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Psychology, According to Steve Morris
There are three essential components that need to be addressed within a NHB/MMA training programme: psychological (mindset); physical (conditioning & athleticism) and technical (fundamental skills, key offensive, defensive and counteroffensive moves, strategies, tactics and strategems). Of all these components, your mindset is the most influential in enabling you to perform at the highest level during a punishing workout or a NHB/MMA competition. In that, irrespective of your physical capabilities, if you are plagued by negative thoughts and unable to focus intently on the immediate task at hand, you are unlikely to put in a good performance, whereas if you are in a positive state of mind, goal-oriented to winning the match and purpose-driven to completing the task at hand, you are more likely to perform at your highest level.
Chance favours the prepared mind
NHB/MMA fighting is a game of chance in which you must learn to make your own luck. Not only must you have prepared on the mat and within your mind's eye for every possible fight scenario, including the worst that can happen to you on the feet and on the ground and be ever opportunistic to pounce on any mistake your opponent might inadvertently make, but you must also be constantly seeking ways of taking the fight to the opponent (which includes false attacks, feints and draws) and forcing him to react to you, and in anticipation of those reactions have a second and even third move lined up to counter his counter. Better to have your opponent fighting according to your game plan and making mistakes within your area of expertise than the other way around. And if your opponent is difficult to evade or counter on the feet or on the ground, you have to have ways of tying him up on the feet and taking him down, as well as tying him up on the ground. So that by effectively closing him down, you reduce his chances of attacking you whilst increasing your own, and in anticipation of his attempt to escape the 'closed situation' set him up so that he jumps straight out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Important to becoming a successful fighter is being psychologically, physically and technically prepared for the worst. In that if your opponent can't psych you out, tire you out, effectively strike you or hurt you on the feet in the open and closed positions, close with you, tie you up, take you down, keep you down, or gain sufficient positional control to ground & pound, lock, or choke you, then you are less likely to lose and more likely to win. Not giving your opponent the positions to work from being the key to a good defense.
Having an offensive defense is everything in that it allows you with greater confidence to persistently keep taking the fight to the opponent, and eventually if everything else fails, to wear him down. I am a great believer in making things happen rather than waiting for them to happen. That doesn't mean that by taking the fight to the opponent you are reckless. Even BASE jumpers despite appearing to be suicidal never forget to wear a chute, check it, the weather and the surrounding terrain before jumping, and most important of all, at that moment before going into the ground would be inevitable, to release the chute!
Personally I'd rather set my mind to jump rather than wait to be pushed. The fact that it is impossible within a NHB/MMA fight to predict with any certainty what will happen next doesn't mean you can't have some influence on what might happen next. To be able to take the fight to the opponent and potentially risk all in order to win requires (apart from being superbly conditioned and having a high level of technical skill both on the feet and on the ground) that you have a unique mindset. Fighting is often compared to a game of chess, with regards to which I am reminded of Alexander the Great, who when faced with the problem of the Gordian knot rather than wasting precious time trying to unravel its intricacies, instantly drew his sword and cut straight through it. For me this is a metaphor not only for keeping your technique sharp, simple and effective, but also of your need at a critical moment in the fight to make a split second decision and act on it. Not to mention that I believe that striking on the feet and ground & pound when used against a submission fighter, for example, who cannot wait to tie you up in knots, are approaches that solve a lot more problems than they create.
Focusing intently on the task at hand and being able to block out distractions (pain, fatigue, previous failures, self-doubt and any other negative thoughts) particularly when finding yourself in a bad situation, as when being grounded and pounded, for example, facilitates the optimal organization and maximal stimulation by the CNS of those muscle groups involved within the effort to escape or reverse the situation. Equally, a positively focused fighter is more likely to be able to rise to the occasion, tough it out and maximize his efforts without exceeding his mental and physiological limits during a bad situation and eventually find a way of winning, whereas a negatively focused fighter who can only focus on how bad things are will in all likelihood have already exceeded his mental and physiological limits and be ready to tap out if finding himself in another bad situation.
Your mindset also affects fatigue by setting a level of expectation as to when you are tired, so that if your mindset is less than ideal, your mind and emotions will be telling you that you are exhausted, when in truth you still possess physical reserves that you can't access. Your mind may send messages to your muscles that you're knackered; but you're not physiologically exhausted. You've set mental parameters as to what you're going to do in terms of pace, duration, etc. and you can't go beyond it. That's the problem of routine: it establishes a comfort zone. It could be a very high-paced comfort zone, but if you can't get beyond it, you're not achieving your maximum performance. That's why you sometimes need a trainer to get you out of that comfort zone.
Mindset specific to fighting
The mindset required of a NHB/MMA fighter is quite different to that required of any other sport. A golfer might very well be able through attention control techniques to put aside negative thoughts within the idyllic surroundings of a multi-million dollar golf course and with tremendous self-confidence focus intently upon driving the ball towards a distant hole. But I doubt if he would be able to do the same (even if his name was Tiger) if his opponent was trying to hit him in the head with a golf club whilst the crowd were screaming for his blood.
Many professional sportsmen, not to mention millions of pseudo-martial artists, often lay claim to being in the zone. However, the mindset of David Beckham when he takes a free kick isn't the same mindset as that required of a NHB/MMA fighter who has just been viciously slammed into the mat and has to instantly focus all of his mental and physical faculties into a decisive moment to avoid being pounded into unconsciousness or locked or choked into submission. The consequence for Beckham should he fail, as in the penalty kick shoot out against Portugal in the European Championship, is nothing more than disappointment and a kiss and cuddle from Victoria later, whilst the consequences of failure for the NHB/MMA fighter at best is a cut eye or broken nose and at worst a broken arm or leg or a couple of days in intensive care.
Equally, the mindset required of practicing some Oriental shadowboxing routine (kata), demonstrating its idealized moves against overly-compliant stooges, breaking prepared materials in sheer, having equally prepared materials broken over your body, engaging in a game of tag or contemplating on your naval whilst sitting under an ice cold waterfall isn't the same mindset required of taking on an adversary or opponent intent and free (within the rules of the street or a NHB/MMA arena) to kick the shit out of you given half the chance.
High-sensation Seekers and Natural Born Killers
Some research seems to suggest that those who might be best able within hostile environments to scan for cues, focus and track only those that are pertinent to the situation whilst ignoring the rest, rapidly evaluate the risks, make split-second decisions based upon very little information (waiting until you know everything to make the perfect diagnosis would simply be too late) and without anxiety act decisively and ruthlessly if necessary are those who could be considered to be partially psychotic, non-neurotic and extroverted. In other words, those whose genetic hard wiring and life's circumstances from early childhood have predisposed them towards aggressive, violent, destructive, ruthlessly competitive, dominant behavior, who have no feelings of anxiety for what might happen to them or remorse for what they might have to do within a violent situation, and who because of their low cortical arousal and over-reactive dopamine circuits seek out those dangerous and life-challenging situations that will require all of their mental and physical faculties to come together in a decisive moment for the euphoric high such moments bring, should they succeed.
One of the reasons why some of these personality types with their heightened sense of danger are able to act or react more decisively than most within life-threatening and dangerous environments is that the development of their limbic systems, and in particular the hippocampus and amygdala areas, has been altered in an adaptive way as a result of their repeated exposure to violence during early childhood. The limbic system is the seat of our aggressive drives, with the hippocampus being associated with, amongst other things, the formation and retrieval of long-term emotional memories and the amygdala being associated with the filtering of sensory information as it pertains to survival and the initiating of responses as well as giving those responses emotional content.
Hence the reason why NHB/MMA training should not only be reality-based but emotionally charged. In other words, whatever information as it pertains to combat is stored, it must not only be representative of realistic situations but it must also have a violent emotional content. However, screaming Banzai Billys be warned: if you put emotional garbage in you will get emotional garbage out.
Many natural-born killers, not surprisingly, have high base levels of testosterone (the male hormone governing amongst other things, aggressive, destructive, ruthlessly competitive, dominant behavior, greater acuity of senses and higher pain thresholds), surges of dopamine due to over-reactive dopamine circuits, and possibly, due to the longer version of the high-sensation risk taking gene D4DR, a lower response to dopamine so that they need greater stimulation to get a dopamine reward. Dopamine is the brain's key modulator of emotion, and along with endorphins it produces a feeling of euphoria and a sense that anything is possible when seeking out and engaging in high-risk behavior. The dopamine/endorphin effect is further boosted by testosterone and also produces a greater concentration of mind. Fast, short-term high releases of cortisol integrate the mind and body for action and cause high levels of noradrenalin and adrenalin to be released, preparing the mind and body for violent conflict. Lower levels of serotonin, which are a predictor of impulsive, violent behavior, complete a neurochemical cocktail time bomb associated more with warriors and with those more violent and anti-social members of society than with a priest or those law-abiding nine-to-fivers who thrive on safe, orderly routine.
According to Matt Ridley, author of GENOME, serotonin levels are related to your level of self-esteem and your perception of your social rank. The higher your position in the hierarchy, the higher the level of serotonin. However, dominant monkeys, as he points out, are not necessarily the most violent, largest, or the fiercest, but rather those best suited to mediation and forming alliances with and among those more powerful members within the group. Not unlike dominant monkeys, those at the top of our own social order also have higher levels of self-esteem or even an exaggerated sense of their own importance, and because they are often non-aggressive, nonviolent, less impulsive, cautious, manipulative and appear calm, composed and in control, they are chosen as leaders over those more violent, aggressive and impulsive types. The truth is, however, that in reality they usually couldn't organize a piss-up in a brewery and in times of emergencies they invariably make a cock-up and somebody lower down on the pecking order has to sort it out. But real leaders, to me, lead from the front and not off their backsides in the safety and comfort of their luxurious offices.
Those younger primates challenging for position, according to Ridley, showed steep rises in testosterone and cortisol in their blood. A conclusion that could be drawn from this is that if those they are challenging are unable to match/exceed and sustain the levels of violence, skill and conditioning of their challengers, they will be deposed. One of the problems you encounter after fighting your way to the top is continuing to train and fight with the same intensity and ferocity to stay at the top as it took to get there. Enzo Calzaghe, father and trainer of WBO super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe, got it right when he said you have to train like a challenger but fight like a champion. Let's face it: the best fighters come from the poorest backgrounds, not from the privileged elite of our societies, and as is often the case when such a fighter reaches the top, with their changed perceptions of their rank and status they become complacent and soft and are soon displaced by leaner, meaner, and hungrier fighters. What is interesting about primates is that those who successfully defend their positions within the hierarchial order experience a boost in testosterone, so that when they might appear to be at their weakest after a fight, they are able to deal, if necessary, with further challenges; whilst those who lost experience a drop in testosterone so that by avoiding further confrontations they are able to recover and live to fight another day. Higher levels of testosterone and short-term fast releases of cortisol give you that winning edge, provided of course all other things are equal and you sense your adversary as a real threat to your life and status.
Build the gun and fire the bullet before you worry about how to aim it
It might interest the reader to know that when I was doing my bit for Queen and Country in Nairobi in the early Sixties, I would occasionally visit the Kenyan National Park. On one of those visits I happened upon two baboons engaged in a battle for dominance of such vicious ferocity that the image of it has remained with me for over 40 years. Indeed, whenever I need to arouse the animal within, I play back this ferocious and explosive exchange in my mind's eye. I am a great believer in developing vicious ferocity and explosiveness first, and directing the energy arising out of them more specifically towards the target with destructive intent by way of a skill, second. In that, in the same way you don't reduce the explosive charge of the bullet when learning to fire on the range or in more realistic situations--you simply learn by trial and error to improve your accuracy and timing--you shouldn't remove the emotional explosive charge from, for example, a punch or a kick in order to become more accurate and improve your timing--that simply comes with practice on the bag and in realistic scenarios and competition.
Performing what are intended to be explosive moves slowly in order to perfect a skill or gain accuracy, etc., is a mistake in that not only are you forming and strengthening the wrong impression of what effect you need to cause or prevent in your mind's eye and the wrong kinesthetic impression of those internally generated forces by which to do so, but you will have failed to train to overcome the Golgi tendon reflex. Unlike muscle spindles, which facilitate muscle contraction according to the rate of stretch or final length of stretch of the muscles in which they are embedded (myotatic reflex), the Golgi tendon reflex inhibits the contraction of those muscles within which the tendon lies if they are stretched too rapidly, so as to avoid injury. Learning to overcome the Golgi tendon reflex involves specialized practices, one of which is to use dumbbells to perform short duration, high intensity, rapid repetitive movement, including oscillatory movement, through ranges of motion resembling those of required of a given skill--a form of plyometrics. Another is, once you have formed an explosive impression in your mind's eye, not to hesitate but to instantly act upon it so as to bypass any feedback controls or the forming of a 'lesser' impression of release. In other words, once you form the impression, you pull the trigger, and the bullet, so to speak, is fired instantly, and the next bullet is already loaded in the chamber ready to do so again and again.
Training must make the 98% more like the 2%
Research carried out at the end of World War II concluded that only about 2% of the ground fighting force were able to kill the enemy with any real intent; the other 98%, though pointing their rifles in the general direction of the enemy, were either reluctant to pull the trigger or didn't pull the trigger at all. This 2% includes those psychotics who actually enjoyed the killing, as well as those 'partially psychotic' individuals who, although able to empathize with their enemy, were nevertheless able to override their altruistic instincts and if necessary, to kill. As a result of this research, reality-based military training methods were eventually introduced on both sides of the Atlantic in hope of making the 98% more effective fighters. However, there is nothing new about such training, in that those who were responsible for preparing the legions of Rome for war saw the military exercises they engaged in as bloodless battles and the battles themselves as bloody exercises. In other words, with a measure of safety you must train as you will need to fight in the worst of combative scenarios, and fight as you have been trained. The object of such reality-based military training in modern times is to take the 98% and through replicating realistic engagement, condition them to kill the enemy without anxiety or hesitation without, in the process of such preparation, being killed themselves or killing their fellow soldiers with whom they are engaging in mock combat.
The function of a trainer, therefore, is to create with an element of safety in mind reality-based environments that not only call for that necessary level of athleticism/conditioning and fighting skills required of NHB/MMA fighting but that necessary mindset as well. The problem with devising a reality-based training program, apart from the non-specific and specific exercises, drills, play-fighting, sparring, positional/situational and submission fighting methods and recovery techniques/dietary advice that need to be included within it, is the measure of safety that needs to be employed within intense fight training. Too little and there will be too many injuries; too much and you lose reality. Although setting some conditions and the use of groin protectors, gum shields, mitts and gloves, etc. help to reduce injuries (the last thing you want is to be injured just prior to a competition), the best resource to ensure reality and an appropriate measure of safety is your choice of training partners. Provided your training partners have your best interests at heart, are fully capable of replicating NHB/MMA fight scenarios on the feet and on the ground as well as your next opponent's stylistic and physical type, and can raise the tempo and intensity of the exchanges taking place between you without getting carried away in the process, then your progress will be rapid. If on the other hand, they or you are unable to put aside their ego and training turns into nothing more than fights, your progress will be slow simply because you will only ever be as good as the man you are able to beat in the gym. You will not be training specifically to beat an opponent in a NHB/MMA fight. Your training partners are your most valuable training assets and if they are good they will push you to your mental, physical and technical limits, so don't abuse them. Otherwise you might very well end up training alone and never realizing your full potential.
Train as you will need to fight
Because the vast majority of martial artists train within environments that are not representative by any stretch of the imagination of the violently explosive, rapid, random exchanges taking place upon the feet and on the ground within a NHB/MMA fight, then the mindset, levels of physical conditioning and skills that they acquire as a consequence of training without reality checks, are from a combative point of view totally useless. Because those forces and their effects acting upon the body within the rapidly, randomly changing exchanges taking place on the feet or on the ground are unpredictable in their purpose, magnitude and direction before they occur, they have to be adjusted to and compensated for with equally rapid, random positional changes, transitions and moves as they are occuring. Hence the need for distance appreciation (red zone) and cue drills so as to be able to read the implications of a cue and instantly act upon it. Or, in order to avoid dealing with such unpredictable forces and their effects, to be able to miscue the opponent so that by a feint or draw, for example, you are able to instantly act upon his anticpated reaction to you. Hence the need for set-up drills.
Because such forces and their effects are never the same, they cannot be adjusted to and compensated for with the same changes of position, transitions and moves, or organized so that they fall within the parameters of a stereotypical learned response. In other words, there is no such thing as a perfect move—only what works for you at the time. Whilst you can become familiarized with a motor skill outside of the environment you intend to use it in, you have to learn to adapt and modify that move within realistic environments until such adaptations and modifications become instinctive. That is why there is no point in perfecting moves in front of a mirror or performing some Oriental shadow boxing form in front of the setting sun. S. Higgins got it exactly right when he wrote that 'movement is inseparable from the structure supporting it and the environment defining it'—a statement that you should seriously consider before engaging in your next workout. Essentially, situations have to be adjusted to as they occur, unlike in a karate game of tag, where as a result of stringent rules, regulations and conventions, the situations are limited to only those that will highlight certain techniques, or in a demonstration, where situations are arranged so as to highlight a traditionally prescribed response.
Unlike in karate's game of tag, where points are awarded for punches and kicks that fall within certain technical requirements, NHB/MMA fighters knock out, ground & pound, lock or choke their opponents into unconsciousness or submission with techniques that are often far from optimal. Effectiveness within a NHB/MMA fight is measured not by appearing to have been capable of knocking your opponent out if you had connected (and this is a big if) but by actually knocking him out. Being able to rapidly and randomly adjust your position and moves to the everchanging situation on the feet and on the ground requires speed, agility, dynamic balance, reactive power and eye/hand/foot coordination etc. There is no condition within a NHB/MMA match calling upon the more static equilibria of change of karate. Unless of course you have already been knocked out or pounded and choked into unconsciousness! Even standing still requires movement, and movement itself is a series of catastrophes narrowly averted. Moving about as if balancing a book on your head is counterproductive to producing a dynamic equilibrium of change in all directions. The head both initiates and leads the actions and is a major initiator in the body's functioning as a dynamic whole—as one part reflexively zigs to the stimulus of a cue, another part zags. Just watch a lioness in pursuit of her rapidly and randomly direction-changing prey to see proof of that. The problem with the vast majority of martial artists is that their movement patterns are motor-oriented: in other words, the performer concentrates more upon the designated movements to be made rather than on the effects to be caused or prevented within a given situation.
Effective movement is stimulus-driven, not motor-oriented
A sufficiently aroused, purposeful intent in response to a cue is enough to bring about the organization at an unconscious level of the joint angular changes in alignment, sequence, rate and timing required of what you need to do. Provided you have an intent to cause an effect to prevent one, are able to realize failure and continue to persist, and provided you learn how to let go, the wisdom of the body that has evolved over millions of years to predict the unpredictable will organize those inherent reflex and bequeathed behavioral patterns (the foundation of all human motor skills) into a movement response. Just watch small children throwing, catching and striking a ball without instruction as proof of that. They respond with movement patterns similar to those of professional athletes. It is by the adaptation of these same inherent reflex and behavioral patterns that our primal ancestors were able to survive in environments far more hostile than our own.
Movement, apart from being goal-oriented and purpose driven, is stimulus-oriented. In other words, the conscious mind simply isn't big enough to organize (motor orientation) those inherent reflex and bequeathed behavioral patterns into a movement of needed response. Only the unconscious mind, in response to the implication of the stimulus of a cue, can do that. And if you attempt to organize those motor events required of a needed response/skill at a conscious level, not only will your movements be unnatural and robotic, but included within them will be a lot of motor events that were not essential to the responseÑand a lot left out that were. It is better to entrust yourself to a wisdom of the body that has evolved over millions of years and that, when you slip on ice, without conscious effort lands you safely on your feet, rather than entrusting yourself to some master of Oriental robotics who has only evolved over the last thirty or so years in the hierarchial, safe and predictable environment of a dojo. Engaging in postural aesthetics has nothing to do with combat and everything to do with the titillation of the senses.
Whilst it is important to abstract from fundamental skills, key moves, etc. that which is essential to them and exaggerate those key points when first learning them, once the feel of the move has been determined, this exaggeration through the planes of movement of the skill is dropped—unless, of course, you are using the skill for a form of warm up, such as a sit-through, for example. Abstraction and exaggeration were ways our primal ancestors were able to titillate the senses: for example, in their artwork they exaggerated certain features of the female form (lips, breasts, hips). However, through what is termed 'peak shift effect' gratifying the senses in this way can lead to exaggeration of the original form to the point where it is no longer recognizable. Experiments on rats that were rewarded with food for recognizing regular rectangular shapes showed that as the rectangles became longer and thinner the rats became more ravenous. Reward the karate practitioner with grades and titles for the same peak shift effect, and it is no coincidence that the higher the grade and title, the greater the exaggeration of movement patterns and the greater the gratification that the performer of them seems to gain. Just watch a master's facial expressions and the ecstatic cries of delight of his audience for proof of that. NHB/MMA fighters get gratification from kicking ass in open competition and engaging in gruelling and punishing workouts, not playing with themselves in private and public.
Sense of time is everything
Equally important to being able to move and internally coordinate your movement patterns with those of an opponent so as to be able to syncopate upon his rhythm, is having a sense of the interval of time from the beginning of a move to the end as well as the time between moves. This sense of the interval of time is associated with the striatum and substantia nigra areas of the brain, areas also associated with dopamine. This function of the brain allows us to synchronize and syncopate, throw, strike and catch a ball, merge with traffic, go through revolving doors, and multi-task, among other things. Interestingly, high levels of dopamine, associated with Tourette's Syndrome and low impulse control, produce a heightened sense of time, including the ability to perform syncopated rhythms as in jazz drumming. Syncopation is an important tool to becoming a successful fighter, in that not only do you need to synchronize with your opponent's movement pattern but also to fit your own beats between his at the moments when he least expects it. This ability to perform in broken time not only allows you to more easily control the red zone as well as disrupt your opponent's timing, but equally to prevent him from entering within your zones, your moves, and the transitions between them. It's important to remember that it is within your opponent''s transitions that he is at his weakest, in the same way that you are within yours.
Having instructed a fair number of the world's leading karate practitioners over the years, what I find interesting is how much they were lacking in this sense of time. Although they could perform drills that emphasized synchrony, they could not perform successfully drills that emphasized syncopation, which is not really suprising in that all of their routines are built around military precision and regular beats rather than, for example, the syncopated beats of African or Latin music. Could it also be that, because they ritually and regularly engage in such precision military regulated movements (ichi, ni, sanÉ) and are required to exhibit high impulse control during training, typical of Serotonin Man, they have low levels of dopamine, a key modulator of emotions and sense of time?
It is because of a heightened sense of time as well as an acute kinesthetic awareness of the joint angular changes taking place within my body and an uncanny ability to read cues which, like the first note of a familiar tune tell you what comes next, that I am not only able to with comparative ease offensively, defensively and counteroffensively syncopate upon the moves and transitions of my adversary/opponent whilst guarding my own, but also, within less time than most, to with sudden and violent shifting of weight initiate or retaliate with explosive releases of energy (startle reflex) like the firing of a gun, or sequentially, like the cracking of my entire body like a whip. Even when I practice shadow fighting or engage in bag work, skipping, etc., I do so in broken time. When shadowThe flashing images of what effects I need to cause or prevent and that kinesthetic impressions of those internally generative forces by which to do so appear, disappear and reappear in broken half-beats, not in regular time.
Impression of needed response
Visualization is another greatly misunderstood method of preparation within the martial arts. Whatever images are formed within the mind's eye of fight scenarios, they must be reality-based. One of the best ways of forming such images aside from doing a move (or having it done on you or watching it performed on someone else) is watching NHB/MMA fight videos—of the very best fighters in the world today, by the way, and not Jean Claude Van Damme or Jet Lee creating for the silver screen an idealization of combat.
Visual imagery of what we need to cause or prevent within a NHB/MMA fight is important from a number of standpoints. One, it allows us to prepare in our mind's eye for what we anticipate we will have to do (e.g., mentally rehearsing all possible fight scenarios in your mind's eye) or wish to fulfill in the future (e.g., envisioning yourself on the rostrum receiving the trophy and cheque). Two, the order and magnitude of the motor events necessary to carrying out a specific task depend on the clarity of an impression that spontaneously appears in our mind's eye in response to a cue.
With respect to the impression of needed response: there are two types of network within the brain, the recognition networks and the generative networks. The recognition networks convert images of the world about us into representations. The generative networks convert those representations back into images. There are two-way connections between these networks, meaning that the two networks can engage in a dialogue, by which each network strengthens the other. It is by this process that if we visualize something before we do it, we are able to perform that task better. Now, if the representations you are forming are those of a false reality (false image), then by visualization whatever generative images are formed as a result of that will also be false. It naturally follows, therefore, that if we form and strengthen images within the mind's eye of Jean Claude Van Damme performing multiple kicks against multiple opponents while standing on one leg, then such images would only be appropriate to performing some idealized demonstration of combat and not a NHB/MMA fight. (Indeed anyone attempting to perform such nonsense within a NHB/MMA fight is not only an idiot but thoroughly deserves the beating he will undoubtedly receive.) If you repeatedly go through the same reality-based fight scenarios in your mind's eye, when a similar one appears in reality, because you've gone through this visualization process, you instantly recognize the situation and you are able to spontaneously respond to it by adapting those moves you have actually practiced in the gym to the live situation. Without this process of accurate and realistic visualization, you would not even recognize the order in the chaos because you would have the wrong representation stored.
Over the years during emergency (or what I perceived to be emergency) situations I have performed what some would term supernormal feats of strength. When I was 18 in Benghazi at only ten and a half stone soaking wet and as high as a kite (I'd just had a fight), I turned over an Opal Kapitan car, taxi driver and all. In London on the Seven Dials just outside the 9 Earlham Street club I tore off the door of a taxi whose driver had pissed me off by refusing to take me to West Dulwich. At Bourne Hill House when a mare became stuck over a gate, I got underneath her and back-lifted her off. There are many such examples of such emotionally-generated power, though it was when I burnt my hand on a stove and, looking for something to vent my rage upon, I backfisted an empty milk bottle standing nearby and it shattered as if being hit by a bullet that I realized that I had visually sensed and kinesthetically felt what I was about to do the instant before I did it. This discovery of being able to form a destructive effect in my mind's eye and being able to have a sense of an explosive force before I produced it enabled me to produce extraordinary power outside of an emergency situation, and in particular, to produce it over very short distances as if firing a bullet from a gun.
With respect to the latter, what I was later to discover around 1971 through my research into sports physiology, kinesiology and biomechanics was that the reactive sensitivity of muscle spindles embedded within muscles by way of pyramidial tracts and the gamma efferent system could be set in advance in response to a cue by the impression of needed response formed on the basis of the implications of that cue. So that the slightest stretch or no stretch at all of muscle spindles could elicit a dynamic myotatic (stretch reflex) responseÑof which explosive movement could be said to be the summation. Without such a mechanism within a feedback system we would always be reacting too late, hence the need to be able to read cues. As it is the implication of the cue that determines the impression of response, it is vital to be able to scan for those cues that are pertinent within the barrage of stimuli taking place within a violent exchange, whilst ignoring those that are not pertinent. Being able to constantly scan for cues and at an unconscious level to organize a response whilst at the same time plan ahead what you are going to do next requires a unique mindset and one that can only be acquired by repeatedly practicing within environments that replicate NHB/MMA fighting. Being able to process information regarding what you have to immediately do next at a reflex level, whilst at the same time planning ahead at a conscious level, is essential to becoming a successful NHB/MMA fighter. Anything that distracts you from this parallel processing such as consciously concentrating upon the move to be made will be counterproductive.
MMA fighters set the example for a warrior's personality type. Not karate masters.
When reading between the lines of the biographies of the world's leading NHB/MMA fighters, what becomes clear is that many of them are representative of the 2%— 'Natural Born Killers' if you like—in that many were either the victims of violent abuse during their early childhood or were members of street gangs, or had problems with authority figures (parents, teachers, police, etc.) and although good at sport found the rules regulations and conventions that governed those sports over-restrictive. For such personality types, NHB/MMA fighting is more than just a positive alternative to fighting on the streets or becoming hardened criminals, it is their ultimate challenge. For those who are more representative of the 98% but who nevertheless still want to become NHB/MMA fighters, they have to change their personalities so that they are more akin to Natural Born Killers at least in the fighting sense. And the only way they are going to be able to realistically do that is by repeatedly engaging in reality-based fighting and training methods. This is not to say I am advocating that you become a sociopath, but that's something of the reality of the mindset required to becoming a successful fighter. Rather than projecting your psyche and seeking to empathize mentally with some karate master, it would be better to empathize with the mindset of a successful NHB/MMA fighter.
Ironically, the Ronin or 'wave men' of Japan's past who are representative of the 2% are considered archetypal heroes by many in the martial arts today, the vast majority of whom are representative of the 98%. Yet it was similar personality types (i.e. the 98% during the time of the Ronin, who were far more concerned with their ranks, titles, and manners that should be afforded to them than as well as standardization, systemization and overly safe idealized practices than with the actual fighting and reality-based training) whom the Ronin despised and whenever the opportunity presented itself, challenged and killed.
Natural Born Killer types not so much love to fight but are driven to fight. It's the only way within the ever-expanding Nanny States of the world that they ever get to feel alive. Without such personality types our primal ancestors would never have dared go beyond the safety of their caves, and the battles that effectively changed the world would never have been won. Unlike the vast majority of the population, when faced with larger and more powerful adversaries, such personality types are able to override their submissive reflexes and rise to the challenge. Indeed the greater the challenge, the more they are able to rise to it. Hence the need to making training highly challenging, so as to sort out the 2% from the 98%, so to speak.
Many within the so-called civilised societies find violent behaviour abhorrent and those who engage in it psychologically flawed, conveniently forgetting that the histories of our civilizations have been written in blood. Not the blood of the privileged and self-aggrandizing elite who are often the beneficiaries of war, but the blood of those who by today's standards would be considered sociopaths, and to whom Wellington referred as 'the scum of the earth' yet who were nevertheless prepared to sacrifice their most treasured possessions: their lives. What I consider abhorrent is not the violence of a NHB/MMA match or of the street, but the behavior of the Bushes and Blairs of this world, who from the safety of their offices order the killing en masse of an enemy (which more often turns out to be innocent men, women and children) who, if they were ever to make eyeball to eyeball contact, would cause them to shit their pants.
If anybody can lay claim to the title 'warrior' it's these 2% personality types and not David Beckham dressed up as a gladiator for a TV commercial or some pseudo-martial arts master who wears the persona and wraps himself in the ethos of a classical warrior as he has been led by popular fiction to believe a warrior to be. Being a warrior isn't about ranks, titles, or in any other way creating an illusion of combative effectiveness, but about whether you are willing to put your life on the line in actual battle or, in the more figurative sense, in open competition against the very best fighters in the world. The vast majority of martial arts are a sham and the vast majority of martial artists practicing them are seriously deluded as to their fighting capabilities—apart, that is from the 2%, in that quite irrespective of the ineffectiveness of the training methods they engage in or engage others in, they still know how to fight. Naturally, they would be able to fight better if their fighting and training methods were more reality-based.
The quasi-martial arts disciplines often use the very small minority of the 2% as examples of the effectiveness of their training methods. Yours truly being a typical example. Despite my personal fighting and training methods bearing no resemblance to those of karate, which I only seriously practiced from the mid-sixties to 1973 when I quit, my fighting ability was and regrettably still is in some quarters cited as an example of the effectiveness of karate's training methods. Whilst it is true that I took up karate in the belief that it would make me a more effective fighter than I already was, how wrong can you get? The real truth is that karate methods have nothing to do with fighting in the real sense of the term and everything to do with attempting, through mindless precision marching en masse, to suppress our most primal drives and to indoctrinate the individual into believing in the superiority of the Japanese, their combative system and way of life (of which, after having had first hand experience, I found I couldn't stomach).
Practice shouldn't be about suppressing our primal drives or redirecting the energy arising out of them to become model citizens or more productive workers, but about arousing them and using their energy to become more successful fighters. Indeed, it is those bequeathments of structure, drive, mind, and movement patterns of our primal ancestors that are the foundation of all human behavioural responses, including fighting, and which have to be strengthened and adapted specifically without losing their essense, for NHB/MMA fighting.
I suppose that's why I am attracted to NHB/MMA in that it appeals directly to the very nature of my being. In other words, there is no contradiction between what I am practicing and who I am.
Although the armies on both sides of the Atlantic now use reality-based training methods more extensively to mentally, physically and technically prepare soldiers for war, their respective Special Forces still draw from the 2% to form the main body of their elite fighting systems. Whilst in theory it is possible to convert the 98% into the 2%, in practice for me it has proven to be almost impossible in that although through my training methods I have improved the overall fighting capabilities of those who could be considered to be of the 98%, I haven't yet managed to produce within them that killer instinct required of being a fighting man, NHB/MMA or otherwise. There is just something missing in the character of those I've taken on since the 9 Earlham Street days when everybody in the club just wanted to fight and the more realistic the fighting was, the more they and I enjoyed it. Indeed, the vast majority of those I've trained since 9 Earlham Street wouldn't have even dared step through the doors, whilst the few who did would have soon fled in terror or been eaten alive.
I suppose the 98% are just not prepared to put everything on the line as in war and step up to the plate to prove their worth. They just haven't got the balls or that level of commitment. They are just wannabes, with nothing but excuses. Just watch the SAS reality shows. Like my old horse trading friend Bill House from Kentucky used to say, 'Excuses are like arse holes and I've got one of those already.' When I passed on a fighting move to the class in the Earlham Street club, by the end of the session most had the move down sufficiently well as to be attempting to use it in their sparring. With my most recent group, most hadn't got down the simplest of moves by the end of a year, simply because they had no real motivation to use it in a fight. Indeed, whenever I suggested to them that they should enter a NHB/MMA competition all I was ever greet with was a deafening silence. Anybody would think I'd asked them to go on a suicide mission.
About the intellectual side of things
A lot of things have changed within the martial arts since the Earlham Street days. Both for the better, in the advent of NHB/MMA competitions, and for the worse, in that the quasi-disciplines have become an even bigger joke than they ever were before. Just watch the Paris Festival of Martial Arts for proof of that. Each participating group seems to be competing with the other to see who can create the most absurd illusion of combative effectiveness.
One of the things about me that's changed since the Earlham Street days is that I have become more analytical in my approach to fighting and training (although not, thankfully, with regard to training, not as analytical as that guru of sports performance Paul Chek). To some I undoubtedly look like some long-haired academic (if you''ve still got it I say flaunt it) but the truth is that although this more analytical approach to fighting and training has been of great benefit to me, the main body of my rationale, concepts and principles are not the product of gorging on scientific data but of year in and year out spending never less than eight hours a day, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year engaged in the more productive and neverending process of trial and error, learning from my successes and failures as well as the occasional accident. True, I have researched, apart from numerous combat systems of the world; sports physiology, kinesiology, biomechanics, bioenergetics, bionomics, etc; strategic and tactical warfare etc; but nowhere near to the same degree that I have engaged in gruelling and punishing workouts day in and day out. And whatever 'knowledge' I have acquired in the last 40 years or so has been so as to improve upon my fighting capabilities as well as those of others whom I might be training. It has not been so as to give myself a congratulatory pat on the back or aggrandizing myself in front of others. Quite the contrary. In that apart from being relatively unknown, I'm still on that humbling journey of self-discovery.
One of the problems with this analytical approach to fighting and fight training is that, unlike in the Earlham Street days when I attracted only those who wanted to fight, now I attract only those who want to understand the rationale, concepts and principles of my methodology, a process which they have failed to understand is not an end in itself but just a small part of the means to becoming a more accomplished fighter. What they have also failed to understand is that my rationale, concepts and principles are not absolute truths or facts. Whether they may be a fighting or training concept or principle or a skill, facts and truths for me are about what worked best for me at the time. In other words, a belief I held in the 9 Earlham Street days is not necessarily a belief I hold today; or a skill I used to win a fight is something that worked best for me within a unique situation against a particular physical and stylistic type, and not how I will have to perform that skill for the rest of my life.
What you have to realise about analysis is that abstracting from a successful (or unsuccessful for that matter) performance those elements, for example, that you believe to have been influential upon the performance is not an exact science. In that there is not only the possibility of abstracting elements you believe to be important but are not in addition to the ones that are important, but also the possibility of emphasising a nonessential element, or even of overemphasising an essential one at the expense of the rest. Equally, for example when breaking down a move into its key components for teaching purposes not only is there the possibility of breaking the move down into the wrong components so that the novice fighter focuses upon the wrong things, but also of breaking the move into too many components so that the novice fighter ends up trying to juggle too many balls. Also, when many people research those internal and external factors that are influential upon the interaction of a biological structure with its surrounding environment, because they lost sight of the purpose of the research-- i.e., fighting and fight training--research those essential factors in isolation of each other rather than as parts of an integrated whole. So that if and when they attempt to put the pieces back together again, they either end up arse about face—or, as is more usually the case, with their head up their arse.
For most, the simplest way of solving the problem of devising a training program or acquiring a fighting skill is to borrow and adapt those fighting and training skills used by a champion. The problem with this approach, however, is that many champions win championships with training methods and skills that work best for them but are far from optimal, other factors being the reason for their success. In other words, you might very well borrow a mistake. Also, because NHB/MMA is a rapidly evolving sport, many champions in order to retain their winning edge are constantly updating their training methods and skills, and what you might have borrowed quite recently might already be out of date. Equally, on close inspection many champions' descriptions of their skills and training methods contradict what they actually do in competition or on the training mat. Which prompts the question: who can I trust? Though it's not so much who, but what? There is a wisdom of the body that supercedes any academic knowledge of it (including people like Paul Chek). Better to learn to let go of all previously held assumptions rather like a child and entrust yourself to this wisdom, use the process of trial and error, persist and learn from your mistakes, rather than to entrust yourself to some high performance sports consultant guru who claims to be telling it as it is. Whilst it is undoubtedly true what Chek says with regards to functional movement (that ''cave men didn't do sit-ups') it is also true, according to yours truly, that they didn't need a science degree to go hunting. No kinesiologist ever taught a baby to walk.
Overloading your brain with so-called factual knowledge isn't going to improve upon your performance unless you have some criteria by which to clearly differentiate between what might be useful from a fighting and training perspective from that which is pure garbage. How do you acquire such criteria? Now there's the rub. I could tell you that you don't have to be able to lay an egg in order to know when one is rotten, or failing that, to suck it and see—indeed that's part of it. But the real truth is, if you're looking for a short cut, you need somebody like me, who better than most can differentiate between what is essential and what is not to becoming a successful fighter.
Whilst it was one thing to discover and define the pieces of the puzzle, so to speak, it was quite another to arrive at ways by which to familiarize the fighter with them and teach him to let go and entrust his unconscious mind to process them so that any solutions he might arrive at with regards to an actual fight situation, an envisaged fight scenario in training, or the devising of an exercise or drill, for example, would be unique to him and not to me. In other words, the way I arrange those pieces of the puzzle will suit my particular needs, whilst the fighter arranges them to suit his own.
My role as a trainer
I see my role as a trainer as providing the fighter with my experience and knowledge, a safe and realistic working environment (i.e., training partners, exercises and fight training methods, equipment, etc.), an esprit de corps, the acknowledgment when things go right and fair and constructive criticism when things go wrong, as well as the encouragement for the fighter to develop his own fighting style and a training program that works for him. From my experience, the very best fighters in the world today, like the Ronin of Japan, are individuals. Not clones off the production line of some system or tradition. The very best fighters in the world today have achieved their success by their own considerable effort, self-sacrifice, etc., and the willingness to take personal responsibility for their actions, including blaming nobody but themselves if they lose. Rather than looking for sympathy they do something about it. That doesn't mean the trainer hasn't played a significant role in their successÑhe hasÑbut not as much as some trainers would like to believe.
Equally, many fighters are good, but not as good as they could be--and this applies even to the very best. You could give me Randy Couture, for example, and I could make him better. I don't set out to change a successful fighter from the ground up, but I can give him that 1% edge that is enough to keep him a champion, or make him a more successful challenger; that's the result of my many years' experience.
However, as a trainer, one of the problems I have encountered in dealing with such individuals (apart from negotiating their often considerable egos, particularly if they are in their teens or early twenties or have already established a reputation as a fighter) is convincing them that they haven't yet grasped the whole picture. For example, a seemingly irrelevant detail in their performance could actually be causing them a big problem; but they aren't experienced enough to be able to pinpoint this for themselves. At the same time, their successes so far have convinced them that they are invincible. Hence the need to mentally, physically and technically break them down through punishing workouts so that they begin to realize they are not as mentally focused and tough, physically conditioned and tactically proficient as they thought they were. Then, if they haven't already left, you can begin the more constructive process of putting them back together again.
However, the most difficult egos to negotiate, from my experience, are those who come to you already established as trainers. In that they have got so used to holding center stage and believing themselves to be the next best thing to Angelo Dundee (or should it be Paul Chek?) that they really can't keep their mouths shut. Not that what spills out of their mouths is ever of any consequence; but as I've said before, if you put garbage in you get garbage out.
When accepting someone who wants to train under me, I have always assumed that person wants me to help them realise their full fighting potential. As part of that realisation not only do I feel it is my responsibility to provide them with the necessary exercises and fight training methods, principles, concepts, motivations, etc. by which to realise their potential, but also with advice with regards to the level of commitment, esprit de corps, and lifestyle that will be necessary for them to achieve their individual goals. However, this anticipation on my part has proven time and time again to be a false one. In that ALL of those who have sought me out in recent years, despite their claimed aspirations and paying lip service to what I expected of them, had a lukewarm approach to training, had a level of commitment that was practically zero, had no esprit de corps, and had no intention of changing their lifestyles by one iota. This, however, doesn't prevent them from claiming they are practicing a reality-based martial art and training under 'the legendary' Steve Morris.
I suppose one of the problems is that in a consumer world I am viewed as just another commodity you can buy, use when it suits you, and when the novelty wears off, throw away. Not that I haven't had offers of fame and fortune—I have, it's just that the level of commercialism (though prostitution would be a better word) would have totally compromised my principles. In that whatever experience and knowledge I have gained from years of fighting, training and research cannot be marketed to as to appeal to some Bruce Lee wannabe. Nor would I ever degrade myself by taking on the ethics and morals of some slick snake oil con man who would say anything in order to make a sale. With me, what you see is what you get, and if you're not interested in the genuine article, then it's your loss and not mine. The only way you are ever going to get what I have to give, which is considerable compared to my contemporaries, is if you are equally genuine yourself, prepared to train under me on a regular basis and not just when the fancy suits. If you are not prepared to make such a commitment, then don't waste my time as I am only interested in those who aspire to becoming winners and not staying losers for the rest of their lives. Of which, in recent years, I have become acquainted with all too many, some of whom led me into believing they were fully committed to my methodology; however, because it became all too obvious that they were unable to sustain those promised levels of commitment, they only ended up with part of the tiger's tail instead of with the entire tiger--which can be had only through persistance.
It must be obvious by my writings, classes, videos and the reputation as a fighter and trainer I have gained over the years that I know something the rest of the martial arts community doesn't, and it's that something--the pieces of the puzzle which martial artists for centuries have been searching for--by which whether you are an unranked novice or a champion, you can exponentially improve upon your performance. Ironically, in my search for these pieces I was prepared to put aside my ego to totally commit myself to individuals who, as it turned out, knew far less than myself; and now that I am the possessor of this knowledge, I can find no one who is prepared, as I once was for less, to commit themselves to me, for far far far more.
Steve Morris
July 2004
