How To Get Better At Boxing When You ARE Boxing

Even if you box entirely for fitness and don't give a toss about the sport at all, boxing is a skill-based workout and something you can get better at just about every time you do it. How much better you get depends on you and your coach. For the sake of this article, let's assume you have a pretty good coach who knows how to teach, cares about you and wants to make you better. We're just going to talk about the You part here. How can you make the most of your boxing training and improve your skills and fitness levels during training? Of course the obvious answer is "Practice!" but let's also assume you already are practicing and want to practice better. Here are 8 tried-and-true suggestions!

1) Listen to Your Coach

I used to be a Project Manager (among other things) in the video game industry. Did it for many years and as the teams I worked with got bigger and bigger, communication became more and more important. It was a relatively fluid environment with changes always coming down the pipe - dates, assignments, features, etc. We'd have meetings and send out emails but people wouldn't always get the message. Then they'd get mad when they didn't know what was going on. I tried very hard to impress on them that communication is a 2-way street. Information must be broadcast and information must be received. Just broadcasting doesn't mean something gets communicated. The receiver must actively receive it. They must pay attention and process it.

Of course this is true in everything else and certainly boxing. Listen to what your coach is broadcasting, even if you think it doesn't apply to you or you already know it.

2) No Really, Listen

When it comes to learning a skill like boxing, especially at a furious pace when you are tired, it is easy to become unaware of what you are actually doing. A couple years ago, if a coach would have told me to keep my hands up when I was punching, I would have thought, "Duh, I'm already doing that!" But the strange thing was, I wasn't. I thought I was but I wasn't always. This is VERY common and a big reason why we all need coaches. We tend to think we are doing something but an impartial observer will notice otherwise. We have to be willing to always question ourselves and accept feedback.

3) Don't Assume That You Can't Do It

This is huge. I have now seen many thousands of people learn to box, many of them not necessarily young, athletic, fit or have a natural aptitude for learning a sport. These things do not have to be barriers though. True, everyone progresses at different rates but everyone CAN do it and everyone can be stronger and faster than they currently are.

The problem, though, is not physical at all. It's mental. I can usually tell from looking at someone whether or not they believe they can do something I've asked them to do. And it is pretty much as simple as is this: if they think they can, they can. If they think they can't, they can't. The mental barriers are just as strong as the physical ones. Too often, I see folks resign themselves to believing something is too hard and they can't do it right off the bat instead of calmly, taking each part step by step and executing with confidence. Believe that you can do it, believe that you can do better, and both things will be true.

4.) But Don't Assume That You've Got It Either

This is kind of the flipside of #3. Believing that you've got something down and no longer need to think about making it better anymore. Whether it is boxing or any sport, the highest level athletes don't practice less than everybody else because they are so good, they practice more! There is never a point where a boxer says something like, "I don't think I need to practice throwing jabs any more. I've thrown millions and that jab is as good as it's going to get." No, your jab and your everything can ALWAYS get better. That is a great thing about sports. There are no ceilings!

5.) You Must Push and Get Uncomfortable

I have met plenty of people who say they want to get better but they want this to somehow happen magically or without putting in harder work than they have put in previously. Unfortunately, as nice as it would be, this is not going to happen. We all have to ask ourselves, do we really want to get better? Really? Or are we just telling ourselves this because they alternative sounds negative?

If you really want to get better at boxing (or most things in life), you're gonna have to work for it. You are going to have to leave your comfort zone, physically and mentally. You can't be afraid to push yourself a little harder when you're completely exhausted and just want to rest. You can't be afraid to try something brand new that you might look silly doing. You can't be afraid to change something that you've been doing for a long time and is awkward to fix. Even if you are boxing only for fitness, don't be afraid to slow down and try to get some of the mechanics right. You may feel like you are sacrificing your workout that particular day but in the long term, your workouts will improve with proper technique. There are lots of ways to get out of our comfort zone and we have to do pretty much all of them to get better! Doing the same thing over and over will not get you there.

This also relates to working on the things you have more trouble with. If you struggle with something like, say, uppercuts, don't just resign yourself to the fact that you struggle with uppercuts. Work extra hard on them and be comfortable being uncomfortable. Just like you push past the physical barriers, you must push past those mental barriers too.

6.) Stay Disciplined When You Are Tired

Speaking of scary things, getting really tired during a workout is kind of scary. We don't usually think about it in those terms but it is true. Being tired at the end of a long day and climbing into a comfy bed is great but the kind of physical exhaustion that comes from a high-intensity workout is a whole different animal. What's more is that when you feel this way and the workout is not even half over. You have to still go on, despite wanting very much to stop.

If/when this happens to you, what if you looked at it in a totally different way? What if you looked it at as A) a good sign that shows you are working hard and making yourself stronger (despite feeling weaker at that exact moment) and B) see it as an opportunity to stay disciplined? If you watch just about any boxing match that goes into the later rounds, you will see professional boxers in the best physical condition possible start to get tired. For many of them, when they get tired like this, things start to change. They're not as up on their toes, their hands aren't always up, their punches don't snap like they used to, etc.

Some of that is certainly inevitable but if you find yourself feeling tired and not as sharp as you once were, start to focus more on what you are doing. Work extra hard to keep your hands up, stay on the balls of your feet and if your punches aren't as snappy, throw fewer of them, but focus more on snapping the ones you do throw. It really doesn't save you that much energy to put your hands down and rest than if you had just kept your hands up and moved around the bag. The difference is much smaller than someone might think. So do it! Spend that extra joule of energy, as I like to say, staying disciplined. 

7) Finish Strong!

Let's say you're not having the greatest day of training ever. Maybe you're tired and you're sick of trying to stay disciplined and you're pushing yourself but just feel like you are grinding your gears. We all have those days. All of us. Pro boxers even take rounds off sometimes! But in training, I would never advise taking a round off. What you can do though, is slow things down for a round where you're grinding a little bit but still try to finish strong at the end of the round. Or end of the session. Give yourself that extra push at the end because you know a break is coming. It won't feel great and you won't want to do it but it will make a big, positive difference in the long-term. Plus it trains your body to recover better and creates somewhat of a killer instinct.

8) Film Yourself

I mentioned earlier about how a coach can see things you can't and it's important to listen to them but sometimes, YOU need to see it to believe it. I also mentioned earlier not believing that I was dropping my hands on punches until I finally saw video of me doing it.

So film yourself during a boxing training session and then watch it back later. WARNING! You might be taken aback by what you see. Besides technical mistakes, we  often look slower on video than we feel like we are moving. And sloppier. Don't let that get you down though. Most everybody feels this way so instead think of it as constructive criticism. How can you get better?  Maybe try to improve your speed and mechanics. Then film yourself again later and compare the two. You might still feel like you were moving faster than the video shows but at least you see that you were moving faster than you were in the first video.

If you do these 8 things and put in the work, no matter who you are, you WILL get better at boxing and your fitness will improve. I guarantee it. There is no way it won't work. How much better you get may depend a little bit on other factors but you will improve. You just have to do it. And relatively speaking, they are not that hard to do. Think about this way, you've already done the hardest part. If have made the time and you are already in the gym training, that is by far the biggest hurdle for the vast majority of people. Showing up. Might as well make the most of your time while you're there, right?

How To Get Better at Boxing When You're NOT Boxing

Remember that scene in the movie, The Matrix, where Keanu Reeves's character is strapped to a chair with cables hooked up to his skull and a computer uploads a complete mastery of Kung Fu into his brain within seconds? Well, you can't do that with boxing. You also can't do it with Kung Fu. I do remember people selling tapes that you could listen to while you were sleeping that would implant suggestions that supposedly helped with things like weight loss, and I am pretty sure that none of those things worked either. As nice is it would be to do absolutely nothing and learn certain skills or disciplines, this is not an option for us in the present day. For now, learning things requires hard work.

But you can get better at boxing, even when you are not actually training boxing. Here are 4 ways to do it and note that you do have to be awake for all of them:

Watching With a Purpose

While we can't have boxing just directly implanted into our brains like Neo in the Matrix, we do have the ability now to watch boxing any time we want, anywhere we want, through our many screen options. Watching competitive boxing, particularly with skilled fighters, will help you to better understand the sport and movement mechanics, which can translate into better success in your own training. I put some good, classic fights up on our youtube channel here - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN0PPf0o8X6WesaqNEuumJFunk5C9P_-u

But you can make it much more effective than just watching some good fights. Instead, pick a fighter to study. Preferably someone who you connect with and seems more similar to you than others. There may not be that many similarities but if you are small and fast, maybe find a good small and fast fighter to study, for example. Or better yet, let's say you have a favorite punch or at least, one you like to throw. Or maybe you really like footwork. Or defense. Or you just like punching and aren't interested as much in the other stuff. Or whatever. Find a fighter who is like that. Search online for things like, "which boxer has the best left hook?," "which boxer punches the fastest?," etc. You will likely get different answers and you can explore all of them a little.

Once you find that fighter to study, watch some of their fights or at least, highlights. Then try to visualize them when you get back to boxing training. Provided they aren't breaking a ton of rules, your boxing will almost definitely improve. I always tell people to watch Mike Tyson throwing uppercuts. The more you visualize him using his legs, exploding upwards, rotating his hips and arch his back, the more power you are going to get. I can tell you to do all of those things myself but if you are able to clearly see it in your head, it can really help.

DISCLAIMER: Note that the advice above is for someone who has already been training in boxing. You don't have to be an expert, not by any means, but at least have a very basic handle on the different punches and movements. I occasionally see people come to our club who have never done any training before in their lives and instantly try to be like Floyd Mayweather Jr., doing Philly Shell defense and shoulder roll and this is definitely NOT what I am talking about here. 

Boxing On My Mind

Just thinking about boxing will help you get better at it. Maybe won't make a huge difference but it will help. As I have said many many times, boxing is not natural. Taking a swing at somebody, sure, that is pretty natural but throwing proper punches with good form while staying protected is the opposite of natural. Keeping your mind engaged in the sport, even when you aren't training your body, will assist with the transition of making something unnatural become natural.

So, what should you think about? Could be anything, really, but something I recommend are combinations. Think about throwing a combination. Doesn't have to be anything long or fancy at all. Could even be a jab-cross. Just like I mentioned above, see it in your mind. Then think about what punch you might throw next. You don't have to put a lot of thought into it either, just whatever feels right. Then what might you throw after that? You could imagine defense as well. And you could think about everything in relation to an opponent and it will get even better. What did your opponent do when you threw the jab-cross? How does that change your next punch? Did they throw something back at you and how are you going to defend it? Perhaps this is veering into the more complicated, but simple works just fine, too.

When would you actually do this? While you're waiting in line for something. During an unskippable commercial interlude. Any time you have a few seconds where you aren't able to do anything else productive. You actually do this while you are trying to get to sleep and it actually may help, like a violent version of counting sheep. Maybe you are thinking now, "Look, I like boxing but I am not THAT into it where I would be thinking of combos during the day and night." Maybe that does feel like a certain level of interest that you don't have, but during these moments, what else are you going to think about? I am a relatively busy person and I like to stay busy, but still find those little moments of dead time all the time.

Accept That You Are Boxer

If you train boxing somewhat consistently, at least once a week in a very structured manner under a coach, you are a boxer. Doesn't matter if you train on the heavy bag, mitts, even shadow boxing, if you are training with a purpose and a decent coach, you are a boxer. I wrote a whole blog post on this once that anybody who doubts whether or not they are a boxer should read - https://theboxingmanifesto.blogspot.com/2022/12/are-you-boxer.html

How does this help you get better? Because it changes your mindset. It means you are more likely to do the 2 things I have already mentioned above and means that you take your own training more seriously, with more accountability. We all hold ourselves back in different ways and this is extremely common when it comes to average folks learning boxing. Boxing is not their world and as I'll say again, it is certainly not natural nor easy, so they create a mental block for themselves, as well as a built-in excuse. "I don't have to punch any harder or faster because I'm not a boxer - I'm just trying a new kind of exercise." They may certainly just be trying out a new kind of exercise but that thinking will hold them and their exercise results back. 

Once again, if you train consistently under a coach in a structured format, like the classes we do at our club, you are a boxer. You may not think of yourself as a particularly good or strong boxers but you are boxer nonetheless. And you can always get better. Always. No matter who you are or who you think you are.

Self-Care

Whether you are a boxer, bowler, bocce baller, or just regular old human being, proper nutrition, sleep and eating habits are important. You don't need me to tell you that, but sometimes it helps to think about it in a different context. If you eat healthier, you will perform better when you box. You'll have more energy, feel less fatigued, and recover quicker. If those things happen, you will be able to focus more on form and coaching in general, as well as generally feel more capable while you box as opposed to wiped out. You also may feel more confident as you perform better. All of those things translate into making you a better boxer, so the better you eat, the better you box.

Sleep too. If you have a rough sleep and only get about 4 hours in, you are almost definitely not going to perform as well the next day as you would have done with 7-8 hours of good sleep. Besides what I mentioned above with nutrition, a lack of sleep also leads to crankiness, which can make the mind less open to learning and developing. Sleep also gives the body a chance to recover so that you perform better the next time as well. If you have trouble falling asleep, there are plenty of healthy, non-narcotic options out there, like counting or thinking about boxing combinations as mentioned earlier. You just have to explore.

Of course everyone knows that eating and sleeping are crucial to our well-being but we can't just flip a switch and start eating better and sleeping better.  These things require time and discipline, not things we all have in spades. Instead of trying to do a total 180 with your self-care habits, start small. Maybe go to bed 30 minutes earlier than usual for a while. Take one day where you normally eat something like pizza and go with an even slightly healthier alternative. Baby steps. This does not have to be a major life change. Every little bit matters and besides making you generally healthier, it makes you a better boxer too.

What about other, non-boxing exercises? Will lifting/running/etc. help you become a better boxer when you're away from your training facility? This is yet another thing I have talked about before in an earlier post - https://theboxingmanifesto.blogspot.com/2021/06/weight-training-for-boxing-this-is-big.html#comment-form - but my short, pithy answer is that there are plenty of good reasons to perform other basic exercises but they likely won't make a huge difference in your boxing ability, with the exception of skipping rope. There are boxing benefits that come from skipping rope beyond the general fitness/cardio aspect, like timing, rhythm, learning how to turn off certain parts of your body while engaging others but for the most part, if the goal is simply to get better at boxing while not boxing in a gym, you would be better served practicing your footwork, head movement, and shadowboxing. You could do sprints and tempo runs for better cardio and weight loss, if this was an area you really wanted to focus on too. Most of us only have so much time for exercise though, and obviously you are going to get the best boxing bang for your buck by actually boxing. But when you can't box, at least there are some other options that don't really require any physical exertion.

Will Boxing Improve Your Golf Game? And Vice Versa?

Just like boxing, golf as we know it was invented in Great Britain (Scotland).  But other than that, the two sports wouldn't seem to have too much in common on the surface. Boxing is fast-paced, explosive and violent whereas golf is pretty much the opposite of all that. Some of the basic mechanics and movement philosophies, however, share a lot of similarities, including:

1. Stance and balance are critical
2. Power is generated from the ground up
3. The motion transfers from the legs through rotation of the hips and core. Torque!
4. Weight is shifted from one foot to the other
5. Fast-twitch muscle fibers are engaged
6. Muscles stay relaxed, not tense, to create a smooth, whip-like motion
7. Many punches, like golf swings, travel in an arc and maintaining that arc is critical for power and accuracy
8. Strong focus on technique and repeated practice of a single movement, never perfecting but always refining.

While people don't normally associate golf with physical strength, it is an often overlooked component. All-time great golfers like Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods used/use their legs to really drive the ball further than everybody else back in their respective heydays. Then there is the core. Just like people mistakenly think boxing punches come from the arms, some people think that about golf too. That you would swing your arms to hit the ball, when in reality, is the hips and core rotating that generates the swing while the arms follow.

So how does boxing help your golf game? Going back to those 8 similarities, boxing will not just give you reps in each of these things but thousands and thousands of reps PER SESSION, drilling those fundamentals into your brain and better yet, your muscle memory. Besides the memory part, these reps also develop muscles too. The more you push your foot into the ground to generate power on the punch, the stronger your legs get. The more you practice throwing fast, whip-like punches, the more fast-twitch muscle fiber you will develop. And the more you do literally everything in boxing, the stronger your core will be.

I have heard from literally every person who golfs and trains boxing that at the very least, their drives have undeniably improved from boxing. Distance, in particular, as well as accuracy. Plus increased stamina and coordination is always helpful. Boxing with proper technique can also help with core flexibility, something important when it comes to golf swings. There aren't a ton of boxers who golf but those that do, like Canelo and Manny Pacquiao, are pretty darn good players. Canelo may very well become a golf pro after he retires from the ring.

But what about the vice versa? Will golf help your boxing game? I can tell you this for absolute certain (and have said it many times), that the #1 hardest thing to teach people new to boxing is how to rotate their hips and shift their weight on every punch and defensive movement. It is just not natural and as I alluded to earlier, most untrained people think that boxing is done with the hands, arms and shoulders so that is where their focus is. Someone coming in from a golf background, however, will already understand this first, major point. They will likely know how to use their core to create torque and this is HUGE!

Depending on their golf experience level, they may also very well understand that tensing up every muscle and trying to brute strength every drive is not going to get the job done. They are going to get more distance on their swing by staying loose and fluid and the same is true with punches. Being able to relax while boxing and use that to actually throw faster, more dangerous punches is yet another thing that is very hard to beginners to grasp so a good golfer may come in with these skills already.

Of course there are plenty of things boxing and golf don't have in common but if you are a golfer looking to cross train, I guarantee that boxing is the best possible fit for you. Maybe not competitive boxing, as being punched in the head is not particularly useful for anything, but bag work, mitt work, and shadowboxing are going to definitely help your golf game. Plus you will have the added advantage of being ahead of the game on some of the more difficult concepts that come with learning boxing.

Where Did Boxing Come From?

Competitions involving combat and fist-fighting have been around for literally thousands of years. It
was part of the very first Olympiad in ancient Greece and there is evidence to show it goes back even further. But it was a lot different than what we know of the sport nowadays. There was very little structure other than whoever was left standing was also the winner. As such, it was very violent and bloody. 

With the rise of the Roman empire, gladiatorial combat with weapons and armor became more popular and of course even more violent, as the losing combatant generally died. But as Christianity began to rise and said Roman Empire faded, these kind of competitions were considered barbaric, eventually ceasing to exist on any mainstream level.

Bare-knuckle fighting, known first as pugilism, would surface again in Britain during the late 1600s. Contests would go down in relatively large venues, like the Royal Theater of London, and it became a popular sport to bet on. There were still no real rules though. No weight classes either. You could also wrestle, take your opponent down, and even hit them while they were down. The fights went on as long as they had to.

Despite its popularity, boxing was still technically illegal. One of the first champions to gain support was James "the Newton" Figg (probably not really his nickname). This was around the time that the term, "boxing” started to get associated with the sport but yet again, still no general set of rules, other than just ones made for specific fights. No referees either so there was plenty of headbutts, eye gouges (no gloves either), and God knows what else. It's funny to think about but it was really MMA long before MMA.One of Figg's training partners/proteges was Jack "Muscles" Broughton (also not his real nickname) who became champion and was apparently undefeated for 24 years. But more importantly, he was the first to codify any kind of official rules for general boxing contests. Known as "The Broughton Rules," they consisted of seven things that would eventually become adopted as The London Prize Ring Rules in 1743.

These rules established judges and knockdown rules, where a fighter would not be allowed to hit a downed opponent, as he was given a certain amount of time to stand up and continue the fight. Also outlawed were grabbing of the legs but you could still wrestle and throw kicks. Broughton was also one of the first boxers to wear something akin to a glove, then called "mufflers" to protect hands. Gloves did not achieve widespread popularity until about another 150 years though, as they actually made the sport more violent because combatants were able to punch up high since they didn't have to worry quite as much about breaking their hands, whereas bareknuckle fighters tend to go to the body more. NOTE: I would bet that American professional football might actually be safer too if players did not wear padding and helmets, for this same reason.

It wasn’t until 1867 that a Welch journalist and sportsman called John Graham Chambers would establish the Marquess of Queensberry Rules. They were called this because it was under the patronage of the Marquess of Queensberry that Chambers was able to publish those rules. This is when modern boxing would finally take shape and these rules are still used to this day.  Now boxers had to fight in a ring, there was no wrestling allowed whatsoever, the now-standard 3-minute round was introduced with 1 minute breaks in between, as was the notion of the 10-second count and standing 8 counts with boxers returning to their corners. The referee now had full control of the fight and it essentially made boxing into a real sport, as opposed to just a barroom brawl, where skill and tactics became more important.

It is unclear how the basic punches were developed but I would guess they predate the London bareknuckle scene of the 1700s. The old-timey boxing stance that people associate with Ireland - mainly because of the Notre Dame Leprechaun - actually did originate in England but it is also unknown if any specific person could have been credited with inventing it.

James "Jem" Mace (that actually was his nickname) was the first heavyweight champion under the new rules and his popularity helped to cement them into boxing culture. Mace, and the sport's popularity, would make it's way to America, particularly through English and Irish immigration. America would eventually start to dominate the sport and international fights started to take place. From there, boxing would spread throughout the world and at one time could even be considered one of the most popular global sports.

So, while you could say that boxing's roots trace back at least as long as we have cave drawings, it is safe to say that what we know as boxing today came directly from jolly, old England and will hopefully continue to flourish. While both amateur and competitive boxing are not as popular as they used to be (see my earlier blog post on that - https://theboxingmanifesto.blogspot.com/2023/02/what-is-wrong-with-professional-boxing.html), it is heartening to see that now more people probably have done some form of boxing training than ever before. So who knows, maybe the best era is still to come?