Finding Your Bryn Smith

I have loved sports for about as long as I can remember. It started with with tennis because my dad was a tennis player but as soon as I saw American football on TV, I was hooked. I got into basketball, boxing, anything on Wide World of Sports or CBS Sports Saturday but when it came to baseball, I hit a wall. I really wanted to like it but didn't really understand the rules and thought the whole thing was a little on the boring side. My tennis dad was long gone and he wasn't a baseball fan anyway (I don't think) so there was no one to really introduce me to the game. 

By the time I was in 5th grade, I finally decided to try out Little League. All the other kids were doing it and I figured it could help me fit in. I foolishly assumed that I would be good at it because I was all right at other sports at other sports I played, but I did not take to baseball very naturally. To make it worse, I decided I really wanted to be a pitcher because the pitcher got the most action but as such, I exposed my suckiness even more. I really had no idea how to pitch and just like my foray into Muay Thai would be 10 years later, no one really showed me anything. I just figured I should wind up and throw the ball as hard as I can at the strike zone so that was what I did. Except I couldn't get the ball anywhere near the strike zone. So when I had an opportunity to pitch, I just walked everybody and hit a few kids and got yanked out of the game quickly.

I was moved to the outfield right away but did not want to give up on my initial "dream" of becoming a pitcher. I went to Target and bought something called a pitch back. It was basically a metal frame with a net in the middle and a square taped off to represent the strike zone. That way I could practice my pitches at home and ball would just bounce off the net right back to me. Even after a couple weeks of doing this, I still had terrible aim. I was lucky to hit the pitch back itself, let alone the strike zone.

I was too lazy to go to the library and get a book, too embarrassed to ask anyone how to actually throw a baseball and the internet had not been invented yet so I decided to turn to my old friend, the TV. I started watching MLB games to see if I could figure anything out. It did help me understand the game a little more but nothing really about pitching. The announcers talked about different kind of pitches like curve balls, sinkers, sliders, etc. but not about the actual mechanics.

One day though, the Dodgers were playing the Montreal Expos and I saw this dude pitch for the Expos named Bryn Smith. He pitched a little bit differently than the other people I had seen. He threw slow instead of fast. Later I would realize there were other pitchers like that but he was the first one I noticed. Not every pitch was slow but many of them would be. He could locate the pitch around the strike zone pretty well and when threw something faster, guys would sometimes swing at it even if it was way outside.

A light bulb went on in my head! What if I tried to pitch slow? Would my aim be any better? I went back outside to the pitch back and sure enough, my aim was indeed a lot better. And you might be sitting there thinking, "Duh!" but you have to remember that I was about 11 years old at the time and not very smart. I did start taking notes on baseball pitchers though, trying to come up with a strategy so I could not only land my slow ball in the strike zone but figure out a way to trick the batters so they don't just hit it over the fence every time. 

I practiced and practiced and one day, convinced the coach to let me pitch again. I honestly don't remember if we won or lost the game but I was so much better!! Only walked a couple, think I hit only one kid but I also struck dudes out, got 'em to ground out, pop out and don't think I gave up any runs. Maybe some of that is selective memory but I know it was way better and the other kids weren't laughing at me any more and best of all, I got to pitch some more for the rest of the season. I actually got a little better at everything (hitting, fielding, etc.). Of course the main part of this was just getting experience but the confidence I got from pitching better helped too.

I guess now that I think about it, this story could be about why you should generally take things slowly and thoughtfully first instead of trying to go really fast and hard right away but actually, it is about Bryn Smith the pitcher. Or at least what he represented to me. I was trying this new sport that I didn't really understand and wasn't very good at but when I saw him, I connected with something and thought maybe I could do this. I know nothing about the guy, personally, nor did I become a baseball fan, it was just seeing him throw the ball differently, got me to see things in a new way.

Why am I telling you this? Because you can do the same thing with boxing! I know not everybody loves the sport like I do and while I can pretty much guarantee if you are reading this, you are a better boxer than I was a Little League player at first, but maybe you sometimes feel awkward or like you aren't able to box as fast are as powerfully as someone else. First of all, don't be discouraged by this but the point I have very, very slowly been getting to is that YOU should find YOUR Bryn Smith! 

Maybe there is a boxer out there that you might connect with on some level. Maybe it is a style that suits your personality. Like if you are a big, lumbering guy who might have trouble pulling off the speed and footwork of Hector Camacho, look at a fighter like Zhang Zhilei to model yourself after. Or maybe it has nothing to do with style, you just like them for some reason. Maybe you have something in common. Or anything, any connection you find. 

So how do you find this fighter you connect with? At the risk of belaboring the obvious, I will say the good, 'ol internet is your answer. Search for current champions or "most exciting boxer" or "best boxer right now" or maybe get more specific for something that relates to you personally. I was really proud of one of our members, who is left-handed, because she searched for great southpaw boxers when she joined. More people should do that stuff! Read up on some of these people and watch their YouTube clips. Doesn't matter if you are a big fan of boxing the sport but if it is something you are doing for your own health and fitness, you never know what you might find. As I mentioned earlier, I was not a fan of baseball nor did I even become a fan of Bryn Smith but I still found something about his game inspirational and was able to play better because of it.

Appearances Can Be Deceiving

I don't know about these days but back in the 70s and 80s, movies where anyone learns some kind of physical combat skills always featured an old man coach/sensei character and almost always, this person did not look physically strong or capable. Not exactly what you would expect to teach you how to be a badass but the idea being that this person was such a badass, it didn't even matter how strong in stature they appeared to be. Yoda, Mr. Miyagi, Mickey from the Rocky series and pretty much every sensei in the Kung Fu movies are examples. The sensei could even blind but it didn't matter. They could "see" purely through their own awesomeness. But do these characters exist in real life? For the most part, they do! This man below is Angelo Dundee, who most famously trained Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Carman Basilio as well as Sugar Ray Leonard, older George Foreman and plenty of others:

Doesn't look very imposing, does he? And this is him as a young man. If someone was going to teach you boxing or corner you in a fight and he looked like this, you might think, "How is he going to teach me how to fight? What does this guy know?" But he is maybe the greatest of all time. This is true in all sports, not just combat. The best coaches and teachers may not necessarily appear like the big, strong athletic people they work with.

Something like this kind of happened to me when I started training in a martial art called Krav Maga. When I first met my trainer, I was the slightest bit put off that he was this older, very small dude. He did look kind of tough though, I will give him that, but somehow I expected a large, younger super soldier type. Of course my preconceived notions were completely blown out of the water when we started to working together and I realized that my trainer was as hardcore as it gets. There was even a time years later when we were working on some knife defense techniques and it was me, Barney (my trainer), a big dude who was then the head of security for the Golden State Warriors basketball team, and another big, strong guy who could pass for a Russian Spetsnaz. Anyway, part of the technique involved controlling the knife hand of an attacker and I remember taking turns with everybody and when these bigger, stronger, younger dudes put their hands on me, they had pretty good control of my knife hand and I couldn't move it much. But when Barney did it, I felt like there was no way I could ever move my knife hand ever, even if I was 10x stronger than I was. His technique and weight distribution were so good, it overrided any size and strength advantages. It didn't make scientific sense to me but here was, totally immobilized by the smallest guy in the room. I thought that stuff only happened in the movies!

This doesn't just go for people either, it goes for places too. The very first combat training I ever did was Muay Thai and speaking of movies yet again, the gym I went to could have certainly been in one. It was dingy and dark, all the equipment looked very well used and you had a bunch of people all training pretty much separately doing different stuff. One guy was throwing round kicks on a sand bag, another one was skipping rope, someone else was shadow boxing, two guys were sparring, etc. It was in a bad neighborhood in San Jose, CA and many people there were competitive fighters and they sure looked like it. So my impression was that this place was the real deal. Where only tough, serious Nak Muays trained. And that might have been true but no one really taught me Muay Thai. I would just train on my own and if I saw someone who worked there, hope that they would come over and help me. Sometimes they would but it was a pretty short interaction and I never knew exactly what I should be working on. I just did my best to copy some of the people who looked like they knew what they were doing. I went to this gym on and off for about 7-8 months or so and if you were to come to one of the kickboxing classes at our club, I would teach you more in 5 minutes before class than was ever taught to me in the 7-8 months I trained at this very traditional, hardcore kind of place.

So my point is that while the appearance of my old gym suggested it was somewhere I could really learn how to be a fighter, it really wasn't. At least not for someone like me who wanted guidance and didn't have a training partner. I've mentioned this before, but the best fighters, the cream of the crop, can still flourish under these conditions as they show a lot of natural ability and get some attention from the coaches (or, in the case of boxing in particular, over 90% of the good fighters are trained by their dads, who are already involved with the sport). But regular schmoes like myself? Forget about it.

I guess this holds true for just about everything in life, right? Appearances can be deceiving. You might think that someone or something really looks the part and maybe talks the part but in reality, they aren't. And you might think that a creepy, old, shriveled up gremlin can't be a great warrior but you could be as surprised as Luke Skywalker was when he saw Yoda bring that X-wing out of the swamp.

Stages of Boxing Development: Stage 4 - The Smooth Criminal

Recently on this blog, I have detailed what I believe and have noticed to be the first 3 stages of boxing development I see with most everyone who starts from scratch. To recap, they are:

Stage 1 - Proper Stance, Balance and Movement

Stage 2 - Throwing Strikes Properly, With Your Whole Body

Stage 3 - Boxing vs Just Punching a Heavy Bag

So, that brings us to Stage 4, which I like to call The Smooth Criminal. It is somewhat of extension on Stage 3 but to a much deeper level of style, strategy, understanding, discipline, self-correction and yes, smoothness. Whether someone is boxing for fitness or not, The Smooth Criminal treats every round on the heavy bag like they are in the ring with another absolute killer, where every punch and every movement means something. It is a mental state that translates to physical. The Smooth Criminal is also constantly trying to get better, looking for cracks in their own armor, and understands that just learning something is not enough. That we are in a constant state of maintenance and polish.

It starts with discipline. We all get tired, we all get sloppy sometimes, we may be less self-aware than other times but the Smooth Criminal has that voice inside their head that is always reminding them to keep their eyes on the ball, to remember this or that, to stay focused, stay sharp, don't lose the technique and to push themselves to work harder. This affects every aspect of training and here are a few videos that highlight different areas where we can always stay more disciplined:

Staying Defensively Responsible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6vcv-46a9I&list=PLN0PPf0o8X6X1Te2zEgHrqy-BtyI-RAg3&index=2

Staying Disciplined With Feet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRjUMlrsHw

Pushing Yourself to the Next Level

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYUx4_ssCeU&t=22s

Performing a "Systems Check"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bsrFwMBhMg

It should go without saying that no matter how smooth of a criminal you are, you will always need a coach, as they can see things that you do not, but at this stage, Smooth Criminals are able to also spot problems with their own technique and holes in their game as well, making corrections along the way. There is a much higher level of self-awareness and analysis, being open to change. It is very easy to get comfortable in Stage 3, as it is such a big step that takes a lot of work to get to. Making it to the next stage will require you to be uncomfortable again, not just in developing new skills but also realizing that you still haven't necessarily mastered the basics and can always get better.

Remembering to Tighten Those Punches Up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBT0cahg_TQ

Flow the Combos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQty9Ufjqnw

Changing Rhythms Between Combos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYnY53p6q58

Eliminating Tells (and staying disciplined in watching for tells)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZZnHBWTt8w

Counter Faster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klgQCQqgpPA

As you continue to better understand boxing, the "Why" behind everything becomes clearer and you start to think more strategically. What is each punch used for? How is it defended? How can one punch set up another? What punches am I open for at each time? What other strategies can I employ? Even if you are just punching a heavy bag, this understanding and approach will improve your skills and workout. You will stay much more generally focused too. Here are just a couple of examples:

Visualize Fighting An Opponent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3yde8ddd_s

Set Ups

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIc6akt8HuU

Controlling Your Opponent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT_ha3aEO0k&list=PLN0PPf0o8X6X1Te2zEgHrqy-BtyI-RAg3&index=9

There are 4-5 generally-recognized, main styles of boxing. Sometimes people even brand new to the sport are able to naturally fall into one of these styles right away. It can even be somewhat automatically determined by body and personality type. But it also may change throughout their development. The Smooth Criminal not only has a pretty set fighting style but also has a deep understanding of the other styles and is comfortable switching for training purposes. They understand too that beyond the physical, there is a mindset behind each of these styles too and may even take it to a new level of actually developing their own boxing alter ego.

Styles of Boxing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEyG8uaIb_I

Finding Your Alter Ego

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBo7TmwLS70

Not only are Smooth Criminals able to correct many of their own mistakes on their own but also able to adjust and change their game, strategically. Even a non-competitive boxer can (and should) develop these skills. Besides giving someone a deeper understanding of the "Why" behind boxing but it helps them to adjust and adapt smoothly to different protocols. 

Plan B

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydi8HWlrFDE

Marking Adjustments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2JELt0wki4&t=50s

Despite having the highest level of skill versus any of the other stages I have detailed, no one better understands that you can always get better at everything than the Smooth Criminal. It kind of reminds me of a Google map view. When you first start off boxing, you can see this big map below and some of the main states or cities. Then as you get a little closer, you start to see the smaller cities and landmarks as well as main highways. Then when you get closer still, you see so much more detail. Individual roads and houses, little towns and plazas. The closer you get in boxing, the more you see. If someone wanted to get into competitive boxing or even non-competitive sparring, I would say this is the stage they need to be at. Sure, plenty of people start sooner but it becomes harder to develop these skills for the vast majority of the population. Some never do develop them. But if you are able to develop a very solid foundation first, everything you build on top of it will be sturdier and your opponents will know that they've been hit by, they've been hit by, a Smooth Criminal.

Boxing and Weed?!?

With today being 4/20, I thought we would take a break from our regularly-scheduled programming and talk about marijuana and boxing. Marijuana has become quite popularized and much more mainstream over the last 20 years or so, now being legalish in many states. Used to be you'd only smell it in public when you went to concerts but now, I smell it in the Pittsford Wegmans parking lot! No judgement, I am just saying that the times, they are a-changing. Can smoking weed actually help with your boxing though? Man, I never thought I would actually pose such a question but in the years we have owned a boxing club, I have noticed that a fair amount of people come into classes, sometimes even their very first class, totally stoned. While I have nothing against anyone who wants to partake, I can tell you that it does not seem like the best choice to accompany anyone's boxing training. Here are 5 reasons why you should just say no!

1) Speed/Reaction Time

Boxing is fast by nature whereas the standard marijuana high tends to slow people down. Their reflexes, reaction times and physical movement in general. Can there be some value to slowing things down a little bit to learn boxing? There can but ultimately, the physical mechanics of the punch require velocity. As such, learning how to defend a punch requires fast reaction time.

2) Mental Processing

Learning how to box is not an easy thing because you are learning how to move your body in a brand, new, completely unnatural way. I've seen enough home boxers and people who just follow what they see on the internet to know that it is not something one can properly learn on their own. Takes coaching and cueing and demonstrating and the whole feedback loop that can be clouded when someone is under the influence of just about any narcotic. Really, any distraction can be an impediment to learning, whether you are thinking about a tough day at work or completely baked from hot boxing in the car 15 minutes before class. Speaking of the car, marijuana also distorts your perception. These are reasons why it is illegal to drive a car while under the influence of pot. If there were no mental impairments (in addition to the slowed reaction time), there wouldn't be much of an issue.

3) Coordination and Balance

Boxing requires just as much balance as any sport, save for gymnastics. There is also coordination of the hands, feet, head and every other part of your body. Throwing an effective punch, just like hitting a powerful forehand in tennis, requires proper body mechanics, rhythm, and timing. Has nothing to do with how strong you are. It is undeniable that marijuana impairs both balance and coordination so you are essentially handicapped when boxing while stoned. Not only is it harder to box under the influence but it is less safe and can lead to bad habits that get harder and harder to fix.

4) Memory

It is also undeniable that the average human remembers less during any kind of impairment. Besides just learning, you want to try and remember as much as you learned as possible. So for someone learning how to box, which is a process that takes years and years and never really stops, it is important that they are able to retain as much as possible from each training session so they can build on those skills. 

5) Cardio and Stamina

Sleepiness and fatigue are the most common side effects of smoking pot. Cannabinoids bind to receptors in the brain that increase the levels of sleep-promoting adenosine and suppress the brain's arousal system. This is one reason why it is sometimes prescribed medically for people who have sleep disorders. So you probably don't need me to tell you that you are not going to perform as well, athletically and stamina-wise, when you are sleepy. What's more though, is that your heart rate does increase, which just leads to you feeling more tired faster, with less heart-rate recovery.

Benefits?

But what about the benefits of smoking weed? Are there any? First and foremost, marijuana is not an athletic performance enhancing drug on any level. You are not stronger or faster or more explosive or have better stamina when you are stoned. The only thing I have heard anyone make a case for is that it could increase your pain tolerance but I think the amount of pot required for any significant impact would render a person pretty motionless. Pain is also not really an issue (and should not be an issue) when you train in boxing OR when fighting in the ring. Even when you get punched, you don't necessarily feel pain in the way you would normally. Your adrenaline and focus takes care of that, at least in the interim. Pain may come later but not during the fight, When people get hurt in boxing, like being knocked out or staggered, they aren't necessarily in pain. Their nervous system is disrupted in some way. (Kickboxing is a little bit of a different story as leg kicks and even having your own kicks checked sometimes can hurt like the dickens but if you competing at any level, you have probably built up a pretty good tolerance to this).

It is true that I am often telling people to relax when they box, that they are too tense, and you might think that maybe being stoned would help such people. Even if that is true, and I doubt that it is, the benefit would likely be very temporary and not even close to worth the dulling of the senses. Especially while in the learning stages. Maybe if you have trained for years and are a pretty good boxer and want to see if it gives you any epiphanies, it is worth a shot, but is not a long term plan.

If you don't believe me, look at any top level athletes. Besides the Diaz brothers in MMA, do any like to compete while stoned? Sure, cannabis is on the banned substance list in many sports, including boxing, but it is not because it is performance enhancing. And you don't find many athletes training WHILE high either. There are certainly some who smoke pot after training, to help rest, recover and maybe manage some pain. Even Mike Tyson, who is now a major proponent of marijuana and even sells his own weed as well as hosts a podcast called "Hot Boxing With Mike Tyson," is staying off the herb in training camp for his upcoming "fight" with Jake Paul.

I do know that there are some people who train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, most notably Joe Rogan, who have espoused the benefits of training under the influence. BJJ is very different than boxing though. Besides the obvious differences between grappling and throwing a punch, there is a completely different vibe to how one performs the mechanics. BJJ has a feel and flow to it that I could see working a lot better with being high. Boxing is faster, more explosive, and less of a feel sport. Even still, despite Joe Rogan's claims, no world-class BJJ players who compete do so under the influence and I have also heard plenty of people say that it does not help them at all.

Like everything else, every individual is going to be different. Everyone has a slightly different reaction and I know for some, getting baked takes a little bit of the anxiety away they may feel in their daily lives. Could that be beneficial to taking a boxing class, where just about 100% of the people going in are nervous? Maybe. But the cons far outweigh the pros, from everything I have seen and experienced. And if you want to take your boxing game to the next level, you will need to have a more permanent solution to nerves and anxiety from training. Then there are those who smoke so much, being sober just feels completely wrong and messes them up. I would put the aforementioned Diaz brothers into that category. I am not sure this is a good place to be but that's up to you, I suppose.

Along those lines, don't get me wrong and think that I am just some cranky, old man who doesn't want you hippie kids smoking your drugs and whatnot. I mean, I am a cranky, old man but I am very much a "live and let live" kind of old man. Whatever you do on your own time is your business, so long as it harm none. But if you want me to teach you boxing and make you a better boxer, I ask that you please stay off the sticky icky until our session is over. My only dog in the fight is helping you achieve your goals and just as I wouldn't tell you to come in and eat an entire bucket of fried chicken right before training, I wouldn't want to spark up either.

Stages of Boxing Development - Part 3 - Boxing vs. Punching a Bag

Once someone is able to feel strong, agile and balanced in their fighting stance, able to throw good, strong punches with solid, full-body mechanics, it is time for Stage 3. This stage is harder on several levels though and usually requires a bit of prodding from the coach. Some people would be very happy to just stand in front of a bag and punch it. But this is still not quite boxing. It is only in Stage 3 where we really get into the essence of boxing and what makes it different than just punching a bag. It may/will require being uncomfortable again, which is extra challenging because most people finally got comfortable getting through Stages 1 and 2. Stepping out of your comfort zone again might not sound super appealing but I assure that the rewards are worth it. This is your chance to really elevate your game and fitness to a whole new level!

For Stage 3, that next step is quite literally a step. Moving your feet. Since we would never want to stand in front of someone and throw punches, we shouldn't do it with a heavy bag either. Take a step out of range or to a new angle before throwing the combination again. Here are 3 videos covering various aspects of post-combo footwork - general thoughts, angle steps, and circling:

Move After Every Combo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWXwETbta3k

Creating Angles (and speaking of angles, weird camera angle in this video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rYa7xsbf7k

Circling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXnLi9UP_fs

As always, this will feel awkward and unnatural. We are very used to walking around like a normal human. Have millions of reps doing that. But moving and stepping like a boxer is something new. And when we add it into the mix of all the other things going on, it can be tricky. That is okay. That is why this is Stage 3. The best way to ease into is to keep things simple and slow and at all costs, avoiding "happy feet" where you are stepping too much and off balance. Here are some videos that give examples as to how you can simply and take it one step at a time (literally and figuratively):

Deliver Your Punches Before Moving

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjBCKueVoaU

Stepping Should NOT Be the Default

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iZyWyYlqAM

Another pitfall I see people fall into, even those with good footwork and mechanics, is doing what I call posing after they throw a combo or even sometimes a punch. It's like a split second freeze after that punch lands, reminding me of a baseball player who just hit a home run. We cannot do this when training boxing. There is no home run. We should always expect return fire from our opponent, even if our opponent is a heavy bag. When you train that that way, you not only become a better, quicker boxer but your conditioning improves too. Here is a video about posing specifically as well as some general thoughts on movement and the mindset you want to be in when training:

Don't Pose At The End of the Combo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqTDOevsjxw

Always Stalk,  Always Being Stalked

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDwxSdOad_Q

Even harder than moving your feet in and out of combinations is head movement. Of all the many things that I say are not natural in boxing, head movement may be the most unnatural and the most challenging thing to learn after you develop the basic fundamentals. It is also unique to boxing so those with lots of other combat sports will struggle too. What I recommend again to everyone is to start with something really basic, like imagining a metronome as well starting to think about it in terms of rhythm and music. Here are two such videos:

Basic Metronome Head Movement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX20AOaVqmA&t=152s

Funk Music And Boxing?!?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ArxzBrrEI8

As things start to feel more natural, you can start to mix up your head movement and incorporate it into your footwork and even punches. Just be careful that it doesn't mess with the good punching mechanics you have developed. If you are finding it does, that is okay. Just slow things down and maybe don't proceed to this step right away. But if you are ready, there is a lot of value to learning this skill. It makes your opponent less likely to even try and punch you, makes it easier for you to evade their punches when they do through them, makes it harder for them to know what punch you are throwing or if you are even throwing a punch, helps you to relax while boxing and despite that relaxation, takes your workout to the next level. Each of these 3 videos below should cover my points:

Relax For Head Movement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LOsSx--rnE&t=3s

Always In Motion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9U9iQij7bo

Throw Punches Off Of Head Movement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx5Rkmw4rdw

Going back to what I said earlier about punching while stepping, that is something that you can do, especially with certain punches, but you just have to be careful that it does not come at the expense of your mechanics and form. I have seen that happen to many folks. What is probably most practical on the heavy bag is step forward and punch, going from outside range to inside range. Moving laterally/circularly and punching is generally better left to the jab or something like a check hook, for example. The key to all of these things is learning how to synch your feet and hands together. There is a relatively simple drill I like for developing this skill below, as well as a general note on closing the distance and taking the check hook as an example:

Stepping While Punching Drill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_F4jtC8LiA

Closing the Distance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-UFHGHC69g&t=12s

The Check Hook/Pivot Hook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e9p5sUm-Zg

Progression through Stage 3 will not be smooth or as easy as 1 and 2. For this reason, many people like to avoid it. Others who are less personally interested in boxing and are more just about the fitness mistakenly think it will compromise their workouts but like I talked about in this post, in some of the videos, and all the time in general, this is simply not true. Throwing fewer punches does not mean you are doing less work. Learning how to box properly and treating your heavy bag like a dangerous opponent will be the most physically challenging thing you do. I guess that could be another reason why people avoid it too, huh? Even pro boxers will sometimes be bouncing around and moving well for the early and mid rounds but as the fight wages on, they start to become more still and flat-footed. This is not inherent though. It can be fixed with good, focused, and challenging training, which should always be the goal.

Stages of Boxing Development: Part 2 - Using the Whole Body

In my last post, I went through what I consider to be the first stage of boxing development from watching thousands of people brand new to the sport. As I mentioned in that post, the actual act of throwing punches was not even discussed! This is because if your feet are not in the best position to punch, defend punches, take steps and even get punched, nothing else you do is going to matter too much. Same is true for managing the distance between you and your target.

Believe it or not, the next stage also relates to our feet! Just as your feet should be in the right position before throwing a punch, your foot is also going to be the very first thing to activate when you are throwing it. This is not natural and very much a surprise to just about every person who starts training. When most of us think of punching, we think of our fists, our arms, our shoulders, maybe even our torso in general but not the feet. However, the feet are indeed where any significant punch should start. Even below the feet, as a matter of fact, because that first step is pushing your feet into the ground. From there, the power starts to work its way up through the kinetic chain - foot through the ankles, through the knees, through the hips, through the core, through the back and shoulders, and finally, comes together into the fist. Like in Part 1, I have got plenty of accompanying older videos where I go over all of this stuff in more detail, including this one:

"Throwing Hands"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyaVH3ik-cM&list=PLN0PPf0o8X6X1Te2zEgHrqy-BtyI-RAg3&index=113

As this is not an intuitive way to think about throwing punches, it is easily the most challenging thing for new boxers to learn. I would say that about 99.9% of them I see stand in one place and their lower half remains perfectly still the entire time they are punching (like reverse Irish dancing). Then half of 0.1% who don't remain still have happy feet and take too many steps all over the place and are never in good position or balance to really effectively use their bodies to throw punches.

The most important thing to work on right is away is how to turn your hips and shift your weight into each punch. This starts in the feet as described earlier and then generate rotation through the legs, hips, core, torso and shoulders. Here are several older videos I made where we talk about different aspects of this critical mechanic:

Shifting Weight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv4hjdOR0Qg&list=PLN0PPf0o8X6X1Te2zEgHrqy-BtyI-RAg3&index=114

Screw Your Foot Into the Ground

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtYTOvnJX-M&list=PLN0PPf0o8X6X1Te2zEgHrqy-BtyI-RAg3&index=102&t=65s

Usually, most people are able to first get down the shifting of weight from their back foot to their front foot first. This is the most natural part. I am punching something in front of me so my weight should shift forward. It's the shifting lower body weight backwards, from the front foot to the back foot, that is easily the most awkward thing for new boxers to get the hang of. Here's another exciting video showing what I am talking about:

Boxing on the Front Foot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAvL656I2lE&list=PLN0PPf0o8X6X1Te2zEgHrqy-BtyI-RAg3&index=157

Having worked with so many different people from all walks of life, I feel very strongly and passionately that the best way to help people learn how to use their lower bodies to throw punches is to exaggerate the lower body mechanics. Go too far with them. It is SO much easier to then tighten things up than to try and build in subtle fundamentals. I have also noticed that while I can tell someone how to use their lower body to throw a punch, it won't really click until their very own body understands it. Exaggerating the mechanic helps with this. They feel how their legs drive uppercuts and or how their hips pull hooks when we use big ranges of motion. Cue video!

Exaggerate Lower Body Mechanics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRNHnSH3JvA&list=PLN0PPf0o8X6X1Te2zEgHrqy-BtyI-RAg3&index=78

While not an exaggeration, we also encourage folks to punch THROUGH the target instead of TO the target on most strikes. Besides increasing their punching power, it also helps them to better understand and use the proper mechanics, mainly rotation. Here's an accompanying video:

Punch THROUGH the Target

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3fbSolb7LY&list=PLN0PPf0o8X6X1Te2zEgHrqy-BtyI-RAg3&index=194

When you able to rotate through your punches properly, not only do you use every muscle in your body, but you also use your mass as a hammer. Doesn't matter if you weigh 100 pounds or 300 pounds, getting every ounce into your punch will make it more powerful as well as more work from an exercise perspective. Got 2 videos for you this time!

Mass x Velocity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZBhV1pLPTY

Dropping Weight Down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDTcyIqedWY&list=PLN0PPf0o8X6X1Te2zEgHrqy-BtyI-RAg3&index=123

As you have probably surmised, the goal here is to get power on those punches. Why? Lots of reasons!! Here is a video I made that gives you some (I missed one about maintaining bone density): 

Why Power?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CLrB6dZ9uc

The important thing to remember is that no matter who you are, no matter how much you weigh, and how much muscle you have, you can ALWAYS throw more powerful punches than you currently do. Many people have trouble believing this but it is 100% true for 100% of the people, barring a serious handicap or injury of course. There are other myths about throwing punches for power besides the ones I covered in the video. While it does make sense that you can concentrate separately on throwing punches for speed and for power, there is very little value in throwing punches super sub-maximally. Sometimes you hear people talk about "touching up" the bag and I think that this not only provides much less of a health benefit, but it can create some bad habits- mainly NOT using the body to properly throw your punches. Did a video about that once too. Wanna see it? Here it is!

"Touching Up" vs. Power Punching

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhGz4PU3-JI&list=PLN0PPf0o8X6X1Te2zEgHrqy-BtyI-RAg3&index=170

Just like you can always throw more powerful punches, you can always improve at any of these stages, regardless of where you are in your boxing development. Sometimes, when we do something 10,000 times, we stop getting better because we start to believe that since we've done it so much, it's as good as it's going to get. Or we just don't think about it in terms of actually getting better. There are some legitimate reasons for this, mainly that improvements get harder to perceive the more you box with relatively good technique. But the big problem is when it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. We stop getting better because we stop thinking that we can get better. As I have mentioned before, the greatest boxers in the world are throwing  jabs right now. The greatest basketball players are taking jump shots, football players are practicing whatever the function of their position, etc., etc. No matter how good you can get, you can always get better. At everything. Even the basics.

Stages of Boxing Development - Part 1

After owning a boxing club since 2018, I have had the opportunity to watch literally thousands of people take their first boxing classes, and I have seen plenty go on to really develop into solid technicians. It is easily the best thing about this job! And everybody learns differently. Some people are more naturally able to grasp certain concepts and movements more quickly than others. I have noticed, though, that there is somewhat of a general, natural progression of learning that most people follow- not everybody but the majority for sure.

This is Part 1 of what I consider to be those boxing stages of development. Remember though, while we may progress through each stage, we can always get better in every aspect, no matter how basic. So even if you've boxed for years, you can are still able to improve...

Part 1 - Stance, Balance, Distance Management 

This is where it all starts- the first and most important step when learning how to box. Once you are able to get comfortable in your stance and feel balanced, everything gets so much better. But the boxing stance and movement in that stance is not at all natural. So when someone comes to our club for their initial class, this is usually what they struggle with the most and it affects everything else that they do.

Sometimes even people who have been boxing for a while still struggle. These are the 4 most important components of the boxing stance to think about, as well as some accompanying videos I have made over the years touching on each thing.

Foot Position

At least 90% of new boxers either stand with their feet too far apart, too narrow, or don't have their toes in the best position to throw punches, defend punches, move, etc. Boxing is all about weight distribution. This is something we will talk a lot more about in Part 2 but before we even get there, it is critical that we stand in such a way to facilitate the shifting of weight from one foot to the other.

Here are a couple of those aforementioned videos I have made over the years about this subject:

Feet Position Relative to the Bag

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI_KmbakOfY

General Fighting Stance Thoughts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31YV_1y_xGc

Balance

Besides having your feet in the right spot, many people tend to stand up too tall or lean forward. Sometimes this is because their feet are too narrow (making them stand up too tall) or too wide (leaning forward). Sometimes because they are too close or too far away from the bag (more on that later). 

Ultimately, you always want to be in a stance that best allows you to throw a powerful punch, defend any punch, take a step in any direction or take a punch and remain as balanced as possible. So for instance, if you crossed your feet and tried to punch, you wouldn't be able to get much on it. Defense would be harder too. And if you got hit or even pushed a little, you would fall right over.

Once again, here are some videos for more info!

Test Stance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALDSQCOmwM8

Hips Forward or Back

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31ha5fJ8XmM

Distance

Whether you are hitting a bag or anything in any way solid, you must manage the distance between you and that thing you are hitting. Being too close limits your power and ability to defend punches. Too far away means you either can't properly reach the target or you end up leaning, which is always bad. Plus the farther away you are, the more your opponent can see what's coming.

I would say that I end up telling most people to get closer, especially at first. They might be okay throwing jabs and crosses but whenever we throw the bent-arm punches like hooks and uppercuts, they are too far away and end up leaning and off balance and have no power.

Again, check out some videos!

Distances In General

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17OG_GcuBWw

Getting Closer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRKdKnNB1x4

Stepping and Footwork

Mastering footwork is definitely one of the more advanced stages of learning, but the first thing we want to get used to is maintaining our fighting stance when we take steps and move around our target. Once again, taking steps in boxing is not a natural thing either. It is not how we move in any other avenue of life, so it takes practice getting used to. Common things people struggle with are crossing their feet when they move, bringing their feet too close together, or only stepping forward with only one foot and getting into a stretched out position instead of both feet moving to get them back into their natural stance.

This time, I've got THREE videos!!

Basic Steps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_trzH-ouGpE

Circling Our Target

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXnLi9UP_fs

Staying Disciplined With Your Feet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WRjUMlrsHw

It's probably obvious, but just in case, it should be noted that I have not even discussed the mechanics of throwing a punch here in any detail. This is for a reason that I also hope is obvious: being in the right position to throw a punch, with proper posture and balance and distance, is the only way to develop those punching mechanics. Just like when you are building a house, it starts with a solid foundation. If the foundation is busted, doesn't matter how nice the house is on top of it, it is eventually going down.

And remember that if you are struggling with any of these things, that is very normal. Boxing is not easy or natural. The good news is that every time we practice, we get one step closer to perfection, so if you are brand new to the sport, spend a LOT of time practicing getting comfortable in your boxing stance. More good news - you can do this anywhere at just about any time!

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Can You Breathe Better?

Have you heard of the Survival Rule of 3? It suggests you can go 3 weeks without food, 3 days without water, 3 hours without shelter in an extreme (hot or cold) environments and 3 minutes without breathing oxygen. There is certainly some variance here but it's a good rule of thumb to remember. Regardless of any slight variances, it cannot be doubted what the #1 priority of our bodies is - breathing! Everything else can wait for at least a little bit.

We do things to improve our diets, hydration and shelter but most of us do nothing to improve the most important thing. Why not? Probably because we figure we've got breathing down pretty good already. I mean, we are all alive, right? So something in there is working. And since breathing happens unconsciously, we may not think it is something we can even consciously improve.

But really, our respiratory muscles are just like all the other muscles. We can train them over and over again to get stronger and when your breathing muscles are stronger, they become more efficient and your stamina increases.

So how do you build those respiratory muscles? First, you gotta know what they actually are. We usually talk about breathing in terms of lungs and lung power but while they extract oxygen from the air and release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the lungs don't actually drive breathing at all. This is done mainly by the diaphragm. It's a like a little jellyfish head or shower cap that sits below the lungs and attaches to the lower rib cage, going all the way around, and can fill up about 4-5 inches, expanding the ribs.  A lot of important things go through the diaphragm, including the aorta, esophagus, vena cava, frantic nerve, psoas muscles.

When we are first born, we breathe very well through our diaphragms. Then as we get older, we tend to start breathing more through our chests. I would guess this is due to a combination of doing lots of sitting, developing bad posture, and I think we kind of get it into our heads that deep breaths = chest breaths, maybe because when we go to the doctor and they listen to our lungs, they put the stethoscope on our backs and tell us to breath into the chest. Another big one for many of us is that we don't like the feeling of our bellies sticking out. We tend to want to do the opposite - suck in our guts.

What's wrong with vertical breathing up through our chests? Nothing wrong, per se, just inefficient. It takes about 4-6 vertical breaths to equal the oxygen intake of 1 good horizontal breath. Horizontal breaths also lowers your heart rate and blood pressure, gets rid of oxidative stress better, supports posture and proper organ function, and even lowers your center of gravity helping with balance. Plus, vertical breathing requires your neck and shoulders to move, which takes some energy and yes, even requires more oxygen.

So why are our bodies so stupid to not automatically breathe efficiently? The chest breath certainly has value. It is a quicker breath, which sometimes we need in times of high stress and can even stimulate our adrenaline flow. When our heart rate increases dramatically and we go into fight or flight mode, taking in long, diaphragmatic breaths may be difficult or impossible, so switching to chest breathing makes sense in these situations. But those situations are not the norm (hopefully) and are meant to be short. We're being chased by a bear, gotta run as fast as possible for 20 seconds, then hide, then recover.

What about during a fight, like in boxing? Does vertical breathing make sense here since it is kind of like being chased by a bear? No! You would generally work very hard in a boxing round, maybe even fighting for your life, and performing anaerobically (where oxygen doesn't matter) at times, but adrenaline is something you do not want in that kind of a fight, neither physically or mentally. It is solely meant for short bursts (followed by extreme tiredness) and your adrenaline mindset is a panicked mindset, which is also no good. You want to stay calm, cool and collected under fire and as much oxygen running through your bloodstream as possible.

When your arms and legs feel heavy and tired, that is oxygenated blood leaving your limbs to support your breathing muscles, as again, they are the #1 priority of your body. The more efficient you breathe and stronger your breathing muscles are, less oxygenated blood will have to leave other parts and the less tired you feel. Then you want to recover in between rounds and this is where horizontal, diaphragmatic breathing is most important. Your breathing can and will get interrupted during the rounds but in between, you can focus purely on deep, steady, centering breaths. 

Practicing horizontal breathing is key. But it's not necessarily comfortable. Like anything else though, the more you practice, the more natural it starts to get. Start by taking in as much air as you can through your nose, flaring your nostrils just to make sure. As mentioned, you want that air to go right into your diaphragm and you will know this is happening by your belly expanding and sticking out. Eventually, you can get it to expand in all directions but start by focusing on just the front. Some people do things like lie down and put a book on top of their bellies to see that it is rising but you can also just use your hand. Then make sure to blow it all out through your mouth. You will/should notice that you seem to blow out more than you take in, or at least for longer. You may also feel somewhat lightheaded at first but if it starts to become a big distraction or issue, I would guess you are are either not inhaling enough or exhaling enough. Practice for a few minutes at a time on your own and during recovery moments in your workout.

Besides being the best way to recover between rounds, this kind of breathing can also be very useful to you in times of high stress or anxiety that doesn't involve being chased by a bear or immediate physical danger. Try it the next time you are stressed out or mad about something. Always remember that just like anything else, you can always breathe better and the better you breathe, the better you are. Make sure to stay away from bears while you are at it.

Do Sports Supplements Make Me a Better Boxer?

Once upon a time, I got really into weightlifting. I had no background in it at all, and aside from a bench press and squat, I didn't even know any more names of exercises- let alone how to do them. It opened up a whole new world for me. The lifts, the gym atmosphere and even the supplements. In fact, as weird as it might make me sound, it might have been the supplements that I liked more than anything! At that point in my life, I was very much a "better living through chemistry" kind of person so, me being me, I decided to go crazy and just use everything. I figured anything I could do to bring my numbers up was worth investing a ton of money in. This was when I was younger, dumber, single and a renter with plenty of disposable income at the time. Trying all of the different supplements also provided motivation for me to go and work out. It was like every day was an experiment.

As I started to meet people at the gym, I was told that the stuff they sold at GNC wasn't as great as whatever they special ordered, so I ended up trying everything from homemade protein powders to something that supposedly altered my blood plasma (no steroids though, I wasn't going to go that far). Later, I eventually started removing supplements from my routine to see how everything felt. In the end, I can tell you it's all pretty much BS (at least, for me) but there are some things I still take. For a more detailed explanation on some of the specific, most popular supplements, read below!

Pre-Workouts

This is the one I still take pretty much every day. But it's pretty much just for the caffeine. I love caffeine. And it undoubtedly has a positive effect on your workouts. More energy, more stamina, more strength. Why take a pre-workout versus just coffee or energy drinks? A couple of reasons. Some pre-workouts have more concentrated caffeine and just generally higher amounts of caffeine, so I can wake up in the morning and become more functional faster with the pre-workout. Plus, if I am going to exercise myself, or even teach a class, I don't like the way I feel after coffee or an energy drink as much.

Of course always remember that my body chemistry is at least slightly different than everybody else's. I am also not at all sensitive to caffeine. You might be. Most pre-workouts contain beta alanine, which can make your skin feel weird and tingly. Some people really don't like this effect. I kind of do! If you haven't tried a pre-workout before, pick one that has less caffeine per serving, like 150 milligrams. Or, if whatever you try recommends 2 scoops, start with 1 your first time. The brands of pre-workout I like these days are Ghost, Stimul8, and Kaged and Mr. Hyde. They stopped selling Mr. Hyde at Vitamin Shoppe next door and thus, I am slightly worried that someone died using it so maybe don't try that one. It does have a pretty good rush of caffeine though. Really, I like every pre-workout except for the ones that have under 200 mg of caffeine, and C4 for some reason. Just never felt right with that one.

Besides caffeine and beta alanine, many of these pre-workouts have tons of other ingredients. Mainly BCAA's (branch chain amino acids) taurine and various seed, bean, root or fruit extracts. Do any of these things make any difference in terms of overall performance? I highly doubt it. I have used plenty of BCAA supplements and not really felt anything special. Always consider that when you are reading labels for a sports supplement (or vitamins), while it may indeed contain all of these ingredients, your body might not necessarily absorb any of them. For my money, I just like the boost from pre-workouts better than any other caffeinated options so that is why I continue to use them.

Protein Powder

We can all pretty much agree that protein is needed to build muscle. But does that mean that protein powder or protein bars = more muscle building potential? Not inherently. You may already get enough protein in your regular diet to build the muscle you want and the supplement does you no significant good. Or it could be even worse. Some of those protein supplements have a lot of calories. You might want these calories if you are going for absolute bulk but for many of us, they are just unnecessary and you can gain more weight from fat than muscle mass.

That being said, if you don't eat a lot of protein in your regular diet and want to build some muscle mass, even relatively lean muscle mass, you could up your protein intake. But this still does not mean you need a supplement. You could just add it to your regular diet - meat, eggs, beans, milk, nuts, etc., etc. Just like with pre-workouts, just because a protein supplement promises a lot of grams of protein does not always mean you will absorb it all.

I actually eat protein bars pretty much every day but it is not necessarily for the protein. I just like the way they taste and the ones I get don't have sugar. I suppose if there was another type of bar that tasted good and didn't have a lot of sugar, I would eat it.

Nitric Oxide

These are designed to increase circulation. By relaxing the blood vessels, they can facilitate the "pump"  lifters like to feel. Better circulation and blood flow is certainly beneficial to all forms of physical activity, but there is little conclusive evidence to show that these supplements actually make a meaningful difference. Never did a whole lot for me personally. A normal human body will produce this on its own and even if the supplement does help you produce more, which I doubt, it is unclear if this has any significant effect.

Creatine

I have been out of the scene for a while but I feel like the creatine craze has kind of died off. I know plenty of people take the supplement, but it was all the rage for a while in the 2000s. There was one post-workout creatine product I remember that everybody liked because they felt like they looked somewhat bigger after the workout and maybe they did but it also contained a lot of sugar so that might have helped. In any case, like nitric oxide, creatine is something that our body naturally produces to improve exercise performance and increase muscle mass. Will the supplement help you make more of it? Would that even help you much? Probably not, has been my experience.

There's not really much harm to taking it so if you are body builder and every millimeter matters and you think it offers some benefit, then it's certainly worth considering. If you are a regular person, even an active regular person, I feel like it is a total waste of money. I bulked up when I was lifting heavy and taking it but then when I stopped taking it and kept lifting heavy, there was no perceivable difference.

Fat Burners

These I tend to find the most annoying because they all promise "hardcore weight loss" and that on it's own is a completely bogus claim. No one is going to lose weight taking something like Hyrdoxycut. Sure, there are people who take it and lose weight but this is due to the dietary and exercise changes and not the supplement. At best, it might curb your appetite a little bit as almost all of these contain caffeine and other stimulants. However, more negative side effects are reported from these products than other things containing caffeine. Rapid heartbeat, jitteriness, headaches, nausea, etc. There have been worse problems and Hyrdoxycut in particular was banned for a while because it contained something that might have led to a single death years ago. That ingredient is no longer in it and the product is back on the market but I still wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole. There are no magic pills for weight loss yet. 

Over-the-Counter Testosterone Boosters

Just like fat burners, these tend to pray on human weakness. Most average Joes want as much testosterone as they can and they sure as hell don't want to lose it when they get older. It's what makes us men, Men, we are told. It's also the same kind of thinking that I mentioned earlier, which is "Hey, if there's even a slim chance it can help me here, might as well try it, right?" Probably because I am older guy myself, I see a lot of commercials for these products nowadays. I guess I could give it another shot to see what happens but I can tell you as a younger man into my 30s, none of these things did absolutely anything for me and there is probably no reason any younger, healthier dude should take them. If I discover anything down the road as an old guy, I will be sure to let you know!

Magnesium

I am specifically mentioning magnesium because it has been recommended to me by people in the fitness industry and actually does have a noticeable effect. Well, it has a couple. First, it is a sleep aid. Taking magnesium supplements can make your body feel relaxed and there are athletes who swear by it as a way to help them with recovery. I've certainly felt the relaxed part and slept a little better but did it lead to an overall positive outcome with my daily exercise performance? Nothing detectable. But you could consider it as a non-narcotic solution to help you sleep, I suppose. Though if sleeping is an issue for you, you should definitely have a conversation with your doctor before taking anything off the shelf. There may be other factors at play that you should address first.

The other effect it has is that magnesium supplements have is that of a diuretic. I would not consider this a positive thing but hey, maybe you are looking for some help in that department?

So I have to say again that these are my experiences, as well as what I have heard anecdotally and through just some online research. I am by no means a doctor nor nutritionist but I am smart enough to know that all of our bodies are different so what worked or didn't work for me may/may not work for you. Even just the placebo effect could have some value though. Believing you've got these magic chemicals running through your system may indeed convince you to work harder. Or motivate you to go work out. But any potential negative effects far outweigh the positive so don't charge in headfirst without doing some research of your own first. As always, this includes talking to your doctor!

Do You Want To Be Like Mike?

I grew up during a pretty exciting time for professional basketball (and college, really). Both the 80s and 90s were when the NBA grew significantly in popularity. There was the Lakers' showtime dynasty vs the legendary Celtic teams, the rise of Air Jordan and his later championship run, the Bad Boy Detroit Piston teams, legendary big men like Kareem, Moses Malone, Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, Shaq, and I could go on and on. But don't worry, this will not be a trip down my own basketball memory lane. We are going to talk about one of those players though - Michael Jordan.

Even for those of you who don't follow or care about basketball in any way, you are probably familiar with the name, Michael Jordan. He was one of the greatest, most exciting players who eventually won 3 championships in a row before retiring to play baseball, then came back and won 3 more championships in a row before retiring again. You may not be familiar with him simply because he was good though. He transcended the sport and became a pop cultural icon mainly because of how he changed sports marketing forever. He had his own shoe that is still as iconic as it was back in mid-80s.

Anyway, in pro basketball, they play a pretty long schedule. 82 regular-season games before the playoffs start. Depending on how a team does, they could end up playing an additional 26 games in the post-season. Not every regular season game is that meaningful and given the way the game of basketball works, no one, not even Michael Jordan, is going to have a great game every game. Some nights, you are just off. To shoot a ball into a small circle, everything has to be pretty much perfect. If your shot is a millimeter off, it doesn't go in and you get 0 points. The difference between success or failure is miniscule and often imperceptible. 

I remember nights where Michael Jordan just wasn't making his shots for whatever reason. When that would happen though, he didn't just have an off-game and that was that. Instead, he would GRIND. He would drive the ball to the hoop, jump up in the air, potentially get fouled by the other team, and go to the free throw line. That is where he would get most of his points. He wouldn't give up shooting at all and sometimes he get his rhythm back. But the point is, even when he was off his game, he would step up his effort and find a way to squeeze out points and help his team win.

This is an analogy that I think everyone can use in life- and certainly during your workouts. You won't always feel it. You won't have the same energy and coordination or drive that you might normally have or want. There will be off days. But your off-days don't have to be days off! (see what I did there! huh? huh??)  

This is where you Be Like Mike. You grind. Maybe your movements seem awkward and your arms feel heavy and slow but you just press even harder. Not just to survive your workout on an off day but to actually win it! You might not win it the way you normally win it where you feel good but you win it through sheer grit and determination. 

As is usually the case, this is all mental. You would be amazed at what a little bit of visualization can do. It is like magic sometimes. Next time you might be having one of those off-days, picture Michael Jordan (or someone else you find inspirational) having an off-day too. Imagine how they were able to grind through and overcome whatever they were feeling physically to accomplish something great. Then imagine that YOU are Michael Jordan taking on that grind. It may sound silly, like something you would maybe do as a kid but never as an adult. I want you to try it as an adult. And don't just say it to yourself, actually believe it! Might seem impossible but I am telling you that it has worked for me and others. 

When I say "worked,” I just mean that it gave me strength and changed the context of my workout. Instead of feeling down and like I just can't bring the heat, I feel powerful in the knowledge that I am a champion and can grind through simply with that championship mentality and will to win.

Again, I want you to try this for real. While you are boxing, at work, or even just doing life stuff.  Don't just read this and go, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, inspirational, Michael Jordan, yeah, I get it." Take it a step further, a step deeper. This has literally changed my life but you don't just have to believe in me. Believe in the power of your own mind. It's even stronger than we know, which I suppose is ironic on some level, but if you think about all of the unconscious and subconscious things our brains do, I have no doubt there are more things it can do that we may not even be aware of. I do know your mindset can drive your abilities. Tell yourself you’re a champion and you can become one. 

So You Want To Lose Weight?

Happy 2024! With the holiday season now over, this is that time of year that many of us, myself very much included, want to shed a little bit of that weight we might have gained since Thanksgiving (or in my case, since late August when pumpkin spice things started appearing in the stores). Some of us have an actual number of pounds we would like to lose, others it's just more of a look and feel thing.

Whatever the case, the levers we have to work with are obvious things like diet, exercise and yes, even sleep. Eating better, working out more and more intensely, and sleeping more/better will certain help get us onto the path of weight loss. How much, depends on you individually and your goals. Here are 8 tips I can give you from personal experience, anecdotal experience, and plenty of research on the subject:

1) It doesn't hurt to let your doctor know about your goal

This is especially true if you plan to lose a significant amount of weight, like more than 20-30 pounds. Your doctor knows your medical history and getting their buy-in is always a good idea. There may be reasons why losing weight could be prohibitive in your particular situation, or they may be certain restrictions you need to follow. They may also have some good advice for you, based on their knowledge of your history as well as just a better understanding of health and wellness than, say, the internet. Plus, telling someone kind of makes you accountable, which is usually good.

2) Differentiate between weight loss and things like body fat percentage and lean muscle mass

I know I have been using "weight loss" but I think your exact weight on a scale is less important to your own health and wellness. If there is muscle growth and fat loss, you may end up weighing exactly the same as you did before but your clothes fit totally different. And you feel better!

That being said, it feels good to see that number on the scale drop if you are looking to slim down a fair amount. I lost about 60 pounds years ago and it's much easier to say "I lost 60 pounds!", then "I dropped my body fat percentage by 10 points!" or "I feel lighter and slimmer than I used to!" Just make sure that you don't let the scale affect you too much.

3) Beware big dietary changes for long-term success!

This is a big one. Maybe the biggest. For most everybody, to lose weight, their need to be some dietary changes. Eat less, eat different, etc. But, BUT, you have to make sure that what you are doing is sustainable. Sure, you might be able to drop a lot of pounds doing intermittent fasting, cutting out carbs entirely, or skipping meals but are you planning to do this for the rest of your life? Or a modified version of it?

If not, there is a very strong possibility that you will gain the weight back. I have seen this happen to many people from several different diets. The thinking is that if you can just get your weight down to a certain number, you will be okay from there. But it's that maintenance stage that is the hardest. You can't just go back to how things were after dropping X-amount of pounds. Sometimes I find people know that, tell themselves that, maybe initially stick with a modified or generally better version of their old diet, but the weight eventually comes back.

Eating healthier is great. Eating healthier can also suck. I would recommend finding a healthier way to eat that you can actually stick with. Maybe try to eliminate something like added sugars, save for very special occasions. Or snacks. Or beer. Or maybe you experiment with eating a lighter lunch and see how it goes. I suggest smaller, gradual changes finding to find something healthier and sustainable.

4) Track It!

This, to me, is the first step anybody should take when it comes to managing their diet. Track what you eat for every meal and EVERY snack. If you grab a few M&Ms on your way through the kitchen, even if just a few, track it. Write it down or enter it in digitally. There are plenty of good apps out there that will track calories and even set limits for you to get to your goal but even if you just wrote it down and did nothing else, I bet it would be really helpful.

What happens is that we start to realize how much we actually eat. That realization alone can help you with what I mentioned above - figuring out ways to sustainably cut things out or limit things. Plus, knowing that you have to write down the 4 M&Ms you grab on the way through the kitchen might actually lead to you not eating the M&Ms. There is now some level of work associated with eating and it feels dumb to write down "4 M&Ms."

5) But you do have to get outside of your comfort zone

Just because I support finding something sustainable as far as diet and healthier eating habits, that does not mean it should be super easy. You will likely have to make some cuts and your body may not like those cuts. You will feel cravings. You may feel totally incomplete without desert. Like something is truly wrong because your body is not getting it's sugar at 8pm or whenever. Or you may just feel hungry and irritable. Especially at first. Going out to restaurants might be less fun because you don't order what you really want.

I will talk more about this later but it's worth mentioning a million times - there is no magic pill. There is no hack that will make cutting your caloric intake feel just fine. Empty calories are sometimes the ones we miss the most. If you want to really change things up, you have to get out of your comfort zone. The goal is just not to make it so uncomfortable that you cannot sustain it.

6) Super fast is not necessarily super good

I already kind of touched on this but also worth hitting on it again. While I would love to lose 20 pounds tomorrow or next week or next month, it is likely not going to happen. It might. And every body loses weight differently and in different spurts so depending on where you are, it could be a little more realistic but if I have to do anything really, really major to make it happen, we get back into what I mentioned in Point #3. It might not be sustainable and my body is going to be very confused. It dropped a bunch of pounds really quickly so as far as it knows, my food sources have been cut. Therefore, when I eat my next big dinner, it's going to want to hang on to those calories for longer because it doesn't know when the next significant meal will happen. 

1-2 pounds per week is generally recommended for an average person.

7) Beware what you hear from other people

Yes, I realize the irony of me saying this. I am another person. And you probably should scrutinize everything I say too. Everything should be challenged. But, I have read a bunch of info online or even anecdotally that seems ridiculous and makes no logical sense to me. First and foremost, consider the source. If anyone is trying to sell you something OR get you to follow them online, read their article, etc., I would take anything they say with the smallest grain of salt. As I have mentioned before, even if the source seems reputable, it could be total BS. Men's Health magazine is a major publication that has been around for almost 40 years and they still write articles about how doing core exercises can shrink your beer belly, something that I don't think any nutritionist, dietician or person with any physiological knowledge would consider remotely true.

Then there are randos online, influencers and such. Yeah, maybe what they say works for them and there's a lot more to it than they explain or maybe it's just a total lie. Remember that these people make money based on how many followers they have so if they can give you health and fitness tips that seem helpful to you, that might lead you to follow them. Sometimes it's even worse because it's someone telling you about what an influencer says or does, like a game of telephone, and it may not even be an accurate representation or explanation of what was originally said.

To continue the irony, an online source that I myself have used and pointed people too is this - https://www.myplate.gov/

It used to be Choose My Plate and yes, there are those in the dietary community who dispute some of our governmental dietary guidelines (mainly, do we really need that much fruit?) but they aren't selling anything and can even help you build a meal plan that at the very least, may be healthier that what you're doing right now. At least some good guidelines and many of the personal training certificating bodies like ACE and NASM, support using this a resource so you don't have to just take my word on it. 

8) Don't get too high, don't get too low. Or low at all.

If you believe nothing else I say, believe this: every body is different. Every person is different. Between our different bodies and different lives, we will have different experiences with everything, including weight loss. Some people lose weight by doing X. Others lose weight by doing Y. Some don't lose weight right away. Sometimes it takes a while before the numbers on the scale start to change. Some may lose a significant amount of weight relatively quickly but then plateau. It's a long journey and your journey isn't the same as anybody else's. 

Because of this and just general emotional management, I always recommend to others that they not get too high when things are going well and not get too low when they aren't. Life is always about change and fluctuation. Doesn't mean you shouldn't have any emotions all, you're a human being (I think) and it's going to happen. Just try to keep it in perspective and again, remind yourself that this is a marathon, not a sprint. Be proud of your achievements but always remember, things may change. If you get bad news from the scale, don't despair at all. Stay on track, don't get derailed and BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN DO THIS!!!

 

Old Traditions vs. Modern Thinking

We live in a fast-changing world often driven by data collection, data analysis and iteration. Technology is ever-evolving and touches just about every part of of lives. We also live in a world with old, time-honored traditions that we still follow. Things we love and things that just continue to work. For instance, a fork is still an excellent way to eat salad. 

So, how do we determine what things can be innovated and what things shouldn't change at all? We simply ask the question, "Why?" Why do we use a fork to eat salad? Is there another tool that might work better? Is there anything we can do to make the experience of eating a salad more easy and efficient? Do we have new technology that could be applied to eating a salad?

When it comes to most modern sports, people are always asking these questions. Especially in the most popular American sport, which is football. The game itself has changed drastically in the last 45 years I have been watching. There are constant innovations to the style of play as well as the training and decision-making aspect to coaching, with many of the latter two things being driven by advancements in technology and data analysis. 

I could give you a billion examples of these changes but one I will just point out is "The Brotherly Shove." Long before the forward pass was even invented, teams would line up against each other and try to run the ball up the middle for short yardage. Then suddenly, a couple of years ago, the Philadelphia Eagles line up a little differently, get lower, and invent a new way to push forward to gain just a yard or two, eventually calling it "The Brotherly Shove" (or the less compelling, "Tush Push"). And here is the crazy thing - it is pretty much unstoppable! For as long as I can remember, teams trying to pick up a single yard or less was always a risky proposition. Defenses lined up to stop it and it seems like at least half the time, they usually did. But when the Eagles started this Brotherly Shove thing, it was almost 100%. Nobody can prevent them getting at least a yard with this play. How did it take over 100 years to figure this out? I have no idea but I know that it happened because somebody finally asked why. Why do we do things the way we currently do and is there a better way to do them? 

One sport that does not ask these questions as much is, unfortunately, boxing. Boxers still pretty much train the way they did in the 1960s. Fight styles have changed a little bit, erring towards being more defensive in the smaller weight classes and of course, the business of boxing has changed too, erring towards having fewer fights in general, particularly among serious contenders. Unlike football however, none of those changes have really improved the product.

For this post, I am going to focus on the training and analytics portions of boxing, which are probably the least advanced and most in need of modernization. Boxing trainers and coaches generally come from an old-school mentality. They teach boxing the way it was taught to them 30, 40, 50 years ago. They train the way Rocky Marciano trained because he had incredible conditioning and was really, really good. They are usually not as open to asking "why” and "is there a better way to do this?" Do all boxers really need to skip rope or is there something that would benefit them more? Is hitting the speed bag really the best use of their time? The answer to these questions may certainly be "yes" but my point is that they are generally not even asked at all. They are just established facts. If you walked into an NFL training camp in 1960, it would be completely different than how it would be now in 2023. If you walked into a boxing gym, it would probably not be too much different because of this reason.

Speaking as an older guy myself, I can understand that change isn't always easy and if legends like Angelo Dundee or Ray Arcel or Cus D'amato said something, who the hell am I to question it? But the world has changed and maybe there is another way of evaluating things. If we don't ask and truly scrutinize, we'll never know. And if those old school training methods are still the best, they will hold up to any scrutiny, just like forks do.

This problem is not just limited to how we train physically. Boxing is not studied to anywhere near the detail that sports like football are. For instance, during fights, there is a system called CompuBox that tracks the punches that each athlete throws. It is the same system that has been used since the mid 1980s. 2 operators watch the fight and record only 4 things - jab lands, jab misses, power punch (any punch that is not a jab) lands, power punch misses. That's it. Other types of punches are not categorized and it is extremely prone to error and bias. To be fair though, boxing can move much faster than other sports. Determining exactly which punch was thrown can be extremely difficult to do live. I've tried to figure this out and always end up having to rewind multiple times. So I don't blame CompuBox specifically, but is anyone else collecting more granular data? Things like how punches are missed (block, evade, etc.), what punches are landed/missed, where specifically punches are landed, single punches vs combinations, punch vs counterpunch, who initiates the attack vs success level, generally what successful/unsuccessful things have in common and so much more. Everything should be tracked, analyzed and learned from. This info could completely change the way boxers approach things. Again, we'll never know for sure unless we study and analyze. Maybe someone, somewhere is doing this but I highly doubt it. Boxing telecasts certainly don't make use of it.

Science and technology can also be applied to our basic movements. If you look at sports like golf and baseball, where the specific mechanics of a swing are so important, they are able to track exactly what muscles are firing when and what body parts move in what order to determine how this swing can be made better, through both targeted training of everything that goes into it as well as the specific execution of the movement itself. A boxer's punch is pretty important too. Perhaps some of these same methods of study and training can be employed but once again, I don't feel like the boxing community is receptive to this as a whole.

To a lot of the old school trainers, which encompasses most of the good ones currently, introducing new ideas like this can be seen as an affront to the gritty, tough spirit of boxing. Technology and science aren't boxing. Boxing is blood, sweat and tears. Nerds in lab coats can't teach us how to fight or even prepare for a fight. I think that was even the whole point of Rocky 4 (that and that communism doesn't work). But boxing is the sweet science and just like those salty sciences, nothing is ever settled, and we should always question whether or not there is a better way to do things. Even when it comes to eating a salad.