Auszug eines Interviews mit Frank Shamrock… Frank Shamrock’s Ultimate Training and Fighting System Visualization The final aspect of Frank’s training system is visualization. “I can’t emphasize the mental aspect enough,” he insists. “A fight looks very physical, but with two equally-strong, equally-fast and equally-trained fighters, it’s more of a chess game. They both know what works and what doesn’t. They both have experience, and neither one has the advantage over the other. This is when the fight goes to the mental level, and the fighter with the better mind will win.

“I use visualization constantly. I relax completely, and create a mental image of the fight in my mind. I see myself against the other fighter, and I see him coming at me. I mentally visualize myself in every conceivable situation, and winning in every conceivable situation. In the real world, I’ve been in many, many matches, it’s true. But in my mind I’ve been in literally thousands of matches. In my mind I’ve been through it all, every move, every attack, every type of fighter, and every situation. I hold these images in my mind, let my instincts take over, and I win.

“One of the questions a lot of people ask me, in personal conversations and interviews is, ‘Frank, what was the biggest surprise you every had against an opponent.’ And the truth is, I’ve never been surprised. No one’s attack or strategy or technique ever took me by surprise because I’d been there before, if not in the real world, in my mind. I can honestly say a fighter who doesn’t use visualization is not a complete fighter.

Q: Do you do that regularly or just before you fight? A: I do it all the time. I’m always praying and meditating and trying to clean up where I live, how I live, and how I think. It’s like keeping a house clean. You don’t just do it once a year. You have to pretty much stay on top of it or things will get cluttered and hard to manage.

Q: What type of things do you feel need cleaning up? A: Sage was given to the people so that when they pray, it would take the prayers up to heaven. In Native American philosophy it clears the evil spirits out of the way so your prayers have a clear path to heaven. Evil spirits, evil thoughts, negative thoughts – call them what you want – they’re all part of things that drag you down and keep you from moving forward. It’s like any other type of therapy, I assume, or any other soothing herbs you use to assist you in meditation. There’s a lot of parallels between Chinese traditional medicine and spirituality and Native American ways. The Eastern ways, because of martial arts’ Asian roots, are a more accepted way of training your mind. But there are ways, just as powerful, that were developed here on this continent.

Q: Do you feel the Native American meditation keeps you emotionally balanced? A: Yes. It keeps me emotionally balanced and focused and helps me to get rid of all my bad energy, negative thoughts, anger, and fear — anything that keeps me from moving forward or causes self-doubt. Q: Does it help you to control your emotions in the ring? A: Oh, definitely, because you can’t go in and fight emotionally. If you let your emotions rule you then you’re finished. You can’t fight because you’re angry or looking for personal revenge. It needs to be a focused competition because as an athlete, a martial artist, you’re going in to test yourself, and you have to be 100 percent. You can’t be sending energy out of yourself, elsewhere, because negative energy will rush in to fill the void just like in any vacuum. Your energy can’t be dwelling elsewhere; it needs to be focused on what’s going on.

Q: So you feel that fighting is really a competition against yourself? A: Oh, totally. I never go into a fight trying to hurt someone, I’m just focused on doing the best I can and following my training the best way I know how. There’s nothing personal about it. I go in as a well-conditioned athlete, as a fighting machine, testing myself and testing my style. I put everything on the line every time. I put out 100 percent of my training and also 100 percent of my spirit when I fight. So my spirit needs to be pure, and strong, and clear, and cool.

Q: So your meditation helps? A: It helps to bridge the anger that can exist in the space between confrontation and competition. Not only that, but also the fear. There’s a lot of things that will drag you down if you focus on them. It puts me in a different perspective. It gives me a different view of what’s happening. I’m not bothered by the things that aren’t necessary.