Stay Present In Intensity and Relax Like A Professional Martial Artists And Perform At Your Best

Talking about high-pressure situations.

Kickboxing, Muay Thai and Mixed Martial Arts are high-octane sports. For a crowd of thousands of people, it is between you and your opponent. There is no way to run but forward.

And that is what I did. During the first 10 years of my fight career, I quickly rose in popularity and level. Only when I got hit really hard, I rose to the challenge and started to grind through. The public loved it, I loved it, my body didn't but I didn't listen. I was addicted to winning as the underdog.

Until I talked to a world champion that as a consequence of his give and take style sounded more like Forrest Gump than anything else. At that moment, I decided to use my brains, and not as a punching pillow this time. I had my master's degree in psychology after all. After I applied the knowledge, I peaked as an athlete.

Top tier Thai fighters, world champions, victories even with a broken arm... and to top it off, I became European champion with a spectacular knock out in the last 10 seconds of the fight.

But it was too late.

I should have listened to my arm breaking 3x in one year. I should have listened when my body asked me to calm down when I got a serious viral infection in a fight with an infected Thai opponent. But I didn't.

So, after the doc cleared me to fight again, I was offered a position in a Dutch team. They aimed to make me popular in Japan but I needed to adapt my style. So I followed their advice and started pushing in a different direction. And I came up just too short. Literally 5 cm. And I dropped out cold for a full 10 minutes, believing I was 5 years older than I was.

But did I listen? Forget it. I did what my fighter's heart demanded: work harder, start pushing again, earn your place back. I started training like a maniac, visualizing an hour every day, ignoring all my knowledge about neurological growth and fell back on my natural inclination to push harder.

But off course, it had the opposite effect.

Why? Because I was grinding too hard. I needed to prove myself. I had to, I must, I... Does it ring a bell? I tried to control the uncontrollable, I wanted to FORCE peak performance and that rarely works.

Because our nervous system can only grow if we stress it AND if we give our nervous system the time to cement in the new neural connections. And that happens when we relax.

Ask any top-level athlete: We don't get paid just to train but also to REST. To perform at your peak, you have to respect the wave function in which the body grows.

What holds for muscle and athletic skills is also the case in emotional and intellectual growth. Think also about what happens to many when they are studying for an exam until the moment they enter the auditorium. But then when you get the paper, you draw a blank!

Because our brain needs the time to solidify the new neural pathways to remember and integrate new information.

It is now three years ago that I had the pleasure to work with Tiffany Van Soest for her preparation of the first Glory Kickboxing Title for women. 

This powerhouse was and IS a master in the process of peaking for the most high-octane of situations: Professional Full Contact Martial Arts. The pressure of the presence of media, of thousands of spectators, fans, friends, your team and your hardest critic (= often yourself) knows almost no competition. You have to learn to stay present while your body prepares you for battle. But you can't force this. It is a question of surrender to what is.

When you can relax your muscles (and with it, keep your veins open, in contrast to when you try to fight the stress response), your heightened state of activation can create a state of mind where you flow, become hyper-aware and perform at your best.

If you want to learn how to release stress and recharge for when it really counts, stay open to and present in intensity and learn to enjoy the process of feeling fully alive, contact me to apply for a FREE 30- min stress assessment and "Perform With Pleasure" consultation.

• The specific stressors and situations needing optimum performance for your workforce and you in your business,
• Evidence-based strategic advice for stress release and peak performance optimization incorporating cognitive-behavioral methods, emotional resilience building, solution-focused action plans, in sports psychology proven relaxation techniques and hypnosis,
• To see if we are a good fit to work together

So contact me to apply for this complimentary analysis of your business

#peakperformance #stressrelease #relaxationcoach #peakperformancecoach #performwithpleasure