Chapter 8 - Training the mind

..."We shouldn't tell him 'that' yet. Who knows what he might do." "You are right... he still has to learn how to control it..."...

...I had no idea how to answer his question and so we just stared into each others eyes for a long time. It felt like an eternity and I was losing myself in his deep green eyes. Like a swamp I just couldn't get out of his stare.

"Fine then. Since you really have no idea, I'll just train you till you can answer my question." He said annoyed leaving me helpless again. I don't know what this was just now, but I almost began to sweat unable to realize anything.

"I already told you, that your body isn't the problem, instead your mind isn't keeping up. You have to strengthen it. Be more flexible and stay calm. You have great instincts, so use them." He told me quite seriously.

"Thanks, but wait a minute! What even is your name? How should I call you?"

"Hm... that is right, so just call me Sir Jack or just Jack for short. I don't really care to be honest." Jack said while shrugging.

"Ok Jack, please help me then!" "I already gave you some hints, so just go with the flow." He said trying to look really cool and did a finger gun.

"Yeah, but with what should I start then?" "In almost every fight you have to control your emotions and stay calm. So you should first learn some techniques to do that. I think the most effective one would be to control ones breathing. The other way to calm yourself down in battle would also be using partially progressive muscle relaxation."

"Never heard of that." I wondered what he was telling me.

"That is a technique our ancestors primarily used in battle to relax ones body and jump into fights again. The neanderthal men often used it. For example you focus your emotions and just curl your toes down. The relaxation will get transported thoughout your entire body and you'll be ready to fight again. Some also clench their fists and relax them to support the process. But like I said it is definitely easier to just control ones breathing instead of the relaxation. You also have to train that a lot more to achieve a level that could be of use. So focus on your breathing for now." "Thanks Jack and how should we do that?" "For now just run a few kilometres and warm yourself up."

... After about 30 minutes of warming up, running around and stretching, I stopped and was ready to start the training.

"I am ready Jack!" I said grinning, while being full of energy. "You sure are pumped up, Mark. Ok, so first I'll show you how to breath and calm down. It is simple so you should be able to use it very fast. First look for an opportunity to get a few seconds of rest or just do it before a fight. Focus on the only thing that is important right now. Yourself and the fight. Suppress everything else, emotions, the noises and environment around you. Control yourself, if you cant suppress your emotions then use them. Let the rage give you power. Think about the words "Fight on!" in your mind. Let them help you to concentrate and now breathe slowly through your nose. In and out. And that is it. How are you feeling?"

I was astonished by the effect that short technique had on my mind. I felt calm and was able to think very clearly. "I-Incredible! I feel as if I could do anything!" "It had an impact after all, haha. You should know, that all those muscle heads just think about their great and impregnable body, but if their mind is broken, they are destined to lose. Just like you did. You got intimidated, frightened and indefinitely lost." "What about the second technique?" I asked, sad of the reminder. He really liked to tell me that. As if he wanted to drill that feeling into my head.

"You can combine it with the controlled breathing and also use it in battle since you mostly won't have time to breathe like that. But like I said it will hardly bring you any benefit at the beginning. Just try it out." "Could you provoke me a bit then?" I asked quite naively. I calmed down too much due to the breathing.

"That is... a strange request, but I'll try my best... You will never be like John. No matter how hard you try... Uh!" I didn't realize that I just threw a terrifying glare at him. He looked as if he just "gazed into an deep abyss but then the abyss stared back at him". I wondered what he just saw and after clenching my fists and curling my toes, I felt relieved "Ah, sorry Jack. I didn't mean to do that." Then I realized that Jack looked at me with a dangerous and unsettling glance, putting me under a lot of pressure. "Oh, yeah, sorry." Jack said while smiling just like he always did. "Oh no! I forgot the time... Well you wanna know how much time is left till the tournament?"

"WAIT?! How long was I out?!?"