|
|
 |
|
Scroll list to select from other Athletes
Imagine walking into a cage in front of thousands of people, not knowing if you would walk out with a mere black eye or a more serious injury like a dislocated arm. Imagine the thoughts running through your head: Will I knock him out? Will the crowd still be talking about this fight Monday morning? Now imagine having to stay focused throughout the fight-with so much focus that not only do you fight to stay safe, but you fight to win. This is what life is like for Mixed Martial Arts athlete Shannon Samuels. And according to him, being an athlete in the MMA takes more than just muscle-he says the mental aspect makes up 75 percent of the athletic experience. "Anybody can train and do a sport. But to walk into a cage and know you are going to get hit and exchange blows, you have to get into a mind frame where you are ok," Samuels said. "You have to be mentally prepared to go to battle and often in front of millions of people." Keeping his cool and avoiding the nervousness can be difficult he says, but simply knowing that another person is going to walk into a fight and hurt him is enough for Samuels to stay focused. "It's a single-person preparation and a one-to-one fight. There's nobody else to blame [for lack of focus]. You have to push yourself past where you normally think you would go," he says. And learning how to push yourself and stay focused isn't as easy as one might think: It takes work. "You have to do it every day in training. You play how you practice. If you practice tentatively you will play tentatively. If you train hard, you fight hard. And the more you bleed in practice, the less you bleed in the ring," Samuels says. To help him learn about his strengths and weaknesses in the ring, Samuels took the Sports Performance Indicator Premium from sportsDrive. The test measures 16 mental dimensions of an athlete to determine their strengths and where he or she needs to improve their skills and/or train of thought. "Athletes hate admitting weaknesses. But having someone read [your results] after taking a test helps you reassess your goals to see where you stand. It helps you answer questions like, have I completed this task and can I focus harder on this?" Samuels said. "[The test] made me focus on my work ethic, drive and self control and showed me where I'm excelling and lacking [as an athlete]. Having as scientific measurement used to uncover strengths and weaknesses helps you focus and shape your goals." |
||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||
Shannon Samuels
Copyright ©2010 Athlete Psychology, Inc. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. All rights reserved.