MONDAY MINDSET || 11.06.23 || PHILADELPHIA MMA

 

Mental tips, tricks, and productive perspectives

 

Monday Mindset: You’re Both The Driver — And The Mechanic

Imagine this scenario: you’re behind the wheel of an F1 race car in the most important race of your life.  You pull into the pit stop and the lead mechanic slaps a few things together then offers you a thumbs up.

“Hey — why didn’t you change out the tires?” you ask him.

“Well, the tires look good enough.  Still some tread.  I’ll get around to it next time. What’s the big deal?” he asks, dismissively.

Of course, this guy would be fired on the spot.  What’s the big deal?  When you’re in the race of your life, you need everything at 100%.  No exceptions.  No matter how great you can handle the car, no matter how fast the car can run, if your mechanical systems are not finely tuned and at max efficiency, you will be performing well under your potential.

It’s the same thing with fighting.  No, “decent” footwork isn’t good enough.  It has to be perfect.  You are both the driver and the mechanic — you have to expect more from yourself when it comes to keeping your systems in tip top shape.

For fun, let’s imagine a scenario where you could actually pay someone to take a wrench and tune up your punching, kicking, grappling, & etc.  mechanics.  Let’s say they do a crappy job.  What then?

You fire them!

Accept no less from yourself.  We are on a never ending journey to improve our mechanics and as such a focused, mindful, and disciplined approach to mechanical improvement is a necessary part of that process.

Simply “showing up” stops being good enough at a certain point.  Good mechanics are not an emergent skill — they don’t simply develop through practice.  You must make them happen.

And one of the best ways to go about that?  Work the fundamentals.  Learn the cues, learn how to audit your form, and learn how to make the proper adjustments.  Then, apply that for the rest of your life 🙂