How To Prepare For Your First Fight
By Ronnie Najjar, Muay Thai Coach Since 2004 • Former Professional Fighter
The problem with your first fight is you have no reference. You’re left relying on other people’s advice and experience. Regardless of how well you’re doing or not doing in training, you’ll have doubts. Don’t worry about it!
You’ll never know how your fight is going to turn out, if your training is good enough, or if the advice you’re getting is right.
Most of it is irrelevant. Whatever the result, you will be a new person. You will have experience. That’s what you’re after, growth and experience.
As you are prepare for your first fight, know this: your mind might toil over every detail, you might lose sleep, and you might ask yourself why in the hell you signed up for this in the first place. Expect things to go wrong in the lead up i.e. injuries, car breakdowns, infidelities, conveniently at the peak of fight camp. Instead, if your training runs smoothly with limited hiccups, consider yourself fortunate. Your next one might not be so easy.
Acknowledge the reality that things can and do go wrong, and don’t be surprised when they do. Soldier on when things go wrong and don’t waste energy worrying if fight camp isn’t perfect. That’s the first piece of advice.
Just focus on the job.
The Training Side
A common mistake is to over-train. Don’t overdo it physically. You can think about your fight day and night, dream about it (that counts as practice), but don’t physically exhaust yourself. Keep tabs on your performance, making sure it doesn’t dip too much throughout the week. If you’re exhausted come Friday, you’ve done too much.
Better to have reserves than be exhausted on fight day
Manage your stress levels. That means one hard session per day is plenty, unless you supplement it with an easier technical session. A better return on investment is spending your time on activities that reduce stress i.e. get ahead with your work, see friends and family, catch up on housecleaning (if you do that type of stuff), have a hot bath! Take care of stuff that will reduce your stress therefore support training.
Common mistakes to be aware of before your first fight
a) Deviating from the basics. Many newbies get excited in their fight and forget to stay composed and stick to the basics.
Discipline yourself to be composed at training. Do everything with accuracy, balance, and aim to keep things simple. Minimize your “antsy-ness”. If someone is sizzling in sparring, don’t get dragged into their game and become sloppy. Slow down, let them be hyper, and focus on your defense and stance. You need to practice being calm at all times.
b) Getting fancy. Don’t do anything in your fight you don’t practice at the gym, or are not proficient at. The fight is not a time to experiment. No spin kicks, flying knees, or anything in the air. You’ll likely regret it. Stick to the basics.
c) Skip training when you’re not feeling well. Inconsistency fuels doubt. If you miss a few sessions it will mess with your head on fight day. Show up and do a light session instead of bailing altogether.
d) Watching too many fight videos. If anything, watch tutorials and train your mind to think technically. If you’re already antsy, watching too many fights might fire you up and drain energy.
e) Underestimating the whole situation. Don’t ever downplay anything. If you can do better, do it. If you need to stop drinking, do what it takes. I’ve seen too many people try rationalize their habits, even find examples of other drinkers who succeed as proof. Remember, this is your history, your story, your memory you’ll talk about forever so do what you can do make it your best. Don’t underestimate any opponent. Prepare for the hardest fight you can imagine. If you do that, and your opponent didn’t, he will go down. If he prepared for a hard fight like you- then it’ll be a war! Who wins in this case usually comes down to who has the strongest willpower, or like I recently heard someone say, who is willing to suffer the most.
Why Are You Doing This?
Great question. You’ll ask yourself a million times, especially at the peak of training camp when you are beat up, exhausted and stressed out. Have a few good reasons ready, and reflect on them to get you through the hard times.
After the fight you’ll know why you did it, and just like childbirth (so I’m told) you’ll forget the pain and want another one!
CONCLUSION
Overall, a first fight is not that big a deal. Before the fight, it’s everything you can think about, your whole life is consumed by it. The day after your fight you will wake up on a high, and wonder to yourself, that was it? It wasn’t so bad! And that’s usually where the obsession starts.
You’re a new person, knowing you walked through your fear and accomplished something very few people dream of doing. It takes a lot to go through a fight, be it a smoker, amateur or pro. All are hard. Pro is easier in some ways and harder in others. The unknown of a first fight is a killer psychologically. Get through that then next time you’ll know what to expect and calibrate for it, and you will do way better! Good Luck!
About Ronnie Najjar
Ronnie Najjar has coached Muay Thai since 2004 and is a former professional fighter. He teaches kids and adult classes, private training, and beginner programs at 8 Tribe Muay Thai in San Diego.
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