Fighters are athletes however they’re in a sport that is extremely stressful, fearful, and exciting to a much higher degree than your routine weekend team sport game. The less experienced a fighter is, the more likely they are to have trouble listening in the middle of the fight or between rounds. The ability for a fighter to listen to their coach during the competition is often the difference between winning and losing and is critical to the performance of the fighter. Fighters improve with experience however novices are often hopeless at listening and can drive trainers insane with frustration.
Fighters know how important it is to listen to their coach, and they really want to – often they simply cannot, and when they do it is sporadic, misunderstood or completely out of time with the bout. Fighters listen every training session and have gotten this far because of the training, the listening and the bond developed. The coach wants the fighter to listen because they understand the game more and also want their role to have meaning and have influence on the outcome. The coach knows the fighter better than anyone and they want to help them do well and be safe. If the fighter does not listen, the coach might as well be nicknamed ‘water bottle’, and the second ‘towel’, because they serve no useful purpose if they are not listened to. Saying the right thing, at the right time to change the result is another thing entirely. Coaches can also be affected by the reasons fighters don’t listen, so they need to understand them as well to forge a working relationship in the fight. Coaches saying the right thing at the right time to affect the outcome, turn the fight around and help the fighter win, is another topic for a later article.
So why don’t fighters listen?
There are emotional and physiological reasons and although everyone varies, there’s really only one reason – STRESS. To understand this better I’ve broken the reasons down into four components, with an overview of stress as the primary cursor. My lived experience from fighting and coaching hundreds of fighters has proven all of this information as relevant in the real world.
My hostile environment military experience, including two-way range situations, being in buildings being hit by rocket fire, high speed vehicle escapes and imminent threat of death have taught me they are real. It is only training and experience that can teach you to deal with aspects of performance stress that can both heighten and reduce your capability under pressure.
Reasons:
STRESS, which is divided into three main responses and one personality trait.
- Auditory exclusion
- Tunnel vision
- Fear
- EGO
Stress
The fighter is stressed about the fight, the performance, their expectation, and the uncertainty. Stress is a natural human response to a new situation that has uncertainty and expectation. Stress can be positive and negative; however, we’re focusing on the negative aspect of how immediate increased stress can limit a fighter’s performance under pressure. Stress effects have emotional and physical impacts on the body and mind and are prevalent leading into a bout. This commences from the day a fighter is matched. Immediately preceding a bout, commencing from the reality of the weigh in, a fighter’s stress increases. When the bout is imminent a fighter will often get an adrenaline dump when extra hormones are released into the bloodstream. Commonly known as ‘fight or flight’ syndrome, we often forget a common reaction – freeze. Each of these terms require some expansion and despite being generally understood, will shock you when reality meets theory.
Fight
This doesn’t mean, you will fight better because you’re a fighter and are destined to fight when stressed. It means the adrenaline will overload your rational and calculated thinking and will take you over and posses you into more of a berserk warrior with no skills that will be exhausted before the end of the first round. The adrenaline dump will make you exhausted, make you feel slow, you will forget how to kick because your legs will feel heavy and although some people experience a slowing of time, you are more likely to feel like everything is happening at once. This dump of chemicals is designed to enhance your physical and mental response for immediate lifesaving responses like fighting a tiger, dealing with a serious injury or having one huge strength burst. It will reduce any fine motor skill requirements and will not allow for any precise function, accurate or complicated motor skills.
The only way to overcome this is to breathe deeply and slowly, train your response and improve your skills under pressure. Focusing on what works and is a gross motor skill, not fancy things that require composure, balance, or intricacies. If you want to fight like a movie scene, be an actor. For a fighter this takes dozens of fights to develop.
Flight
This is running away on steroids. Everything in you makes you want to survive by distance. This is why most people run, die in crowd crushes and panic. Most people do not face danger, and this is more common than people want to admit, because no one respects those that run away from danger, despite it being a more likely response to a life-threatening situation. Fighters do it, but that is why there are ropes in the fight. Fighters will feel this and consider this option in the training camp, the weigh in and the lead up to the bout. It is the rational logic of why they are there, the coach and the humiliation fear that keeps fighters on track to at least start the bout. Once the bout starts, flight can still affect a fighter and it is evident in in action, hesitating, fear, going down easy and just displaying characteristics that make it look like the fighter just wants it over and they would rather be anywhere else than in the ring. Coaches have seen this in fighters, and you have all seen it on TV.
Freeze
This is like stage fright. The fight starts, then bam! – the fighter does nothing. They look like a kangaroo in headlights, forget to punch and can’t figure out what’s going on. Training can overcome aspects of this, and the fighter may try to throw a few strikes but overall, their performance is underwhelming while their exhaustion is overwhelming. This is common in emergency situations when people’s brains just overload and they stand there and get crushed, run over, taken out or just float off downstream. Freezing happens if someone wants to run but has no where to go.
You have to train your responses but unless training has uncertainty, fear, and pressure the flight, fight or freeze aspect will not be experienced until a fighter has their first bout. Everyone responds differently and may respond differently each time with no consistency depending on the situation. A fighter might be brave in a fight but lie down crying if they are in a shopping centre when someone starts firing or stabbing at random people. You have to experience it, evaluate it, and train it extensively to cope and choose how you respond. Bullshitting yourself and thinking you’re a hero will not overcome your natural responses; you need honest critical self-analysis and practice to develop real confidence and capability.
Critical aspects of flight, fight or freeze that effect fighters in a bout.
Auditory exclusion
Fighters can’t listen. This is because the stress responseblocks all sounds that are not immediately required for survival. Why waste energy listening when all your energy must go into running? This is because of increased heart rate, rising blood pressure and a spike in adrenaline and cortisol. This can last for a section of the fight, or the entire fight. A fighter can listen before the fight then forget you are there during the bout. Hearing may return during the fight, but it will usually be haphazard.
Coaches must talk to fighters before and check they are listening, discuss this during the prep phase and practice listening in training during gym sparring and deliberate practice during shadow sparring. It can be overcome and prepared for, however it will still happen, especially in a nervous fighter with little competition or stress experience to relate to. It doesn’t have to happen, but some fighters will just get so stressed they listen to nothing but their brain. A coach should identify this in training, as someone who does not listen in class will not listen under pressure.
YOU NEVER LEARN NEW BEHAVIOURS UNDER PRESSURE. YOU REVERT TO YOUR BASE COMMON BEHAVIOUR. YOUR SKILLS DECLINE AND REVERT TO WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT AND TRAIN THE MOST.
Tunnel vision
This is when you get peripheral vision loss and can only see what is directly in front of you. It also comes with some time distortion, depth distortion, colour changes and even heightened or reduced recognition of what is being seen. It is not why a fighter does not listen, but is often accompanied by it. It happens often when stressed and under pressure.
Remember pressure can come from inside the mind of the fighter. Building their own expectations of the bout, their perceived grandiose and performance outcome, or just fear of humiliation can cause tunnel vision. You need tunnel vision to focus, to be sharp and to harness your energy, but you must train what your tunnel vision focuses on. If a fighter is not listening and doing things that they haven’t trained, it is because they have tunnel vision and are reverting to what they’ve been thinking about or their own perceptions of what they think, which is more important to them than what you say or do.
Tunnel vision will make you more tired. Tunnel vision can also affect a fighter’s ability to see wild shots, fast shots, change of pace or react as they would when calm. When you see someone get knocked out with something you saw coming, shouted out but the fighter never saw coming, that’s tunnel vision. Walking into push kicks over and over is tunnel vision. You can train what your tunnel vision focuses on. Work on gross motor skills, direct line of sight fighting. Coaches should get fighters to look around (before the bout) and be aware of their environment to assist them being aware of peripheral vision. Breathing deep and slow is critical to reduce the effects of tunnel vision.
The best method for any stress is square breathing: Breathe in – hold – out – hold and keep repeating.
Fear
Fear of injury is there, but is far less concerning than fear of embarrassment, fear of failure and fear of loss of identity. Fighters are aware of injuries and the risks, but they keep inside their fear of embarrassment and fear of failure. Fear of letting the team down is also there, but not as prevalent as fear of not meeting their own expectations. Coaches need to discuss this with the fighter, so their fears are not hidden or suppressed. Fear will enhance stress and exacerbate every stress response. Training is where you overcome fears. Fighting is how you overcome fears and often why people want to test themselves. Just face their fears before round one so you can sufficiently address them.
EGO
A fighter’s ego will contribute to any stress response.Confidence is required and a fighter who doesn’t back themselves will not win. I am talking about the aspect of ego that is delusional – when someone thinks they are better than the reality of what they have proven. Confidence based on false self-belief and arrogance. When a fighter’s ego cheque is large and they have expectations their ability cannot cash, they are more likely to not listen to their trainer because they already know better. It is like they believe the trainer is only bringing out things in the fighter that were already there, not coaching them to do new things and develop. They believe that the trainer benefits from the fighter’s presence and ability and they are the ones that should be thanked. Fighters that already believe they are great and do not really need a team or respect the team.
When a fighter does things in a fight, that you do not do in training or something you have not been telling the fighter to do. The fighter is not listening. This is not just auditory exclusion, it is arrogance. It is their self-talk and mindset overriding advice and training in the self-belief that they know better. How the fight is going to work and the outcome as decided by them. Helping them think they are better than they are falsely reinforces the ‘I did it myself because I am awesome’ belief. It shows a lack of respect in the training and the coach. Hey, it may occasionally work, but the coach will be left with the feeling their input is not required, as this type of person is actually already thinking they do not need the coach’s advice as they already know better. Fighters like this can be cured but only if they slap themselves, get slapped and wake up to themselves. They are hard to coach under pressure and you have to ask if they are worth the effort until they demonstrate more humility, listening skills and pull their head in.
Conclusion
Fighting is very much short-term memory, what they train the most of and think about leading up to a fight, a fighter will do.
Why fighters do not listen is simple. They are stressed and scared. They and their coach need to focus in on each aspect of this stress and prepare for it. Bring it into training and communicate honestly. Being aware of how auditory exclusion and tunnel vision affect fighters and how their own ego and approach to listening and training is critical in developing a winning relationship. A fighter must have five or more fights before the relationship can develop and their stress reduced. It takes experience as a team and the fighter must be aware of how they must develop and improve their stress responses. They must try to listen harder for the process to actually work and this requires trust and experience. Practicing composure in all training is essential.
