How To Keep your Composure In A Fight With Jean Charles Skarbowsky
One of the hardest parts of fighting, whether it's your first match or your 100th, is going to be containing your nerves. Unless you have a screw loose, you are going to feel nervous and don’t worry, you definitely have reason to be. You are literally getting into a ring to fight someone, and they want to finish you. You probably are also fighting in front of a crowd of people and that crowd might include some of your friends and family. You also don’t want to disappoint your coaches, your training partners and yourself in this fight and that only adds to it.
The best way to limit these nerves is to do everything that you possibly can to be as ready as possible. Making sure that you’re prepared as possible will help remove a ton of doubt from your mind and in turn remove a ton of nerves from your body.
However there will always be some nerves and you just need to learn how to deal with those. Luckily we have one of the best Muay Thai fighters with hundreds of fights to talk to us about controlling our nerves.
In this video, Jean Charles Skarbowsy goes over how he stays composed so that he can stick to a game plan and fight properly.
Who Is Jean Charles Skarbowsky
Jean-Charles Skarbowsky is one of the greatest non-Thai Muay Thai fighters in the sport's history. Skarbowsky is a multiple time world Muay Thai champion and multiple time Rajadamnern stadium champion, which is one of the highest championships that one can earn in Muay Thai.
How To Stay Composed And Stick To a Game Plan In A Fight
The video starts off with Jean Charles talking about how in fights between foreigners and Thai champions, usually the Thai champion wins because they have so much more experience. This is especially the case when it comes to kicks. This usually results in foreign fighters rushing in using strength and punches to try and score a knockout.
Now you might think that this is a solid plan. Even Skarbowsky says that he isn’t able to beat Thai’s at their own game so playing to your strengths is a good idea . However, when you're nervous, you might go a bit overboard with your game plan. In this specific case this means that you rely so heavily on your punches that you basically forget that kicks are in play.
This means that when a kick does come at you, you don’t have the time to properly react as you forgot they were an option and you are likely not even in the best stance to check kicks. Even if you try to check, you will more often than not, end up missing the check.
Also when you open up with punches because of your nerve, you leave yourself open not only to counter punches but also knees, kicks and especially elbows.
Giving into your nerves also makes you predictable, because you are not thinking, you are just acting. This means that you're not even in control of yourself, which means that you are feasibly able to be controlled by your opponent.
Learn More From Jean Charles Skarbowsky
If you want to learn more fundamental Muay Thai techniques like this from Jean-Charles Skarbowsky, then check out “Advanced Edition: Muay Thai Masterclass by Jean-Charles Skarbowsky” available exclusively on Dynamic Striking!