The Beginner Mentality

If I were to take a boxing or kickboxing class at any other gym, and the instructor/coach told me to do
something that I 100% believed to be technically incorrect, I would still try to do it like they asked me to. Not just to be respectful to them but to actually give it a try and see what happens. It's been a while but I have been to other gyms in the last 5 years and this situation has come up. I did what I was told and asked the coach why they suggested doing it the way they did after the class was over. 

There was a time when this probably wouldn't be true, where I would ignore a coach telling me to do something I thought was wrong or at least, not the way I would do it, thinking I knew better. But now that I have trained longer, coached longer, and spent many hours breaking down fights in film study, I am much more open to trying something different. Maybe it is still "wrong” but it is good to always evaluate and reevaluate. The sweet science is never settled. Once I learn something, it is not over. I look back and question it from time to time. Maybe because I might start to feel differently or maybe I will just better understand why I was right in the first place. Both are valuable but they do require an open mind, which can be hard to have when you have been training for a while.

This open mind is what I call a Beginner Mentality and it is important to maintain throughout your boxing journey. Many people, coaches in particular, tend to start believing that they know everything about a certain aspect of boxing (or whatever) and while maybe they do, there is always a possibility that they don't. When you approach things with that mindset, that you might not know everything, you greatly increase the chances that you will get better. 

Does that mean you should question everything at all times and not believe there is any right way to do anything? Not necessarily. It's just a slight shift in mindset that allows for the possibility, however remote it may seem, that you could be wrong and should not be afraid to question anything.

Sometimes there also aren't right ways and wrong ways too. A good example is the wrist position of the lead hook. There are plenty of boxers out there who learned to throw the lead hook with their palm down and believe this is The Way. I learned to throw them with my palm in, however, and feel more comfortable and powerful with that. I've done both and that works better for me in my style. I also find that it is easier for people brand new to boxing hitting a heavy bag to throw hooks this way and still connect with their top two knuckles. But in any case, there is no one right way. One version of the hook is not inherently more powerful than another. At least, I am pretty sure of this through practice and understanding of body mechanics. Of course as mentioned earlier, I still reevaluate from time to time.

Another important thing about the Beginner Mentality is that what you think you are doing when you box may not be 100% exactly what you are doing. When coaches give cues sometimes, it can be very easy to tune them out. Especially when it's something you know very well and have been boxing for a while. Like if your coach says, "keep your non-punching hand guarding your face," you might think this isn't for you because of course you are keeping your non-punching hand guarding your face. This is not your first rodeo. You know what you are doing. You may even think you know more than the coach telling you this. And these things might even be true. But you STILL may not be keeping that non-punching hand up to guard your face. Maybe you have in the past but maybe you are not now.

Again, the key here is to question and reevaluate. Instead of hearing your coach give you a cue and thinking, "Yeah, yeah, I got it, buddy," think something more like, "Am I sure I am doing that? Let's check..."

There are also cases where you might be doing something more or less correct but that doesn't mean you can't do it better. Example, the coach tells me to get my hands back faster after throwing a punch and I think, "Of course I get my hands back fast after a punch!" But do I? Can I get them back even faster? Yes, I very likely can. Or at the very least, I should think about it and try.

This can all be summed up more succinctly by a quote from Shunryu Suzuki, a famous monk who helped popularize Zen Buddhism in the United States

When I saw that quote for the first time, I misunderstood it. I assumed that being an expert is good and few possibilities means better understanding. But again, I have learned, just from learning itself, that while I may be able to be an expert on something, I should always maintain the Beginner Mentality because when there are many possibilities, my potential for growth is boundless. I think Suzuki had a quote like that too. Of course everything sounds smarter when it is coming from a Zen Buddhist monk but I can tell you from my own experience, he is right on the money here. 

I can also tell you that from watching others' experiences, those whose minds are less open because they think they've got it all figured out, that they rarely are able to take their boxing skills to the next level. If you are one of those people, don't take it as an insult. It is very natural, human behavior that we all exude on some level. I definitely see things in boxing, particularly online, that I wholeheartedly believe are totally wrong, total BS, etc. But I promise that I still consider them from all angles, with a curious mind and believe me, that little difference can make all the difference.