I talked for a few minutes with Brian Cain at Reality Fighting a couple weeks ago. Here is the article that resulted. Hopefully this helps some of you out, or at least gives you an idea of how I approach fights.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

UFC Ultimate Fighter Lauzon Shares Success Tips
Top lightweight fighter talks about MMA Mental Toughness�
By: Brian M. Cain, MS, CAA � Peak Performance Coach
http://www.briancain.com
http://www.mmaheadcoach.com � Coming Soon
Concord, NH

Imagine getting into the octagon in front of 18,000 people for your first fight in the MMA Major Leagues, The Ultimate Fighting Championship and as you state across the ring your opponent is one of the all-time greats in the lightweight division.

Thoughts of how the match makers put you in there so that the heavily favored, former champion (who had his belt stripped because he refused to fight, not because he was beat) could get back on a winning streak and show the fans his famous knockout power, or thoughts of how the Vegas odds makers had you listed as one of the biggest underdogs of all time might sneak into the psyche of most fighters.

Not Joe Lauzon.  The 2006 graduate of Wentworth College in Boston MA, fresh off of his Computer Science Tech Support job went to war with UFC Legend Jens Pulver on September 23, 2006.  In one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, Lauzon knocked out the heavily favored Pulver in 48 seconds.

Lauzon who is now a star on the Spike TV reality show The Ultimate Fighter 5, in which Pulver is one of the coaches with UFC star B.J. Penn sat down with us to discuss the Mental Aspects of MMA.

BC: If I were to ask you to talk to me about the Mental Aspects of Ultimate Fighting, what would you talk about?

JL: I would talk about having the right mindset.  Some guys like to get all amped up before a fight, I think that is counter productive.  You waste energy.  Leading up to the fight, you have a lot of alone time, and that can screw with your head.  I think that staying calm and treating it like any other training session is the best approach.

To think that a fight is any different than training is ridiculous. You go through all the same motions you are still attacking the other guy, the only difference is really that if you hurt the other guy, you speed up where as in training you would slow down or stop.

I try to look at a fight just like any other type of training.  I think that those that look at it any differently and try to take a different approach are really doing themselves a disservice and setting themselves up for a failure.

BC: You said you try to make the fight just like training so there must be things that you do in training to try and make the intensity as close as it can be to an actual fight?

JL: One of the toughest things with a fight is that you get no time to rest, you get very tired.  You have to simulate that in training.  You constantly want to be going against fresh guys.  I think that finding new guys to train with is also very important.

BC: You mentioned that you try to stay relaxed before a fight.  What are some of the things that you do to try and stay relaxed?

JL: I don�t even think about the fight.  I do a lot of strategic analysis before hand.  The week before the fight, I already know what my game plan is and what I am going to do.  That way there is no self-doubt and second guessing myself thinking, �I wish I had done this etc.�. When you prepare properly, there is nothing to second guess yourself on.

For me, I just hang out, talk like there is nothing going on, I treat it just like I am going to watch a fight.

BC: Is your goal to figure out what your opponent is going to try to do and beat him at his game, or is it to just fight your fight?

JL: �It really depends on the opponent.  If you are close in skill or in any one area you try to impose your will and try to get off first.  If the other guy is a great wrestler and a better wrestler than you, well obviously you are not going to out wrestle him so you try to lead him down the path you want, but it is tough. That strategy is going to vary with every opponent.  There are a lot of variables to deal with.�

BC: Are there certain things that a fighter goes through mentally when they are fighting for a title fight, or when they start to become one of the elite fighters in the UFC that can hurt their performance? Self-doubt or overconfidence, those kinds of things?

JL: Everyone is real confident in themselves. I try to go in there thinking that I am invincible and that I am always going to impose my will and that I am always going to win.  Some guys are over confident, and then they lose, and they never get that confidence back.  One of the most difficult things to do is to go in there with the proper mindset.

In the beginning when you start and you keep winning you can stay real confident, but once you get one or two losses, keeping that confidence can be very tough.

Take a look at Quinton �Rampage� Jackson for example he goes in and is unstoppable.  He will stand with anyone, he will take down anyone, he will slam anyone.  A couple real tough losses to Wanderlei Silva and he is not nearly the fighter he was before.

BC: So what advice would you give to that fighter that has lost a few fights and is ready to start climbing the ladder back to the top.

JL: Have faith in yourself.  I think that is what it comes down to.  You have to be confident.  You don�t want to be over confident, but you have to have confidence.

BC: Jens Pulver was your first fight in the UFC.  Talk to me about the lead up to that fight.  You were fighting one of the UFC all-time greats, take us through your mindset from the time you saw him at weigh-ins to till the end of the fight.

JL: I went in thinking that no matter what happened it was going to be a great experience for me.  I was expected to go in and get knocked out.  I had worked with a lot of boxers and a lot of left-handers so I was prepared for the fight and I was confident that I would go in there and not get knocked out.

The longer the fight went, the better for me. I wanted to bring it to him right away, but with every second that ticked away I got more and more confident.  Going into the fight I was telling myself, �we are not going to stand, we are not going to stand,� and I was able to execute my plan and get the take down right away.

Once I got him down so easily and got into the fight a little, I told myself you know what F**k this guy, I am not worried about him, he is just like anyone else that I train with and I am going to beat him.  I took the shot, threw the knee, threw the hook and that was it.

It was all about confidence and my confidence went through the roof after getting that take down.

BC: One of the things that I talk to fighters about all the time is the concept of �Fake it till you make it�. If you have self-doubt or are feeling scared, fake it and sooner or later you will start to believe and feel the way you act.

JL: I am always cautious, but I don�t think I get scared before a fight.  I think I am different that most in that regard.  With Jens, I did not want to be standing with him, so I was cautions of his standup, but knew I wanted to get it on the ground.  

I think that in most fights your style will dictate that you have an advantage somewhere.  There are times where you are out classes all around, but for the most part, there is always a place where you are better.  If you can get the fight there, it is usually smooth sailing, thought it can be really tough to get the fight there sometimes.

You can reach Brian at brian@briancain.com