Fighting Angry

Every sport fighting fan loves a good grudge match, myself included. It's always fun to get into a good dramatic story on why two people should throw down. The best fights are often motivated by the need to win something, like a championship or avoiding an elimination in a tournament. A grudge match, however, is totally different. Often the fighters' top priority is to hurt their opponent or make them look bad. The audience usually eats this up because the need to assert dominance is often more entertaining. When there's something like a title on the line, fights are often defensive and highly technical, which doesn't always sell as well. Angry fights, on the other hand, are all about offense. This is not always the most intelligent approach. Good for fans, bad for the fighters.

Lost Focus
For me, the most important thing in a fight is to keep the brain goal-oriented. This enables us to stay cognitive and keep the reptilian brain from taking over. By staying engaged with our thought process, we can focus on ending the fight while taking as little damage as possible. We can control the pace and keep our strategies sharp. Your ability to adapt goes out the window when you decide to just rage out. A fighter who can keep his cool will solve this problem in no time. If you're only goal is to hurt your opponent, then you might be at a loss after you land your first punch. If he's still standing after that and you can't come up with a new plan, you'll inevitably just repeat your plan. You'll be stuck in a loop, so to speak, because you've shut off the intelligent part of your brain and can't adapt. Stay sharp and stay smart.

Tension
Letting yourself indulge in anger when you're fighting won't just make your mind freeze, but your body also. Anger leads to tension, which reduces mobility. This will also increase your heart rate (like it needed to be higher in a fight) and tire you out faster. Your muscles will tense up and you'll feel stiff. Your mobility will be greatly reduced, which will make it challenging to keep up. So now you'll be unable to stick to a smart strategy, run out of breath and not be able to move as much. This is all before your opponent even throws a punch! Fighting is hard enough, don't make it worse.

Taking Damage
There's a common expression in sports: "Defense wins championships". This is a strategy that requires some fore brain activity. You have to be able to think to enforce this concept. The idea for intelligent fighters is to win while taking as little damage as possible. This isn't such a priority when someone loses their temper. I've seen it happen and felt this myself (younger days, thanks to my corner for correcting that). When you're motivated by malice, you stop caring about your well-being. This shortens careers, kills brain cells, will get you killed in a street fight and often cost you the match. Also emotional control is a matter of discipline, which is a reflection of your training.

Getting mad and losing your temper often means that there's an insecurity that has been exposed. In fighting, people are often angry because they might not think they can win. Not every time, but often if someone makes it personal with me, I see it as an act of over-compensation. Losing your temper is losing control. Train hard, stay disciplined and push yourself regularly. Keep cool, stay healthy and keep winning.

Jordan Bill
Fight or Die

www.ScrapyardFighting.com
www.CombatSystema.com

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our channel on Youtube!