In previous posts I mentioned the role tournament training & fighting has in your kung fu training development.
Now so we are clear this is quite different from sparring. Sparring is mainly for training- learning and being experimental with new techniques.
Where in a Tournament the sole purpose is Competition, Competition competition.!! Its on like donkey kong.
Your first tournament is going to be your hardest so here a re a few tips to get over that first hurdle.
There’s a saying.. “How do you get to Carnegie Hall??.. The answer Practice!!”
To be successful in your first tournament the number one piece of advice I can give is to practice. This is the role sparring plays. Your foundation is your fitness. You will learn that just holding your arms up after a period of time and nothing else is tiring in of itself. So you must have your conditioning and stamina u to speed. I was stupid enough to think I wouldn’t get past my fist round fight, so I didn’t need to be too fit.. I was wrong .. I Won! and was out of breath for my next fight and go beaten.
This practice lets you test different techniques you can use during your competition.
When sparring its important ht you focus on your opponent and block out everything. Condition your yourself to focus on your opponents’ movements. This should be your mindset going in and during the fight.
This way when you are ,actually fighting you have blocked out all other distractions: ..the crowd, the judges, referee other competitors and just focusing on your opponent You have blocked everything out.
This may sound a little out there but the habits you develop in training will transfer to into the ring.
Finally the biggest obstacle to overcome is your mindset. It is common to be nervous before a competition- however it’s not OK for it to control your ability to perform,. Here is what I did to overcome those pre fighting nerves.
Visualisation: yes ..may sound hokey but I visualised what it would be like. But just imagination is not good enough. You need to put emotion into it. Visualise you are with your opponent let that fear enter your body ..Just gently.. feel those nerves ..feel what it would feel like, see what you would see hear what you would hear…try and make it as real as possible.
Then imagine that fear reducing, like an imaginary dial imagine it just reduces and feel more confident and confident.. remember this is an exercise in imagination and visualisation. Continue to feel more confident. If you are stuck on this, imagine a time where you felt really confident, a time where you overcame a difficulty and use that feeling to regain confidence.
Do this often and you will associate your fighting with a confident positive demeanour.
Well those are the basics to it. But nothing can replace a bit if work and plenty of fun. You will see your confidence in your kung fu training soar and your learning grow and develop to a whole new level.
