Question about Fedor: How does he stay calm?

He just has one of those faces that make it hard for people to read. He has an introverted personality where he would rather listen and learn than do the talking.

KimboByGhettoplex - Fedor is just a really quick, powerful dude who is technical on the ground and can KTFO you. That alone makes him capable of winning a lot of fights. What makes him so great though is that he seems to be able to make up his mind on what course of action to take in any given situation in a fight and then commit to it full force, 100%, while his opponent is still making up his mind on what to do. I think that's what allows him to end the fight at any point.

As for his ability to push through adversity, I think he probably views an MMA contest more like a streetfight than a sport, and that "finish or be finished, never stop" mentality takes over. Yes he looks calm while he does this, but it's not like some superhuman thing. It's not like the Secretary of Defense is going to burst through the Oval Office door screaming like his hair is on fire whenever there's a potential conflict. It's not like a veteran soldier on the battlefield is going to get wounded and then forget what the fuck he's doing and spazz out. There are thousands of examples of what Fedor can do. Professionals who are trained under fire can usually remain calm under fire. I just think it's all about his ability to make concrete decisions very, very quickly and then having the self-confidence and determination to be viciously resolute.

I also think it helps a lot that Fedor doesn't care about what people think of him, nor does he talk any trash, so there's no image to protect and there's no ancillary non-fight related considerations to distract him during his decision making process.


Good post.

And good point about the fact that is at LEAST good at every aspect of MMA.

He is comfortable doing EVERYTHING(submission,striking/wrestling)plus he has a chin,cardio,strength and speed.

Knowing all that about ones self has to have a calming affect when entering a fight.

But hell I wonder if Fedor even realizes all that about himself.

Calhoon - 
voorhees - 
Calhoon - Lord Kancho,

There is a big difference in believing "no one can beat me" and being confident in your ability to win.

I think you might have a slightly distorted view of sports psychology.


When you are fighting,what is the need for differentiation?

It is highly unlikely that u will truly believe "no one can beat me". It is realistic for you to be totally confident you can win.


I hear you,but I bet that 9/10 fighters who just "believe they can win"as opposed to "believe no one can beat them",therefore,to a certain extent believe their opponent that night can beat them,and are therefore thinking subconsciously how they might lose.


I think saying he is simple is actually quite a compliment in the context of his fight behavior.

TimeToCrush - "I think he probably views an MMA contest more like a streetfight than a sport"

You have that backwards. He's said many times he views it as a sport. That's why he's not emotionally invested in his fights. Guys who jump around, psyche themselves up, and say they'll fight to the death are the ones who view it as a "fight" more than a sport.

That's why he signed up to fight his friend Barnett because in his own words, it's just a sport.

I mean in the cage. I think Fedor views a fight as a sport 100% of the time when he's not in the cage.

Like GSP for instance, he tapped to strikes from Serra because he had been thinking of the future of his career. Nothing wrong with that, but to me that's being in a fight and thinking you're in a sporting event. Or Rashad against Rampage. Rashad fought the perfect fight the first two rounds of that fight, tested Rampage's cardio, forced Rampage to be aggressive etc. If Rashad was ever going to try to make a statement, that third round was the perfect time for him to do it. But Rashad was gun shy, and Rampage almost finished him because of it. Rashad was thinking about title shots, and money, and sports-related stuff, not taking out the guy that wanted to knock his head three rows back.

Contrast that to Fedor's approach to fighting. He fights like it's a streetfight to me. When he's caught in a firestorm he fires back, when he achieves position he capitalizes immediately and looks to dominate. He doesn't care about odds or gameplans, he doesn't worry about what his opponent can do. Fedor could have forced Werdum to stand with him and he would have KTFO'd him the first round so long as the ref didn't let Wedum buttscoot for 5 minutes. But Fedor stood right there in his guard looking to drop bombs on his face, like, "this guy is down and now I better KTFO this dude before he gets back up." That's kind of what I mean.

Xanax imo

"You have that backwards. He's said many times he views it as a sport. That's why he's not emotionally invested in his fights. Guys who jump around, psyche themselves up, and say they'll fight to the death are the ones who view it as a "fight" more than a sport."

Fedor has said in the past he views his opponent as harming his family, taking food away from them, or something like this.

If thats your frame of mind then it may be going a touch beyond sport.

There are a lot of great ideas on this thread, but what you are witnessing with Fedor is simply classic Russian stoicism, pure and simple.

He's been training and competing as a full-time living since he was like 11 years old. It's not that surprising that he is very relaxed in the ring.

orcus - He's been training and competing as a full-time living since he was like 11 years old. It's not that surprising that he is very relaxed in the ring.


so have many others.Like Alexsander.

He is 1/100th the fighter Fedor is.

what a sec, werdum was just as calm in the fedor fight and his others. don't make fedor god cuz he himself even said he isn't god.

ShanTheMan - I think saying he is simple is actually quite a compliment in the context of his fight behavior.


Thats how I meant it.

voorhees - 
orcus - He's been training and competing as a full-time living since he was like 11 years old. It's not that surprising that he is very relaxed in the ring.


so have many others.Like Alexsander.

He is 1/100th the fighter Fedor is.


So? Aleks is pretty damn relaxed in there.

orcus - 
voorhees - 
orcus - He's been training and competing as a full-time living since he was like 11 years old. It's not that surprising that he is very relaxed in the ring.


so have many others.Like Alexsander.

He is 1/100th the fighter Fedor is.


So? Aleks is pretty damn relaxed in there.


I agree.But he dont win like Fedor does.

So maybe he shouldnt relax as much?I dunno.

nenetis - I seriously want to get to ask the guy himself some day.

Got lethally slammed from 6ft high right down on his neck. Reversed the guy and forced him to give his arm for a kimura.

Got stunned and rocked by Fujita and immediately clinched and proceeded to win.

Has he ever been asked this before? How does he manage to control his mind so well in these kinds of situations... I know you can get better at this by training alot but this guy has reached level (over) 9000 when it takes a decade to get to level 100.



Or is he a cyborg?
Soviet/Eastern Block countries started training their athletes mental aspect way,way before the West started. Soviet Olympic training centers start teaching kids mental games/aspects to improve their performance. I read a book about it awhile ago.



When a kid joined the Soviet gymnastics program, they immidiately start teaching them how to deal with stress/pressure by doing things like having them perform their routines on, say a balance bar, with the bar on the ground. They then gradually raise the bar over a few weeks so the kid realizes that there is no difference between the bar at 4 feet off the ground and the bar on the ground. Its the same width, same material,etc.. The difference is created by your brain/fear.  The kid learns how to deal with those things and, by the time they are adults, they can handle the stress of perfomance.



When Fedor started training judo, they taught him the same stuff.

 

MickColins - 
nenetis - I seriously want to get to ask the guy himself some day.
Got lethally slammed from 6ft high right down on his neck. Reversed the guy and forced him to give his arm for a kimura.
Got stunned and rocked by Fujita and immediately clinched and proceeded to win.
Has he ever been asked this before? How does he manage to control his mind so well in these kinds of situations... I know you can get better at this by training alot but this guy has reached level (over) 9000 when it takes a decade to get to level 100.

Or is he a cyborg?
Soviet/Eastern Block countries started training their athletes mental aspect way,way before the West started. Soviet Olympic training centers start teaching kids mental games/aspects to improve their performance. I read a book about it awhile ago.

When a kid joined the Soviet gymnastics program, they immidiately start teaching them how to deal with stress/pressure by doing things like having them perform their routines on, say a balance bar, with the bar on the ground. They then gradually raise the bar over a few weeks so the kid realizes that there is no difference between the bar at 4 feet off the ground and the bar on the ground. Its the same width, same material,etc.. The difference is created by your brain/fear.  The kid learns how to deal with those things and, by the time they are adults, they can handle the stress of perfomance.

When Fedor started training judo, they taught him the same stuff.
 



But that doesn't tell us why Fedor has performed this way more than ANY ohter other former soviet bloc athlete.

Russians/former soviet countries have produced hundreds if not thousands of MMA hopefuls and I have not seen the level of simplemindedness/performance of Fedor in ANY of them.

BTW,Igor came the closest.

But he was levels below Fedor.

Calhoon - 
voorhees - 
Calhoon - 
voorhees - 
Calhoon - Lord Kancho,

There is a big difference in believing "no one can beat me" and being confident in your ability to win.

I think you might have a slightly distorted view of sports psychology.


When you are fighting,what is the need for differentiation?

It is highly unlikely that u will truly believe "no one can beat me". It is realistic for you to be totally confident you can win.


I hear you,but I bet that 9/10 fighters who just "believe they can win"as opposed to "believe no one can beat them",therefore,to a certain extent believe their opponent that night can beat them,and are therefore thinking subconsciously how they might lose.



Without getting to complex I'll try to explain this as well as I can.

The conscious mind and the subconscious mind work together to perform a skill that requires multiple actions.

The subconscious is best to use because it can perform multiple tasks at once while the conscious mind can only think about one thing at a time.

The subconscious makes your body perform exactly what the conscious mind is picturing.

Since your conscious mind can't think of two opposing ideas at the same time you need to be able to picture the positive thoughts on demand and under pressure.

This is a quick explanation as to how your conscious and subconscious work together. There is the factor of self image that comes into play also,


Fedor has the ability to focus on positive results even in times of adversity, he has developed his subconscious skills to a great extent to the point that fighting to him is as easy as walking to others, and his self image is right where it needs to be in order to compete at a very high level. His mental game is as strong as I've seen in the sport of mma.



I was a psych major too.

I think you may be correct.

But I also wonder if Fedor isnt what you described.

I wonder if Fedor just takes it as it comes like an animal would for lack of a better term,and therefore cant be rattled no matter what what.


Because he's the greatest ever. Case closed.

Obviously because he's Russian. They are bad men. Phone Post