No more butterflies in your stomach before fights. Here are some tips to build confidence in your boxing ability.
One of the toughest challenges I ever faced in athletics was staying confident and strong mentally. Physicially, my body was always well-conditioned but mentally, I was worn out before the game had begun.
I doubted myself before big competitions with all sorts of excuses:
- I’m not feeling as strong today.
- My right arm feels tight.
- My calves are still sore from last week’s workout.
- Etc, etc.
One of the best techniques I ever learned for controlling my mental burnout and performance anxiety was to cut back on my training intensity. Below are some ideas on how to hold back in the gym so that you don’t burn yourself out mentally.
Don’t Go 100% Everyday
This is the easiest way to keep yourself from burning out. It’s not possible to perform 100% everyday in the gym. You can make 100% effort but you definitely won’t get 100% performance everyday. Make it a good workout but don’t pound the bag until your arms fall off. Knowing your limits all the time is not good way to push yourself. If anything, it’s like a voice in your head reminding you of what your limits are. You’ll reach a certain repetition and your body “remembers” to fail. Training is about increasing your performance over time, not measuring your performance everyday by pushing till failure.
Build Confidence With Training Cycles
Training cycles are longterm workout plans where you start slow in the first couple weeks and increase your intensity as the weeks go by. By the end of the plan, your body will have peaked out for maximum performance and you’ll be perfect for a fight then. Professional boxers normally use training cycles from 6-12 weeks whereas amateur boxers use 3-4 week cycles or sometimes less. From a mental standpoint, training cycles allow you to build confidence as you allow your body time to develop the ability to execute what your mind tells it to do. With training cycles, you’re not approaching workouts with the idea of going till failure but rather to set a goal and then be confident that you can achieve it. Giving 100% is challenging but simple. Having absolute confidence in yourself and your ability to achieve goals is a mental attitude that takes time to build.
Have Some Easy Days
Everybody needs to take a break sooner or later whether it be working in an office or working out at the gym. The rest allows you to rebuild yourself so that you can come back even stronger. If you neglect resting your body, it will fall apart with injuries and fatigue and fail on you when you need it most. Mentally, you’ll be judging yourself constantly from one day to the next, overly critical of yourself for not doing as well as you did the previous day.
It doesn’t matter how tough you are, you have to take it easy from time to time. On my “easy days”, I like to just go into the gym and do some stretching and jumprope. I politely turn down offers to spar and make sure that I have fun and don’t push myself at all. My easy days allow me to stay involved in boxing but also relax and not push myself beyond my limits. In fact, longterm athletes are known to take some breaks in training. With a strenuous sport like boxing, you can’t expect your body and mind to last long if you don’t take some easy days.
Let’s look at how two different boxers might approach training and what their expected mental attitude is likely to be at the end of the training cycle just before the fight.
Boxer A (wants to be the next Mike Tyson, gives it 100% in the gym everyday)
Week 1 – Tires out completely at 3 rounds. Feels good about himself for putting in the hard work.
Week 2 – Tires out completely at 6 rounds. Feel good about giving it 100%.
Week 3 – His body is worn but he forces himself to go 9 rounds to satisfy his need to be tough.
Week 4 – His body has nothing left but he feels guilty so he goes to the gym and puts everything he has left to crank out 10 rounds and prove that he outdid himself the previous week.
THE FIGHT – He arrives with a tired body, unhealed injuries and muscle stiffness. He’s massaging his sore shoulders and doesn’t feel 100% physically or mentally. Boxer A is probably doubting himself because this is a 12 round fight but he barely survived 10 rounds last week.
Boxer B (mature, paces himself, using workouts as workouts, and saving his best for when it counts the most)
Week 1 – Gets himself back into condition with 2 rounds keeping things light and easy, minimizing injury.
Week 2 – Goes 4 rounds easy, building his confidence and motivation.
Week 3 – Sweats out 6 rounds with energy to spare. Workouts are serious but not over-doing it.
Week 4 – Puts in a solid effort and cuts off the workout at 8 rounds knowing he’s got a lot more in the tank. He’s confident for the fight and can’t wait to see what he’s got in him.
THE FIGHT – He arrives at the fight confident that his body has accomplished everything in training. His mind tells him that if he went 8 rounds easy, 12 rounds will be challenging but definitely possible. He is ready physically AND MENTALLY!
Which boxer would you pick to win the fight?
Which boxer would you rather be?
Boxing Confidence
Boxing requires mental strength as well as physical strength. There’s a common saying in boxing that if you go at it hard everyday, you might leave it all in the gym. You should always be careful when pushing yourself that you save that last ounce of competitive fire for when you need it most. You should protect your mind from burnout just as you would your body. As long as you hold yourself back just a little in training, you’ll always have the confidence of knowing you have more in you.
these r looking realy workfull.., i’ll surely try………
beginner
Just found your page thanks for writting all this info, this is a really big help specially for someone at my age now, Now I might not be steping in the ring, but this is a big boost for me to stay healthy, again thanks for writing these articles.
RE: beginner boxer
Thanks for the compliment and thank you for reading!
wedfwr
boxer A——
tama
push the training hard,.avoid to be trying hard
it solved my problem ~
i just started boxing this year. I wish i read this article earlier because I experienced it myself ~
at first I put 100 percent for a long time, then I felt tired and self doubt and then I learned things go up and down, I’m trying to find the right flow at the moment ~ thanks for this article : ) it explains it~
@Yuji – I’m glad you’re finally finding that flow!
I can relate!!
I can relate to this article.. Just to share my experience, I’ve re-started training and I can say that I’m the Type A boxer. I want to be fit ASAP. I am mentally conditioned and I wanted to achieve more more more. Unfortunately, physical body couldn’t keep up as I am having sore arm muscles and realized that I need to keep the pace slowly but surely. 🙁
the guy
This is outstanding! This not only holds true for boxing, but for success in all aspects of life. Brilliant!
BOXER A all the way. doubt will bring fear equating to nervous energy. BOXER B gets pushed to a limit by BOXER A hes never been, panics and folds. in the championship rounds BOXER A is more experienced with high level fatigue and therefore can push through. BOXER A never being so deep in the water, drowns gradually(sadly) because of his/her fear of total exhaustion. and the end of the day intelligence will carry either fighter to victory.
BOXER B never being so deep in the water****************
i would like to apologize to Johnny N. After training more and more i realized you were right. this article is about mental training and you have to train your mind to be able to fight hard yet easy at the same time. meaning shooting those punches out hard and fast yes but with total relaxation and controlled emotions. like when running, get your heart rate up throwing as much punches as you can while focusing on technique. the trick is to train according to the amount of rounds you will be engaging in. so do not train so hard where your exhausted with 2 minutes left in the round. train at an intensity thats 50-75% to your highest heart rate nd gradually you will improve but with patience and respect for hard work nd by paying attention to your technique and heart rate at ALL times. and DO NOT hold your breathe you can injure yourself. and a tip from experience, NEVER hit with 100% of your power because you will actually decrease your power. be smooth, explosive, and quick and the your fist will take care of the power part. also Johnny N. let everyone know when people talk about natural born punchers their referring to someone born with three physical gifts or 2 of 3 or 1 of 3 or 3 of 3 if your lucky. those 3 are fist size, wrist size, and bone thickness. thats what makes a BORN puncher. please make an article on that. also, a person with perfect technique but none of the born punchers traits can still easily knock anyone if they build extreme legs, footwork, all muscles to extreme actually… and like i said before, perfect technique. it takes AALLLOT to be a great fighter and thats why theirs only a few. because its not how many years you train. its how much you love your training. how much you are paying attention to your training. and most of all what kind of MAN you are. so not to be cruel, if your a fan of boxing nd just join gyms to train but mostly to spectate, do not waste your time on such a profession that requires laser like focus and dedication to be someone in the sport. spectate on yoursel, your loved ones, and be the best man you can be. and remember, you can be whatever you want in life, but to be the best you gotta train the best and eliminate the word EASY from your vocabulary unless it involves vacation. LML(love my life) LTW(love the world).
i see what you mean johnny but i just feel lazy if i don’t give 100% i just have that mentally of train hard fight easy, but still ur right about the breaks and easy days
100% effort doesn’t mean 100% performance.
You can give 100% effort everyday but it won’t mean anything if your muscles are too sore to give 100% performance. So you have to rest in order to perform at 100%. Look at what the pros are doing the day before the fight–taking it easy and relaxing. Training is similar although with less disparity, but generally there will be hard performance days cycled in with resting days.
amazing website
i boxed for years but now i am training muay boran to fight in 4-6 months. still find this website conducive to all aspects of my training.
thanks buddy 🙂
james
Hello champs. In boxing, much more important than sound bites and quotes on toughness is razor-sharp concentration. It is not inborn. Like everything else in this great sport, it must be developed and practiced relentlessly. An excellent component here, and invaluable in boxing, is good eye contact. I personally consider it rule one: NEVER take your eyes off an opponent! It sounds basic, but it is mandatory in both good defense and offense. Lock in on the entire opponent, later moving to higher levels like watching for shoulder/chest expansions. Remember, a fighter can’t throw a punch without first flexing this area. Watch the great boxers. Ali, Leonard, Duran. They all had excellent eye contact. Practice it when shadowboxing ( use the horizon line as as focal point), heavy bags and double-ended bags are perfect, too. As you maintain this skill, you will find that it helps in other facets such as relaxing physically or executing a certain technique. In other words, it gives you an edge! Purposeful Training, M. Lawrence Pineda
Cool im only a kid and im wantin to learn more
man! i just got slapped right in kisser, and here i think going 100% all day(well obviously i feel i can most of the times) is good…. but yea mind over body, im burning out my mind along with my body….
this is awesome stuff Johnny this taught me alot, and im looking forward for any more new updates on your sites, interesting and educational infos….. for beginners like me this is the Go to site to read and understand… God Speed
Muito bom o artigo ajudou bastante