FIGHT SMART - F*CK THE FANCY SHIT. WIN WITH THE BASICS.
One of the best bits of fight advice I ever got was:
âTo be a great fighter at your level, just do the basics really well.â
That was back when I was quite new and had only had one amateur fight.
These words have held a place in my mind ever since.
Long story short, it comes down to cutting everything that doesnât matter and getting good at the bread and butter movements such as:
- Keeping your guard high consistently
- Following punch combinations with kicks
- Checking kicks
- Maintaining range
- Making sure you have a good fitness gas tank so you can keep good form when youâre tired
- And using your teeps properly
To get good at these things you donât need a world class coach, you donât need to be a natural athlete, and you donât need to train twice a day seven days a week.
You just need reps. Do these basic things over and over again until they become imprinted in you.
Bruce Lee summed it up well: âI fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.â
And yes, unfortunately for the showboaters (Iâm guilty too), this means spinning attacks and superman punches probably need to go in the bin for now.
If you think about it, this philosophy can be applied to all areas of life, work, business, and school.
Mastering only the basics will, in most cases, put you in the top 1% of most rooms you find yourself in. It reduces wasted mental effort, money, and time, and as a result youâll be able to enjoy what youâre doing a lot more.
Trust me on this. As someone who spent years overcomplicating things, the day I stripped my focus back to the basics my fighting improved tenfold and life just felt better.
So how can you apply this?
- First, talk to your coach and get them to walk you through the bread and butter movements so you know exactly how they should be performed.
- Second, drop the ego and reduce your power while youâre working on this. Your brain and body need clean, repetitive execution to learn properly. Power will come later.
- Third, train with intent. Forget all the other noise your brain is holding onto and really focus on getting these fundamentals right. When youâre doing pads or sparring it may feel boring and repetitive at first, but it becomes exciting when you can throw shots knowing they will land.
- Fourth, do extra work. Instead of sitting around before or after sessions, go over to the bag and run these movements over and over again until your form starts to drop. Then stop and repeat the process next session. Donât be shy about this either. Your coach will notice the effort.
- Fifth, ask questions. If something doesnât feel right, ask your coach or a more experienced fighter.
Basically, the quicker you hit your 10,000 reps, the quicker youâll be in the top 1% of the group youâre training with.
One more thingâŚ
A lot of people think they have a skill problem when really they have a gas tank problem. Even the basics feel hard when youâre exhausted.
So if you want to keep your form, output, and sharpness deeper into training, Iâve put together a free cheat sheet called How to Improve Your Gas Tank Fast (Without Running).
You can grab it here:
https://fightsmartnutrition.com/pages/fight-smart-foundations
Thanks for reading.
Kurt - Fight Smart Founder đđ˝