Garie Tang: When the Body’s Work is Done, the Mind’s Work Begins

This adapted story is proudly presented in collaboration with Choke Clinch Crank Combat, a coffee table book that tells the stories of 25 fighters in Singapore.

Garie Tang is a professional mixed martial arts fighter, national wrestler, sambist and grappler.

He is a two-time National Freestyle Wrestling Champion, 2015 IBJJF Asian Open Champion, UWW South-East Asian Grappling Champion, and South East Asian Combat Sambo Champion.

For Garie, the pursuit of martial arts is about the training of the mind as it is of the body.

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To Garie, training does not stop the moment you leave the mats. It extends into his daily life, be it over a meal, or deciding on a technique he wants to work on for the week. To him, training is as much the cultivation of the mind as it is the strengthening of the body.

Reflectiveness is at the heart of everything he does. When asked about why he scrutinises the things that other people are not even aware of, he responds, “We are typically very distracted by things and we don’t think about what we are doing. We don’t think, ‘Is this good, is this not good for me?’”

In this way, a meal becomes an exercise in focus, a way to remind himself to concentrate on his task at hand, and it is through small exercises like this that Garie aims to be a better fighter, and a better person.

Garie prizes mental toughness because, “My life is not just purely based around training and competitions. So martial arts, for me, is a machine to help improve my life. I use martial arts as a tool to train my focus, work ethic and discipline.”

His reflectiveness is testament to the agility of his mind, a mind that is quick to shuttle between the macro and the micro, consciously curating small habits while keeping sight of the bigger picture.

As with all things, Garie is mindful of the need for balance. Being good to yourself also means not being too hard on yourself when you fall short. It is about “understanding what’s important and being serious about it but finding the fine line where you are not too hard on yourself is taking care of yourself.”

Nonetheless, like all of us, Garie has had tough days. On this, he states, “The key is to not sabotage yourself. When we talk about mental toughness, we don’t usually talk about motivation. We talk about grit, toughness and pushing through tough times. Motivation is important especially on the days that suck.”

“Some days, I wake up in the morning and I feel like shit”, he admits.  On such days, music gets him going. He gets up and right after he brushes his teeth, he puts some music on — usually hip hop.

“You play something good, you groove to the music…Sometimes you just need that little push — be it music or caffeine.” On difficult days, habits are all the more important, having a routine to fall back on when your heart’s not in it.

At the gym, he warms up according to a routine of wrist preps, diving pushups, bear crawls. A routine gets him through the bad days, as he states, “Once I’m really warmed up, I can go.”

• Copy: Andrea Yew
• Photograhy: Khairul Selamat

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