Essay #4 The stage in a process



The Training Stage in MMA

Richard Nguyen

There is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that martial artists, or also known as fighters, go through to prepare for a fight in a tournament. But what you may not know is what goes through the mind during each stage of training for the fight. Most of the stages that fighters go through are mostly a challenge to the fighter's state of mind, not to be confused with the term mind set. A mind set is the mentality of the fighter before he or she goes into a fight, while the term, state of mind, is what the fighter is thinking under the strain of training and fighting. One stage of training I like to focus on is the cardio work out to strengthen the fighter's endurance, and the strain it has on the mind and body. Cardio work out is the make or break point in a fighter's workout because it challenges the fighter's endurance to keep up a good challenge to his or her opponent. So the fighter would be able to keep up a good challenge for his or her opponent, and not be able to back down.

One particular cardiovascular workout that I will talk about particularly, and is most relatable by most people in general, is jogging. To be specific, I'll talk about a cross country type of jogging exercise, similar to the kind of exercise you would do in a high school cross country athletics team. But to give you a base of comparison, a cross country race is about three miles, but in a training exercise a fighter must run a longer distance in each exercise to increase his or her limit, and have a higher breaking point. A fighter that I will be talking about, hypothetically of course, will run about five miles. And this is on a track that is filled with turns and hills to test the fighter's ability to conquer obstacles, and was able to finish with a goal time of less than fifty minutes to finish the track. Otherwise, he can't cut it; it's that simple. If the fighter isn't able to finish this track, then he has no hope for sustaining a long endurance in a fight.

At first, starting off on a run, the fighter feels at ease, without any stress whatsoever. Starting off with a nice easy jogging type pace to conserve energy, for use later in the run, because he or she knows it will be a long training session. But how much energy can the this fighter muster up to finish this course is the biggest question in his or her mind right now because in a fight the opponent will try to use his or her energy wisely to win. In this case, the fighter is conserving energy to conquer the hardest obstacles he or she will encounter in this course. Such as the finally reaching the two mile mark, in the five mile course, and starting to feel an emptiness of energy while still needing to complete the rest of the run. Then slowly approaching to a two kilometer high, and very steep that the fighter needs to conquer, starting from the very bottom. The massive hill will test how the fighter's motivation and determination to finish the training course. By now the fighter's mindset is either eager to conquer the hill, excited for a challenge, or is amazed by the huge hill, and is at his or her breaking point. About eighteen minutes later, the fighter finally fought his or her way to the top, and conquers the massive hill with two miles left to finish the course. Right now the fighter is having a short lived victory in his or head from conquering the hill as motivation to finish the training course. This contributes to my overall opinion because the fighter will have to find motivation in a fight to keep his or her spirit lifted to not give up. For example, if the fighter wins the first round in a fight from the judges, it tells the fighter he or she has a chance of winning, and gives the fighter motivation to keep winning.

Unfortunately the last task to conquer before finishing the course is running through a series of turns in the course, which resemble a sidewinder snake. This will test the fighter's problem solving skills as to how he or she will complete the last part of the course. Fortunately the fighter kept a calm mind through the hill, and solved how he or she can finish the training course faster. Instead of simply running through each and every turn, the fighter decided to cut through each turn, running on both of the road and rock covered pavement. This allowed the fighter to get to the last stretch of the track to finish the course. Otherwise known as the kicker, the fighter kicks it into high gear, and uses the energy he or she has left to finish it under the fifty minute mark. Finishing under the fifty minute mark is a goal for the fighter, to accomplish a feeling of self-victory of surpassing his or her limits. If the fighter finishes under the fifty minute mark, it tells the fighter the he or she has accomplished a goal, and gives the fighter self-motivation to win in a fight.

With a heart beating three times the normal rate, breathing excessively gasping for air, and the finish line creeping faster to the fighter in his or her sight. The fighter finishes the five mile course in an amazing triumph of self-victory in less than fifty minutes at forty-five minutes exactly. The fighter is over joyed with excitement for completing training course, and is congratulating his or herself in amazement from not giving up through the course. That the fighter was able to complete all the challenges within the course without attaining a bit of doubt whether or not it could or couldn't be done.   

  But What if a fighter doesn't make it past this one stage of his or her MMA career? The truth of the matter is that many fighters find themselves dropping out at this stage more than the others. The reason for such a phenomenon is because they aren't able to handle the mental strain when their body's start to feel drained of energy. If the fighter starts to feel doubts, and starts wanting to give up, then most likely they will and lose the fight. The fighters who do stay in the game are usually the ones who have the heart and the mental strength to overcome all obstacles to win in a fight. This is a make or break point to test the fighter if he or she has the heart and mental strength to do whatever it takes in training to win.