How to Become a Better Fighter: The Ultimate Guide.

How to Become a Better Fighter

So you want to know how to become a better fighter. This is a life-long desire I’ve always wanted to master, and have become quite good at so far.

I’ve created a guide that will turn you from a beginner level fighter into a formidable force once you’re on the street or in the ring.

Fighting is such a dynamic art that there is no one right way to become a better fighter. It’s a lifestyle choice and individual journey you constantly have to develop on your own time. Becoming a better fighter means you have to improve everyday with all facets of life, not just with fighting. 

Your body is your temple. If your body is not functioning properly because of bad daily decisions, this will negatively affect how you handle yourself when you get into a fight. So make good daily choices with everything you do outside the ring. This will increase your chances of winning any fight when it’s showtime.

7 Important Paths on How to Become a Better Fighter:

The ultimate goal to become a better fighter should always be so you can defend yourself in any given situation. Or you may be doing this to compete in the ring. Either way, this guide will ensure you can rely on yourself for survival if anyone ever decides to do you harm. Keep reading to learn all the ways on how to become a better fighter.

1) How to Become Mentally Strong

Number one on the list to become mentally strong. And the best way to do that is with spirituality. You may think mental strength and spirituality are unrelated. However, developing your spiritual strength will determine how strong you become mentally.

This quote referring to the size of the ‘fight in the dog’ means the ‘spirit of the dog’ is what counts in an actual fight. Physical size will not always win.

Of course, focusing on physical aspects such as training and fighting techniques will allow you to become a better fighter overall, but it is spiritual development that will unlock your ability to become an unstoppable fighter.

How to Become More Spiritual:

1. Seek God Your Creator
   • We were all born with the breath [spirit] of God in us (Genesis 2:7). Borrow the strength of God whenever you have to defend yourself. Have a daily relationship with God and He will give you extraordinary strength when you need it.
2. Pray
   • Pray every morning when you wake up. Give thanks for all you have now in life and express gratitude as a daily ritual. This will keep your spirit tethered to God.
3. Meditate
   • Learn to drown out the chaos of your life by practicing mindful silence. Practicing meditation will develop your ability to remain calm and focused during the heat of any battle. There are many forms of meditation out there in the world. Choose the one that feels right for you.

You can also be spiritual but not religious, however you will lose some edge to your fight-game if you neglect God in your life. Look at all the greatest fighters of all time. Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson are examples of fighters who were religious. Conor Mcgregor was never the same again after being demolished and dethroned by Khabib Nurmagomedov.

As your stages of spiritual development increase, your mental resilience will automatically increase as well. Spirituality is the most effective way to become mentally strong.

2) Develop Your Rhythm

All of the greatest fighters in the world were equipped with unbeatable rhythm. We’re looking at Muhammad Ali again as an example. Outside the ring he would regularly speak in rhythm and rhyme. The man was a savage poet.

The fighter who is able to break the rhythm of the other fighter will have the greater advantage during the course of any fight. This in turn affects the psychology of your opponent. If you can break your opponent’s rhythm, you can break his frame of mind. This will allow you to dictate the pace of the fight by asserting your own dominance and rhythm. See how important it is to develop your own rhythm?

How to Get Better Rhythm:

Here are some simple examples to incorporate rhythm into your fight game:

• Poetry
  • Get a pen and notepad, and start dishing out some rhythm in poetry.
  • If you read the Book of Psalms, you’ll discover one of the greatest warriors, King David, filled these Biblical pages with poetry. 
• Rap Freestyle
  • Watch freestyle battles and learn how to use punchy fast lines.
  • Freestyling on the spot is also a great way to develop your creativity. You can use these skills to become unpredictable in a fight to keep your opponents regularly guessing.
• Dance
  • Fighters like Anderson Silva come to mind when it comes to dancing.
  • This is a great way to develop footwork and get a feel for how to position yourself quickly and effectively during a fight.

Use any one of these 3 examples above, or all of them to enhance your fighting style. 

You can fine tune your opponent like an instrument if you master the art of rhythm.

3) Join a Gym and Practice Sparring

Now we move onto physical training. Although you can learn how to become a better fighter at home, nothing will beat professional training. Not only do you meet a community of like minded individuals, you also get to meet potential sparring partners.

Find a reputable martial-arts gym in your area and work up your skills to start sparring. Martial arts that I recommend for real life street fights are:

• Boxing
• Muay Thai Kickboxing
• Jiu-Jitsu
• Wrestling

You may have to put in a couple months of training before the gym will allow you to spar. So be patient. Watch how others in the gym spar with one another and get a feel for what is required for you to start sparring as well.

Sparring is an invaluable skill set that will sharpen your skills and experience as a fighter. You will learn with real time feedback how well you are performing with your offensive and defensive capabilities. 

There’s nothing like a good punch to the face that will put all the skills you’ve learned to the test. Which means you’ll also have to get used to pain in and out of the ring. Make sure you pay attention in class and practice the lessons your instructors teach you. Because you will likely need them when you take a shot in the mouth.

And the more you spar, the more comfortable you’ll become in any real life fight encounter. So make sure to find many sparring partners in your gym. As everyone you spar with will have a different style of fighting. This will allow you to learn how to adapt to any dynamic fighting situation on the fly. 

4) How to Get Stronger Physically

Increase Your Endurance with Cardio

Having a high endurance will give you the power to land knockout strikes and keep you in the fight. You will often win or lose a fight depending on how well your body is conditioned against fatigue. 

If you have low stamina, you can bet your punching power as well as your ability to stay on your feet will quickly disintegrate over time.

You’ve got some running shoes. Hit the pavement and do some road work. Mix up your cardio with jogging and sprinting. 

• Jogging helps build your stamina and keeps fatigue low for long periods of time during any fight. 
• Sprinting develops your explosive energy to fight within short bursts of time.
• Your mental toughness will also increase the more you push past limitations of your mind when running for longer distances.

Increase Your Strength with Resistance Training

Next is to develop your physical strength training. This will 2X your punching power together with the high endurance training you integrate. And your ability to dominate in wrestling situations will increase the stronger you become.

It’s easy to find a gym nearby, and they have all the equipment you need to become physically strong.

You can also do resistance training at home if you don’t want to pay for a gym membership. You may have a dumbbell set lying around at home. You can even do pullups with a pullup bar at home.

It also makes you less of a target when others see how physically fit you are. This can intimidate your opponent in and outside of the ring. So don’t forget to stay fit and ready to shred on spot.

Work On Your Techniques

This is where you can overcome your opponent’s strength when you know the right fighting techniques. For example:

• The trained fighter who uses loose and fluid movement can beat a strong but rigid body builder in a fight.
• Brazilian jiu-jitsu martial artists have more techniques than wrestlers to put their opponents to sleep or into submission.

Using the right fighting techniques can also conserve a lot of your stamina during combat. This means you can outwork your opponent with half the energy spent. If your opponent lacks in fighting techniques, he may gas out sooner than you and be unable to fight you.

Every martial arts has their own forms of techniques to master. They also have their own strengths and weaknesses. Find a fighting style that works for you. Dedicate your time to mastering techniques to become a better fighter.

5) Develop Daily Discipline

Most of everything you learn from this guide won’t matter as a fighter if you don’t practice daily discipline.

We all have bad habits, and old habits die hard.

Find one thing from this guide you can do everyday for the rest of your life.

You may not be able to implement all of the disciplines altogether at once. But consistently doing one thing day in and day out will cement your strength in daily discipline.

Over time as you master any one of these disciplines, you will be ready to challenge a new one.

Having discipline in your life will ultimately free you from limitations you have as a fighter. And the limitations out there are endless.

Maybe you’ll get into shape once and for all and be free from being overweight and sick. Or maybe you’ll stop getting picked on and live a life free of stress and victimhood.

Stick to a daily discipline and don’t break it for no one. This is your ticket to becoming a better fighter.

6) Be Humble and Pick Your Battles

Avoid all street fights whenever possible. Learn to de-escalate heated situations and diffuse your opponent before the fighting ever begins.

The goal of how to become a better fighter should ultimately be for self defense and survival. You don’t want to develop your skills as a fighter so you can go walk around getting into fist fights all the time.

Because the more often you end up in street fights significantly increases your chances of sustaining a life-altering injury. And when those injuries add up over time, your ability to fight and defend yourself diminishes greatly.

This is different from the ring where it’s a controlled environment with rules in place. The ring is a safer place to put your mettle to the test against another opponent. You will sustain less life threatening injuries in the ring than you will in the streets.

Humble yourself and choose the battles that truly matter to you. Be wise and stay open-minded to any situation. Recognize when a confrontation is not necessary. Create the option to walk away whenever possible.

7) Eat Right

This guide wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t mention nutrition. Make sure to eat right on a consistent basis. 

As overeating and indulging in way too much junk food will hinder your progress as a fighter. Nothing is worse than feeling sluggish and slow because you’re eating too much fast food and having high-sugar drinks every night.

Clean foods high with nutrition will give you the fuel and energy you need to feel light and move quickly during any fight. 

Because no matter how strong you are, you won’t win the fight if the other guy is beating you to the punch every time. Speed matters, and good nutrition will give you the boost you need.

What to do next?

Now that you know how to become a better fighter, Learn 9 Easy Self Defense Techniques you can use at any time. These are open handed techniques for how to win a fight in any situation if you’re on the street.