Recently the instructors at Scranton Mixed Martial Arts were talking about a very important training tip that we thought we should share on our blog. We all agreed that if this training tip was better understood and used more often by our students they would progress much faster. This training tip works for all Martial Arts students. It does not matter if it is Judo, BJJ, Muay Thai or Boxing. Please take a minute to read this article and apply this tip to your Martial Arts training.
All of the instructors at Scranton Mixed Martial Arts would like you to focus on a concept called Match Recall. The concept of match recall focuses on students being able to remember specific details and situations that occur during your training, drilling or sparring. If you are able to remember exactly what happened right before you were submitted in bjj or what happened right before you were thrown in Judo or punched in the head during boxing or Muay Thai that will help you better defend that or prevent that from happening in the future. It is just as important to remember the details that lead to your success in your Martial arts training. If you are able to recall what you did right before you punched someone in the head, threw someone in Judo or submitted your partner in bjj class that will allow you to replicate that scenario more often.
The most common reason that student might not be able to effectively recall their matches is because they are not relaxed enough. They are spending too much of their time trying to go 110% or as hard as they can. Students often spend too much time worrying about ‘winning’ in training. Big mistake! You need to relax a bit and save some of that energy for you brain. If you are using every ounce of muscle all the time it will be much harder for you to identify the subtle details that are leading to your success or defeat. Next time you are at class take moment to watch how your instructors train, drill or spar. They are not going full speed/full force all the time. Instead they are spending more time working on the details and technique. There is a lot of give and take and exchanging of techniques rather than an all out brawl.
Of course, there is a time to go 100% it just should not take up most of your training time at Scranton Mixed Martial Arts. In the long run going full speed all the time will slow down your progress. Instead focus on long term progress and relax and take the time to do some match recall. Spend time going over your matches think about what was working and why. Think about situations that you put you in a bad position or that you did not have an effective answer for. Take these important situations and focus on them during training and if necessary ask your instructors for help on these situations.