night. 2.2) Nutritional Considerations Part of the cycle of fight training/preparation is to make sure my body is fuelled and nourished. This goes without saying! I try to keep my diet clean all year round so I don't make too many changes with fight diets but when you've got to cut weight as I once did when I had to lose 5kg for a match. Without going into too much detail about the specifics of my diet, since that is a moot point of its own, I will just outline the basics.  Things that go without saying are to keep your body hydrated. Sports performance can decrease dramatically just by your body being dehydrated by 2%. I therefore usually make it a point to consume 3-4 liters of water per day (this is usually the case when I'm not training too).
Making sure you give your body nutrients such as vitamins and minerals etc to help you combat illness and help your body repair and function is also important and therefore I take a good, strong, multi vitamin and make sure to eat vegetables daily (I'm not a big fruit eater).
I find eating 6 smaller meals a day as opposed to larger less frequent meals keeps me going and keeps me focused on eating good clean foods in my diet. I make sure to get adequate amounts of protein. Protein, as any body builder or athlete worth his or her salt will tell you, aids in the building and repairing of muscle tissue. After a hard training session your body will need nutrients, particularly protein, to help repair! After a training session I will mix 25gms of Whey protein with about 50Gms of Glucose as a post workout drink. At one point in my training I experimented by cutting carbs to a very low level, This did not work for me however even though I gave adequate time to adapt because my muscles would always tense up and feel fatigued so now I focus my carb eating around training, making sure to get proteins and healthy fats in other meals. Another insurance policy I find it is good to take when training hard is to take glucosomine. This will help your joints and help prevent/heal injuries. For example, I usually get some form of problem in my knees when I step up the training. I also clean up my diet of things like dairy and wheat because I know it doesn't work well with my body but that's just for me. Whatever works for you eh? 2.3) Mental Preparation Half of the fight game is what's inside your head. There's a saying that two evenly matched fighters will get into the ring but the one with the better mental state will win. Different fighters do different things in order to work on their mental states. As an amateur athlete I don't go to the lengths some of the professionals take. Some boxers go into seclusion from their families in order to focus mentally on the task at hand. One thing I find that helps is to try and visualize winning the fight. How I am going to win it, combinations I will use, flaws in my opponents game etc. Self hypnosis or hypnosis tapes can help especially if you're in need of some calming down. For my first ever fight, my coach back in London gave me a copy of "Ultimate Athlete" by the hypnotist, Paul McKenna. Listening to this tape before I go to sleep does seem to help.  I also believe in god and this does help me to get mentally prepared for a fight too.
2.4) Making the weight As I've previously stated, I've had to drop 5kg in a relatively short space of time before for a fight. My mistake was that I didn't start early enough and during the last week I had only dropped 3kg. I had tried everything to lose the last two kilos; I would run for hours wearing layers upon layers of clothing until it got to the point Michelin were trying to get me to be their new mascot I also tried some stupid things like Diuretics and laxatives and at the last minute I was lucky enough to just make the weight. Although feeling drained, I won on that occasion. My advice for making weight though is to make sure the weight you are trying to lose and the time scale is sensible. It is detrimental to loose too much weight too fast as a lot of weight lost will probably be muscle tissue which you can't really afford to spare. Get your nutrition right and try to stay close to your fighting weight year round if you can. 2.5) Injuries Part and parcel of training hard, 5-6 days a week, are injuries. I feel they are inevitable unless you are extremely lucky. Precautions must be taken and safety must be paramount in and out of the gym. Making sure you have good equipment, training with good partners and sparring in a controlled environment is all crucial. Outside of the gym, tending to injuries is important if you have any. Leaving them will just hinder your training or worse cost you the fight or give you long term injuries. Ice, Heat packs, Thai Oil massages and taking glucosomine can all help. If you have any injuries though, it's best to speak to your instructor/coach as they will be able to (hopefully) give you good advice as to what you can do to help it or how you can train around it. Do not fall into the macho notion that you should train on the pain. 3) Before the fight With all the above considered, and assuming you've trained as hard as you can, you shouldn't have anything to worry about right? This is usually when what ifs, buts and doubt enters the fighters mind. About a week befor the fight, you should start tapering down your training, you've been training hard, day in day out for the past however many weeks and your body is used to this. Use this to your advantage ... The last few days before the fight when you don't do as much, your body will feel really agitated, even somewhat aggressive! Usually by this stage I'm a wreck of emotions and you'd really do well to stay away from me, but seriously remember your opponent is probably feeling the same. All you can do now is reassure yourself that you've trained damn hard and your opponent is going to have to train DAMN HARDER THAN YOU! Fear will try to acquaint itself with you now, for an understanding of fear you can read my post on the topic on www.ironlife.net. Positive Mental Attitude comes into play now! 4) Fight night The day/night of the fight sometimes feels like the longest day of your life. If you need to make a strict weight it can even be worse because you might not be able to eat as much as you'd like. It's still important at this stage to remain hydrated. If you really are having difficulties making a weight class then try to arrange to weigh in as early as possible and refuel yourself. Fruit is a good idea as it contains sugars which will give you a quick supply of energy but remember not to eat or drink too much otherwise you will feel bogged down. It's also important to keep your blood sugar levels pretty stable before a fight. I tend to eat little to nothing prior to a fight in the dressing room. Whilst everyone else tucks into their pasta, remember that it probably won't digest fast enough! I just keep sipping water; have a shot of coffee and an apple or two. Warming up is obviously a no-brainer and doing a few rounds on the pads can help you get focused, loosen up your arms, shoulders and legs and also help you get rid of that weird feeling you might have in your stomach The moments before the fight will feel like your last. No matter what fears and emotions go through my mind at this stage, I keep telling myself "This is what I wanted, it's what I've trained for, sacrificed for and what I live for! My dream is to be the best and this is just a rung on the ladder!" 5) The Fight So here is your moment, you've trained hard and as my first kickboxing coach and friend once told me, this is your moment to go out there and reap the fruits of all your rewards. Win or lose, stepping in that ring in the first place is a feat in it's own and the adulation that comes with whatever outcome you receive will make you immortal. Article by Muay Thai Guy (Muay Thai Guy is a moderator at Ironlife Forums). Back to Issue #1 Frontpage |
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