You can tell the difference between a novice and person who actually knows what they're doing by looking at how they spar. If they can't control themselves enough to not hurt you, then they don't actually know what they're doing. Like Bas Rutten says:"If you can kill me with it, you can also not kill me with it."
True. I was backyard sparring with a friend and this is exactly what happened. He landed a punch on me, but hurt his wrist. He wondered what happened and I said, "you're trying to hit me to hard"
When Bas was training for his last fight, after a long layoff due to injury, his biggest concern coming back to the gym was that he'd lost that ability to see that he was going to hit someone, react to that realization and pull his punch, before the punch connected. Not avoiding being hit, or even hitting his partner, but NOT hitting them.
@@danielcherry4675 meeh I see it as asserting your will. It's a sport, it's got rules, there's a clear objective you gotta do and things you shouldn't do. Sure, dominance will always be a big factor with violence but there's more to it. You want to win, do you have the will to do it in spite of another guy just as well trained and hungry wanting to do the same? At least that's how I see it.
And you survived, to tell the story. It's very strange, having been a soldier, and going back into a normal American life. I'm not really good at my job, and I take hits from it from co-workers... until I remind them that I have more blood on my hands than anyone else in my workplace. People whom aren't fighters just can't understand that. It isn't like they know, and they dislike it. It's like they can't even comprehend it at all.
(High school) Wrestling is different from boxing and jiu jitsu. Wrestling is a battle of wills and strength. You dont really get punched in the face and have your brains scrambled. And jiu jitsu can really do permanent damage to joints. Wrestling taught me what I had deep down inside, but boxing and jiu jitsu taught me what real damage feels like.
My conclusion after watching this video (please correct me if Im wrong) : New fighters who step the first time in the ring treat the fight like a sparring. They don't have the mentality that you need to actively hurt your opponent in order to win. But in order to win a fight you need to be able to hurt your opponent. But since this is not natural to normal human beings you need to turn on the "switch" in order to get in the fight mode so you can hurt your opponent. Turning on the switch for the first time is an individual procedure to everyone, but you could say that the greater the danger is the more likely you are to turn on the switch. You can also switch into fight mode due to emotional reactions. There are also different levels of the fight mode. When you turn on the fight mode for the first time, your technique gets worse and your tunnel vision increases the bigger the intention to hurt someone is. The extreme example would be the 14 year old looking guy who completely blacked out and couldn't remeber. So the thing that makes an martial artist good, is to control the fight mode. That means having the intention to hurt someone, but still being able to think clearly, applying all techniques on a high level and being able to completely turn the switch of after the fight. That also means stop hitting the guy in the face after knocking him out. After turning on the switch for the first time some pieces of the fighter mode translate over to your normal charakter. Humans with a bad/weak mental health can't control this and have the potential to get more violent in real life. So when it comes to a self defense situation for a gym rat. The danger is very high so you either freeze up or flip the switch automatically and defend your by hurting your opponent. It also depends on your mental condition how and if you are gonna work this up.
that why also lot of martial art guys no matter if they are from mma muay thai or bullshido wont handle a real fight. real fight is violence and there is different between sport and violence.
Just wanna point out the part about the first time the tunnel vision etc, that's because it was caused by emotion, anger etc. Ideally all emotion and feeling in that sense should be removed. Only the intent, no time to focus on feelings or emotion. (Tho as I always tell everyone, these kind of things your bringing up are why fighting for sport or competition is stupid and martial arts doesn't belong there) if you just wanna go fight people then go fight people but it's not fun and your an idiot (not you personally just in general especially among people on here lol)
I was absolutely mean, and hot tempered, and so quick to fight. I would fight anyone, for any reason. And I was very good at it. Or at least I thought I was, and most people would have agreed that I was...but then I had my very first Brazilian JiuJitsu class. It was by far the most humbling experience of my life. I was torn apart and crushed by one person after another. No matter what size they were, or if it was a male or female, I got smashed over and over again. To say it was humbling is actually an understatement. It went far beyond being humbled. Something in me broke that night, and I started to become a completely different person from that point on. JiuJitsu is the best thing that ever happened to me, and I couldn't imagine life without it. I think everyone should experience a BJJ class at least once. Even if they never do it again, just to experience it one time can completely change your perspective on alot of things.
@@Shadynastys It's surprisingly common in men, as we aren't taught to process our feelings. We're shamed for it, we're taught the only negative emotion that we're allowed to have is anger, and we don't know how to deal with that anger. Until you're given an outlet, it's gonna bottle up and explode in violent, destructive ways. An outlet like mma, boxing, sports, etc gives you an outlet to deal with that anger. Seeing as men are shamed out of therapy, this is the next best thing.
@@TheGrumbliestPuppy I did therapy for a long time but after awhile i felt all that negativity coming back and since i started training im a much more calm and reasonable person again
@@Shadynastys That's awesome to hear man. I should've clarified, a good therapist should be giving you the tools you need to live your best life, which should include outlets like MMA training. The combination of different tools to think more straight are gonna look different for everyone, and a lot of crappy therapists just wanna sit and talk.
I think this is (yet another) problem with many selfdefence tecniques/ systems... eyegouging, groinripping and throatstriking might sound like good ideas until you realize you are not a psycopath and can't really make yourself do such thing against another human even if they try to hurt you.
Most people can’t even throw a punch with bad intentions at another person without a significant amount of mental/emotional conditioning and fight experience.
It takes lots of skill to reduce an attacker without hurting them. Way more than reducing them by hurting them. I think it takes lots of compassion to refuse to fight dirty when your life is on the line.
This so refreshing. I wish there was more coaches like you Ramsey. You make alot of sense. Most coaches are all ego.You are one of the few coaches who speak the truth.
The part where you said that it's harder to spar your own students who know your style rather than much better professional fighters who don't know you yet, it reminds of a quote from Sun Tzu, "If you know the enemy, and you know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles."
I think that quote applies so well to Jon Jones' career his two close fights with Reyes and Santos, he didn't have much to study from them meanwhile he had film to study of Cyril Gane and even said he studied Gane and then we all saw what Jones did to him to get the heavyweight belt
Every single time someone says Killer Instinct, no matter the context I always reply "sweet game". Then continue to talk about the characters I remember. Which usually ruins alot of conversations. Good one Ramsey.
Very insightful and on the mark. If you don’t fight back, the aggressor doesn’t stop, he is emboldened, he has no pity. So, you must crush him absolutely.
I cannot remember how many times I tried to explain technical minimal contact sparring, but some people just are incapable of being technical and always go to brute force in the ring. Aside from corona virus this one of the main reasons I left my training partners, have not sparred since 2019.
About a year ago I commented on this video. At that time, I hadn't had any real fight experience. Since the time of that comment, I've had my first boxing exhibition match. There's a night and day difference in my striking compared to before. You said something in this podcast, "... there's some things the gym can't teach you. " - and that to me, has proven to be true. I saw this come up at the end of another one of your videos and decided to watch it again - kismet. Thank you, Ramsey. You may not know it, but I am one of your students and I hold you in high regard.
Thanks for sharing the great content. I remember back in high school when a bully went out of his way to engage me and had crossed my threshold, I went to a dark place where my civility was turned off and went all in until a teacher stepped in to stop it. Luckily I gained his respect and we became friends. I don't cage fight and can respect the conditioning that is required for both the mind and body in order to be successful with the fight.
That is so me. Technique and stamina is good, but I often only really start fighting when 2nd round starts and I've eaten some punches so I'm grumpy, I don't wanna hit the other dude from the get-go. Going to tournaments prematurely left me with some kind of fight PTSD as well. Gonna give both soft sparring and forging a narrative a try, ty 👍🏻
A lot of people are like that. They don’t go into “fight back” mode until after they have already lost the first round, by which time, they’re working against probability of making a comeback in the remaining rounds.
My problem is that I like to use a lot of small slips to defend an active jab but it takes me roughly 3 minutes to synch up with a sparring partner’s rhythm and actually start avoiding more than half of their shots
I'll never forget the first time I broke my nose from taking a wayward first to the face. Completely addicted me to fighting.. but I remember every second of it.
I am absolutely loving this content, the discussion of fighting (which is so accurate it hurts) and how the psychology impacts it. Personal stories and insights and how you look at the entire fighting world. This is excellent stuff. I put this on while I was working on some code, and stopped what I was doing to just listen. Thank you.
That's one discussion that I have in me, still. I have that violence in me, but every time (and I mean EVERY TIME) that I acted on that, I felt terrible after. I can't say that I know how I would react next time. So far, no one ever got seriously injured, but what about the next time? Good thing that you brought this up.
My first time sparring as an adult, I went about it completely wrong. I had a terrible fear of losing and wanted to go balls out turbo from the bell and I ended up gassing completely by the middle of the second round and dry heaving.
By your acounts I am reminded of how prosocial behavior prevents violence. This opponent of yours who could have been your best friend outside of a fight and almost prevented you from bashing his face in demonstrates how powerful the social mathematics are. It also demonstrates how important compartmentalization is for humans. In times of violence it is irrelevant how nice your opponent is, when your group calls for violence, there is no quarter no matter how close you may be to your opponent, unless it's Christmas in on the western front. I do believe that with the "proper" motivation every human can summon the inner hulk, but habitualization is key
@RamseyDewey this was great. I boxed for many years (not great or anything), but somehow never explicitly understood this. I got beat up a few times, and I beat a few people up... but even in backyard 'underground' fights, I somehow never got that killer drive. Listening to this, I realized I saw people having the instinct, and my mindset was to knock that instinct out of them. Luckily never went pro or anything, but thank you, I just learned something about myself in the past!
What I really like about this episode is how they are not having the usual and stupid tough guys talk but they are talking about things nobody talks about in fact.
10:09 When I was 14 we had a little one time "fight club" after school. My turn, guy came swinging haymakers. Walking backwards I blocked one, two, then got hit, didn't fire back once. Then I tripped or got tackled. Now the kid was sitting on my chest slamming his fists into my ears. I took several blows before I realized I didn't know what to do down there and said "Okay you win." And the kid stopped. I got up wished I was someone else who could defend themselves and went home. This was my most important fight and I thank god it happened like this, could have been much worse. I learnt I didnt know how to fight, I learnt not to walk backwards you'll trip, I learnt you cant block every punch, I learnt I didn't know what to do on my back. Did I learn all these lessons then? Not really lol hindsight. You have to lose to know how to win. I know people who think they can fight who dont train at all and consider grappling gay and not fighting, who consider backstepping "running". It means they've never been ground and pounded or they didn't learn the lesson if they had been. Thanks for reading if you guys got this far
When I was a wrestler, I got beat up so many times that I eventually got tired of getting beat up. Something inside of me realized that when you get on the mat, it's either him or me, so f#ck him. Anger is not a negative emotion. It is based in the left hemisphere, the some place as pro-social emotions, and is associated with forward movement. That suggests that anger is actually a "positive" emotion, unlike anxiety or depression, which are attributed with the right hemisphere, normally considered the source of "negative" emotions, which cause you to hesitate or withdraw. That's why it hard to fight a nice guy. Without anger, or some other element of urgency, it can be difficult to activate the part of the brain associated with forward movement/aggression/winning,/etc. It messes with our physiological response, because there is no apparent threat, or danger, which masks the actually intent to harm.
I think the healthiest narrative one can give to themselves for cage fights or any heavy contact sport is that not giving all is an insult to your opponent, to make a distinction between inside the ring and outside the ring. (like a switch you can turn on and off at will) And if you realize the opponent can't fight to stop. That takes lots of skill and discipline, but anything that's worth it will take such effort.
I had to learn that mindset playing football growing up. It makes sense that if you both signed up to beat tf out of each other for sport that you'd just do it, but i think it's so difficult because we demonize violence in society. Violence is just a means to an end, in this case a means to win a competition, and having the ability to do violence has little bearing on whether or not you're a good person. Figuring that out makes the transition from in game to real life so much easier
The Disneyland analogy is an incredibly insightful thought. I only practice BJJ and the tournaments are what you describe as PTSD moments for me. To think of the tournament as the reward for all my training is a very inspiring way to approach adversity. Thank you.
Great talk coach! I need this mental coaching as well. I learned from the animal kingdom that lions like to fight, and Tigers fight to survive. As a Christian, I find it difficult to want to hurt an opponent, but I have this switch that gets flipped when someone wants to treat me like a punching bag.
i never had to go to the negative head space, what we are doing is violent but the context is a competition with strategy, and i dont need to hate someone to REALLY REALLY want to be better then them. i felt like i was going blue in the face sometimes trying to convince guys the difference between a street fight and a fight in our sport, and its all context. but since they look similar, some people cant separate the two.
The negative headspace seems to be a way for people that can't take the morals out of violence to instead lean into it and make their violent actions justified if only for a second. Having a competitive drive for violence instead of a moral drive makes the ptsd of hurting someone else way less likely to occur, but it still happens in some cases like freak accidents
Nice light sparring Ramsey. Damn wish I could lightly spar with you. You’re a good teacher. I used to teach also. I pushed students just enough within the confines of their own level of experience, but also to not dominate, to show open spaces on my body for them to notice and jab. I haven’t trained with others for the longest time but I train on my own all the time, though of course, it’s never the same as training with other people.
I admire that elbow conversation, it is called compassion.However when it's a matter of you getting hurt you must decide. In a cage fight you both are in agreement that this is the level of violence you will accept. I love How you contrast civilian life vs. professional cage fighting. Although it may feel glorious to get some who deserves it in the street, you will be telling the sttory all you want in jail. You have taught me to use the law, and not my fist.
7:00 - everything about light sparring is spot on... light technical sparring does wonders. very helpful talk. I've had to mull over these points myself as a boxer with 3 ammy bouts. Being ok hitting back does get easier after the mentioned ' getting beat up moment' and you then, like you said, you realize that's what happens when you don't fight back.. a lot of great/smart points here especially for those of us who aren't naturally violent...
Good points,a friend and I used to go all out,but we were afraid to try anything new,because we'd pay ,for it. We both decided to go easier,and we actually got better,just like you said I would get an upset stomach before because I knew it would be a war
Sometimes I wonder how I would do in a professional match and if I could have that killer instinct...But also having done both light and hard sparring, gotten in fights and have been in real danger before and I noticed that I seem not to need to build a narrative to actually fight someone because in those times when actual safety has been on the line and when I've hard sparred some Sanda champs, my mind goes into "you're just a collection of targets" mode. I also recognize that blackout attack mode. I never have it, I'll just go into flow state, but some of my siblings have had one or two instances of blackout rage and it was strange hearing them talk about it. Thankfully though, they both had enough presence of mind to get away from people so they didn't hurt anyone when it happened to them.
After listening your explanation here. I found that what your boxing coach did was so similar to how Neuro Linguistic Programmers do to someone who suffered from phobia. Getting back to the killer instinct, NLP practitioner use 'Acting as if' and 'anchoring'. You actually can use those techniques to bring back any mental state you want contextually.
That reminds me of like 15 years ago when I was in a gym that was like 85% conditioning and hard sparring. One of the coaches more memorable lines when preparing for a match (amature) was something like "train hard or you opponent will take your food and you'll starve" like we where bird chicks or something.
I use the term flipping the switch. I don't know if that's the same thing. I never knew I had a switch until the day I was attacked by three wild pit bulls while on a run. Briefly, I held them off with my martial arts training for maybe 10 long minutes until one of them bit me on the knee but I pulled out and did not go to the ground. That raised my anger level to a place I never had before, and I got away and survived. Yeah, I lost the battle, but came back later, found them, and country justice prevailed.
I feel like fear of fighting, is more caused by the aggression and confrontation, I love fighting and sparring with friends, hitting each other as hard as possible etc. but as soon as someone is angry and confrontational, it becomes more scary even though it’s the same thing as I love doing but just with feelings of hatred and anger.
Hard sparring in my case did contribute to killer instinct, but only in the way that I got tired of getting blasted and only tapping them back and started to have some fun with the lack of boundaries of my training mates.
I use fun. I never spar out of anger. I m not a angry person. I spar base on my personality. I live for fun and very playful .It cause me to be relax and never have to flip the switch.
Wow, this is one of the most fascinating conversations I've heard. Hearing Ramsey going into what went through his mind in those fights is captivating. I grew up in some pretty rough places, and was in a lot of fights, and the one thing that really fucked me up was holding back. I simply didn't fight back hard enough, and ended up getting beat up a lot. I'm wondering if you have ever read "On Killing" by Dave Grossmann? It's a really interesting book, detailing how the US army changed its training during the Vietnam war to basically brainwash soldiers into being able to hurt the enemy. Befor armies would only have a small fraction of soldiers actually engaging the enemy in a battle, but the revised training changed this - and let to widespread PTSD over what they did. It also has interesting sections on close quarter combat. You should definitely read it.
I've been doing bjj for a while now, but I just started muay thai and mma. Threw a punch in sparring that landing square on my training partners jaw, first time in my life I punched someone in the face, and let me tell you it felt better than I feel comfortable admitting. It tickled some primitive portion of my brain in a way that I liked very much
fucking psychopath😂😂. not but foreal now it may be because you threw some stress with that punch i know that from experience sometimes its a good way to relieve stress/aggression
I remember playing those old WWE wrestling games and my mate was so much better at the game, but his biggest achiles heal was he wasn't happy until he had cause complete body damage on my character, so I had to wait for an opening to end the fight as quickly as possible, which allowed me to get that occasional win. Which ended up with my mate switching of the games console and locking himself in a dark room practicing so that will never happen again. Which goes to show it is important to exploit the weaknesses of your opponent and also you should work on your weaknesses as well as your strengths.
i try to stick to light sparring at all times because I dont want CTE but when my partner throws a hard shot, then i throw with some malice and the switch in me turns on from that point
Ramsey, people forget there's duality in every human being. Nice guys even have a dark spirit inside too. In cage fighting nice guys get to explore that side of themselves.
Good talk. Not enough people go into the nuances of these kinds of mindsets and the negative and positive effects they can have during an engagement. I was very much guilty of sparring with the same people over and over again for months on end and then trying to take that into Statewide or even National level events. It seems like no matter how hard you try to mix it up, you always end up surprised by The Stranger. Especially in the case of suicidal Fighters, I definitely remember being left with my head ringing still wondering how to counter the next onslaught.
great discussion. i've always loved my time with judo because i had the privilege to spar with so many high level players. i rarely had any concern that i would get hurt, but i was able to go my absolute hardest (as were they, if they were at my level and not above it). i honestly can't imagine sparring with that sort of aggression in a striking sport like in the intense PTSD-inducing gyms you've mentioned!
I did striking a for a long time growing up. But it wasn't until I did a week or two of wrestling in highschool where you can just use ALL your strength without feeling like you are going to break something that I now feel like I could actually kick or punch someone equally hard.
This was great life advice! I used to think I was fucked up in the head for how hard and easily I was able to hurt my training partners in the ring. Even when I slapbox my friends and cousins even i only went light on younger or less experienced fighters. Until they made a rookie mistake and end up landing a good shot then I’d turn it up a bit to show them I could dominate that fight at any time. Some guys would even stop sparring with me. When it was time to spar hard on professional or evenly matched opponents I kind of panicked and tell myself I must try to kill them before they kill me. Fight or flight switch gets turned on and Win or lose I’d always hurt myself mentally and physically after those hard spars. Had me second guessing myself and losing that fire that I had when I was first starting out. Can I actually get in the ring and do this professionally or will I be the that gets knocked out or lose and let that affect me till the point I crack and succumb to all my rage and primal urges and actually end up killing my opponent. (Only reason I thought like this because I was a very violent kid I liked hurting ppl and seeing blood from the damage I dealt, I always figure out how justify it no matter who I was hurting) now that I’m out of school, I realized if I didn’t have the time I do now to reflect on those actions and experiences I might psychologically be a whole different person. Now that I’m older I end up automatically sparring light and technical everytime I practice with someone and after this helpful video I should use this for every aspect and venture in life not just fighting. Proper preparation is key thankyou🙏🏽
This video solves my problem which is that I'm scared to hit my opponent (silly as it may seem). I can hit heavybags, and pads hard but whenever it's a real person infront of me, I have that hesitation.
Ironically the hard part for me always was to LEAVE the dark place... And that is why I could never get into competitive fighting. I kinda regret for this personal flaw...
When you go for championships you're not looking for quantity, you're looking for quality. The best fighters are naturally fearless, at least to some degree.
This video is somehow ensuring me about something I was already thinking about recently. I started with goju ryu karate (sorry if I misspelled that) and was just disapointed that there was no real fighting at all because we faught without contact. So I also started kyokushin budokai and kickboxing (they offer both in the same dojo). At least the kyokushin trainer is very oldschool so he likes to put us against unequal opponents and than we sparr in full contact. I still know how shocked I was the first training how violent full contact is. Whereas there were some guys I'd spar who were on my level or worse there were also some where it was just blocking punches and hoping not to get hit too hard. I simply wouldn't attack much because I was too afraid of the consequence. Same goes for the exercises. Often it is just keep up or go down. I am now thining about going to another mma dojo in my town when the Corona regulations allow contact sports again. They seem to have more guys in my age (17) and go easier at sparring.
the other reason i think lighter sparring helps with developing the killer instinct is you learn to be calm in a fight, instead of in hard sparring where you are basically, in a way, holding the tigger down the entire time trying to take them out, instead of getting comfortable and seeing opportunities and the openings
I completely agree with this philosophy! I think one drill I'd like to share is one a boxing coach taught us. It was a creative way of drilling "killer instinct." He'd have us running up and down the stairs with a partner, and whoever lapped the other got to take a break, the other had to do 20 burpees. It was fun, didn't hurt, improved our conditioning, and also taught us to look for weakness and capitalize on it while managing our own energy! * I understand that this is a level different than psychologically preparing to knee a guy in the face, but it still drilled in an important psychological association of schadenfreude and relief with taking advantage of a weakened "opponent"
Want to download and listen to this podcast in audio form? Here you go: anchor.fm/ramsey-l-dewey/episodes/How-Fighters-develop-Killer-Instinct-efkmr2
Thanks coach! I drive for hours everyday, this helps a
lot!!!
Great! Been wanting an audio version of these for some time
Master Ramsey i already have that punisher t shirt. Bought it just after my gf broke up with me and restarted my Martial Arts in retaliation 😁
We must ask Frank Dux how to properly develop "Killer instinct" :D
I want to train with u .. you're a nice guy and over 20yrs of training.. real fighting as well
a fighter's journey towards acquiring and controlling the killer instinct would make an excellent martial arts movie plot.
Watch dragon ball.
Definitely!!!
I'll keep you posted on my life😂
😮😅😊
You can tell the difference between a novice and person who actually knows what they're doing by looking at how they spar. If they can't control themselves enough to not hurt you, then they don't actually know what they're doing. Like Bas Rutten says:"If you can kill me with it, you can also not kill me with it."
True. I was backyard sparring with a friend and this is exactly what happened. He landed a punch on me, but hurt his wrist. He wondered what happened and I said, "you're trying to hit me to hard"
When Bas was training for his last fight, after a long layoff due to injury, his biggest concern coming back to the gym was that he'd lost that ability to see that he was going to hit someone, react to that realization and pull his punch, before the punch connected. Not avoiding being hit, or even hitting his partner, but NOT hitting them.
@@muhammadujaama631 he probably landed it wrong more than he tried to hit you too hard but im sure former caused the latter
nah, kinda, but many ppl have the ability to control themselves , but lack the ability to hurt ppl. To take the technique to the end
That Punisher shirt fits the topic nicely.
Well observed!
This dude hit a guy so hard he hurt his feelings, literally!!! LMAO
The worst kind of hurt, according by today's standard.
Oh trust this random unknown dude here, feelings hurt are much more dangerous then an elbow! 🤣
Fighting is just asserting your dominance over another
@@danielcherry4675 meeh I see it as asserting your will. It's a sport, it's got rules, there's a clear objective you gotta do and things you shouldn't do. Sure, dominance will always be a big factor with violence but there's more to it. You want to win, do you have the will to do it in spite of another guy just as well trained and hungry wanting to do the same? At least that's how I see it.
Daniel Cherry isn’t it also kind of resisting too
I was born with a killer instinct. I've killed bears, Sharks, blue whales(yes), tigers, my career and sex life
Come at me bro.
I identify as a Shark!
And you survived, to tell the story. It's very strange, having been a soldier, and going back into a normal American life. I'm not really good at my job, and I take hits from it from co-workers... until I remind them that I have more blood on my hands than anyone else in my workplace. People whom aren't fighters just can't understand that. It isn't like they know, and they dislike it. It's like they can't even comprehend it at all.
@@ericcadwell5193 ok...
Dan Pena,, when did you turn into Master Wong?
I've only killed 2 of these things.
(High school) Wrestling is different from boxing and jiu jitsu. Wrestling is a battle of wills and strength. You dont really get punched in the face and have your brains scrambled. And jiu jitsu can really do permanent damage to joints. Wrestling taught me what I had deep down inside, but boxing and jiu jitsu taught me what real damage feels like.
Then it sounds like you've got a well-rounded education!
My conclusion after watching this video (please correct me if Im wrong) :
New fighters who step the first time in the ring treat the fight like a sparring. They don't have the mentality that you need to actively hurt your opponent in order to win. But in order to win a fight you need to be able to hurt your opponent. But since this is not natural to normal human beings you need to turn on the "switch" in order to get in the fight mode so you can hurt your opponent. Turning on the switch for the first time is an individual procedure to everyone, but you could say that the greater the danger is the more likely you are to turn on the switch. You can also switch into fight mode due to emotional reactions. There are also different levels of the fight mode. When you turn on the fight mode for the first time, your technique gets worse and your tunnel vision increases the bigger the intention to hurt someone is. The extreme example would be the 14 year old looking guy who completely blacked out and couldn't remeber. So the thing that makes an martial artist good, is to control the fight mode. That means having the intention to hurt someone, but still being able to think clearly, applying all techniques on a high level and being able to completely turn the switch of after the fight. That also means stop hitting the guy in the face after knocking him out.
After turning on the switch for the first time some pieces of the fighter mode translate over to your normal charakter. Humans with a bad/weak mental health can't control this and have the potential to get more violent in real life.
So when it comes to a self defense situation for a gym rat. The danger is very high so you either freeze up or flip the switch automatically and defend your by hurting your opponent. It also depends on your mental condition how and if you are gonna work this up.
Something like that, yeah.
that why also lot of martial art guys no matter if they are from mma muay thai or bullshido wont handle a real fight.
real fight is violence and there is different between sport and violence.
Just wanna point out the part about the first time the tunnel vision etc, that's because it was caused by emotion, anger etc. Ideally all emotion and feeling in that sense should be removed. Only the intent, no time to focus on feelings or emotion. (Tho as I always tell everyone, these kind of things your bringing up are why fighting for sport or competition is stupid and martial arts doesn't belong there) if you just wanna go fight people then go fight people but it's not fun and your an idiot (not you personally just in general especially among people on here lol)
I was a mean SOB until the day i get into mma, now i am happy as it get
I was absolutely mean, and hot tempered, and so quick to fight. I would fight anyone, for any reason. And I was very good at it. Or at least I thought I was, and most people would have agreed that I was...but then I had my very first Brazilian JiuJitsu class. It was by far the most humbling experience of my life. I was torn apart and crushed by one person after another. No matter what size they were, or if it was a male or female, I got smashed over and over again. To say it was humbling is actually an understatement. It went far beyond being humbled. Something in me broke that night, and I started to become a completely different person from that point on. JiuJitsu is the best thing that ever happened to me, and I couldn't imagine life without it. I think everyone should experience a BJJ class at least once. Even if they never do it again, just to experience it one time can completely change your perspective on alot of things.
good to know thats a thing and not just me
@@Shadynastys It's surprisingly common in men, as we aren't taught to process our feelings. We're shamed for it, we're taught the only negative emotion that we're allowed to have is anger, and we don't know how to deal with that anger. Until you're given an outlet, it's gonna bottle up and explode in violent, destructive ways. An outlet like mma, boxing, sports, etc gives you an outlet to deal with that anger. Seeing as men are shamed out of therapy, this is the next best thing.
@@TheGrumbliestPuppy I did therapy for a long time but after awhile i felt all that negativity coming back and since i started training im a much more calm and reasonable person again
@@Shadynastys That's awesome to hear man. I should've clarified, a good therapist should be giving you the tools you need to live your best life, which should include outlets like MMA training. The combination of different tools to think more straight are gonna look different for everyone, and a lot of crappy therapists just wanna sit and talk.
I think this is (yet another) problem with many selfdefence tecniques/ systems... eyegouging, groinripping and throatstriking might sound like good ideas until you realize you are not a psycopath and can't really make yourself do such thing against another human even if they try to hurt you.
Yep.
Most people can’t even throw a punch with bad intentions at another person without a significant amount of mental/emotional conditioning and fight experience.
It takes lots of skill to reduce an attacker without hurting them. Way more than reducing them by hurting them. I think it takes lots of compassion to refuse to fight dirty when your life is on the line.
Most people can be very violent and often suprise themselves.
A snackbar cook attacked a robber with hot oil and after it continued frying fries.
@kevinhart46😂
9:30 "I did but then I dropped another, and another..." lmao that was good. Hurt more than just his feelings
This so refreshing. I wish there was more coaches like you Ramsey. You make alot of sense. Most coaches are all ego.You are one of the few coaches who speak the truth.
The part where you said that it's harder to spar your own students who know your style rather than much better professional fighters who don't know you yet, it reminds of a quote from Sun Tzu, "If you know the enemy, and you know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles."
Yeah. You never know if they are secretly subscribed to master Wang
I think that quote applies so well to Jon Jones' career
his two close fights with Reyes and Santos, he didn't have much to study from them
meanwhile he had film to study of Cyril Gane and even said he studied Gane
and then we all saw what Jones did to him to get the heavyweight belt
Every single time someone says Killer Instinct, no matter the context I always reply "sweet game". Then continue to talk about the characters I remember. Which usually ruins alot of conversations. Good one Ramsey.
I really, really like these videos. When you connect fighting and the psychology behind it.
Thank you, Ramsey
You develop the “killer” instinct when you’ve learned to enjoy the fight.
Very insightful and on the mark. If you don’t fight back, the aggressor doesn’t stop, he is emboldened, he has no pity. So, you must crush him absolutely.
I cannot remember how many times I tried to explain technical minimal contact sparring, but some people just are incapable of being technical and always go to brute force in the ring. Aside from corona virus this one of the main reasons I left my training partners, have not sparred since 2019.
Your mindset of the sport of mma is a gem in this generation. Thank you for your content.
About a year ago I commented on this video. At that time, I hadn't had any real fight experience. Since the time of that comment, I've had my first boxing exhibition match. There's a night and day difference in my striking compared to before. You said something in this podcast, "... there's some things the gym can't teach you. " - and that to me, has proven to be true. I saw this come up at the end of another one of your videos and decided to watch it again - kismet. Thank you, Ramsey. You may not know it, but I am one of your students and I hold you in high regard.
Kismet?
@@fabioooh Kismet can be interpreted as fate, destiny, or alignment of circumstances within space and time
@@w4rf4c39 what language
Thanks for sharing the great content.
I remember back in high school when a bully went out of his way to engage me and had crossed my threshold, I went to a dark place where my civility was turned off and went all in until a teacher stepped in to stop it. Luckily I gained his respect and we became friends. I don't cage fight and can respect the conditioning that is required for both the mind and body in order to be successful with the fight.
Congratulations. You were broken and found someone to build you up again, and stronger, that's how it works.
That is so me. Technique and stamina is good, but I often only really start fighting when 2nd round starts and I've eaten some punches so I'm grumpy, I don't wanna hit the other dude from the get-go. Going to tournaments prematurely left me with some kind of fight PTSD as well. Gonna give both soft sparring and forging a narrative a try, ty 👍🏻
A lot of people are like that. They don’t go into “fight back” mode until after they have already lost the first round, by which time, they’re working against probability of making a comeback in the remaining rounds.
@@RamseyDewey I've seen someone talk about this issue in uriah Hall how can you get rid of this.
My problem is that I like to use a lot of small slips to defend an active jab but it takes me roughly 3 minutes to synch up with a sparring partner’s rhythm and actually start avoiding more than half of their shots
I'll never forget the first time I broke my nose from taking a wayward first to the face. Completely addicted me to fighting.. but I remember every second of it.
I like the dynamic between you two. This was a great piece.
Rory McDonald has said he has lost the ability to pull the trigger after he found Christ. He said he no longer carries the anger he used to.
@@contramayates6307 that's not fair, many fighters after a spectacular knockout thank him personally
I am absolutely loving this content, the discussion of fighting (which is so accurate it hurts) and how the psychology impacts it. Personal stories and insights and how you look at the entire fighting world. This is excellent stuff. I put this on while I was working on some code, and stopped what I was doing to just listen. Thank you.
I am not an mma practitioner but I’d train with you in a heartbeat! You are truly a gift to your students!
That's one discussion that I have in me, still. I have that violence in me, but every time (and I mean EVERY TIME) that I acted on that, I felt terrible after. I can't say that I know how I would react next time. So far, no one ever got seriously injured, but what about the next time?
Good thing that you brought this up.
GSP trash talking- "are you intoxicated??"
Awesome stuff, love listening to this while I’m about to go sleep. Very calm and educational.
Your voice and story telling gifts and MMA and life experiences are a pleasure to listen to. I appreciate all of it.- Prayers 🙏 and Blessings my man
This was such an open, honest, genuine conversation. They explored so much together.
My first time sparring as an adult, I went about it completely wrong. I had a terrible fear of losing and wanted to go balls out turbo from the bell and I ended up gassing completely by the middle of the second round and dry heaving.
How could you elbow me in the face? What did I ever do to you?
Dude! You were trying to beat me up!
Being an outsider to Combat Sports looking in, I found this podcast to be Illuminating and absolutely fascinating
By your acounts I am reminded of how prosocial behavior prevents violence. This opponent of yours who could have been your best friend outside of a fight and almost prevented you from bashing his face in demonstrates how powerful the social mathematics are. It also demonstrates how important compartmentalization is for humans. In times of violence it is irrelevant how nice your opponent is, when your group calls for violence, there is no quarter no matter how close you may be to your opponent, unless it's Christmas in on the western front. I do believe that with the "proper" motivation every human can summon the inner hulk, but habitualization is key
@RamseyDewey this was great. I boxed for many years (not great or anything), but somehow never explicitly understood this. I got beat up a few times, and I beat a few people up... but even in backyard 'underground' fights, I somehow never got that killer drive. Listening to this, I realized I saw people having the instinct, and my mindset was to knock that instinct out of them. Luckily never went pro or anything, but thank you, I just learned something about myself in the past!
This is a really informative and thought-provoking video, thanks for the wisdom. I really appreciate your thoughts and experience!
One of my favorite videos thus far. Thank you coach.
That elbow story was hilarious!!! “How could you betray me?!?!”🤣🤣🤣
What I really like about this episode is how they are not having the usual and stupid tough guys talk but they are talking about things nobody talks about in fact.
Instinctual fighting can be a hinderance in the ring but a savior on the street.
10:09 When I was 14 we had a little one time "fight club" after school. My turn, guy came swinging haymakers. Walking backwards I blocked one, two, then got hit, didn't fire back once. Then I tripped or got tackled. Now the kid was sitting on my chest slamming his fists into my ears. I took several blows before I realized I didn't know what to do down there and said "Okay you win." And the kid stopped. I got up wished I was someone else who could defend themselves and went home. This was my most important fight and I thank god it happened like this, could have been much worse. I learnt I didnt know how to fight, I learnt not to walk backwards you'll trip, I learnt you cant block every punch, I learnt I didn't know what to do on my back. Did I learn all these lessons then? Not really lol hindsight. You have to lose to know how to win. I know people who think they can fight who dont train at all and consider grappling gay and not fighting, who consider backstepping "running". It means they've never been ground and pounded or they didn't learn the lesson if they had been. Thanks for reading if you guys got this far
Great comment! So true!
@@RamseyDewey ty for reading it
very courageous podcast. This is the emotional reality of fighting. It isn't macho, but it is real.
can you do a video more in-depth explaining more about PTSD
This podcast is brilliant. You have great work on your channel, with a huge wealth of knowledge, thanks man.
When I was a wrestler, I got beat up so many times that I eventually got tired of getting beat up. Something inside of me realized that when you get on the mat, it's either him or me, so f#ck him.
Anger is not a negative emotion. It is based in the left hemisphere, the some place as pro-social emotions, and is associated with forward movement. That suggests that anger is actually a "positive" emotion, unlike anxiety or depression, which are attributed with the right hemisphere, normally considered the source of "negative" emotions, which cause you to hesitate or withdraw.
That's why it hard to fight a nice guy. Without anger, or some other element of urgency, it can be difficult to activate the part of the brain associated with forward movement/aggression/winning,/etc. It messes with our physiological response, because there is no apparent threat, or danger, which masks the actually intent to harm.
I think the healthiest narrative one can give to themselves for cage fights or any heavy contact sport is that not giving all is an insult to your opponent, to make a distinction between inside the ring and outside the ring. (like a switch you can turn on and off at will) And if you realize the opponent can't fight to stop. That takes lots of skill and discipline, but anything that's worth it will take such effort.
I had to learn that mindset playing football growing up. It makes sense that if you both signed up to beat tf out of each other for sport that you'd just do it, but i think it's so difficult because we demonize violence in society. Violence is just a means to an end, in this case a means to win a competition, and having the ability to do violence has little bearing on whether or not you're a good person. Figuring that out makes the transition from in game to real life so much easier
The Disneyland analogy is an incredibly insightful thought. I only practice BJJ and the tournaments are what you describe as PTSD moments for me. To think of the tournament as the reward for all my training is a very inspiring way to approach adversity. Thank you.
Great talk coach! I need this mental coaching as well. I learned from the animal kingdom that lions like to fight, and Tigers fight to survive. As a Christian, I find it difficult to want to hurt an opponent, but I have this switch that gets flipped when someone wants to treat me like a punching bag.
i never had to go to the negative head space, what we are doing is violent but the context is a competition with strategy, and i dont need to hate someone to REALLY REALLY want to be better then them. i felt like i was going blue in the face sometimes trying to convince guys the difference between a street fight and a fight in our sport, and its all context. but since they look similar, some people cant separate the two.
The negative headspace seems to be a way for people that can't take the morals out of violence to instead lean into it and make their violent actions justified if only for a second. Having a competitive drive for violence instead of a moral drive makes the ptsd of hurting someone else way less likely to occur, but it still happens in some cases like freak accidents
Nice light sparring Ramsey. Damn wish I could lightly spar with you. You’re a good teacher. I used to teach also. I pushed students just enough within the confines of their own level of experience, but also to not dominate, to show open spaces on my body for them to notice and jab.
I haven’t trained with others for the longest time but I train on my own all the time, though of course, it’s never the same as training with other people.
Thank you Ramsey for dropping so much value for years, your video really help my mindset and mentality
"Did it impact you" "It dit, but than I dropped another elbow and another... " 😅🤣
I admire that elbow conversation, it is called compassion.However when it's a matter of you getting hurt you must decide. In a cage fight you both are in agreement that this is the level of violence you will accept. I love How you contrast civilian life vs. professional cage fighting. Although it may feel glorious to get some who deserves it in the street, you will be telling the sttory all you want in jail. You have taught me to use the law, and not my fist.
Was looking for this video for a long time, finally found it
So kisses are like fights, the difference is a fight happens more often
Liberally apply cold water to burnt area ...
So no one wants to kiss you .I wonder why is there something g your not telling us
@@stevejuszczak9402 wtf
@@stevejuszczak9402 Why do you have an English language name and a Polish surname? Are you of Polish descent?
Dlaczego?! Kurwa!!! Dlaczego?!!
@@mrmoth26 simple I am part Polish and part Irish and born in the city of big shoulders. Oh yeah DE BEARS. GREAT QQUESTION . THANK YOU
7:00 - everything about light sparring is spot on... light technical sparring does wonders.
very helpful talk. I've had to mull over these points myself as a boxer with 3 ammy bouts. Being ok hitting back does get easier after the mentioned ' getting beat up moment' and you then, like you said, you realize that's what happens when you don't fight back.. a lot of great/smart points here especially for those of us who aren't naturally violent...
Good points,a friend and I used to go all out,but we were afraid to try anything new,because we'd pay ,for it. We both decided to go easier,and we actually got better,just like you said I would get an upset stomach before because I knew it would be a war
We should all shave our heads to show solidarity with the coach!
Even the women!
Especially the women
For the coach. For the team!
Sometimes I wonder how I would do in a professional match and if I could have that killer instinct...But also having done both light and hard sparring, gotten in fights and have been in real danger before and I noticed that I seem not to need to build a narrative to actually fight someone because in those times when actual safety has been on the line and when I've hard sparred some Sanda champs, my mind goes into "you're just a collection of targets" mode.
I also recognize that blackout attack mode. I never have it, I'll just go into flow state, but some of my siblings have had one or two instances of blackout rage and it was strange hearing them talk about it. Thankfully though, they both had enough presence of mind to get away from people so they didn't hurt anyone when it happened to them.
One of the best ufc podcasts ever holy duck I love the dark topics
Wow this video has got to be one of the best ones
After listening your explanation here. I found that what your boxing coach did was so similar to how Neuro Linguistic Programmers do to someone who suffered from phobia.
Getting back to the killer instinct, NLP practitioner use 'Acting as if' and 'anchoring'. You actually can use those techniques to bring back any mental state you want contextually.
NICE INTERVIEW 👍
IT'S TRULY MORE SO IN THE MINDS PSYCHE, THAN THE PHYSICAL...BUT VERY DIFFICULT TO OVERCOME THE MENTAL BARRIERS 👾
That reminds me of like 15 years ago when I was in a gym that was like 85% conditioning and hard sparring. One of the coaches more memorable lines when preparing for a match (amature) was something like "train hard or you opponent will take your food and you'll starve" like we where bird chicks or something.
My gym when I was young was like that. Every sparring match was a fight.
"That Mortal Kombat ripoff?"
Shots fired SHOTS FIRED
Ramsey speak from heart
We did a lot of slap boxing when I was a kid, we stung each other fairly good but nobody got hurt, I learn a lot.
I use the term flipping the switch. I don't know if that's the same thing. I never knew I had a switch until the day I was attacked by three wild pit bulls while on a run. Briefly, I held them off with my martial arts training for maybe 10 long minutes until one of them bit me on the knee but I pulled out and did not go to the ground. That raised my anger level to a place I never had before, and I got away and survived. Yeah, I lost the battle, but came back later, found them, and country justice prevailed.
Man, owning a pit bull should really be as easy as owning a car.
I feel like fear of fighting, is more caused by the aggression and confrontation, I love fighting and sparring with friends, hitting each other as hard as possible etc. but as soon as someone is angry and confrontational, it becomes more scary even though it’s the same thing as I love doing but just with feelings of hatred and anger.
This is a great video on fighting, and the subconscious mind. Thanks.
From all of my days of training, probably the most I've learned has been during sparring and in a ring.
Wow! Wonderful podcast!
As martial artist we teach ourselfs discipline and control emotions and also therefore kill off the naturual instincts
Hard sparring in my case did contribute to killer instinct, but only in the way that I got tired of getting blasted and only tapping them back and started to have some fun with the lack of boundaries of my training mates.
I use fun. I never spar out of anger. I m not a angry person. I spar base on my personality. I live for fun and very playful .It cause me to be relax and never have to flip the switch.
Wow, this is one of the most fascinating conversations I've heard. Hearing Ramsey going into what went through his mind in those fights is captivating. I grew up in some pretty rough places, and was in a lot of fights, and the one thing that really fucked me up was holding back. I simply didn't fight back hard enough, and ended up getting beat up a lot.
I'm wondering if you have ever read "On Killing" by Dave Grossmann? It's a really interesting book, detailing how the US army changed its training during the Vietnam war to basically brainwash soldiers into being able to hurt the enemy. Befor armies would only have a small fraction of soldiers actually engaging the enemy in a battle, but the revised training changed this - and let to widespread PTSD over what they did. It also has interesting sections on close quarter combat. You should definitely read it.
Yep. I’ve read it!
I've been doing bjj for a while now, but I just started muay thai and mma. Threw a punch in sparring that landing square on my training partners jaw, first time in my life I punched someone in the face, and let me tell you it felt better than I feel comfortable admitting. It tickled some primitive portion of my brain in a way that I liked very much
fucking psychopath😂😂.
not but foreal now it may be because you threw some stress with that punch i know that from experience sometimes its a good way to relieve stress/aggression
Ramsey I love you ❤️, no homo
I remember playing those old WWE wrestling games and my mate was so much better at the game, but his biggest achiles heal was he wasn't happy until he had cause complete body damage on my character, so I had to wait for an opening to end the fight as quickly as possible, which allowed me to get that occasional win.
Which ended up with my mate switching of the games console and locking himself in a dark room practicing so that will never happen again.
Which goes to show it is important to exploit the weaknesses of your opponent and also you should work on your weaknesses as well as your strengths.
i try to stick to light sparring at all times because I dont want CTE but when my partner throws a hard shot, then i throw with some malice and the switch in me turns on from that point
Damn. This is fire
Ramsey, people forget there's duality in every human being. Nice guys even have a dark spirit inside too. In cage fighting nice guys get to explore that side of themselves.
Good talk. Not enough people go into the nuances of these kinds of mindsets and the negative and positive effects they can have during an engagement. I was very much guilty of sparring with the same people over and over again for months on end and then trying to take that into Statewide or even National level events. It seems like no matter how hard you try to mix it up, you always end up surprised by The Stranger. Especially in the case of suicidal Fighters, I definitely remember being left with my head ringing still wondering how to counter the next onslaught.
And yes, that's a real helmet. The ringing is quite literal.
Eh we bigfoots sort of have it naturally
Brooo.. I see you everywhere
You should do MMA
Didn't expect to see you here... not that anyone ever expects to see a Sasquatch that sees one.
Arent you also on reddit Videos ?
great discussion. i've always loved my time with judo because i had the privilege to spar with so many high level players. i rarely had any concern that i would get hurt, but i was able to go my absolute hardest (as were they, if they were at my level and not above it). i honestly can't imagine sparring with that sort of aggression in a striking sport like in the intense PTSD-inducing gyms you've mentioned!
I did striking a for a long time growing up. But it wasn't until I did a week or two of wrestling in highschool where you can just use ALL your strength without feeling like you are going to break something that I now feel like I could actually kick or punch someone equally hard.
Just because someone is nice doesn't mean they have a dark place.
This was great life advice! I used to think I was fucked up in the head for how hard and easily I was able to hurt my training partners in the ring. Even when I slapbox my friends and cousins even i only went light on younger or less experienced fighters. Until they made a rookie mistake and end up landing a good shot then I’d turn it up a bit to show them I could dominate that fight at any time. Some guys would even stop sparring with me. When it was time to spar hard on professional or evenly matched opponents I kind of panicked and tell myself I must try to kill them before they kill me. Fight or flight switch gets turned on and Win or lose I’d always hurt myself mentally and physically after those hard spars. Had me second guessing myself and losing that fire that I had when I was first starting out. Can I actually get in the ring and do this professionally or will I be the that gets knocked out or lose and let that affect me till the point I crack and succumb to all my rage and primal urges and actually end up killing my opponent. (Only reason I thought like this because I was a very violent kid I liked hurting ppl and seeing blood from the damage I dealt, I always figure out how justify it no matter who I was hurting) now that I’m out of school, I realized if I didn’t have the time I do now to reflect on those actions and experiences I might psychologically be a whole different person. Now that I’m older I end up automatically sparring light and technical everytime I practice with someone and after this helpful video I should use this for every aspect and venture in life not just fighting. Proper preparation is key thankyou🙏🏽
This video solves my problem which is that I'm scared to hit my opponent (silly as it may seem). I can hit heavybags, and pads hard but whenever it's a real person infront of me, I have that hesitation.
Same, and it causes me to have a kind of fighting Ptsd i can't hit back hard it was only after a point when i got feddup one time i fought back rough.
Ironically the hard part for me always was to LEAVE the dark place... And that is why I could never get into competitive fighting. I kinda regret for this personal flaw...
When you go for championships you're not looking for quantity, you're looking for quality. The best fighters are naturally fearless, at least to some degree.
“Go with me.” You brought it back! @Ramsey Dewey.
""I like quoting Sun Tzu" - Sun Tzu" - Sun Tzu"" - Sun Tzu
This video is somehow ensuring me about something I was already thinking about recently. I started with goju ryu karate (sorry if I misspelled that) and was just disapointed that there was no real fighting at all because we faught without contact. So I also started kyokushin budokai and kickboxing (they offer both in the same dojo). At least the kyokushin trainer is very oldschool so he likes to put us against unequal opponents and than we sparr in full contact. I still know how shocked I was the first training how violent full contact is. Whereas there were some guys I'd spar who were on my level or worse there were also some where it was just blocking punches and hoping not to get hit too hard. I simply wouldn't attack much because I was too afraid of the consequence. Same goes for the exercises. Often it is just keep up or go down. I am now thining about going to another mma dojo in my town when the Corona regulations allow contact sports again. They seem to have more guys in my age (17) and go easier at sparring.
the other reason i think lighter sparring helps with developing the killer instinct is you learn to be calm in a fight, instead of in hard sparring where you are basically, in a way, holding the tigger down the entire time trying to take them out, instead of getting comfortable and seeing opportunities and the openings
I'm glad I found your videos. Awesome content and love the stories that you share to us. It is very helpful 😁😁
I completely agree with this philosophy! I think one drill I'd like to share is one a boxing coach taught us. It was a creative way of drilling "killer instinct." He'd have us running up and down the stairs with a partner, and whoever lapped the other got to take a break, the other had to do 20 burpees. It was fun, didn't hurt, improved our conditioning, and also taught us to look for weakness and capitalize on it while managing our own energy!
* I understand that this is a level different than psychologically preparing to knee a guy in the face, but it still drilled in an important psychological association of schadenfreude and relief with taking advantage of a weakened "opponent"