Chapter 7 - Growing after falling: working with losing
Losing carries more potential than winning, but only if handled properly. This chapter looks at how lost matches affect future ones and how to work with them to get the most out of the experience.
Chapter 6 - Breaking through the silver plateau
Invested efforts with stalling progress are commonly misread as a personal limit reached, rather than recognized as a transition point. This chapter analyzes this pivotal stage and outlines structured options for moving out of stagnation.
Chapter 5 - Short-term and event-day preparation
This chapter complements long-term preparation efforts with techniques applied in the final phase of preparation leading to the event and the fight itself. It focuses on arriving ready and being able to manage external influences, noise, and cognitive-social pressure throughout the competition day.
Chapter 4 - Long-term preparation for competition
The practical methods offered by this chapter are organized around four preparation domains to cover the internal processes defining competition outcomes. They target fundamental change by aligning brain–body dynamics, refining stress responses, strengthening conflict resilience, and expanding effective muscle memory.
Chapter 3 - At the competition: changes in the brain and the body
A detailed look at the realities, demands and underlying processes of tournament events. Following how internal reactions come together to a final outcome, this chapter discusses how opponents are read, risk is assessed, and responses are selected before conscious decisions are made.
Chapter 2 - Confidence: what it does, and what it doesn’t
This chapter goes through the internal processes related to trust in ability, how it forms or collapses, and why it’s often misunderstood in fight contexts. Both environmental factors and brain–body dynamics are discussed via the lens of confidence, to understand what factors matter under pressure.
Chapter 1 - Strategy vs fit in fight sports
Establishing a framework for competition preparation in fight sports based on the demand and internal processes of different disciplines. Discussing and making fight relevant attributes measurable, this chapter offers a working frame to structure preparation efforts for competition results in grappling arts.