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FEAR, WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR. ABSOLUTELY
EVERYTHING.
By BIG Sean Madigan
Simply
put, fear is our mind's way of letting us know that we may get hurt.
Fear is a trigger to react, a catalyst in the body's self-protection
system. Now, how can we as martial artist use this fear to help us grow
as more effective fighters? That is what this article will address.
Before we start, you must realize that we all have fears, and nothing
will bring about fear quicker then standing in front of a trained
fighter, and agreeing that for the next few minutes, you will be
exchanging blows hard enough that if they land, it will hurt. This is
sparring, and it should be a very important part of your training in
Combative Training. Sparring teaches many lessons, far to many to be
addressed in this short article, but I feel one of its major lessons we
learn from the fear many of us have of getting hit.
Sparring becomes (forgive the statement) our own 'bull detector" in that
no matter how hard you 'think' you train, once you get up against that
opponent you start to doubt certain aspects of your ability. We can do
many things with this fear, some will just 'suck it up' and never deal
with it, some will try to turn it into something else such as anger, and
then there are those of that look at that fear simply as what it is, and
that is your own mind's eye telling you where you need to train harder.
Look at your fear and try to figure out what it is trying to tell you
about yourself. Also, does that fear change due to which opponent you
are facing? What I mean by this is sometimes different opponent's will
trigger different fears. This is because all fighters are individuals
and they all contain certain attributes and 'styles' of fighting. If
fighting opponent's that are great at grappling makes you feel
uncomfortable, then you can take this that you do not have confidence in
your grappling ability. Fear should not be hidden away; you will not
grow if you do this.
Examine your fears, listen to them, use them, grow because out them!
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