Sunday, July 13, 2008

The Mental Game

After many relatively "bruiseless" sparring session, I bumped the bridge of my nose against Leon 2 weeks ago. I literally walked into his ducked head and that left me with a bloodied painful nose.

Why did I do that? After all, I've been training in Crazy Monkey Defense Program (CMDP) for sometime now, and one of basic defensive posture of CMDP is to hunch our back and duck our head in. Well, it was pride and ego, both "destructive" emotions to me.

Ever since I found my skills (both offensive and defensive) improving, I've taken many things for granted: like letting my defense down during sparring and underestimating my opponents. But the worse enemy is my pride and ego. When my traning partner Imran bombed me with penetrating combos that nite, I was so eager to hit him back that I neglected my defense totally (head out, hands down, charging in blindly etc.), and in the process got beaten more. So the more emotional I got, the more I got hit. See how destructive pride is?

By the time I finished sparring with Imran, I was so eager to "win" my next bout that I walked straight into Leon's headbutt. Ouuch! The price of letting pride rule my head. That's why it's so important to stay calm in a fight: whether it's in the ring or on the street - a simple lesson many of us forget.

I'll strive to be more mindful of my emotions from now on, whether in the gym or outside. It's best not be attached to winning or losing, but just focus on developing my skills, and having fun along the way. ;)

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