My gym, K-Star Thai Boxing academy has produced many, many fighters and Champions over the years and I have been in the corner for hundreds of fights.
My friends often ask me what I say in the corner, especially after one of my fighters performs better after coming back to the corner than he did in the previous round.
I do give technical advice and tell them what techniques to use etc but more often than not I am motivating the fighter and making sure that they are in the right frame of mind etc.
One of the biggest mistakes a fighter can make is not to make a good first impression. As the famous expression goes, first impressions count, and it’s true! The person that you want to give a good first impression to is your opponent, (not the crowd).
When you meet someone for the first time and you make that first impression, it takes a lot to change it. Its the same with fighting. Let me explain, if you are fit and well trained, probably at least 50% of the fight will be mental. Strategy is mental. If the first impression that you give your opponent is that you are weak and you let your opponent feel superior to you, it will take a lot to change his mind and he will feel like he can just walk right through your attacks. make a good first impression by looking confident, staying strong, with good balance and footwork and your opponent will be a lot more
cautious and respectful of you. Now he is less likely to just rush in on you, giving you more time to work on the things that you want.
What makes a good impression? well, looking confident goes a long way, having a good stance, good footwork and good balance.
Looking confident and being confident are often two different things. If you are fit and strong and have been taught good Muay Thai and your instructor has matched you well, then you should be pretty confident, but sometimes even confident fighters or should I say fighters that are good enough that they should be confident, don’t always look confident. This is where the traditional stare down comes in, sometimes a fight can be won at the stare-down!
At the stare-down, your opponent is looking for weakness, so don’t show it!
Unless the fighters know each other well (or they are complete novices) most times they will spend the first 30 seconds to a minute checking each other out. When you move around if you are off balance, they will feel confident. When they kick you, if you ‘forget’ to block or move when they hit you, or try to jump awkwardly out of the way, they will feel confident. If you look scared they will feel confident.
Once they have this first impression of you, that they are better than you, it will be very hard to change. If you do something good, like a good kick, they will just think that it was a fluke and keep going forward.
If however you come out looking confident, moving well and throwing good strong techniques, blocking well and keeping your balance, they will have different first impression of you. In this instance, they will take you a lot more seriously and be much more cautious with you. This should make you feel better and re confident too.
Making a good first impression will definitely make your job in the ring a lot easier.