How should I Prep for my upcoming tourney?

Hi you gymnastic bodies!

This question is really directed to people who know a lot about this (Coach Sommer, Blairbob, Joshua to name a few) but of course everyone's expertise is welcome. I appreciate any input.

I have a martial arts tourney coming up on the 21st of this Month (2 weeks from today, on Saturday). It will basically involve me performing a kata one or two times in the morning and sparring for a bit in the evening. I might have 4-5 two minute fights. I also may have as few as 3 or as many as 6. Hard to say.

I've been training 6 days a week, with about 8-9 training sessions per week. My strength stuff is done on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and my practice and endurance training is on Tuesday, Wednesday (4+ hours after training session), Thursday, and Saturday. Obviously I won't do any "training" on the day of the tourney, but how do you suggest that I help myself to perform well rested and in good condition?

I don't want to sacrifice my training for this tourney... it's not incredibly important to me. I just want to be able to perform as well as I can while maintaining fairly good training if you know what I mean...

Thanks in advance!

(side note: I'm about to hit 1000 posts! heh)

Patrick, you seem to be asking whether you should take time to prepare for your tourney (e.g. take one or two rest days and do just light work and stretching, but no strength training or intensive endurance training), or just approach it as a welcome active break from your normal saturday training routine. Up to you, I would say. You talk about fights or sparring sessions. What are they, fights or a sparring sessions? In my experience there is a world of difference between the two and I would approach them completely different, especially if I wanted to perform as well as I can (as you mention you do). My advise: don’t go to your tourney halfhearted. If you want to perform as well as you can, then you have to prepare for it as well as you can; your sparring partners will appreciate that as well. Don’t be a slave of your training schedule. Congratulations with your 1000th brain child.

Hi Fritz,

For me, "sparring" and "fights" are the same at tourney's. What I meant was that I might have as many as 4-5 sparring matches/fights that evening.

Don't worry! I will compete with as much intensity as I can muster. I just don't want to miss out on good training that I don't need to.

So you suggest 2 days rest with light stretching/warm up?

Your mental state will be the most important thing...

You already have more than enough physical ability to breeze through those matches, but if your adrenaline gets out of control you will run out of sugar extremely quickly.

So, A) regular practice of quick relaxation techniques like progressive muscle relaxation throughout the day and B) Having a LOT of carbohydrate snacks and electrolyte water (salt mixed into water, 400-600mg sodium per liter).

Outside of that, start visualizing yourself at the actual event when doing your forms. Perhaps visualize a different venue each time, so that no matter what the place looks like you will be at your best. A stadium, a flat field, a village, a concrete building with bleachers, etc etc. I think that will serve you best.

Other than that, keep your nutrition up and sleep well. Continue on with your strength training and do what makes you feel good. That last week is all about you doing whatever feels best going into the competition, and because it will not be a physical challenge in the sense that you will be pushing your absolute limits but rather a contest of skill you have a lot more leeway. If it was me, I would probably keep doing heavy stuff but lower the volume by substituting a single high rep set to failure on my strength exercises and only doing a single heavy set as well during for each exercise during each training session that final week.

Hi Patrick. Yes. One or two days of rest, doing only light work (in my case, practicing technique) and stretching. The visualization, Josh advises, has worked wonders for me too. In fact, I do a lot of that also as part of my non-active training in the evening. I don’t have any experience with the progressive relaxation techniques, so can't comment. I do have a very sensitive stomach and have had really bad experiences with drinking electrolyte water. Just drinking a lot of water works fine for me. For the same reason, I don’t do carbohydrate loading anymore even not for long distance events (multi day events). My experience is that heavy (weight) training too close to a competitive event makes me slow (sluggish), so I don’t do any of that. I need to be limber and quick.

Thanks Frits and Joshua.

Joshua - I completely agree with you on the importance of mental preparation. That is excellent advice and I will definitely spend a lot of time doing that in the days leading up to the tourney.

I could definitely be in much, much better shape as far as endurance goes, but I think are right that I could still win my fights if I have the right mindset. In the not-so-far-off future, when I am in better shape, I think what you say about breezing through my fights will be true given that I develop the right mindset. In my experience, most of fighting is about mindset assuming that the fighters have basic health and conditioning.

I will do as you suggest regarding my strength training in that final week. That will shorten my training sessions AND give me more time to spend practicing my forms (lightly, of course).

The electrolyte water sounds easy to make and I will make sure I have plenty of it on hand.

Frits - I will take your advice too and replace Thursday's and Friday's training sessions with visualization, warm ups and stretching, light practice, and light sparring. Nothing too hard.

I realize that there are two sides to competing: 1) the physical preparation or the developed skill, and 2) the mental preparation and tournament experience. My physical skills are increasing way quicker than I thought was possible since I mixed up my training routine and started focusing on my weaknesses (and making sure I get enough to eat surrounding my workouts).

Because this is literally the first tournament I have competed in in the black belt division and because I feel a lot of personal pressure from family and friends to do well in this tourney, I am trying very hard to look at this tourney as an opportunity to get used to the tournament atmosphere and just get experience. I hope to win, but I don't expect it. Basically I'm trying to decrease as much as pressure as I can to help myself stay relaxed and focused. In the future, I hope to develop the mindset to handle massive pressure (world class competitions). I just want to do well and improve from there.

Thanks!! 8)

Everyone handles the pressure differently

For me, I just could care less about who says what, but I generally tell people up front to just not bug me about it. In the end, I have a very Dragon Ball Z approach to it... It's just me. Train, train, eat, sleep, be focused exclusively on myself and my readiness with no concern for what anyone else is doing or how they feel about it.

I knew some people who loved the cheers and camera flashes, and others who just looked forward to smashing someone. I just wanted to get out there and see what I could do every day during training and competition. I didn't see competition days as anything different, unless maybe a little bit of a break since it was always much less work than a normal training day.

Hi Patrick. Thanks, I now understand the nature of your question a lot better. I agree with Joshua where he talks about how-to-handle-the-pressure-and-attention being an individual thing. I have not come across any insights about it, but the key seems to be to learn how to funnel the energy of it all into something positive that gives you an extra edge (in terms of concentration, reaction time, power, stamina and more) during competition. It is something that can be learned over time. I am sure of that. However, I don’t know how. Maybe somebody else on this Forum knows more about how to do that. In any case, good luck with your first tournament as a black belt.

Thanks, Frits

Joshua - I have been training very hard for quite a long time and the people who know that expect me to do well because of my work ethic. I can handle the pressure, but it's still there and something I have to remember to manage. I care about what other people say, but in the end I just do what I would do anyway; go home and train.

I don't like the cheers and cameras very much at all. I just want to be able to out think and out fight 99.99% of the population.

Patrick Smith said:

Thanks, Frits

Joshua - I have been training very hard for quite a long time and the people who know that expect me to do well because of my work ethic. I can handle the pressure, but it's still there and something I have to remember to manage. I care about what other people say, but in the end I just do what I would do anyway; go home and train.

I don't like the cheers and cameras very much at all. I just want to be able to out think and out fight 99.99% of the population.

Sounds great

Everyone is unique in this, but it sounds like you're in good mental shape.

Yeah! I can't wait to fight with some the best in the state!

The tourney starts tomorrow at 10:30 am. I'll probably do kata around noon and spar anywhere from 3pm-5pm.

I'll probably only have two or three people in my middle weight black belt division so I hope that I can pass that group and advance to the championship bracket (1st place winners fight for this). That would guarantee at least one more sparring match and I really want to get as much sparring experience as possible from this tourney.

I feel pretty good. My endurance sucks as usual but I'm looking forward to that increasing as I progress in the Joel Jamieson program I'm doing. It's going great so far and I felt a small difference after the first week. I'll continue right after this weekend. Other than that, I feel like I'm in pretty good mental state for fighting. I don't intend to take any prisoners or make it easy for anyone. I'm actually waaay more excited than nervous or pressured. It's been a really long time since I've been able to fight someone as good as or possibly better than me. Getting hyped! 8)

Enjoy! Tomorrow will be fun

Remember food, water (and perhaps some salt in the water), and a little protein (can obviously be part of the food)!

I will mix my water with 400-600mg of salt like how you mentioned earlier and make sure to drink plenty of it! I sweat a ton and it's probably going to rain so the humidity will be sky high. That, and I'll try to get enough to eat. Whey will be easy but it's tough to eat during tournaments because I don't really know exactly when I'll be competing. After I do kata at about noon, I'll probably have at least 2-3 hours until I fight so I'll try to get plenty of carbs then.

Do you think it would be a bad idea to drink a whey/dextrose mix <10 minutes before I fight with 8-10g whey and 30g dextrose? I usually take something close to this for my workouts...

Glenn and his lifters often go to a small local meet on Saturdays instead of just lifting at their home gym. Basically, it's just another training day but there is added stimulus from having to compete on platform instead of just lifting at home.

Their whole goal is to generally hit 6 for 6 and PR.

I'm not exactly sure if this tourney is just another training day or a big point in your competitions this year.

I would take the day before lightly. 1/2 the volume of the strength work if any. Start loading the carbs the day before. Make sure your sleep is solid a few days out, you don't want to go in with a sleep deficit building.

When all else fails, "sweep the leg" John Krease style.

The kata in the morning will serve as a good physical and mental warmup for the later sparring/comps.

Popping some caffeine won't hurt so long as it doesn't throw you off your game.

Woooohooo! I'm back from the tourney. Sore, tired, and incredibly motivated to train for the next one.

To get the scores out of the way, I placed 3rd in kata and 3rd in sparring. Not impressive places at first glance, but once you hear about how those went down you'll realize how close it was!!

I did a korean kata called Kong Sang Koon (Eagle) for the first time in a well established black belt group. I learned this kata only 3-4 weeks ago, so I didn't expect to win much with it; however, despite placing third, the top three in the division were soo close. on a 1-30 point average score, I scored 27.4 and first and second place scored 27.6 and 27.5 respectively! One fifth of a point away from tying for first! I wasn't disappointed at all but almost everyone I talked to told me that my kata looked amazing and that they were sure I was going to win the group. Even a famous kata performer there told my head instructor that it was really good. Everyone's praise means a lot more to me than a close 1-3 place loss and I was the happiest non-1st place winner there. Judging kata is extremely subjective and tends to be somewhat finicky as far as preconceptions go on the judges part, but I am torqued that I came so close. Not only that, I was mentally calm and fully in control. No extreme nervousness, funnel vision, or rushing from me. That's really encouraging.

Sparring was FUN. I only got to fight twice but I haven't had anyone to fight at that intensity at the club for a LONG time. In my first fight, I was matched up against a guy who had a really good spinning hook kick. I kept my guard up, though, and only got hit by it once (in the face, ouch!). Bloody nose aside, we traded blows and the end result was his five points to my three (2 pts for kicks and 1 pt for punches). I wasn't disappointed from this fight at all, though, for a few reasons. Number 1 is that I got a LOT of uncalled side kicks on this guy. I counted at least 2, possible three. I only needed one to be called to tie up the match and then the other one would have won it for me. Unfortunately for me, my technique is a bit TOO crisp and fast and my kicks were getting in and out before most judges could clearly make the call. Like I said, that occurred twice. After that, I learned that I really needed to "stick" the side kicks so that everyone could see them and instantly got a strong side kick right in his ribs. After that, the score was still 5-3 his favor, and I tried another side kick after attempting to set him up with a fake high roundhouse kick. It almost got in, but he grabbed my leg and something happened which resulted in my falling away from him onto the floor. There were a few feet between us as he recovered and charged in to hit my while I was vulnerable. I, with a rare stroke of genius, realized at the last instant what he would do and sprang up in the air to do a jumping spinning side kick that hit him hard in the solar plexus. I could hear everyone on my side of the ring explode in cheers and the judges on my side called the kick. Unfortunately for me, my opponent was the student of a shotokan instructor who was on the opposite side of the ring serving as judge. His fellow instructor (as far as I know) was judging the other corner from my opponents side of the ring. During the entire 2 minute + fight, only one of them called one point for me and it was a single punch. I don't know if they were biased against me or simply didn't understand how to call points properly (as far as the rules were concerned they should have called for me by the reaction of the black belts who had a clear view of the kick and the fact that my opponent was sucking air from his sore ribs right afterwards. Oh well, some fights are like that and some judges just don't want you to win. I moved on quickly, though. No point dwelling on the past.

My second fight was against another shotokan student who, to be perfectly honest, I crushed 6-1. No offense to him, of course, but I knew I had to make it so obvious that the possibly biased judges in the corner had to admit it. So I went for some of the most obvious points possible. Namely, "sticking" side kicks and hook kicks to the head . 8) I first scored with a very strong sidekick that sent my opponent reeling and falling backwards. It went straight in to his ribs too, poor fellow. After that, I got him with a defensive hook kick. He got a nice punch in as a follow up to a leg "check" or semi-sweep (my calf is really sore now) but I closed up the match by faking a high hook kick and going for a roundhouse kick instead.

My head instructor said I came back from losing very well, but that I needed to be mean. "You're too nice," he said, "you need to be mean because these other guys can feel that you're nice. You've gotta be mean." I'm going to work on that for sure. I think I fought well, though, and I'm sure that with a "meaner" mindset and a bit more aggression, I will be able to steadily work towards first place!

I have two more tournaments to compete in before the end of the year (the next is on August 11) and I can't wait. I had a ton of fun and am now more motivated than ever to train and improve.

One of the things I am most happy with is that even though I was a bit nervous before each event, I was able to hold my mindset together and be almost perfectly calm during kata AND sparring. In the past, I have felt a lot of pressure while fighting in front of a lot of people, but this time I could barely even hear the crowd. I never lost my concentration. The only thing that my mind was focusing on was my opponent and constant analyzation of my opponents.

I'm going to take tomorrow easy because I have a number of injuries I didn't notice because of all that adrenaline but I'm back 110% on Monday! I'll probably just do light stretches and visualization practice to help recover.

Be less nice. Unleash the demon within you. You obviously weren't hitting them hard enough because they were getting up.

Instead of sticking the kicks, kick harder. Way harder. Crumple.

I take it you had body armor on? Padding?

Pat: Great work! Sounds like you have a future in those competitions

It helps to remind yourself that every single person there is volunteering to do 2 things:

1) Hurt other people

2) Get hurt by other people

There's nothing wrong with either of those two things, I mean that is simply the reality of a fight!

They want you to hit them hard. That is why they are there. They want you to make them look incompetent by comparison if you can, that is why they are there. Do not disappoint your opponents by failing to deliver.

Blairbob said:

Be less nice. Unleash the demon within you. You obviously weren't hitting them hard enough because they were getting up.

Instead of sticking the kicks, kick harder. Way harder. Crumple.

I take it you had body armor on? Padding?

lol! You're right, Blairbob. I know I can be very aggressive and mean during sparring if I work on it. It's all about my mentality which, even now, the day after the tourney, I already feel different in my approach to sparring. Much more "serious" and very eager to fight again. Even though I didn't go easy on them this time, I think I will surprise them with my aggression next time. :twisted:

By "stick" kicks I mean that I was hitting hard but with a snapping force rather than, as you describe, a crumpling or thrusting force. I guess I was a bit afraid of being DQ'd because of hitting too hard, but I will not be as tentative in the future. I don't know how well I match up to most advanced power martial artists as far as the side kick goes but if I side kicked someone in the ribs full power AND they were trying to move in to attack at the same time I cannot imagine them getting out of that with anything less than cracked or fractured ribs and being completely thrown away into something. I will actually try to intimidate them next time by hitting them hard enough to make them afraid of getting hit.

We only wear hand/foot pads with a helmet, mouth, and groin guard. No chest guard or anything like that. We allow light face contact, no major contact to the top of the head (like axe kicks) and basically anything else to the chest, sides/back of the head, and sides of trunk that doesn't force a fighter to stop fighting or cause a semi-serious injury.

Joshua Naterman said:

Pat: Great work! Sounds like you have a future in those competitions

It helps to remind yourself that every single person there is volunteering to do 2 things:

1) Hurt other people

2) Get hurt by other people

There's nothing wrong with either of those two things, I mean that is simply the reality of a fight!

They want you to hit them hard. That is why they are there. They want you to make them look incompetent by comparison if you can, that is why they are there. Do not disappoint your opponents by failing to deliver.

Thanks! I love fighting, working on it, and achieving a higher and higher level of skill in it. And I'm definitely not afraid of hurting the other fighter. It's just a matter of cultivating ruthlessness aggression for me, I think. Believe me, the goal is to be able to ruthlessly destroy any fighter in the ring and then smile, hug, and give them tips afterwards. I'm a friendly guy, I can't help that! Children love me! (lol) I "just" need to master the art of in-ring/out-ring.

Kids like me too, however my friends still wouldn't say I'm a nice and good person. I say I try to be a nice and good person and part of that being a coach redeemed me.

Sounds like point sparring in a sense. Yeah, you don't want to play slap and tickle with your strikes. Strike through your opponent. As in behind them.

Give in to the dark side, you'll get hotter babes. Natalie Portman, need I say more? :roll:

Natalie Portman? Not bad

It WAS point sparring but that doesn't mean you don't hit hard. It's semi contact and a good point is expected to be delivered with power. For me, I was hitting hardish but to intimidate and to dominate my opponent I needed to hit harder.

I don't think that you have be a "bad guy" to be a good fighter. GSP isn't a "bad guy" in as much as he doesn't go around being mean and badmouthing anyone. He seems polite, well spoken, etc. I think you can separate sparring from the rest of life. Besides, being ruthless and nice aren't incompatible. I know fighters who are my best martial art friends and very nice but they are very ruthless in sparring.

I think Blair's just trying to talk about basic manliness lol You don't owe anyone apologies for any of your opinions, no matter how outlandish they may be. They're yours, and they're opinions, and people don't have to like them. Doesn't mean you need to, or that you should, shove them down anyone's throat. If you don't like someone, nothing wrong with admitting that. You shouldn't feel bad about not liking someone, that's your right. Doesn't mean you need to bring it up unprovoked, or go off on it when someone asks for your opinion

Just be who you are, with no apologies, and if there are parts of yourself you want to improve or change then go for it, but don't let that make you feel like or act like less of a man just because there are pieces of you that you feel like changing! That's life. We're all doing it every day. If anything, it is good to take pride in being able to see where you need work and taking more pride in actually doing something about it.

That's the main difference between "nice guys" and "badasses".

There are plenty of people who are as "bad" as anyone can be, but are not jerks in the process. They just don't soften things up unnecessarily, and they don't think twice about what anyone thinks of their opinions no matter how hot they might be. They are them, pure and simple.

Jerks impose themselves on others and are inconsiderate of the feelings of others. Certainly not a required part of being a "badass."

That's pretty much all there is to say, I think.

Awesome job, patrick!

Sounds like a getting-used-to-tournament-thing to me, next time you'll come in first place 8)

I totally agree with you that you can be nice and a mean fighter at the same time, you know all great masters are calm and polite and everything because they know what they can do.

Joshua and blairbob are also right, but i will say this though: Natalie Portman turned away when her man went to the dark side

Joshua Naterman said:

I think Blair's just trying to talk about basic manliness lol You don't owe anyone apologies for any of your opinions, no matter how outlandish they may be. They're yours, and they're opinions, and people don't have to like them. Doesn't mean you need to, or that you should, shove them down anyone's throat. If you don't like someone, nothing wrong with admitting that. You shouldn't feel bad about not liking someone, that's your right. Doesn't mean you need to bring it up unprovoked, or go off on it when someone asks for your opinion

Just be who you are, with no apologies, and if there are parts of yourself you want to improve or change then go for it, but don't let that make you feel like or act like less of a man just because there are pieces of you that you feel like changing! That's life. We're all doing it every day. If anything, it is good to take pride in being able to see where you need work and taking more pride in actually doing something about it.

That's the main difference between "nice guys" and "badasses".

There are plenty of people who are as "bad" as anyone can be, but are not jerks in the process. They just don't soften things up unnecessarily, and they don't think twice about what anyone thinks of their opinions no matter how hot they might be. They are them, pure and simple.

Jerks impose themselves on others and are inconsiderate of the feelings of others. Certainly not a required part of being a "badass."

That's pretty much all there is to say, I think.

I see what you both are saying now. Agreed.

I want to be a badass. As I get older and accumulate more and more experience in various stuff, I will continue to work on maturing into one.

JN12 said:

Awesome job, patrick!

Sounds like a getting-used-to-tournament-thing to me, next time you'll come in first place 8)

I totally agree with you that you can be nice and a mean fighter at the same time, you know all great masters are calm and polite and everything because they know what they can do.

Joshua and blairbob are also right, but i will say this though: Natalie Portman turned away when her man went to the dark side

lol! Thanks, JN12! I will definitely do my best. My next tourney is next Saturday!

Hi Patrick. Judging by your reaction, your tournament gave you quite a boost. Nice.

Just curious. Did you ask somebody to video you when you were sparring for analysis back home? And did you try to talk with your opponent to find out how he viewed your effort after the sparring session? All free info that you can use to get better.

In my humble opinion all this talk about “being meanâ€, “aggressive†and “wanting to hurt your opponent†is like barking up the wrong tree. You have opted for a contact sport, so contact there will be; sometimes that will hurt or cause injuries. The secret is to be super focused and being able to anticipate your opponent so you can hit him before he can hit you (within the bounds set by the rules); all this without thinking (but, maybe that is what you mean by being a “badassâ€). Also, as you progress with your sparring, pretty soon you will have adversaries that will not be intimidated by you. So, what do you do then? Think about it.

Have fun and good luck at your next tournament.