Wrestling Blogs - Rick Addante

In Martins Blog, he asked several really good, fundamental questions:

"How wrestlers perfrom under the "pressure"....Do wrestlers perform at their ultimate or do they crumble or just tighten up? Why and how?

It is at that time where you make a conscious choice to work through it or let up. That pressure we all feel at that moment is intense, real and flooding.

Can we continue with the same intensity or will we let up a bit?

Is it that the best are just able to keep composure and compete with a clear head and able body through that intense pressure? I dont think so. I think the best are able to just completely avoid the pressure."

My Response:

Your right. But I might add that there is a direct neural circuit that subserves the focus factors that you mention, from the lactic acid example to the Smith and value added labor example – and these circuits may provide the answers to your questions. There is no secret that success in wrestling, as well as Life, depends more on mental toughness to trump physical toughness.  I am developing a plausible biological/neural model for how this is accomplished.  Its basic signal to noise ratios, and can be modeled with signal detection theory, and probably even graphed differently for successful and unsuccessful athletes. The neural circuit in the brain that is probably doing this analysis integrates the signals of pain, lactic acid, and impulse to quit, along with thoughts of doubts and pressures (these signals can be physical sensory signals, or can be cognitive thoughts), and compares them to competing neural signals of motivation, memory, focus, attention. The Best people will have clearer and stronger signals of the latter, and weaker of the former; the rest will have the vice versa.

The thing is, is that these basic biological systems can be, and indeed are, trained with practice and experience. Good coaching teaches people How to do it, even if they dont realize that it is. The more training and practicing is done, the weaker the pain signals are, the less sensitive people are to them, and the more confidant they are to push past the lactic acid and pain, drawing up on the conscious and unconscious memories of when they have repeatedly done that thousands of time in training successfully. I could write a dissertation on this, so will keep it brief here out of respect for the reader, but please feel free to email with questions to elaborate ( I think there is a lot of good, juicy stuff in this topic...)

There are basic circuits and systems of neural networks in the brain that perform and enhance attention to targets and help you ignore distracters, and when people practice using them, these neural networks grow and get stronger, and then can be used more and even better, continuing the positive cycle. The same is true for the neural circuits that ARE the biological bases for our focus, motivation, and memory. Memories are important, because without them we probably would have little to no motivation. Coaches tap into this by printing motivating sayings on t-shirts and signs all over training facilities to Remind our memories to drive our performance beyond the lactic acid signals, the pain signals, and the natural desire to quit when tired, hungry, in pain, and exhausted.

However, if people practice using the Wrong techniques in these situations, those neural networks will also grow, become stronger, and used more often, resulting in continued negative thinking, not just in wrestling, but in reaction to all sorts of similar challenging situations that may come up in life. That is a true Danger, and a reason why it is important to do the Right things, the Right training/coping strategies, and use positive proactive thinking instead of negative reactionary thinking. The difference between positive proactive thinking in pressure situations and negative reactionary thinking in pressure situations is the equivalent of the value added labor workers- working proactively on the things that Make Money, or more or less reactionary to the peripheral distracter tasks around the factory that impair focus, performance and progress to the ultimate goal of success.

Its all in the Mind, and the mind is simply the Brain on experience.
The brain is simply made up of tons of biological neurons, and these cells, and their connections, drive all that we think, do, and are. People can train them to be either very successful at elite Olympic levels, or to repeat the same patterns of failures in life. What may be the difference that Martin seeks in his beginning questions and following analogies, is simply that brain circuits that are trained and used differentially between these people. You don’t have to be born with them, we all know that they can be trained, because we have all had coaches teach us how to overcome them better in our training, and many readers on Flo are coaches who also know how we teach our own athletes to overcome them as well. If anyone is interested in the specific brain regions, cell biology, etc., I’m happy to provide, but wanted to keep it simply focused on wrestling directions, and not complicate it with the science. :)