The 8 things you need to do to get better in combat sports. (Discount code!)
This section of the site is called “beginner guides” and I know why you’re here, you are most likely a beginner in the fight game that wants to improve quickly and efficiently in your training, or maybe you’ve just joined a gym and are looking for someone to guide you in what the hell to do. Regardless of the reasoning, I was in your position myself, and now I’m using tools like this website in order to help others where I needed help when I was starting my journey. (Just as a little treat I’ve left something special for any readers that decided to tune in to this!)
Show up consistently.
There is no point to your training if you’re only training with half effort. I hate to say this but if you are “Self-taught”, I would really recommend finding a gym and doing it quick if you’re passionate about combat sports, whatever that may be. Nevertheless, if you’re only showing up to some classes half the time, it’s time to dial it up. Without coming to class or practicing you will not get better without physically trying, no matter how hard that may be. Make an effort to show up whenever you can and put in hard work when you are at the classes, partner with a variety of people and try to push yourself in every training session. This is key to improving as there is no other way that works as well as just showing up consistently, and you would be surprised how much this will do for you, small efforts do add up.
Ask questions and pay attention.
While you are at training, it is important that you ask the coach or your partner any questions about your technique to see if they have any advice to offer, at the end of the day, everyone is there to learn and they will help you. It’s also important to pay attention to things the coaches say and the demonstration to ensure you can replicate their technique or at least do it effectively. This will help you as the coach and a more experienced partner will see gaps in your technique and will offer small tweaks to make it better for the next time you do it and any practice you may do, but be sure you listen and actually ask if there’s any advice they can offer you, otherwise people might not see you are eager to learn.
Watch fight videos and analyse them.
This is something I neglected for a long time, but in the past year, watching and analysing fights from professionals at a high level has helped me develop my own style and build a good arsenal of techniques and see if they work for me. It is good to tune in when you can and watch fights, not only for the sake of entertainment, but also catching good techniques and moves done well by professionals. I have learned a lot of new things from doing this such as the calf kick, or small tips like the angle of your foot when teeping or knee placement to hurt your opponent. I don’t mean for you to sit there with a notebook and watch every fight 10 times trying to catch every little thing the fighters do, but if that works for you, be my guest, I personally watch the fight, and mentally note anything I think would slot in well to a sparring round or fight.
Go with more experienced partners.
Don’t be afraid to partner with more experienced people in the gym, as they are the people you will learn the most from, and if you surround yourself with people that are really good at what they do, you will learn from them very quickly and ascend to their level before you know it. Sometimes you will have bad days and maybe lose a round or a few, but this is normal, and it happens to the best of us. And at the start, you will feel like you are much worse than your training partners, this is what everyone feels like at the beginning. The surefire way to improve quickly is to learn from those more experienced than yourself, they will teach you a lot, be that directly or indirectly, you will improve due to your surroundings, and your training partners pushing you to get better with them.
Focus on your fundamentals.
As a beginner, you will be surrounded by new things and overwhelmed with all the new moves and techniques people will show you, and as you consider the things I have said above, you will improve before long, but as you advance, remember and stick to your fundamentals, don’t prioritise doing the fancy spinning stuff you see online, stick to your bread and butter, and they will get you through fights and your game will improve greatly if you build your fundamentals. It’s like building a house, you can’t do it on a cracked foundation no matter how hard you try, take your time and make the simple things great. For example, I myself used the simple concept of ring control and a right hook to knock my opponent out in a Muay Thai fight. You really don’t need fancy stuff and to throw crazy shots to win, although sometimes they are good to have in your back pocket, but save this for later.
Stay calm and composed.
Whether you’re in a fight or in sparring, think about what you will do next, always keep your head active and in the game, at first this might be tough as you will be fighting instinctually, but a calm and composed mindset will come with time. If you pair this with the previous tip of using your fundamentals, you will see an improvement in sparring and drills. It’s good to keep your head and think about your moves, it’s things like this that will allow you to land these big shots to hurt your opponent, as well as learning the timing behind the shot to hit just right. It may seem like a lot, but all these things come to you if you stay calm and focused, you will gain ring control, good timing, and not freaking out when you get hit. Of course, this goes without saying that all these things will take time and effort to develop properly.
Repetition, repetition, repetition.
Any drills that you do in the gym that you find useful and overall the things your coach is teaching you, practice it, if you learn the right way to do a roundhouse kick to the body, do it over and over until it’s second nature to you. If you want to work on a technique in particular, get someone to watch you do it, then take their advice if they see any gaps, and repeat the drill until you’re sick of it. The key to getting good at something is to repeat it, if you repeat something over and over again, it will feel more natural and you will improve, for example, I found landing the left kick to the body and head difficult, so I used to come early and stay late after class to just hit the heavy bag with body and head kicks. Now, my left kick is one of my most powerful weapons, this was learned due to repetition of the kick, helping it go from feeling unnatural and weird, to flicking it out without thinking about it, although this was done over a number of years. “Fear not the man that has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but fear the man that has practiced one kick 10,000 times” - Bruce Lee.
Rest and recovery.
After a training session, it is important to recover well and appropriately, by eating a protein rich meal when you’re home, along with normal rest. I usually tend to go very hard in my training sessions, putting in very high effort for when I’m at the gym, going all out for an hour or two, and then going home, eating something, and then getting my beauty sleep. As you go on, your body will adapt to training sessions more often and your recovery will become better as your body gets used to the increased strain. It is important to rest properly if you’re injured as well, as you don’t want to worsen anything you have by applying more strain to the injury. Overall, rest and recovery is crucial to your combat sports progress on the uptrend, there is no point training constantly and not allowing your body to rest, however much you might want to train, you will end up running yourself into the ground if your body cannot keep up with your training. When you reach a certain level where you can rest less, go ahead and take that opportunity, but your body will not be able to keep up with crazy training regimens from the get-go, so be patient and take your time with learning and training.
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