UK MMA welterweight and head coach at Caged Steel Gym Danny Mitchell holds a 9-2 record in professional MMA, a brown belt in BJJ, numerous titles in amateur and submission grappling competition and unlicensed boxing titles, as well as a significantly warped mind. Here he takes us through some of the tactics he uses to gain that renowned cool edge in the cage.

Fighting is seen by most people as a purely physical sport, but the psychological factors that affect performance are just as important as the physical preparation. Personally I know a lot of fighters that are awesome athletes and can out fight anyone in the gym but, when it comes to actual competition, they make mistakes and crumble to psychological pressure that they put on themselves.

Anyone that knows me personally will know that before a fight I am very relaxed and don’t like to get worked up about what is about to take place. People often misread this relaxation as not being bothered about what is about to happen, but that is not the case. It is all about being mentally ‘switched on’ so that my body is ready to perform without being hindered by my already crazy and warped mind.

Although fighting almost comes as second nature to me now it wasn’t always that way and I have spent a lot of time using different techniques to give me the ‘edge’ that can almost surpass any physical technique training and, ultimately, win fights.

One of the most widely used forms of psychological preparation for a fight or indeed any sport is visualisation. This is a great exercise to do and should be done alone unless you are really good and shutting out things around you and mentally focusing on something. I like to put some music on my mp3 player (my walk out tune if possible) and close my eyes as I think about each part of my upcoming fight - right from warming up back stage to having my hand raised at the end of a match.

It’s really important to use visualisation techniques to help you understand what you are going to do in the fight, especially if things start to go wrong, as this is where self doubt can come into play and then it’s a slippery slope from there. I will think about all of the bad places I could end up in during the fight and see myself using the escapes I have drilled so many times during practice, always trying to re-enforce my game plan so that no matter what happens in the fight I am prepared and ready to do what needs to be done.

Another great technique that I started to use recently is the use of ‘triggers’. I picked this technique up from my friend John Wattam, who is a conditioning coach predominantly with boxers, but also works as a counsellor so he is experienced in the field of psychology. I started working with John around the time I fought Simon Phillips - who was ranked in the UK top ten at the time - but my first experience of using these triggers was for an unlicensed boxing title at the infamous Doncaster Racecourse.

We would start a training session as usual but as I began to spar, John would really get me so I was boxing sharp and get me ‘into the zone’ so to speak. Once I was sparring at my best he would kept re-enforcing it with a few basic phrases. The main ones were something like ‘stay sharp’, ‘switch on’ and between rounds he would always tell me, ‘you're like a train, just keep running and go through him’. He would even lightly punch my stomach as he spoke between rounds and this became ritual for weeks.

Fight day came and I got warmed up and ready to roll. I had visualised the fight and knew what I wanted to work. The guy was a southpaw so my thoughts had all been about stepping to the left and sending my right cross crashing into his skull. As I walked out to Johnny Cash – Folson Prison Blues, the lyrics ‘I hear that train a-coming’ rang in my head as I began to get in the state I was sparring at my best.

The fight started and the first round was pretty much a back and forth ‘testing out’ of each other's styles. My corner team of John and ex-pro boxing Central area champion Neil Malpass were just telling me to move and find my feet, which I eventually did towards the end of the round.

During the break between rounds, John began to tap my stomach as he did in training and spoke using the trigger words he had drilled into my head. The second round started and I felt mentally strong and confident. I came out sharper than the first round and landed sufficient punches to give my opponent two standing 8-counts before I landed the fight-stopping right cross that I had visualised pre-fight.

And that my friends is a great example of how I use mental preparation for my fights. I hope that it gives you an insight into some of the techniques you can use and also I hope that you see the value in this kind of preparation.