Some people call it “being in the zone,” “flow,” or “the state of no mind.” For me it was about being completely in the moment. The key for me was not having an opinion, feelings, or emotions about what was going on during the fight, I wanted to just be.
I used to keep telling myself “trust your body, it will know what to do; trust your body, it will know what to do.“ Since my rational mind was completely terrified, freaking out, and thought that I was making a series of bad life choices that have led me to literally being locked in a cage with another man, about to do a very physical form of the tango.
I had to attempt to shut my logical mind off, and remind myself that when I let my body go, it will know what to do. I accidentally stumbled across this mindset, I don’t remember when the first time I entered into the state of “no mind“ was, but I really liked the results. It was like getting to dismiss that frazzled logical mind and “let the big boys handle this.”
So in every subsequent fight, when that voice in my head was freaking out about what was about to go down, I had to remind myself to just “trust my body, it will know what to do.“
The times I got in trouble was when I got away from the state of no mind. It was like speeding along a smooth paved roadway on a bicycle, the moment I got a thought or an opinion like “dang, I’m doing good,” or “oh boy, this is bad,” it was like someone just kicked the front tire. It starts with a small wobble, a fleeting opinion about what’s going on, then the wobble got bigger and bigger, then bam, your going head over heals.
Learn to not have an opinion or an emotion about what is happening, things will correct themselves; plus it really doesn’t do you any good to invest that mental or emotional energy in that dialog. All that does is split your focus and energy from the actual task at hand to having a whole discussion, argument, and dialog in your own head. Keep that focus on the task that will actually help you improve your position, not your opinion about what’s going on, that’s really irrelevant at that moment in time.
That internal dialog will only lead to frustration, excuse-generating, and future rationalization, you can do all that later if you must, but for now, just win the fight, trust yourself and your training, your body will know what to do. Just fight, don’t watch the fight.
About the author:
Amir Khillah is a retired professional fighter, holds a Master ‘ s degree in Human Performance, a Bachelor ‘ s degree in Exercise Physiology/kinesiology, a former Police Academy Subject Control Instructor, law enforcement trainer, a police officer, and the founder of Centurion Moderns Subject Control. For more information about officer Khillah or Centurion Modern Subject Control, please visit www.CenturionMSC.com