above, my spontaneous vlog on the connection between belief and technique

Mentality Distorts Physicality

In this vlog I was ranting at Kevin the other night, all amped up and excited about some realizations I was having about mental training, and in the process I referenced the lean into a kick that is emphasized by Singdam and Arjan Surat – a legend, and a coach of legends. I’ve been playing with this for some time and know the importance of it, but often find myself frustrated by somehow still leaning back on my kicks. What I’ve realized, through working on this and working around the difficulties of it, is that it’s almost entirely mental. When you don’t believe in your kick, it’s impossible to lean into it. Impossible. And even with beautiful technique and incredibly long reach, you can miss from inches away just because of a lack of belief. It’s like a magic trick. A terrible magic trick.

So the moral of this story is that you can look at the technical break down of anything and follow along with the steps to get the physical applications of a strike or move or technique. But none of that is as important, or even necessarily will work, if you don’t get the mental part of it right – and the right mentality is belief. Non-belief will make you pull your punches or kicks, lean away from your target, or just generally distort your physical movements. Belief first, foremost and last.

Below is a GIF of Sindam showing me the “lean in” into a kick. The shoulder comes, and importantly the chin stays down and in. This is what I’m referring to in the video. You can see the entire hour with Singdam soon to be posted to my Muay Thai Library