LMA Study: UFC 306 and Canelo (Patreon)

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I'm going to use some fights from this past weekend to illustrate some LMA concepts, particularly the differences between perspective, prospective, predictive, and prescriptive.

Canelo Alvarez vs. Edgar Berlanga

Our perspectives are first-person. People assume we see in third-person, like a video game where you see the character and everything around them, when it's actually like a first-person shooter.

Have you ever played a first-person fighting game? Much like in real life, you can only see your opponent and what's behind them—that's it. They're much harder than third-person fighting games because you're working with limited information, which is why they're unpopular.

When you're fighting or sparring, you can't see your hands, so you can't see whether your hands are up or not. People around you can see and assume you can as well, but you can't. Mechanical learning is ineffective because it relies on you watching your movements when you can't. It's also prescriptive; it centers the movement rather than the information landscape. It's the difference between talking just to hear yourself talk (self-centered) and talking with the intent to listen and engage (other-centered). Being self-centered is not only disrespectful but also comes with consequences.

Alvarez can't see his hands, but he can feel them pressing on his head. His other senses tell him his hands are up, and he seeks that feeling. Since he's fighting bigger opponents, feeling his hands are where they're supposed to be is more critical.

Predictive means an action based on a guess. It actually means "before talking" or "before information." Berlanga predicted a jab, but Alvarez executed a left hook. This led to a knockdown not only because Alvarez had power or Berlanga was defenseless but also because Berlanga was startled. He was predicting a jab and got something else. Prospective is based on perspective, while predictive is not.

Berlanga kept predicting the wrong thing, while Alvarez kept perceiving the right thing.

Brian Ortega vs. Diego Lopes

Ortega and Lopes are on two different career trajectories—Lopes is on the way up while Ortega is on the way down. Ortega has taken a lot of damage, not only in his losses but also in his victories.

Ortega has a habit of coming forward with punches, predicting his opponent will back up, only to get countered. Ortega is guessing. Lopes didn't need to guess; he perceived Ortega coming forward with a prospective right hand.

Let's use baseball as an example. Predictive is me standing on a spot in the field where I think you'll hit the ball before you even hit it. Prospective is seeing you hit the ball and, while the ball is in the air, calculating where the ball will arrive. Through experience, I can get better and better at knowing where the ball will go. Prediction is fortune telling, while prospective is a calculation.

Nothing about Lopes's movements said he was backing up, yet once a prediction is in motion, it's hard to stop. Lopes perceived Ortega coming forward with a right hand, so he didn't need to guess. LMA doesn't guess. The linchpin of LMA is ease-building so your executive function can perceive; then, it's about training your perception. You don't need to guess because the person standing before you is the answer sheet, so long as you can slow down to see the answers and not miss them.

The bulk of the fight was Ortega running into punches he didn't predict. Lopes is fast, which makes people want to predict and give themselves a head start. However, fast people are the last people you want to predict against because if you're wrong, you won't have time to correct your mistake.

Along with "How you do one thing is how you do all things," another concept is, "Slow is fast, and fast is slow." Both are about time-saving and simplicity. Learning a new rodeo each time will make learning anything a difficult task. So, how you do one thing is how you do all things. If you slow down, your executive function speeds up. If you rush, your executive function slows down. If it slows down, you'll make mistakes and have to start again. Slow is fast, and fast is slow.

Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko 3

Grasso's plan was to pressure Shevchenko against the fence. It was prescriptive. Despite what Shevchenko did, Grasso repeated this strategy. Prescription is a type of prediction; it's not based on the current information landscape but on the one you imagined.

When Grasso pressured forward, Shevchenko ducked and took her down. The ease came from Grasso being startled by it—taken by surprise. Grasso looked with predictive eyes—what she thought she'd see rather than what she was seeing. As she got discouraged, the more her eyes betrayed her.

Shevchenko saw Grasso's movements and where Grasso's prospective hips would be, and she found them. Shevchenko had a response that was similar to Grasso's teammate, Lopes, but rather than punching, she tackled. Grasso walked into the takedowns.

Grasso had a detailed plan in all three of her fights against Shevchenko. She gets a lot of instruction in the corner. One thing I've noticed about Shevchenko's coach is that he doesn't say much. He makes a few points and leaves it to Shevchenko to do the rest. Shevchenko live adapted. Grasso fought very much like Ortega. She had one plan and couldn't adapt.

Sean O'Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili

O'Malley needs space for his striking style. For space to exist against Dvalishvili, who is coming forward, O'Malley has to back up. Unlike Shevchenko, who took Grasso down as Grasso was coming forward, Dvalishvili had a more traditional approach, coming forward and taking O'Malley down.

Rather than predict, Dvalishvili used himself as bait to obtain prospective information. He kept moving, but then would allow himself to be a stationary target, allowing O'Malley to hit him. Rather than guessing, he designed a situation where O'Malley would lunge or set all his weight down into a strike.

O'Malley was looking for a knockout, which only made it worse because all his weight would fall into Dvalishvili's grasp. Dvalishvili only saw the prospect of O'Malley falling into him, but it was O'Malley who committed all his weight to it. However, that's prior knowledge Dvalishvili had going into the bout—that O'Malley was looking for the knockout.

Dvalishvili won with calculated takedowns and strikes.

If you're going to predict, you have to prescribe. If you're going to prescribe, you have to predict. For example:

Prescribing and predicting: "Do it like this because they'll be doing this."

Predicting and prescribing: "They'll be doing this, so you need to do this."

Under the LMA approach, we don't predict. We calm our nervous system to see opportunities. When we see them, we seize them. If we don't see them, we work further on relaxation and don't let it get to us. If we still don't see opportunities, we perturb them into existence.

– Sam