When thought interferes, the Flow disappears

Have you ever noticed this paradox: the more you try to control your fight, the more you lose your fluidity? The more you think about doing it right, the more rigid and hesitant your movements become?

Researchers like Sian Beilock, Richard Masters, and James Hardy have studied choking under pressure , the suffocation experienced by athletes. Their discovery: under stress, athletes don't fail because they forget their technique, but because they overthink. The movement, repeated thousands of times, suddenly becomes paralyzed by the stream of thoughts that analyze, comment on, and judge it.

To counter this, these researchers propose cognitive solutions: focusing on an external point, simplifying instructions, using routines. These are helpful. But they are only a way to manage thought, not to understand it.

Because managing and controlling your mind requires an enormous expenditure of energy. Every effort to control your mind consumes vital energy that could flow freely in your movements, your breath, your gaze. Imagine a fighter using half his strength to keep his own thoughts on a leash, as if he had to fight two opponents: the one in front of him and the one in his head.

When this energy is no longer used to fight the flow of thoughts, it is instantly released. And in this freedom, it naturally redirects itself toward right action, toward that living intelligence that emerges from inner silence. This isn't a technique to force; it's an insight that occurs when you stop fighting against yourself.

The real problem isn't the thought itself, but believing it to be real, solid, definitive. When you believe your inner turmoil is "you," you're fighting your own reflection, exhausting yourself battling a shadow. But when you see that this thought is merely a fleeting form, a cloud passing across the sky of your consciousness without any real power over you, it loses its solidity. And in that moment of lucidity, the movement is freed, the body acts without interference, and the Flow reappears.

This is the fundamental difference between the Outside-In and Inside-Out approaches. The former seeks to control thought from the outside, to manage its manifestations as a technical problem. The latter sees the very nature of thought, understanding that it is merely ephemeral movement without real substance. One relies on mastery and perpetual effort. The other opens the door to freedom.

In this freedom, there is nothing more to "do." Just be present and let consciousness act through you. This is true Flow: action without interference, the gesture born from living silence.

Dialogue in the dojo: When students discover interference

After training, the coach gathers his students in a circle. He allows silence to settle before speaking.

Coach: What did you notice today during your fights?

Marie, green belt, raises her hand.

Marie: I was trying so hard to perfect my mawashi, to think about my guard, my distance... that I couldn't move naturally anymore. Then I let go, and everything became easier.

Coach: You experienced the difference between trying to control and simply being present. It's a turning point (insight).

Thomas, a brown belt, intervenes.

Thomas: But Coach, when I stop thinking, I become passive. I get hit from all sides. I need my strategy.

Coach: I never said you should stop thinking. I said that thoughts interfere when you believe them to be real. Tell me, when you're fighting, where are you? Focused on your opponent... or on the internal commentary in your head?

Thomas closes his eyes. When he opens them again, something has changed.

Thomas: I was... in my head. I was calculating, analyzing. Even when I looked at my opponent, it was as if I was looking at him through a filter of thoughts.

Coach: And when your attention is taken by this internal commentary, how much energy do you have left to actually see what's going on?

Amélie, an orange belt, intervenes with a smile.

Amélie: I understand! In a fight, I analyze everything. My brain sweats more than my forehead!

The group laughs.

Coach: You've noticed that thinking costs energy. A huge amount of energy. And that energy you spend analyzing is exactly the energy you need to strike with power, to see the openings clearly.

Karim, blue belt, raises his hand.

Karim: Coach, I experienced something strange. At one point, time slowed down. I could see his shot coming, but I had all the time in the world to react. It was fluid, effortless. Then my head started commenting "wow, that's amazing," and poof, I hit a direct shot.

Coach: You just described time distortion, one of the markers of Flow. You were totally present. And what made it disappear?

Karim: The thought that said "this is great"...

Coach: Exactly. Your attention shifted from the opponent to your internal commentary. The flow evaporated.

Thomas: But if I don't think about my strategy, how can I anticipate the moves?

Coach: Have you ever caught a ball that was thrown to you unexpectedly?

Thomas: Yes.

Coach: And you calculated the trajectory, speed, and angle in your head?

Thomas: No... my hands move automatically.

Coach: Exactly. There's a somatic intelligence that reacts in real time without using language. This intelligence works at the speed of life. Analytical thinking works at the speed of language. And language is slow. Too slow for real combat.

Amélie: What's the difference between thinking about a strategy and having thoughts interfere?

Coach: The quality of attention. When the mind is focused on the fight, it's light. It says, "Watch out for his jab," then dissolves. But when it interferes, it creates a wall. It says, "Watch out for his jab, and also his low kick, and I mustn't forget my high hands, and damn, he got me last time, what if it happens again..." Do you see the problem?

Amélie: Yes! It's like a sports commentator who never shuts up.

Coach: And this commentator is draining all your energy. That's what choking under pressure is. You're so convinced your body can't perform naturally anymore.

Karim: How do we stop this commentator? The more I try not to think, the more I think!

Coach: You can't stop a thought by thinking about stopping it. The more you fight it, the more power you give it.

Karim: So we're not doing anything?

Coach: We simply see that thought is thought. Not "you." Just thought. A form that appears and disappears. Like a cloud in the sky. Does the cloud have the power to stop you from fighting? No. But if you believe the cloud is the sky, then yes, you're stuck.

Sophie, a green belt, breaks the silence.

Sophie: Coach, I had an insight. All my life, I believed my negative thoughts were true. That I wasn't "good enough," "too slow." But now I realize they're just thoughts. They only have the power I give them.

Coach: Sophie, that shift where you see that thought is just thought, that's the gateway to Flow. You've touched it now.

Sophie: I feel lighter. As if a weight has just been lifted.

Coach: That weight was the energy you were wasting believing your thoughts. When you saw their true nature, that energy was released instantly.

The coach stands up.

Coach: What you've learned today, some will forget in five minutes. Others will carry it with them for weeks. That's okay. It's a call to return to your true nature, whenever you find yourself lost in a forest of swirling thoughts. Come home!

All together: Osu!

The coach watches them return to the tatami. In their eyes, that particular gleam that ignites when something essential has just been touched. He smiles. He hasn't "taught." He has simply pointed to what was already there, waiting to be acknowledged.

Flow. Freedom. Living intelligence.

Excerpt from the book: The Generative Fighter and Flow in Combat

Gaëtan Sauvé, practitioner of Kyokushin Karate since 1971