Vine Land Running Club

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

If you thought for a moment that 79-year-old Bobby Bowden was ready to retire as head coach of Florida State, forget it, especially after his Siminoles routed Wisconsin 42-13 in the Champs Sports Bowl Saturday (12-27-08).

For Bowden, the victory over Wisconsin was like déjà vu, a big-play offense and a hard-hitting, nasty, opportunistic defense getting all over the Badgers, sending them back into the hole they came from. The Siminoles’ special teams got in the Badgers’ faces.

When Florida State had to punt they had the right player—Graham Gano, the Lou Groza Award winner as the nation’s best kicker. All Gano did was average 48+ yards on 5 punts and place 3 of them inside the 4, including 2 at Wisconsin’s 1-yard line.

Talk about backing your opponent up against the goal line, Gano had just the right touch, earning him the MVP Award. When, if ever, have you hear of a punter getting an MVP Award in a bowl game?

On the defensive side, both Derek Nicholson and Dekoda Watson returned fumbles for touchdowns, Nicholson’s for 75 yards and Watson’s for 51. Talk about excitement.

After both teams failed to score in the 1st quarter, Florida State scored 2 touchdowns in each of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters.

Wisconsin was continually starting out deep in its own territory and never really did get untracked. P. J. Hill managed to gain 140 yards on 15 carries for the Badgers, but quarterback Dustin Sherer completed only 4 of 9 for 55 yards during the first three quarters.

It was an ugly finish for Wisconsin’s season. Early on the Badgers were ranked as high as 9th in the AP Top 25 Poll, but Wisconsin has always been overrated the last few years. The loss left them at 7-6.

The win put Florida State at 9-4, the Siminoles first 9-win season since 2004. Bobby Bowden is used to better, having hit at least 9 wins in 17 of 18 years before tailing off in recent seasons. Many of his key players return next year, giving him no good reason to quit, even at 80.

The Champs Sports Bowl game was Florida State’s NCAA-leading 27th straight bowl game, improving Bowden’s personal bowl game record to 21-10-1. Bowden has 382 career wins, just 1 short of Joe Paterno’s 383 at Penn State, the major college record. Paterno is 82 years young.

Both Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno will likely be carried out of a football stadium on a stretcher when they quit coaching. These guys are icons and extremely competitive. Even though they would both deny it, each would like to go down in history with the most wins ever, and they prove it every year they return to the sideline.

Champs have many positive qualities and many characteristics that set them apart in a class of their own. Lets’ understands the 6 secrets further.

Six Secrets of Champs

1)         Picking up overall intensity: Champs display awesome aggression by playing to potential.

The full force of their abilities is unleashed through a high level of concentration and attentiveness.

2)         Maintaining a business-like attitude and consistency: A single-minded focus on playing the game right, a professional approach to competition and maintaining a high level of quality, and excellence in performance

3)         Displaying rare composure: Incredible fortitude, rarely show emotion or fall prey to. Are determined, and have the ability to fight, despite difficulties encountered on the mat

4)         Handling pressure, surmounting any crisis: The ability to withstanding pressure and surmount a crisis is the true mark of a champ. The experience and knowledge built up over the years provides the necessary mental strength to handle pressures.

5)         Seizing the moment of opportunity: Champs can accelerate the pace, use intuition and instincts to guide performance, and anticipate moves in advance. Champs don’t drop their guard at any stage.

6)         Adhering to training, both mental and physical: Sustaining the mental preparation process and strengthening all aspects of preparation regularly despite the star status; no complacency no matter how many championship titles have been won.

Besides these secrets of champs that make their game stand out, it is also important to understand the mental framework of a champ to gain insights into their approach to the game.

Mental Framework of Champs

The preceding segment on the secrets of champs gave us insight into the match behavior of champs. Let’s now take a look at the mental framework of champs.

• Champs enjoy challenges and never shy away from them.
• Champs constantly challenge themselves to greater heights.
• Champs don’t think about winning all the time.

They are not preoccupied with thoughts of winning. They focus their thoughts on playing a good game and tackling their opponent effectively. The message from this is: if you let go of the need to win and instead raise your mind to a higher state that is performance driven, then your chances of triumph increase.

• Champs focus on putting on a truly magnificent performance.

The pure aspects of the game interest them so much that you get to see game techniques and tactics that are incredibly awe inspiring. And when they win, it’s often truly deserving.

• Champs have leadership qualities.

A champ in grappling or combat athletics may not participate in a team event or ever captain a team. Even if all the encounters are one-on-one, there are certain leadership qualities that go into the mental framework of a champ.

A champ’s mental framework blends in the following leadership qualities that convey a distinct winning attitude:

• Champs like to take charge
• Champs like to be in control of the game: they strive for the upper hand
• Champs have courage
• Champs are astute and display a combination of shrewdness and wisdom
• Champs have an underlying confidence
• Champs believe in themselves
• Champs are humble enough to learn from mistakes
• Champs have adaptability; they listen to other’s views and are open to ideas and suggestions on improving their techniques
• Champs have a self-awareness of their strengths and weaknesses
• Champs willingly ask for feedback

These leadership qualities that a champ embodies bring out a cutting-edge game performance. It is a mental framework that is used to being at the top of the heap, but humble enough to constantly learn and improve.

• Champs are extremely dedicated to the sport.

Champs have an almost fanatical interest in grappling and combat athletics. This dedication goes beyond motivation or passion for the game to a feeling of complete lifelong commitment.

Think like a champ

When you start thinking like a champion, your mental approach is different and your performance will most certainly scale new heights. If you want to follow a career path that is similar to top grapplers and combat athletes in this field, you have to imbibe their qualities and consciously work on your thoughts and behavior. Your mental framework has to undergo a transition from being a run-of-the-mill grappler or combat athlete to one who truly knows how to excel.

Winning Edge of a Seasoned Player

Those who’ve spent a significant number of years in the sport and weathered innumerable matches and tournaments are often referred to as seasoned players. They are highly accomplished at the game, have been champions of many a high-profile title, and have a lot to teach to upcoming grapplers and combat athletes or new entrants.

This article was meant to be a guideline on how to develop your thinking along the lines of front­runners and winners in grappling and combat athletics. It is meant to give some direction on how to shape your thinking and mindset to reach the highest levels as a professional grappler or combat athlete.

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