If you can't train but think you'll go back, are u just gonna cry about it? And then bitch because you didn't do any work that you could have? Or are you gonna say yeh I could've done more and for whatever reason didn't and now maybe I'm being whooped on extra cuz of it. Even if it's like 10 well-visualised reps=1 real rep, doing it allows you to improve. But if given the choice I'd do the real one. Visualising is good if I injured, in a place where u can't do the move like when walking or as a warmup before the real one.
Nah lol I don't think it affects physical performance as in, biologically in real life lol. Like Nilla said, I think it's more about being oneself to a mental place they feel one with themselves. Like, emptying their heads and clearing it for calm and focus. Or in some cases, to imagine a situation and be comfortable with the outcome to the point it doesn't bother you enough for the fear to paralyze you.
Some fighters (trolling or not) talk about visualization, like Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall have both made claims that were kinda similar in regards to visualization — JJ when talking about Rampage Jackson and Francis Ngannou and Tom Aspinall when talking about how he's trying to tame down the fear of a loss for his next fights. JJ said something like "I'd have many nightmares that Rampage Jackson would KO me. I'd wake up at night breathing heavily and with the same nightmare, that I was KO'd by Rampage Jackson. And I remember the only dream the KO didn't happen right away was when I started the fight crawling towards him. So my first crawl right into an opponent was vs Rampage, as that was the only scenario I wouldn't dream or imagine myself getting KO'd quickly. I remember that when I had this dream of crawling as a way to avoid being KO'd, I felt something like being covered by leathers and God talking to me that I was blessed. I felt for the first time and energy brimming, seemed like I had been given a touch by God that relieved my constant visualizations going wrongly. Next time in the gym, my techniques were flowing beautifully, I was landing kicks that had a perfect technical flow, landing spinning back kicks... My coach was even confused as to why my striking was suddenly in a flow state, like if I had unblocked an unconscious muscle memory."
He also said " With Ngannou it's easy. There are two paths. Either he knocks you the fuck out in the first round and you break a jaw or fracture some muscle faces, loses the fight. That's the worst case scenario. So I imagine myself deep enough to accept this scenario, almost as if I were walking towards it. Then once I accept it, it becomes easy. I can deal with the worst case scenario. Then, thinking positively, about my striking, my speed, the fact he has KO power, but I'm smarter, have more striking variations, I have a grappling threshold that he lacks... So if he does not KO me in the first round, I win that fight. If I go past the first round, I win that fight. I just need to weather the storm in the first round and then I'm totally sure I win that fight. Either by a dominant decision or what I think a late round TKO"
Aspinall recently said he imagines himself in stress situations, like in a fight situation with the opponents standing across him and try to get comfortable enough so that the fear he's feeling of crowds, gets controlled and he feels enjoyment rather than fear at the time of the fight. The interviewer even asked him to elaborate on the visualization process, and he said " it's hard to explain, I just... Think of myself hard enough trying to make that scenario as real as possible. This comes with a year+ skills for learning to visualize"
Jiri Prochazka said a similar thing. He framed that as the " law of attraction". He said something like " what's important is to be by yourself and in a dark room with just a small dimming light to focus your glare on. And then try to focus on that, not letting any external thoughts drift you from focusing on that. And when you see you got to a point you can control your own mind well enough, then you don't have anything to fear. Because our mind is many times with overstimulation... And we are many times afraid to be fully with ourselves. We are afraid to be only with out company, no lights, just us and our breathing, our thoughts. When we manage to get days with ourselves, controlling our thoughts, we realize our own fears are... Something we can get control of"
These are more philosophical ways of framing a part of fighters' mindset that works for some. Alex Pereira for example sees it differently. He said " no, I just train hard enough, I like to be sparring and learning new techniques always. I actually can't go one day without training. Ever since I stopped drinking and started kickboxing, it's a struggle to be one day without training at least some thing. So I like to train everyday, with few days off, I sleep and eat strictly and train the most I can. I enjoy the hard work, the feeling of exhaustion to the point I feel my body is almost collapsing from a day of hard training... Is something that I live for, I enjoy pushing my body in training. So when I fight, I do my native rituals. I feel the energy of my ancestors with me, a sense of belonging within my own community, a sense of purpose. And in the fight, I'm focused and I don't feel afraid in the sense of trying to suppress it. I feel a little fear like anyone, but...I've been in situations like that so much, that I just know that... Like if I were doing an exam... I studied a lot, prepared a lot, so I know I'm ready for the level the questions bring. Whether I will pass or not isn't dependant on what I've done. I'm totally ok with not passing, but that makes me stone focused before the fights... Because I know I have what it takes to pass. If it doesn't work out, it happens. But I will always try when I know I have the skills"
Ankalaev is more like Poatan, saying like " I just train a lot, do my praying. And I do whatever I can. I train a lot, ever since as a kid I have only trained MMA. And that's all I do, even with the fighters in Dagestan, they joke about the fact that I am the one who trains the most. I don't like to appear on media and record videos because I am always sleeping, eating, praying 3 times a day and training daily for more than 20 years. So I think I can beat anyone. Like, what did the other person do that I did not? If it doesn't happen, then it wasn't meant to be my day. But I am so used to fighting, to pain, to struggle that being there ready to fight, whoever it may be, if it's Alex Pereira or Jon Jones, it still is normal to me"
Those two are the champions of stoicism. Some fighters bring a different level of confidence. In the sense they never feel that much pressure to start with. They know they are among the top 1% most talented fighters and that they train as a day to day life style that... It's like they have eyes forged in fighting already.
