In an interview with Niall Breslin for ALustForLife.com, John Kavanagh - coach to Conor McGregor - spoke about a variety of topics, including the positive atmosphere which he tries to promote in his gym - SBG.
Kavanagh picked out one piece of advice in particular from a sports psychologist with whom he works. It relates to being conscious regarding the words you use around others.
You have to be very careful of your language, because words are powerful. How you describe you day-to-day settings. How you describe how you are approaching your goals, the language you use is very important.
Our sports psychologist David Mullins, he gave us some great advice. I remember him explaining to me, if you watch an MMA fight and let's say for example the guy that I'm cornering, that I want him to stay on his feet. His opponent's trying to take him down to the ground and I want him to stay on his feet.
Well, I can say that message two different ways that will effect the mind two very different ways. I can say to him 'stay on your feet, keep it on your feet' or 'don't go to the ground'. That's the same message, it's keep it on your feet so you can use your boxing skills but it's said two very different ways.
One is positive - 'keep it on the feet, stay on your feet'. One is a negative - 'don't go to the ground'. We'll always use the positive way of saying things because 'don't go to the ground' can just be heard as 'go to the ground'.
We try to be careful about how we word things. The simple things, like the day-to-day greetings when you meet someone in the gym.
Kavanagh also explained how he tries to view loss and failure as an opportunity to learn and grow.
We try to create an environment where losing is not seen as it is by the majority of people. The majority of people see losing as a very negative outcome.
I want the guys, when they're in the guy, if we're doing a sequence or they're doing a match in the gym and they lose, that we see what we can learn from that.
Losing is an opportunity to grow.
Even when I'm with the kids in here and maybe it's and Irish thing. Someone trips and people snigger at them. You see that and it's like pulling people back.
What we try to do is when some trips or falls or fails at something, point out what they did correctly because there's always going to be some positive to it. Let's see what they did correct and encourage them to try again.
You can listen to the full interview below.
