The Sparring Mind

While the experience of the ‘mental game’ may be immediately evident in your ‘head’ the seat of all your thoughts, it is a key point to understand that the brain and body go together. What affects one, does so to the other.

Thinking isn’t inherently bad, but what you focus on can be. Reflecting on past mistakes, or planning for the future are crucial for long term achievement. But when it comes to sparring performance, in the moment, when it matters most, past and future can get you into trouble.

Understanding the theory behind the mindbody connection is key to developing a correct mindbody attitude that leads to peak performance in your sparring game. Simply put, Attitude Embodied means that just as the way you think affects the way you move and perform — the way you move affects the way you end up thinking.

All inner game training ultimately leads to the ability to be mindful in the midst of someone trying to punch you in the face (aka mindfulness-in-action).

Breathing shouldn’t only be seen as something a person does simply to stay alive, but rather, and equally important something they need in order to act.

You have to approach your inner game training as you approach your physical game training. Whatever training time you have for your physical game in a given week, you are going to need to more than double, or even triple that for your inner game.