The best way to fight

Master Kongling All, 6DKF philosophy, Fighting strategy, Mind / body control 2

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From a mental point of view, what is the best way to address fight?

Our reasoning starts with a parallel with combat sports, where there is a figure (which most people rarely recognize as they should): the coach.

Note – This article has been asked by one of our Core Course practitioners on Patreon (see how to attend our home study classes here Learn Kung Fu online: a beginner-to-expert course).

In competitions like UFC, the role of this professional is absolutely fundamental:

In training
During the fights

The coach is that person that tells the fighter:

When he / she is making a mistake (even in real-time during a match)
What he / she needs to improve or stay on track
What he / she needs to stay motivated
What he / she needs to exit from bad situations
…

In a few words, he / she tells: what to do, how and when. This means that his / her percentage of incidence on the results is near 50%.

But why are we saying this? The reason is to excel we need to become coaches of ourselves. Let’s see how and why.

How to become coaches of ourselves and why

The coach: rarity and absence

2 combat direction, a common solution (read also The 6 types of martial clash):

Rarity – Finding a truly competent coach, willing to help us and in tune with us is very difficult (there are many good fighters but not so many good coaches)
Absence – In fields like self-defense (read What is the difference between real fights and combative sports?), in no case we will have someone by our side who will advise and help us in times of need

The point is no matter our goal (or if we will find or if we already have one): we must learn to carry out this task by ourselves because it represents a decisive tactical advantage.

A note by Master Kongling – Although in no case can the attention of an expert be completely replaced, it is important to develop the ability to look at ourselves from the outside and in the most detached way possible because no one will never have the possibility to look at ourselves as we can do (in terms of sincerity, precision and timing).

The ancient ninja method

The ancient ninja (read Ninja (shinobi): who they were and how they acted), for example, were prompted to create a kind of second personality, a kind of “evaluating demon” inside their mind, capable of objectively evaluating, guiding and correcting their actions (in a way “completely” disconnected from things like desires, emotions, pain, etc.).

It didn’t matter what the body, the accidents or the enemy were imposing on them: that voice inside them was a person in its own right, immune to any conditioning and always ready to make logic and coherence work at the highest level possible.

All this, mixed with an aura of esotericism (that we refuse), made these warriors extremely determined and lucid in achieving the objectives of their missions. The consequence of such mental preparation was that if there was a chance for success, they had the right mindset to take advantage of it.

What we can learn from ancient ninjas

What lessons can we draw from ancient ninjas? Do we also have to double our mind? No, but we can draw a few but incredibly important lessons from it:

The best way to face a fight is to imagine to look at it as from the outside, as a game in which we are completely not involved (read The 3 winning mindsets of a fighter)
We have to aim to be coaches of ourselves, wisely suggesting to us what to do, when and how from a sort of safe and calm top position (read Concentration and abstraction in combat)
The body gives up much later than an undisciplined mind (read Mind skills: what we will learn); being a coach of ourselves means learning to distinguish things like the difference between boredom and real tiredness in training (read Daily training: the right psychophysical effort) or in combat between pain and damage (read Acceptance and prevention of pain)
The right spirit to solve a problem always exists within us (and in most cases also the path toward its solution, read The right thing to do), we just have to learn to listen to ourselves (with patience and a constructive mindset, without excuses, fears, laziness, etc.)

This is valid in the live time of combat as during our workout but how can we develop this capability?

How to start the development of this skill

Even if we train a lot, seeing ourselves from the outside is not easy at all: it is a skill that requires specific practice, dedication and a deep knowledge / acceptance of ourselves (limits, potential, weaknesses, physical peculiarities, proprioception, spatial intelligence, etc.) but these are the first 2 steps to address:

Mindset development – Let’s work on our abstraction capability (read Martial arts: how to become invincible? and A meditation mini-guide: how to start)
Perception development – Let’s train our capability to recreate inside our mind the combat scenarios (read The most important skill in combat and Combat: overcome perceptual limits of body and mind)

A note by Master Kongling – It goes without saying that a daily martial practice must be combined with this.

In-depth video courses

Mind self-control hacks – How to take the reins of the only thing that is worth and possible to control
Basic 6 Dragons Kung Fu Exercises – How to develop the fundamental capabilities that allow the martial techniques to work
Meditation: how to start – A step-by-step path toward the key to mental detachment

In-depth articles

Self-defense and mental preparation: what they do not tell you – What the common self-defense courses do not tell
Mental preparation for self-defense: the first rule – The starting point for an effective self-defense mindset

Questions

Reply in the comments and share your experience:

What is your mental state in combat?

Author: Master Kongling

Founder of 6 Dragons Kung Fu.

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