Study looks at how MMA fighters manage their fears

By TARYN LUNA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
2012-02-02 11:25:00
More than a week before Rick "the Pit Bull" Borowski's fifth amateur cage fight, anxiety had set in.

A self-admitted "very nervous person," the 29-year-old says he sometimes gets so worked up before a match he vomits.

The pre-fight fear that will "turn the toughest guy into a sissy" continues to escalate even after the cage door slams and the lights go on.

"You have no energy. Your legs feel like they don't feel under you," he said. "It's exciting, exhilarating and it's terrifying all at the same time."

How did the Pit Bull overcome his fears to prevail in two of his five fights?

"Once you get punched in the face, that all goes out the door," he said.

A two-year ethnographic study of mixed-martial-arts fighters by a sociologist at Indiana University of Pennsylvania attempted to shed light on the complex male psyche to understand how men manage their fears.

The study, led by assistant visiting professor Christian Vaccaro, suggests most fighters never fully overcome their fear of losing or getting injured.

But they do learn to manage it enough to enter the cage through a number of mental strategies to exude dominance and maintain their masculine identity, according to Vaccaro.

Some attempted to intimidate opponents, and others blindly convinced themselves they were more intelligent or more prepared because of their training or game plan. To overcome what they often referred to as "nerves" or "jitters," they looked at the match as just another day in the gym or a learning opportunity, win or lose.

And when they did lose, they convinced themselves it wasn't because the other man was a better fighter and they were unfit to enter the ring or even compete in the sport.

"While losing matches could make fighters fear that they were no longer cut out for the cage, framing their losses as valuable learning experiences often eased their fears and gave them enough confidence to continue," Vaccaro explains in the study.

The men also went back to the same strategies they used to garner the courage to fight. They blamed a loss on the fact that they didn't stick to the game plan or "nerves" and "pre-fight jitters" got the best of them, according to Vaccaro.

As Jeremy Bennett, 35, a former professional mixed-martial-arts fighter from Pittsburgh, explains, "The butterflies always set in and you have to learn that it's energy; you have to realize that and turn it into aggression."

Bennett, who has nine wins and seven losses in his career, said success or failure often hinged on his ability to manage the ever-present fear of losing and letting his family down.

"The fear is like your worst nightmare," he said. "Especially later on in my career when my family would come watch me, I think I let it get the best of me, I let the pressure get to me."

But when he was knocked out, or held in a submission he couldn't shake, and his worst fear became reality when his competitor's hand was lifted at the end of the match, he said he learned he had instigated most of his trepidation by himself.

"I put more pressure on myself, because your family is going to love you no matter what," he said.

The realization of fear after a loss or the emotions, particularly shame, a fighter feels in the wake of a losing match is one aspect of the study that R. Tyson Smith, a sociologist fellow at Brown University, thinks is missing.

"That was one of the primary limitations of the study," said Smith. "You have this high-stakes context and then the article revolves around managing and controlling emotions of fear in particular, yet we really don't know what happens in the face of a loss."

When Borowski was knocked out by what he describes as an "underdog" opponent in a fight in Ohio, he was disappointed in himself and felt like he failed his friends and family who drove hours to watch him.

"You question whether you ever want to do it again," he said.

His feelings bring up an important question: Why do these men routinely elect to participate in cage fights when they fear it?

"These are not 12-year-old kids in the roughest section of Chicago who more or less have their back against the wall and must participate," Smith said.

When Borowski pumps himself up by thinking he's a better fighter who trained harder than his competitor, he knows his competitor thinks the same thing.

He's learned through trial and error that he receives "so much respect" for just going into the ring and that his family won't think worse of him for losing, yet he still fears letting them down.

And when he says he beat himself in a loss, he's well aware of the fact that the other guy thinks he won because he's the stronger and better fighter.

The solution? Don't think about it.

"You have to stick to your guns and know that you're the best," he said.

(Email Taryn Luna at tluna@post-gazette.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)

Is there a battleship anchor strapped to my back?

Saturday’s combat fitness (Feb. 12) was the first class I made it to after being sick. It had been six days since the last time I worked out but it felt like it had been a month. Actually, going through that class I felt like I had a battleship anchor strapped to my back. Even the warm-up was hard. And it wasn’t even a tough class like most Saturday classes have become. I muddled my way through it and now I’m looking forward to getting back to being in the gym five days a week.  It’s been three weeks since I’ve been able to make it five days a week. Having three pretty easy weeks isn’t ideal, but it wasn’t horrible either. It allowed me time to rest and take care of some low-grade injuries. And prior to having three easy, inconsistent weeks where I was only getting to the gym two or three times a week, I had been making it five days a week. However, after a month of five days a week, I was feeling the strain. I was experiencing classic overtraining symptoms: tired, rundown, depressed. So I’m hoping that I can come back stronger now.

My first workout after being sick was
tough. I felt like I had a battleship
anchor strapped to my back.

One thing that might assist me in successfully training five days week is whey protein. I just started adding it to my post-workout shakes in an effort to speed muscle recovery. Because of a reluctance to eat most store-bought meat, I don’t get enough protein. Whey protein is supposed to be one of the best proteins for you and since it’s a powder, it’s very easy to consume. I’ve started bringing my post-workout shakes to the gym so I can drink it immediately following the workout.

100 Classes
I broke the 100 class mark last week. Hooray! I think? Mr. Stuart congratulated me for making it to the FIGHT center 100 times in a year and all I could think was that 100 doesn’t seem like much. One hundred times in 12 months is only 8.333333333 times per month. Actually, 8.3 times per month sucks. That means I averaged two visits per week. That needs to get better.

Sick and missing class, but learning from DVDs

Well, the last three weeks have been less than ideal for consistent training. For two weeks work kept me from making it to the FIGHT Center 5 days a week and this week I'm sick. I made it to combat fitness and Haganah on Monday, but right after class I could it feel coming on: sore throat, aches, runny nose, general crappy feeling. So I missed Tuesday night boxing, I'll miss combat fitness and Haganah tonight and will most likely miss kick boxing Thursday night. It doesn't matter how good of shape you're in and how well you eat, when it's your time to get sick it's your time to get sick.
Even though I've been feeling lousy the last two days, I have been able to do some training that didn't involve going to class. I've been learning from my Lazy Boy by watching  Haganah DVDs. The first one focused on common street attack scenarios: you get put in a headlock, a guy chokes you from behind, you get grabbed by your lapel and a punch is coming at your face. It's hard to learn the moves solely by watching the DVDs - there is no substitute for having a live partner to practice on - but they do help reinforce moves you already know and moves you're in the process of learning.

The second DVD focussed on surviving ground attacks. Having a fight go to the ground is very undesirable, unless you're excellent grappler. The perspective that Haganah takes on ground fighting is to avoid it. But if it happens, you're taught to end it quickly by inflicting damage and getting back to your back.

OK. Time to gargle with more salt water.

Knife fighting

Defending against knife attacks is a big part of what is taught in Haganah. But it’s just that, defending. You don’t learn how to attack with a knife. Offensive knife skills are taught in a separate class called Tactical Knife Fighting (this  video shows Haganah founder Mike Lee Kanarek deomonstrating some moves). I participated in my first knife fighting class  on Saturday (Feb. 5).

Since there were a few new students in the class, we started with the basics. These basics involved a lot of unlearning. Holding the knife properly was the first thing we learned. You’re not chopping onions. That means do not put your index finger along the back of the knife. The knife should be held in a fist with the blade lined up with the second, or middle knuckles. If you’re right-handed, you hold the knife in your right hand and, different from a fighting stance in boxing, you’re knife fighting stance has your right foot forward.

To practice slashing and stabbing, we faced the wall of mirrors and were told to imagine a box from our hips to our head. The angles of attack exist within that box. You can slash on diagonals from corner to corner, vertically from the top center to the bottom center or vice versa and horizontally across the middle of the box.  After practicing slashes and stabs, we incorporated footwork and movement while slashing and stabbing. I found the footwork a little awkward because it’s the opposite of everything I’ve learned in boxing and kickboxing. I was nervous for this and I guess it was obvious because Mr. Stuart kept telling me to relax my body. I think I was moving like a 2x4, stiff and straight.

When practicing footwork and the slashing and stabbing we used aluminum knives with no edge. When we switched to sparring in the last part of the class, we used flexible rubber knives.
As if having to spar during my first knife class wasn’t stressful enough, the sparring was made even more difficult by having to drop and then recover our knives on command while in the middle of the fight. Then, to make it even harder, we were instructed to drop our knives and pick up our opponent’s knife and continue fighting.  This created mad scrambles on the mat.

The hits with the rubber knives don’t hurt too bad, except on the knuckles or cheek. What did hurt, though, was when I went shin to shin with my partner as we dove after each other’s knives. That impact left us both temporarily stunned and grasping our legs.  

While the stabs suffered during sparring don’t leave marks, the slash attacks do. When I was showering after class, I studied the slash marks, like rug burns, that populated my right arm above the elbow and went over what I learned that day and thought how much fun the class was.

Partnering up with a TV celebrity

Saturday was an awesome day. I felt really good during combat fitness class, I got better at throwing knees in Haganah and I participated in my first knife fighting class.
As I’ve said before, the Saturday combat fitness class is usually the toughest of the week. This past Saturday was no different. In what’s becoming the norm for Saturday class, we deviated from the typical circuit. We only used eight stations: pull-ups, knee raises, dips, pikes and pike push ups on an exercise ball, dumbbell curls, sufer burpees into upright row, G4 sit-ups with medicine ball and squats with plate extensions (while holding a 45-, 35- or 25-pound plate, do a squat and extend your arms straight out in front, return to upright position and bring plate close to your chest). We started at 12 reps on each station and we had to do three sets on each station. So that’s three times around the circuit. Each time around, we decreased reps by two. So, the first time around we did 12 reps at each station, the second time around 10 and then 8 on the final lap.

Haganah
I’m still making stupid mistakes in Haganah class, but I feel like I’m improving after each class. My first partner on Saturday, Dave, squared me away on throwing knees. Dave is one of the top students in Haganah and instructs when Mr. Stuart isn’t around. Partnering with him is like getting a private lesson. After a month and a half of classes I think I have the knees down.

My second partner was Alex. Alex is another top Haganah student and also instructs classes when needed. Alex speaks with a Russian accent and for some reason this lends much gravitas to his advice. He strikes me as a guy who has had to employ this training in real life. Alex helped square me away on a take down that involves controlling your attacker’s wrist and cranking their fingers toward their forearm until they go to the ground. 

My third partner for the day was much prettier than Alex and Dave but was no less informative. During the gun disarm I was partnered with a famous QVC host I will refer to only as Lisa. Not many people can say they’ve held a dummy gun to the head of a television celebrity, but I can.  Even though her expertise lies in being a TV host, Lisa was able to give me some good tips on the gun disarm.  Thanks, Lisa.

After Haganah, it was straight into knife fighting. More on that in Tuesday’s post. All in all, Saturday was a great day of training. I was in the gym for a more than three hours and felt incredibly calm and relaxed the rest of Saturday.

 

Seeing how the pros do it

Imagine if the only ice hockey game you ever watched was played by the mini mites, those kids around 6 years old who can barely stand on their skates and any goals scored come by sheer luck. The kids are trying to play, they just don’t have the coordination and muscles to do it and the games turn into these comically slow follies on ice. Now imagine, after only ever seeing mini mites, you watch the Flyers vs. the Islanders. It doesn’t even look like the same sport. 

I had an experience like that in last night’s Haganah class. There’s a large Haganah conference in a few weeks and Mr. Stuart was preparing three of the advanced students for it. Last night’s preparation consisted of this: the entire class formed a large circle, each student held a gun or a knife. In the middle of the circle stood one of the advanced students. One by one, a student from the circle would approach the advanced student and present them with a scenario, it could be an overhand knife attack, a knife held to the throat, a gun held to the ear, a gun held to the back …. The advanced student had no idea what was coming, but they had to react immediately. This was watching the pros do it. Their moves were fast, clean and accurate. They were able to improvise when a certain hold didn’t work and they were able to do it with a lot of people watching them.

Watching this drill starkly illustrated how huge the divide is between the students who are good at it and the students like me who are playing in the mini mite league. Most of the students in Haganah play in the mini mite league. We have an understanding of what to do and we can go through the motions of it, but we have no speed and if one part of our defense fails the entire defense disintegrates. Occasionally we get lucky and perform everything right, but all it takes is the instructor to come over and watch and that tiny bit of stress will make us do everything incorrectly.

Years of practice lie ahead for me before i can do what the guys in the middle of the circle did last night.  

Hit me hard, I like to be hit

Last night’s boxing class (Tues. Jan 31) started out slow. We spent a lot of time practicing movement, staying off center of our opponent and shifting our bodies side to side to align the shoulder we were punching with to its intended target.  

The second half of class was not slow at all. We started practicing defense. My partner would swing at my head and I was supposed to keep my guard up and lean into the punch while keeping my elbows tucked close to my body. After blocking the shot, I would counter with a 45-degree punch (like an uppercut on an angle), then a straight, then block another punch.

My partner for this was Greg. He’s the resident badass and probably the best fighter in the gym other than Mr. Stuart. Greg is the instructor for the combat wrestling class. He’s strong, fast, tough and likes to be hit. Partnering with him always teaches me a lot. I coached first when we did the blocking drill, meaning I swung at his head while he blocked. “I want you to really hit me. Hit me hard,” he said with a smile, “I like to be hit.” After two minutes of Greg absorbing my blows, it was my turn. Even though we both had boxing gloves on and I was fully prepared for what was coming, getting waffled in the head is shocking. You can live half your life and never really take a strong shot to the cranium and then, in the span of two minutes, you can get a lifetime’s worth of wallops. The first two times he hit me – and since Greg likes to be hit, he also likes to hit – it was hard to keep my composure and throw the required counterpunches. But after taking a few punches, the buzzing in my head dissipated and I was able to refocus my vision and take the proper countermeasures.

After boxing class I was watching TV with an ice pack on my bruised and swollen left ear. It was injured because I was placing my guard hand over it while blocking Greg’s hits. That was a dumb mistake on my part.  My ear hurt, and still does this morning, but it’s a gratifying hurt and even though I’m not yet a fan of getting punched, I can see where Greg’s coming from.