Training in boxing—can be extremely beneficial, both mentally and physically. However, some boxers begin feeling stuck, especially when they’re beginners. They don’t see as many results as they would have hoped. So, what do these folks do?
Often, the boxers who don’t see as many results as they hoped for when they first started their training, end up quitting training. However, you need to understand something; anything worthwhile in life requires you going through a beginner’s phase.
This phase, which I like to call the “Ghost Town Phase”, is like opening a new town. At first, your town will be a ghost town. However, if you continue putting your time and effort into it, it’ll inevitably grow and flourish.
This is where people get the wrong impression. If you’re a beginner in boxing and have yet to see results, don’t worry. You are definitely not alone. Although you may currently see no results, this is totally normal.
The following list is the 11 tips that’ll make you a better boxer:
- Learn the basics
- Rest well to fully recover
- Focus on your weaknesses
- Embrace the results
- Learn to accept the hard times
- Have a growth mindset
- Know the results are coming
- Have a purpose
- Focus on the parts you love in training
- Step out of your comfort zone often
- Notice your results, even the slightest ones
Many beginner weightlifters find themselves unsatisfied with their results after a single workout. You see all these ripped people in public, and you don’t see all the hard work behind the scenes. To build an attractive physique, you’d have to invest at least 2 years of consistent work. That’s plenty, isn’t it?
But, once you’re there, you won’t understand why you haven’t done that in the first place. You’ll be amazed at the infinite opportunities waiting for the courageous to take.
This article will discuss 11 tips especially suitable for beginner boxers. If you want to progress faster and experience more physical and mental benefits, ensure to follow the link.
Before we dive in, if you want to know whether you can box every day, ensure to follow the link to an article of mine on the topic.
#11 – Learn the basics
The first part in anything worthwhile in life—is to learn the basics. Although you may already want to start fighting others and build the perfect body that you’ve always wanted, you must first focus on perfecting the basics.
Invest more time into learning the boring things, such as perfecting your punching technique. Likewise, you may also concentrate on ensuring you know how to shift your weight to create more momentum.
Be it anything basic; you should perfect it until you know you can continue with your training.
Solid boxing gyms do it well. They ensure their trainees don’t move on with their learning process until they’ve learned the basics. If you don’t know the fundamental movements, your technique, later on, will suffer greatly.
Watch all professional boxers—and you’ll see that each of them knows how to use weight-shifting and other fundamental movements. Of course, they still use combinations and variations of the basics to ensure they can surprise their opponents.
And yet, the base of their knowledge is so fundamentally strong that the rest simply falls apart. Imagine building a tower and having a narrow first floor. What do you think is going to occur? The same applies with boxing and all other martial arts.
Learn more about the basic head movements you should learn—by following the link to an article of mine showing them.
#10 – Rest well to fully recover
The next tip we’ll discuss is resting well. Many people think that you grow once you’re done your training. However, the opposite is true. In the training itself, you cause micro tears in your muscles. Simply, you use them to the point where they’re ripped.
Nonetheless, you actually grow when you rest. If you don’t sleep and eat well, you also won’t recover properly. As a result, the micro-tears in your muscles will remain, even in the day after.
When repeating this process time after time, you’ll enter a state of overtraining. This state can be harmful both in the short and long-term. Because of that, you must avoid it at all costs, even if it means you won’t train today.
To maximize your progression, you must rest well. As such, ensure you gain sufficient sleep.
However, there’s another, more dangerous, part to the story. How do most people feel when they begin their new training routine? Usually, they’re more motivated than ever to hit the weights. However, as we all have experienced at some point in our lives, motivation never lasts.
So, they’ll train every day in the beginning. Now, this can be harmful to your muscles because they won’t be able to recover appropriately. As such, you’ll only end up overtraining yourself to the point where you won’t progress.
Yes, you won’t progress because you train too often. That’s a real thing.
If you want to learn how many boxing sessions a week will lead to most of the results, ensure to follow the link to an article of mine where I reveal the answer.
#9 – Focus on your weaknesses
Most people tend to run away from their issues. Typically, we seem to delay the hard work as much as possible. Eventually, we’re left with the hard work when it is least suitable.
Why am I telling you this? Essentially, most of us run away and hide our weaknesses the same way we procrastinate. As a result, we never seem to improve ourselves. However, we definitely can if you concentrate on tackling our weak-spots, although such an action is counter-intuitive.
Dedicate some time in your boxing sessions to improve what you’re the least good at. This can be anything; for example, your left hook may lack strength. So, you dedicate some time in your final punching bag session to work specifically on that.
Eventually, you’ll notice how you become a solid fighter. The more you work on your weaknesses, the more you’ll improve your weak-spots. This can be highly beneficial, even to your self-confidence or overall ability as a boxer.
If you want to know how much do boxing classes really cost, be sure to follow the link to a piece of mine on the topic.
#8 – Embrace the results
Today, people aren’t as appreciative to their hard work. Thus, they end up with low self-esteem and without any confidence to spare. This can be detrimental to your mental health.
Dedicate some time after you have finished working out to appreciate your hard efforts. Taking a pause from life to look at what you’ve been able to achieve thus far—is critical.
It’ll be better if you don’t distract yourself all the time. You can, instead, look right in the eyes of your hard work and appreciate yourself. This will lead to a great increase in motivation and eagerness to continue training.
I’ve been running for the last seven years. However, I seem to be as eager to the next run every single time. As a result, I don’t feel an urge to quit this beneficial and valuable sport at all. I feel that happens because I always push myself a bit harder. Then, I look back and appreciate my efforts.
You can feel the same with your boxing training. Imagine yourself not having to worry about staying consistent, as you’re always excited about your next session. You can achieve that by embracing yourself for the hard work you’ve done so far.
#7 – Learn to accept the hard times
When you first begin your training, you’ll be super excited about every single benefit or result you experience. But, this will inevitably fade with time. It seems that motivation lacks for those without a purpose.
Hard times will come. You won’t desire to stay consistent for more than you can now imagine. If you just started your training, you’ll especially notice yourself being excited to attend the next session.
Nonetheless, after about two weeks, you won’t be as eager to attend training as much as now. That happens because the idea of working out in a new sport—doesn’t seem as exciting as picking a new activity. But, these are the times when you must remain consistent.
Of course, boxing will become a habit once you have trained for long enough. Naturally, your mind will habituate itself to knowing that the next boxing session is coming. Therefore, these are the times when you’re least likely to quit.
If you prepare yourself for the hard times, however, you’ll immediately be less likely to quit when they do come. You will want to quit. You will want to leave everything aside and focus on other activities. But, don’t allow yourself to do that, as you’re right on the verge of making boxing a habit.
If you want to start training but lack motivation or guidance, I encourage you to follow the link to read about the pros and cons of boxing. Who knows, this may be precisely what you need to start working out.
#6 – Have a growth mindset
The next tip we’ll discuss is having a growth mindset. In everything in life, you want to ensure you’re ready to notice yourself growing.
Today, because many individuals have a relatively low self-esteem, they can’t seem to see themselves succeeding. As a result, they’ll self-sabotage their lives to ensure they don’t pop out of their comfort zones.
So, what is a growth mindset?
A growth mindset means that you thrive on challenge, and don’t see failure as a way to describe yourself, but as a springboard for growth and developing your abilities. Your intelligence and talents are all susceptible to growth.
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By having a growth mindset, your mind will seek for new ways to develop itself, even if it’ll happen subconsciously. As a result, you grow and develop yourself, even if you don’t actively look for ways to do so.
You can reach new heights as a person by consistently attending boxing classes. You’ll be adopting a new activity that’ll ensure you’re always progressing toward your goal. Likewise, you’ll be punching your way to progress.
Start working on your growth mindset in every area in life; It’ll change your perspective regarding life and success. Eventually, it’ll also make you more prone to change, which is always beneficial to boosting yourself in the ladder of life.
#5 – Know that results are coming
Whenever you’re feeling down and want to quit, remember that if you just keep training for a bit longer, your life would be different. Future you would very much appreciate your current self hard-work and dedication toward your goal.
I think it goes without saying that most people prefer their current selves over their future ones. As a result, they don’t have clear goals in their lives. What do you think will happen to them? Let me tell you, their future selves will suffer greatly because they haven’t put in the work in the present.
I know how scary it can be to start something new and never know if you’re on the right track. You can’t know for sure that everything will be alright. Although deep down—you know that if you stick with any worthwhile activity for long enough, you’ll notice results.
But, it’s easier to give up than to stick with something difficult. Thus, we tend to favor our current selves and not invest our time and efforts into doings that’ll better our future selves.
Results will come if you stick with boxing for long enough. The worst thing you can do to yourself is to quit right now. You don’t want to do that because your future self will suffer.
Think about all the benefits and results that’ll come once you have invested enough effort and progressed. Take a look at some of them:
- Betters physical shape
- increases self-confidence
- improves pain tolerance
- teaches you to use self-defense
- decreases overall stress
- assists you in controlling aggressiveness
- shortens reaction time
- improves your performance under stress
- enhances self-esteem
- martial arts are a form of self-help
If you want to read the complete list of the benefits of martial arts, you can follow the link to read all about them.
#4 – Have a purpose
When there’s a why, there is a how.
We’ve all heard that quote sometimes in our lives. But, we may not have had the focus to really understand it. In fact, understanding it—is key to comprehending this section.
If you have a purpose, or a long-term goal, you also have more reasons to wake up in the morning and want to box. However, if you flow with life, you won’t be as eager to attend the following martial arts class. As a result, you’re much less likely to stay consistent with your training.
Countless reasons to box exist. However, many of us don’t take the time to think this through. If you want to remain consistent and dedicate yourself to training, you must have something you aspire to achieve.
I am not talking about something casual. What I am talking about is having a purpose. You must be obsessive over your purpose, your long-term goal. If you are, the reasons to attend training will not end.
Nevertheless, for most people, there are more reasons why not to attend training than there are why. As a result, staying consistent for them—is tougher than for those who have a purpose.
Here are some examples of solid long-term goals you can adopt:
- Losing weight
- Learning to fight
- Bettering your social life
- Reducing stress and anxiety
- Improving your confidence
- Bettering your self-esteem
- Building muscle and getting ripped
Of course, if I were to list all the purposes that exist in boxing training, I would be dead, as it would’ve taken a lifetime. But, you can definitely adopt one of the above goals to your life.
#3 – Focus on the parts you love in training
The next tip refers to something most trainees don’t bother doing. That thing is focusing on the parts that you love in training. If you were to ask professional boxers what they like about their work, you would get a million different answers.
Because of that, what may be suitable for one elite fighter, may not be for another. Of course, in the beginning, you won’t know what you like about boxing. However, the more advanced you get, the more habits you start adopting in the training itself.
Essentially, if you want to ensure you stay consistent with your training routine, it’ll be better if you focus on the parts that you really love and include them more often.
For some, it can be sparring. Some people flourish when they begin sparring with their fellow boxers. They’re able to learn more while actually fighting.
However, others may hate the idea of fighting against someone else. That relates to the following tips, which is going to discuss comfort zones.
And still, if you want to flourish and progress much faster, it’ll be best if you include what you like about the training more often into the regular schedule. Eventually, that thing can be what keeps you in the game.
#2 – Step out of your comfort zone often
We, as human beings, don’t like challenging ourselves too often. But, stepping out of your comfort zone—is key to seeing true progression in every area of life.
Deep down, many folks believe they’re undeserving of true success; they’re fear the sight of seeing them on the top. That might be from numerous things, including fear from rejection or judgement. When thinking about it, we understand that it’s all in our minds.
Once you allow yourself to think you’re worthy of being at the top, you’ll also act to achieve that. You’ll be stepping away from your comfort zone more often. As a result, you’ll also push your mental and physical boundaries. And, as we’ve learned before, this is the entrance for progression to step in.
Looking at another area in life, relating to men; When approaching a woman on the street, your heart races—although you know nothing will happen if you get rejected. And still, you’re fearful for the consequences that will occur when you get a no.
For those thinking they’re deserving of love and success with women, also comes the ability to approach more women. They see themselves as a person whom women would like to speak to. So, you step out of your comfort zone and notice more results than most men.
The same applies with boxing. You need to have that mindset where you know you’re worthy of seeing success. As such, you’ll push yourself harder; resulting in more benefits and results.
#1 – Notice your results, even the slightest ones
As we saw before, appreciating yourself—is rare these days. We may as well be the primary source that stops us from seeing success. That shouldn’t be the case; and yet, it seems that most folks think they’re not good enough for success.
When you take the effort to show up to training and invest your time into it, you must appreciate your endeavors. As a result, your self-esteem will slowly begin to rise. When you notice that happening, keep your mind out of your thought-process. It’ll try to do anything to convince you otherwise.
You’ll start experiencing some results you’ll know are from boxing training. When you do, take a deep breath and pause your busy life. Breath intently and begin appreciating and loving yourself for the efforts.
By doing so, your mental self is going to be as happy as ever. It’s a loving cycle that will boost your confidence and self-esteem more than anything else. Do ensure to pause your busy life once in a while—to appreciate the slightest of the benefits.
If you want to learn more about the rules of boxing, I listed the complete list in an article of mine; so follow the link to learn all about it.
Final words
To end this article, I want to emphasize my appreciation for you. You want to better yourself, so you landed on this article. You can be at the top, if you currently think you can’t.
Having the mindset which constantly reminds you of your true worth—is critical to seeing true success in life. Boxing will give you that mindset with time; however, you can shorten it by starting to work on your mental and physical self outside training.
It’s a cycle which will drastically better your well-being. You can see that success in your life—if you take the time to appreciate your hard work and effort you constantly put into boxing training.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you’ll also enjoy reading about the deadliest martial arts from around the world. Who knows, you may end up learning a martial art from this list.