Integral Theory and Mixed Martial Arts

I am in the process of developing an Integral Theory research and development program for Mixed Martial Arts Athlete/Fighters. Eventually I would like to take my findings and experience to Sports and Athletes as a whole.

If you are unfamiliar with Integral Theory. The basic idea is to study things from all perspectives. Psychological, Cultural, Physical, and Social. How the all develop and how they are all connected.

I believe that some Mixed Martial Arts Athlete/Fighters have a unique mental state and level of consciousness that goes beyond the typical fighter and athlete mentality.

This mix of mental and physical cross pollination of cultural and thoughts makes fighters evolve because of the extreme life conditions that being a professional mma fighter presents.

If you dont evolve mentally, physically, and socially you will loose. Sometime in the most extreme fashion.

What happens in the cage and the type of cross training that fighters do makes them think different. Makes them open their minds.

Its survival of the fittest but not just on a physical level. They are forced to blend both thought and extreme physical practice with other cultures and philosophies because each cultural has its own style of fighting and its own view of life. Each has its own thought process when it comes to how an opponent is perceived and the strategy that must be taken to win. Each has its own thought process when it comes to how the self is perceived and the strategy that must be taken to deal with ones one weaknesses.

What most have found out is that there is not one fighting style or martial art that beats another. What fighters and people in the industry are finding out is that that there is also not one mental strategy or one way of life that creates the best. Its a mix of all of them.

It is the combination of all the marital arts, sports, and mental training and their perspectives that creates the best fighter and athlete.

MMA fighters are becoming the modern sports role model. Whether some like it or not. The top fighters. The ones that realize it know that they must get their lives in order to win. More so than most other sports.

MMA is at its core an internal individual sport but the single fighter is not just fighting for themselves. Not just their family. Not just to make money. Not just the respect and honor for their specific style. These may be some of reasons at first. The reason transcends and includes all the other reasons.

When the best fighters starting getting to the top. When they realize that to stay there they must fight far all of these reasons and more.

The behavior that has been seen from the top fighters is that they fight to show that they have become better. They must constantly evolve in all aspects of life. Each fight becomes a culmination of their life. Not just to prove that they are better than than their opponent but that they have grown and developed as a human being.

George Saint Pierre says that to be the best in MMA requires not just discipline but a way life. To be the best, MMA like true martial arts must become a healthy way of life.

There must be a constant mental state in training and outside of training.

Not all fighters realize this. Not all athletes realize this.

I want create something that focuses and researches what it takes to be the best fighter. In all aspects mental, cultural, physical, and social.

Jarrad Connor

www.third-power.com