A common problem for many beginner boxers is unnecessary tension:

• Hunching the shoulders.

• Clenching the fists (the whole time).

• Holding the breath.

• Locking the knees.

• Digging the heels.

These are understandable responses to stress or uncertainty. But the cost of excessive tension is fatigue.

The solution is gradual exposure, which may be applied to any type of training:

• For a recreational boxer, this means breaking down a skill, practicing the parts in isolation, and gradually piecing them together until a new habit is formed, before finally speeding up.

• For a competing boxer, this means starting with technical, cooperative partner-work that gradually progresses to something resembling sparring.

The benefit of gradual exposure is the experience of an optimal state of performance, which may be described as poise, readiness, attentiveness, flow, or ‘being in the zone’.

In the case of the recreational boxer, breaking down a combination into its individual techniques takes away the pressure of going fast and allows time to relax the appropriate muscles.

In the case of the competing boxer, working with a partner in a cooperative drill takes away the threat of an opponent, gives time for the boxer to explore their options, and allows them to develop the appropriate habits.

In both cases a stressful problem is reduced to an easy problem, and developed from there

Another solution is to practice relaxing deeply. This is more appropriate during recovery time.

Try this experiment before going to sleep. It is a process of scanning the body systematically and relaxing one body-segment at a time, each with a deep breath:

1. Relax the feet - relax the toes and the ankles.

2. Relax the shins.

3. Relax the knees.

4. Relax the thighs and the hips.

5. Relax the back - the lower back and the upper back.

6. Relax the neck, the chest and the shoulders.

7. Relax the arms, the forearms, the hands, and the fingers.

8. Relax the face.

Aside from a good night’s sleep, the benefit of deep relaxation is that it offers a contrast against excessive tension, and hence may help us find the middle ground of an optimal state more easily.

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