The X-Factor In MMA And How to Train It

There are a lot of ingredients in any fight. Whether it's a street attack, boxing match, kickboxing, or MMA. All of these contain many ingredients. In a boxing match it's much more one dimensional. But there are many factors for who's going to win, and who's going to lose. In boxing we have who's a harder puncher, who is the faster puncher, who has more cardio, who has more strength, and power. Now you add kicks and grappling, and the number goes up exponentially. Who is better at the majority of the skills, techniques, or ingredients will more often than not determine who will win the fight. Fighters like Muhammad Ali had such an advantage of speed and cardio, it was enough to nullify most other fighters power and strength. And then there's Mike Tyson, who nullified most other fighters speed and reach, with his aggression and punching power. In the MMA world, I can think of numerous examples, but I'll stick with my own fighters, Chuck Liddell mitigated and nullified his wrestling based opponents with excellent takedown defense and pinpoint accuracy knockout punch. Glover Teixeira is multi faceted, he's good at the majority of factors in any fight. Being so well-rounded like Glover is, if he thought someone who is better standing, his excellent wrestling and jujitsu would usually finish an opponent. However if he fought someone with excellent wrestling, he also possessed knockout power, and excellent boxing.

All the factors that go into a fight like power, speed, athleticism, agility, strength, could all be nullified by your opponents expertise and specific Martial Arts skills such as submissions, punching, kicking, take downs, with an unlimited supply of other techniques. Because so many techniques could be tweaked, and then given a 2.0 upgrade, which is so common to MMA. Martial arts has never been so well-rounded and diverse.

I've talked so much about certain techniques, factors, and ingredients which make up a fight, and a fighter. I've left out the main factor, it's not a tangible technique, or a physical advantage, you cannot see it or measure it, but you can train it to a certain degree. However for the most part it is innate, it is in your DNA. As my late great instructor would call it "animal instinct", this has many meanings, but the closest I can come is fight for your life, never give up, and always be going for the kill. If you look at it literally, you can see that animals will fight and kill. I think a close relative to animal instinct is how myself, and my mentor meant it would be "killer instinct". Though I think those two terms are very closely related, I think there is a difference, especially since I've been in the martial arts field since 1970. I feel like killer instinct is more directed at you being able to read when your opponent is weak, even before they do. It's being able to tell when you should finish your opponent, which means a knockout in sport, and death in the street.

While killer instinct is part of an animal's instincts, I think it is more directed towards being able to tell when your opponent is weak, and going in for the kill accordingly. I feel animal instinct means being willing, and able to fight, and kill to protect you and yours. I believe it means having the physical and mental capacity, to protect yourself and your loved ones, and be willing and able to fight to the death.

Now that I've explained the term "animal instinct" when it comes to martial arts, or at least Hawaiian Kempo. Let me tell you why I think it is the true x factor in all your skills, and advantages as a martial artist, especially during a sport, or street attack. Let's say for argument sake that all things are even with your skill, speed, techniques between you and your opponent, then it's going to boil down to who has more animal instinct. Who's going to go in for the kill more, who is going to fight past pain, who is going to endure when the fight gets its most exhausting. When most things are equal, the one with the most animal instinct will usually win. When it's a street fight, and both you are in pain and bleeding, many times the person with them most animal instincts will win.

Since animal instincts can often times be the X factor in a fight, the difference between staying alive or dying in a street altercation, or winning a UFC world title and being set for life, or losing, shouldn't all martial artist train hard their "animal instinct"? It's a complicated answer, but I'll make it as simple as possible. Yes killer instinct, animal instinct, bravery, integrity, a lot of those things are in our DNA, but they can also be trained. While you train and perfect your techniques, speed, strength, and power by consistently practicing specific skills, you can train your animal instincts, by visualizing terrible situations while you're training. I'll give you a couple of examples, say you're going to punch the bag for five minutes. You could either punch the bag for five minutes in your mind, in other words while you're punching the bag, you're literally and figuratively just punching a bag. To build up your animal instincts while you're punching a bag for those five minutes, put yourselves in the worst possible scenario you can, and make punching the bag your way of staying alive, and knocking out your opponent or attacker. While you're drilling or sparring, without trying to literally knock your training partner out, visualize every punch you throw and they throw, visualize your attacks like fight ending attacks, and visualize when you're in a bad position they will kill you, and if you're in a good position you will stop them. This type of visualization takes a little more imagination while you're doing your work, lifting weights, or riding an airdyne bike. The way I build my animal instinct while I'm doing my strength and conditioning, cardio, or any physical training that is not combat based are used to visualize being in better physical condition then your opponent during the last 30 seconds of a five round title fight, and you can't give up, you have to be in better shape than they are, or you will lose and go home a loser, and end up with a minimum wage job on food stamps, because your conditioning wasn't as good as your opponents. Now if you're not an MMA fighter, visualize losing the fight because, you are more tired then your attacker, so they beat you badly, you're going to spend the rest of your life in a nursing home with a feeding tube and a tracheostomy, all because you didn't wanna push his hard during the cardio, strength and conditioning training.

As you can tell "animal instinct" is a very important part of my martial arts, my culture, and my training. I feel it is as or even more important than any other single technique or strength. I hope this helps you, and I hope you stay safe, healthy, and happy.