Hey, everyone — this guest post is from Niamh Griffin, a freelance writer from across the pond (in Ireland). She also knows a thing or seven about boxing, and you may have seen her commenting here on The Glowing Edge now and then. She and I got started talking about Boxing and Brains on this post about British women training for the 2010 Olympics.

Niamh is a former competitor in Muy Thai and has never lost her love of sport. She writes on many topics, but her blog Inspiring Sports Women is all about women succeeding in sport. Thank, Niamh, for guest posting! — Lisa

Mixing talk of brains and boxing isn’t something for the cocktail circuit. People have entrenched positions on whether boxers are asking for brain damage or not. But what do you discover if you look instead at how we use our brains in boxing? You’ll find that brainless boxers are about as successful as brainless bankers and we all know what happens to them.

Whether it’s boxing, kick boxing or Muay Thai; to succeed you need to listen, apply and innovate.

Listen
So you’re banging away at the bag, and your trainer says you’re dropping your left shoulder but it doesn’t feel like that so you don’t shift your stance. But if you remember that a good trainer has forgotten more than you will ever learn, and take the time to look in the mirror, well there you are – dropped shoulder. Beginners especially can be overwhelmed by the detailed instructions flying at them, but learning to pick the people to listen to is a great start. Note: that means listening to real experts like your trainer and not just some guy in a flashy tracksuit who thinks you don’t know anything.

Apply
After a few training sessions, you’ve got some information in your head, but then it’s time to fight or spar. In Thailand they say it takes ten fights before you start to settle in the ring. But the sooner you start focusing on one aspect of your movement and trying to improve that, the sooner you’ll see results. So if your trainer is still banging on about that left shoulder, then ask your sparring partner to attack that side more often; create a reason to focus. Not easy unless you know how to concentrate under pressure and apply complex instructions at speed.

Innovate
Now this is the hard part.  You’ve sparred a few times, maybe even started fighting and you’ve realized that the other fighter has a brain of her own. All forms of boxing are fluid by nature; you can’t exactly predict how your opponent will react. You may know her as a southpaw but she’s been training and flipped to orthodox for the day. Your trainer can only do so much when the ring is noisy and she’s firing in the kicks and punches. Adapting traditional thoughts and making changes to practiced routines is scary but do it once and you’ll be hooked.

“I can entertain the proposition that life is a metaphor for boxing-for one of those bouts that go on and on, round following round, jabs, missed punches, clinches, nothing determined, again the bell and again and you and your opponent so evenly matched it’s impossible to see your opponent is you …” Joyce Carol Oates, On Boxing

Image by karpov the wrecked train

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2. 3 New Lessons in the Boxing Ring
3. Victorian Doll (with Kitten Friends) Boxing Workout

I’ve been listening to this one for a long time now. The First made it for me a while back and I slapped it on my Shuffle and BOOM got smacked down by the sound. There’s not much traditional about it (well, Metallica’s Breadfan does make an appearance) but it will definitely get you through your workout.

Incidentally, the ones with the highest playcount on my Shuffle are Guarded, by Disturbed, and BYOB, by System of a Down. Something’s clearly wrong with me.

Crank it up, people.

1. Operation Ground and Pound, Dragonforce
2. Indestructible, Disturbed
3. Guarded, Disturbed
4. Fading Away, Demon Hunter
5. Duality, Slipknot
6. Don’t Stay, Linkin Park
7. Dark Chest of Wonders, Nightwish
8. Coming Undone, Korn
9. Breadfan, Metallica
10. BYOB, System of a Down
11. Avarice, Disturbed
12. Pulse of the Maggots, Slipknot
13. Through Fire and Flames, Dragonforce
14. Thorns, Demon Hunter
15. Side of a Bullet, Nickelback
16. Rawkfist, Thousand Foot Krutch

Image by Charlie Cravero

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This is my genetic material at work.

When I was in college I highlighted about one-third of each of my textbooks, even if they were already highlighted by the generations of students who had the book before me. The Husband, on the other hand, comes from the Minimalist School of Bookmarking/Highlighting. If the book was already highlighted, he would rarely add anything, and if he was the first one into a pristine textbook, you would have to hunt carefully to find his notations. If I had to guess, I’d say he highlighted no more than one or two sentences per chapter. Weird, right?

Thankfully, my gene is dominant, as you can see from the photo.

The Maker loves poetry, and he’s a huge fan of Shel Silverstein in particular. He gets hours of enjoyment trying to puzzle out Runny Babbit (which we purchased as soon as it came out), and he recently brought home Falling Up from the local library.

His bookmarks are color-coded (blue = favorites, pink = most favorites) and systematically laid out in ever-increasing height so that they are easily accessed. (That’s his father’s genetic material.)

I actually counted the bookmarks — there are 47 of them, in a book that only has 170 pages total.

Post-its are awesome. But just wait ’til he discovers Delicious.

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Light, agile, lightning-speed footwork can make the difference in winning and losing in the ring. Great boxers have the ability to win a round on footwork alone, and if you have ever been put in the ring with a newbie and instructed to use defense only, you’ve had to power up your best footwork in order to bring the best workout to your sparring partner.

Agility dot drills can help you increase the speed and balance of your footwork while also increasing your cardio. Try setting up a series for yourself and see how quickly you can run a set of drills. Be patient with yourself as you work; these drills might feel simple going forward, but going backward will really challenge you.

The best thing about these drills is that you don’t need any equipment to practice them. Yes, you can shell out cash for agility dots and agility dot mats (I found both online for $50 each — I refuse to even link it, that’s insane), but you don’t need them! Use a piece of chalk or a bit of masking tape to mark your five dots and you’re up and working. You can increase the size and spacing of the layout if you are taller, or as you increase in speed and ability.

Check out the dude in the video below, or scroll on down for a list of drills you can set up and try on your own.

Agility Dot Drills

X Drill. Start with feet split, one foot on dot 1 and one on dot 2. Jump to dot 3 with both feet, then to dots 4 and 5 with feet split. Repeat the steps jumping backward.

X Drill Hopscotch. Start with feet split, one foot on dot 1 and one on dot 2. Jump to dot 3 with ONE foot, then split feet to dots 4 and 5. Repeat jumping backward with same or alternate foot landing in the middle.

X Drill with Turn Around. This is the same as the X Drill or X Drill Hopscotch except that when you get to the top or bottom, you turn your body around to go in the other direction.

Z Drill. Form a Z pattern (4-5-3-1-2) using one leg or both feet together.

M Drill. Form an M pattern (4-5-3-2-1) using one leg or both feet together.

Figure 8 Drill. Form a figure eight (4-5-3-1-2-3-4) down and back, keeping feet together or on one foot only.

Big Arrow, Little Arrow. Keep feet together, start at 1 and jump diagonally to 5, then back to 1. Now jump 1-4-1, 1-3-1, 1-2-1. Start over with the big diagonal jump.

Box Drill. Keep feet together and hop the perimeter of the square (1-4-5-2-1), facing the same direction at all times.

Single-leg Triangle. Hop on your left leg to form a triangle in a counterclockwise direction (2-3-1-2). Make five triangles then switch legs and make five triangles. Repeat the drill moving in a clockwise direction (1-3-2-1).

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1. A Boxing Footwork Epiphany
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The Maker and I were having lunch together and I was telling him this fairly long, drawn-out story about how his father and I are so different. He was utterly still and listening to my every word.

I explained how I was the bubbly social one and his dad was the reserved, quiet one (rock bands notwithstanding — c’mon, he’s the bass player, that counts as reserved). I recounted numerous examples then closed my rambling monologue with pithy sentiment tired old cliché:

“And that’s why they say,” I finished triumphantly, “‘Opposites attract’!”

The Maker considered this a moment, then crinkled up his brow. “Oh,” he commented. “I thought it was ‘No taxation without representation.”

I feel like I probably deserved that.

Image by dwulff (Awesome photo, huh? Cracks me all up.)

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One of the things I love about this Wall Street Journal video is not just that the WSJ is spotlighting a few of the thousands of young women whose dreams of boxing in the Olympics are now a real possiblity, but also that they show a more balanced view of what it’s like to train as a boxer.

Boxing isn’t all about trading blows, although that’s certainly what most people think about when they see it. Boxing is about careful and determined study and practice of tactics, constant work on cardio, and plenty of mental fortitude. It’s almost more of a head and heart game than a brawn game.

I’m thrilled to see more and more articles like this showing up in my alerts these days. Not only that, but another woman interested in boxing has started showing up when my LA Boxing team trains. Allowing women’s boxing in the 2012 Olympics (I accidentally typed 2010 just now — wishful thinking!) will have an empowering trickle-down effect for women everywhere.

Let’s do it, sisters!

PS: That accent is pretty cool, huh? I had to rewind a couple of times in order to figure out what some of the young women were saying!

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Sometimes after you get in the ring you want to debrief, talk with other boxers about how you did. So most nights after the team is finished sparring I’ll ask some of the newer boxers: “How did you do tonight?”

And I’ve found that many of them have trouble answering in a way that satisfies themselves. They’ll say, “I didn’t do as well as I wanted,” but they have trouble defining it further. Or else there are so many things that need improvement that they’re overwhelmed by it all. I find myself thinking, and often saying, the same things.

First, remember that it takes years to get any good at boxing. You can’t get in the ring for the first few months and do anything worth remembering. Really. Because you did pretty much everything wrong: your guard was down, your shots were sloppy, you telegraphed your every move, your feet were slow, you looked away, you had no cardio, and overall you looked about as sturdy as a newborn kitten in the path of a bulldozer. It was probably embarrassing to everyone who watched, but everybody starts there, period.

A lot of kids come in and think it will go like it did when they first picked up a skateboard, or a basketball, or a frisbee. They messed around with it for a day or so and pretty quickly they could get in the game. Not so with boxing, which demands a baseline bit of skill but a fair amount of cardio and a wheelbarrow of guts just to get through your first rounds. And that’s after you’ve convinced a coach or trainer that you’ve paid enough dues in sweat to be allowed into the ring.

The best way to know if your boxing is improving is to set small, clear, achievable goals. Here are a few examples.

Tonight, I want to (pick two or three):

• Keep my gloves up
• Move my head more
• Not square up with my opponent
• Make it through 3 rounds without sucking for air
• Throw more shots than I take
• Maintain control of the ring
• Not look away from my opponent
• Throw a solid double jab
• Move my feet more
• Not get locked against the ropes
• Throw both head and body shots
• Get some power behind my right cross
• Work on my inside game
• Regularly slip or block punches
• Throw three excellent left hooks in every round
• Work on my uppercut
• Keep my balance between my lead and rear foot
• Commit to and fully extend my punches
• Utilize my pivot
• Finish each round strong
• Score shots heavily in the last 30 seconds of each round
• Land ___ shots per round (you’ll need a punch counter ringside)
• Work on my  _______ (jab-hook-pivot, right cross – left hook, etc.) combination.

Sometimes I even tell my opponent what, specifically, I’m going to work on. Yes, they’ll then be on the lookout for my left hook, but at least they understand that I’m going to throw a boatload of them, and I may even ask them to stop mid-round so that I can go through some slow-motion in order to tweak my form, or ask them why a particular move keeps falling short of power.

Sometimes your trainer will pick for you. Recently I was in the ring with a guy who was my same height, but every single time he threw his jab, he brought his glove back to his shoulder rather than his cheek or chin. So I had easy pickings on a right cross to his face, and was taking them on an intermittent but regular basis. But between rounds, my trainer told me to take every single one of those shots in the coming round. I wasn’t to let his jab return — ever — without shooting my right cross into his face. “And put a little more power behind it,” he told me.

Midway through the next round my opponent realized, without anyone having to tell him, that he needed to work on one specific thing, which was getting his glove back in the correct position after a jab. He knew very clearly at the end of the night what had improved in his boxing!

And I’ve been in his position plenty of times. If you don’t pick a goal, your opponent or trainer may pick one for you, and you’ll discover it the hard way!

Sparring is your absolute best opportunity to learn and improve your boxing, so you want to focus on and optimize that time as well as you can. Choose a goal (or two) and make them your priority.

You can even keep track of your goals in a notebook. I know I’m going to be in the ring every single Friday night, so sometimes I’ll write my goals on a post-it and stick it on my computer at work so I’ll be thinking about it in advance. Then, when I’m in the ring, I know what to work on. And I’ll also know, coming out of the ring, just how I did that night.

You can’t work on everything all the time. But you can box on a baseline, and focus hard on a few choice skills or techniques, so that you’ll be able to see clear improvement over time.

Stay strong. Train hard. And box smart.

Photo of me sparring with Coby by Ken Hall Photography

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