Violence IS the Answer!

As you may know, the goal of boxing is to hit your opponent and not get hit. But it is not a game of tag. If you hit your opponent and it does absolutely no damage to them at all or displace them in any way, this will make it much easier for them to hit you and if their strikes do at least some damage, you are probably going to lose that fight. And get hurt!

So if you throw punches in boxing (or kickboxing, Muay Thai or any striking-sport) that inflict some damage, you are going to hurt your opponent. That is the goal too. There are plenty of boxing coaches and enthusiasts who don't want to plainly say this though. Not without a qualifier. They want to explain that the art and sport of striking is not necessarily to hurt someone and there is so much more to it than just violence. This is probably because a lot of people who haven't spent a lot of training in boxing don't fully understand. They think it is just 2 guys or gals beating the crap out of each other. Boxers and coaches can be sensitive to this and will be quick to tell you that there is so much more than just violence. They are correct but the simple, inescapable fact is that again, we strike our opponent to hurt them. It is an amazing, beautiful art and yes, sweet science, that takes years to learn and develop, but this art/science is about inflicting damage. In most cases, this is not because fighters hate or dislike their opponent and want to hurt them for this reason. There is no negative emotion attached or hatred/dislike between combatants. Oftentimes quite the opposite. There is almost always mutual respect on both sides but none of this changes the fact that the object is violence.

The level of violence can depend on the fighter and more importantly, whether it is amateur boxing or professional boxing. Amateur boxers generally fight 3 rounds, wearing head gear, and most of the time, the strategy is to simply out-point your opponent instead of knocking them out. Out-point means landing more strikes than the other guy and generally controlling the action. Just as I mentioned earlier though, it will be very hard to win a points battle if your strikes do almost no damage at all nor have much force behind them. This is because the other fighter will be able to walk right through them and do damage to you, meaning you pretty much have to punch and run away for 3 rounds. Some amateur boxers can do this, for sure, but it is not the best strategy and puts you at risk against higher caliber opponents

What about if you are just training for fitness though? You have no desire to compete and certainly don't want to hurt anybody? That is where I am at right now. But I can tell you that regardless of fitness goals, f you are throwing non-violent punches on a heavy bag (or mitts), you are heavily, heavily limiting the fitness benefit you get from training. You will also give yourself a low ceiling in terms of progress so the fitness benefit potential for the future is much less too. Throwing violent punches makes you stronger, burns more calories, increases your cardio, works more muscle groups, better trains your skills like balance, agility, coordination and reaction time, has stress-relieving and confidence-boosting benefits - I could go on and on.

When you are punching (or anything) the heavy bag, you should always ask yourself this question - If you were being hit by your own strikes, would it hurt at all? Of course no one really wants to be hit, even lightly, but would any of your own strikes actually do damage to yourself or any other human non-baby? If the answer is "no", then you really should punch harder. 

Harder doesn't just mean tensing up and trying to muscle your punches. I have written several blog posts that talk about the mechanics of throwing powerful punches and it has little to do with how strong you think you might be. Here are a few:

https://theboxingmanifesto.blogspot.com/2025/11/punching-power-is-something-you-are.html

https://theboxingmanifesto.blogspot.com/2022/12/do-i-have-to-be-big-strong-to-throw-big.html

https://theboxingmanifesto.blogspot.com/2025/07/slow-down-to-get-it-right-yes-but.html

Beyond the technical aspects, there is a mental side too. In fact, the mental side is what people often are missing. I see this much more often in women than in men but there are major exceptions, of course. Someone who has done extensive boxing training for years may still not get it. Their punches, footwork and defensive form can be pretty good but their strikes feel like just movements to me. The same movements they would use in any form of exercise. But that's not what boxing is. Even if you do it for exercise. Your punches, kicks, elbows, knees, whatever are designed to hurt an opponent and that is how we should practice them on the heavy bag for maximum benefit. Throw everything with bad intentions and you will get so much better. We need to come to terms with this, embrace it, and avoid all excuses for not doing it.

Speaking of excuses, here are the ones I have heard people say out loud as well as some I have heard them think in their brain, using my psychic, telepathic powers:

"I don't need to punch hard because I am too old/too tired/not planning to get in the ring with someone/not a fighter/just doing this for exercise/etc."

"I am not strong enough to punch hard"

"I just want to work on the technique."

"I am trying to pace myself"

"I am not a violent person"

"Not every punch needs to be powerful"

Note that many of these are not necessarily wrong. But they are not mutually exclusive either. You may not be able to punch like Mike Tyson but you can definitely punch harder, no matter who you are. And regardless of whether you want to hit another human being, punching harder will have exercise benefits I touched on earlier. Working on the technique is great but power and technique are connected. They are not too separate things and improving power does not inherently make your technique any worse. Trying to pace yourself can be very limiting. You would likely get more benefit from working towards failure (exhaustion) and every time you do, you will push that bar further back. I have seen several people achieve pretty incredible feats doing this. And not being a violent person is a good thing! Again though, it has nothing to do with how hard you hit the heavy bag. Some of the hardest strikers in combat sports are some of the biggest sweethearts in real life. Hitting the bag violently and hitting a person in anger are two totally different things. Sometimes hitting the bag hard can even make you less likely to want to strike a person in anger even. Gets the stress out

I am going to take that last excuse - "Not every punch needs to be powerful" - separately because it is another thing that boxing coaches, boxers and boxing enthusiasts love to say. That sometimes we use "throwaway" punches to set our opponents up. This is certainly correct but how many super light, seemingly intentionally light punches do you see thrown in a professional boxing match? I have watched hundreds, maybe thousands, and can tell you there are not that many. Not every punch is 100% either. It's not all or nothing. There are faster punches, there are harder punches, there are set-up punches but very few are thrown at a level of intensity that would not do any damage to their opponent, as I spoke on earlier. If you are just trying to set someone up, there needs to be a payoff, aka violent punch you are setting them up for. So if you are training at a sub-maximal level, there should be a reason for it. But a lot of people use it as an excuse not to push themselves.

Remember also that violent doesn't mean sloppy or out of control. Technique is part of the violence. Controlled, technical violence is what we are looking for. Think Mike Tyson in the 80s or our very own member, Kayla S, in the modern day.

So next time you are doing bag work, don't give yourself any excuse not to be violent. Doesn't matter who you are, why you are training in boxing or anything. When you stand in front of a heavy bag, you are like 007. Licensed to kill!

Emotional Coaching vs. Technical Coaching

Whether you are boxing or training in any sport, you need a good coach. A coach is someone who cares about you and your development, someone who teaches you the sport and how to get better at it, someone who pushes you to work harder, have a better understanding of what you are doing, etc. Sometimes coaches try to do all of those things, but they just don’t click with the student, so personal chemistry can be important too.  

There are many factors that go into what makes a good coach and there are plenty of different types of coaches and types of coaching, but I think you can break it down into two separate halves- emotional coaching and technical coaching. 

Emotional coaching is focused on pushing students to work harder, to stay focused, not to give up, to keep pushing, dropping the “you can do this, c'mon c'mon, give all you got,” etc. The coaching can even be personal, directed to you and you only, but it is not specific to any technical or strategic aspect, but just related to your emotional state on some level.

Technical coaching is explaining how to do something, what the goal of it is, what you may be doing right or wrong, and how you can make it better, then structuring your training around that aspect. When it comes to boxing, there are some things that would be technical coaching - like "keep your hands up"- but I would almost put them more into the emotional coaching category because they are so basic and repetitive that for many boxers, they no longer really provide technical insight, just more like saying "work harder" at this point. Being more specific however - like "you are dropping your rear hand when you throw a lead hook" - is a better example of what I consider to be technical coaching.

Everybody needs both types of coaching. Usually someone will work harder if you tell them to and be held more accountable when they have a coach monitoring them. Working hard is certainly good. And with some, the emotional coaching can really make them feel better and even like their coach more. Especially if it is more personally directed. Even more especially, if it feels honest. Knowing that your coach believes in you and likes you is incredibly motivating for almost all of us. 

With a sport like boxing (and probably all other sports), technical coaching is how people learn and improve their skills. I have talked a lot about this in the blog before and won't go too far down the rabbit hole again but every great boxer, every great athlete, throughout the history of time has had someone teach them what to do. Even in sports that seem pretty straightforward, like sprinting, there are coaches. There is always technique. Just like looking at something under a microscope, the closer you look, the more you will see.

So what should the balance be between technical coaching vs. emotional coaching? It depends a bit on the person, the sport and the overall goal, but I strongly believe that in any case, when it comes to boxing and combat sports, the vast majority of coaching should be technical. Not only is it ultimately more important to someone's overall development but there is far more technical coaching to be done, meaning that technique is a much deeper subject than the emotional, motivational side of training.

A problem that I have observed at different boxing gyms and with other trainers, is that it is the other way around. The majority of the coaching is emotional and not technical. This doesn't just include fitness boxing concepts, but also old-school gyms that train competitive fighters. Sometimes you will even hear a coach talking to his fighter in the corner in between rounds in a competitive fight and the coaching is mostly emotional. Now, I understand that in this particular instance, it might be hard to reach a fighter with a lot of technical coaching but still, I would prefer that a coach tell me if he notices that I am doing something poorly and what he or she notices the other fighter doing. Doesn't have to a full dissertation, just a tidbit like, "stop chasing him around the ring, cut him off when he circles out" or whatever.

It is also my belief that the reason for less technical coaching in boxing comes from a lack of ability to break down technique to a sub-atomic level and express that to students. I have spoken about this many times, in different ways, on this blog. Kind of like technique itself, the more I learn, the more I see how this is true. It's a lot easier to tell someone to push themselves, to work harder, than it is than it is to tell them how exactly to transfer their weight from foot to foot efficiently. Plenty of coaches may not have the knowledge of anatomy, physics and biomechanics to get too deep into process and that is why you hear plenty of them saying things like, "punching power is something you are born with." This all gets magnified exponentially when trying to teach students who lack athletic abilities and boxing training experience.

It can also be harder to provide technical coaching in a group class environment, where things move faster and you can't exactly stop the class for one person not getting something, but technical cues should still always be provided. Individual feedback should be delivered too. It doesn't have to sound like individual feedback though. It can be given to the group as a whole while the coach stands right next to someone who is struggling with that particular element.

The last thing that makes technical coaching harder is that not everybody responds well to it. Or responds at all. Some think you telling them something negative, like they are doing something wrong, some may think they ARE actually doing what you say but are not, some might not be paying attention and some may not care. Giving emotional feedback usually isn't going to potentially make someone mad or fall on deaf ears, so it is much safer, and I am sure that is a big reason coaches tend to prefer it (or at least, do it significantly more). But as I have always said, coaching is caring. Trying to help someone get better at something is generally a good thing. NOT trying to help them get better is doing them a disservice. This doesn't mean that coaching feedback can be delivered in a hurtful, offensive, obnoxious manner, but it's okay because hey, you are trying to help them. Of course you want to be nice about how you tell students how to do something better and understand that every one of them is different and may respond to different things.

Of course it takes more time and effort, generally, to provide technical vs. emotional coaching. Coaches who don't care enough to spend that time and effort certainly don't fall into that category of a good coach I mentioned earlier. But you can also think of technical coaching like this: if I (or Steph) give you any kind of feedback on your technique - how to do something, how to do it better, what to not do, etc. - we are, in a way, also giving some emotional coaching at the same time. We are saying (without saying) that yes, you can do this! We wouldn't tell you to do something we didn't think you could do. That would probably be frustrating to both sides. Sometimes I know not everybody in a single class may not be able to make changes right on the spot, but I also believe in planting seeds. Maybe you hear something once in the heat of battle and it doesn't register at all. Maybe you hear it again, but don't take any action. Then you hear it again and think about it a little. Then again and you try it out but it feels awkward. Again and it's slightly less awkward. And then one day, it fully clicks and that seed grows into a blossoming bud of technique! And we will also cheer for you at every stage!