Breaking "Barriers" in Boxing

I have a few tips for beginners as well as experienced people who wish to read them. Again, I am a beginner myself but I always make sure to take the time and share my breakthroughs for people that may need help, experienced or not.

1. Becoming your "Style"- A style is developed by training, it can be developed even before your first sparring match. A STYLE is not as much physical as it is mental/spiritual. I used to be fearful of sparring, i used to dread the thought of it but one day i decided that in order for me to reach my goals, i must bite the bullet and do my best. Simply put, I decided that instead of being fearful, i was going to do the polar opposite, become happy. I charged myself up and told myself that I was going to spar no matter what. I ended up dropping 3 people with body shots in succession that day out of nowhere which surprised the hell out of me since i was used to getting hit, getting on my bike and then TRYING to hit people back. What I am trying to get you to understand is that you become what you want to become. I wanted to become fearless and do my best in sparring and I ended up surprising myself. If you want to become a sharpshooter or a revered inside fighter, you have to have the heart to want to buckle down and try to make your aspirations come alive. As soon as you MAKE A GOAL, nothing else will matter. I bet that 9/10 of beginners were or are afraid of sparring because they dont even have the goal to do well and thats not their fault simply because they dont know what WELL is in boxing. At least not yet.

2. Shadow Boxing is EVERYTHING- Shadow boxing should not be treated as a warmup or a slow workout. Shadow box like you would in a fight. If youre fast, use your speed, if your powerful, mix up your power. Pretend to clinch, pretend to get against the ropes, hell even pretend that you got rocked. It should be a damn motion picture when people watch you shadow box. Make people believe you are fighting and are either getting the **** kicked out of you or are blasting them in the last round. Imagination is our greatest gift. Through imagination, we can create things that no one would deem possible. Imagination creates MOODS. I see alot of people shadow box and it always seems to look like the guy shadow boxing is never in trouble and is soooooo good that he never has to block slip or roll off a shot. Now i know that people arent trying to be that way, it just comes from a limited or non-existent imagination. Another tip i would like to part is SHADOW BOX WITH GLOVES ON! Try it. All boxing TRAINING is, is PREPARATION for the REAL fight. So why not prepare for the fight being as realistic as possible? Military units dont learn how to perform missions by going around shooting just nerf guns or water guns in one position. Again, they create a GOAL, and they aim to achieve it.

3. Your ADAPTIVE body- Our bodies adapt to everything around us. The adaptation can be negative or positive but one thing is for sure, we adapt. Going back to what i said about shadow boxing with gloves on, if you shadow box with gloves on, you become used to the weight. You become used to punching without a target thus you temper youre movements to avoid possible hyper-extension or maybe even missing a shot and landing in a horrid position. I bet that for some people that hit the heavy bag, if you let them work on the bag and then make the bag somehow disappear, their balance would turn to ****. See, when you rely on a target to STAY there and you know that the target WONT MOVE, you create a false sense of security. You then can tell yourself that "No matter what i do, my punch will land. Balanced or not." Adapt to the weight of gloves, thats what you use when you do pads, the heavy bag any other bag except the speed bag so why not shadow boxing? If you miss a guy in the ring and get off balance then that would be your own personal, fundamental mistake. This WILL force you to temper your movements and adapt to a weight (no matter how small) that will not affect you in your next fight or sparring match.

4. Lose the PRIDE and lose your MIND- Short and simple, lose your PRIDE. Dont walk around the gym like YOU ARE GOD'S GIFT TO THE GYM AND THE BOXING WORLD. People like that end up looking really, really and i mean really bad when they end up losing and most of the time, they never come back. When i say lose your mind, i am telling you to empty your mindfulness and be open to everything around you. If someone showed you a hook one way and then someone else comes and tells you to throw it another way, LEARN IT. Add another move to your arsenal. Now if you know that it is fundamentally incorrect, well then make a decision to stay or go somewhere else. Other than that, empty your mind and be aware of everything around you. Learn from even your lesser opponents and sparring mates. I guarantee that there will always be someone who can see something about you that you cant.

5. Be POSITIVE, INTIMIDATION IS FUNNY- Walk into the gym positive and open minded. Never be intimidated by anyone. I will tell you why. We fear the weakest form of a human being, the physical form. The physical form depends on two things, your mind and your spirit. Your mind and your spirit make up one form, your soul. Have you ever seen anyone that has lost their mind or their mind is weak? Have you ever seen anyone that doesn't have the spirit (the strength inside/the determination)? You arent intimidated but often times you fell bad for them. Reason being is because you are grateful for your strength and are grateful that you have it. Intimidation is 99.99% due to the fact that we dont believe in our own strengths and we always look at our PHYSICAL abilities and measure our worth due to our bodies. When you see someone who is twice your size and become intimidated, it is because you physically dont believe you can best them. WHEN THE PHYSICAL BODY LOSES ONE OF THE TWO COMPONENTS OF THE SOUL, IT CAN NO LONGER OPERATE. BUT A SOUL CAN LOSE ITS PHYSICAL FORM AND STILL CARRY ON. Call me crazy, I dont care but for anyone that can follow, i hope it helps. Your fighting drive is not due to your physical body craving for the excitement, if that was the case, everyone wouldnt be afraid to get hit. Its because of your drive in your spirit and your mind that makes you lace up those gloves and step in that square circle.