Intro
Improving your boxing skills takes a massive amount of time. This includes repeatedly training the same moves, constantly learning new techniques, and evolving as a boxer. Sometimes, a boxer can feel like he is not getting further in his boxing journey and not improving, like hitting a barrier of skill that holds them. Also, a boxer might not know how to get better and improve his skills.
It happens to almost every fighter, and it’s important to continue through these periods. Boxing is a precise sport, and everything must be considered. Here we will review some old-school tricks and provide tips to improve your boxing skill constantly. This fits all boxer levels.
Logging in a notebook and taking notes
Boxing is a precise sport. Thus it’s important to track your process and progress. Taking notes is the way to do it, and the best professional boxing teams in the sport do it. Assuming you are not a professional boxer with a team behind your back. Take a notebook and take notes.
Here is what you should track and write notes about:
Diet
Diet and nutrition are the body’s primary fuel, and if you give your body bad fuel, you will get results accordingly. It’s important to eat healthy and full of fiber food. It will provide you with the necessary power in your training and in the ring and will put you right on your weight division. Make a diet routine and write it down your notebook, check for your daily calorie requirements, and detail every specific meal you have in your day. This will keep you on track with your diet and make your body more energetic and prepared for each workout and day.
Workout
Every boxer has his workout routine, most are just relying on their memory to remember what they did in it. They can answer related questions to that workout right after it, but after a short time, they forget. They wouldn’t be able to analyze their workout, and that’s what separates them from further advancing. It’s essential to take notes and answer the right questions, for example: What have I done better this time? Did I feel tired? Maybe I could’ve added another exercise and pushed further?. Was I precise and kept times? These are just the edge on the surface, and more profound questions and analytics over time will result in deeper and more significant results.
Routine
Routine keeps a boxer disciplined and focused. It’s crucial and fundamental for every boxer. Writing down the routine in a notebook can help a boxer stay more focused, prepared, and ready mentally for each activity in his routine.
Technique
Writing down what technique must be trained or fixed will keep a boxer constantly improving in terms of technique and skill. Review the past days and analyze what could be done better or need improvement. Ask your trainer for his opinion and write it down. Then, keep training and track it over and over. It will result in a compound effect of improvement in your technique and skills.
Lessons from your mistakes
This is a very important part of getting better as a boxer. You should write down and analyze your mistakes, constantly ask your coach and sparring partner what mistakes they think you’ve made, write them down, and learn from them. If you feel you’ve made a mistake, write it and track it. This process will make a massive difference in your boxing skills and will make you improve constantly. You should be able to feel it within a couple of weeks. Do this over and over repeatedly.
Practice everything in the gym first
Before trying anything new you’ve learned, try it in the gym, on the heavy bag, practice the movement well and improve it in front of the mirror. The next step is to combine it in sparring, carefully over and over. When will you know you can try it on an actual match? When you had success in sparring with it, feel confident to try it and not neglect the defense during the trial.
Over time you will be able to implement new methods and techniques to your boxing style. This will shape your skillset and will improve you constantly.
Time is key
How would you know if you got better than the last few times you’ve trained? The answer is time. When working on a heavy bag, if you can take longer rounds or add more rounds, this means you are improving and getting better. You are getting better if you are running and getting better results in less time. If you are extending your strength and conditioning exercises time from time to time, this means you are getting better. All these are related to time and are one of the best ways to measure improvement.
Summary
Boxing is a proficient sport. It has many different factors to consider when you are trying to improve. Taking notes and handling your boxing routine in an analytic matter will make you more organized and efficient about what you learn each time you step into the boxing gym and the ring. It will give you the ability to constantly improve and be better, remember the rule “Each step at a time”.