The Boxing Brain

“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.” Bruce Lee

Boxing IQ

“When you step inside that ring, its just you and your opponent, you need to be switched on, lightning fast and you need to use your brain if you want to win." - Fraser Neill

Like a chess game every move or decision you make changes possible outcomes. To win you need to use your brain and come up with the right strategy against your opponent. Planning and knowing what it is you are going to do, how you are going to do it and timing precisely when you are going to do it.

How do you improve your boxing IQ?

1. Knowledge - You must know boxing in and out, every punch, defence, counter and all the different strategies to use against different opponents. This is not something you can learn overnight, to become an expert you need over 10,000 hours of practice. It is important for all boxers to take control of their own learning, do not solely rely on your coach to keep moving you forward. if you want to be truly great you need to engage in your own continuous professional development. Do your own research, analyse world class boxers, their technique, their tactics and even look at their coaches training methods and implement them to improve your own game!

2. Reflection - We have all had a day sparring where things did not go to plan and you may have come out second best or unsatisfied with your performance. This is where reflection comes in, when you get some time to yourself close your eyes, reflect on the sparring, What went well? What could i have done better? What can i do to come out on top next time? In a gym which focuses on the brain it is satisfying seeing someone come back the next day like a new person, they have developed through reflection and become untouchable in sparring that day until the next person starts their cycle of reflection.

3. Brain Hacking - Understanding and harnessing the power of the brain is of vital importance if you want to make a career out of boxing. When you understand about all of the different parts of the brain and their specific functions you can hack into the brain to aid its development and the full development of your skills. By doing this not only will your boxing skills increase but your full athletic performance increases. Boxers such as Lomachenko continuously train their brain to give them an upper edge on their performance, ultimately boxers who truly understand the brain and how to train it have higher capacities, awareness, reactions, motor control and a lot other methods which they use to keep an edge over their opponents!

Book coming soon..!

'The Boxing Brain' - Fraser Neill

If you are interested in learning more about the boxing brain, please get in touch.