TRAWLING through twitter before the ‘fight of the century’, a tweet from Manny Pacquiao caught our attention here at Boxing Science. It read, simply, โKeep your focus on what matters the most.โ Now whatever you thought of the fight, thereโs no denying that both he andย Floyd Mayweatherย are supremely talented fighters. At this level who can best keep their focus can matter most?
Keep your focus
This might sound pretty obvious, but keeping your focus isnโt always easy as it sounds. In the build up to an important fight, itโs perfectly normal to have a lot of different thoughts about a lot of different thingsโฆ
What If I lose? What if I WIN? What shall I have for dinner tonight?
Whether we like to admit it or not, everyone has thoughts like this, all the time. Sometimes these thoughts are useful like when youโre thinking about how you might counter an opponentโs strengths; sometimes theyโre not, like when youโre wondering how they get cranes on top of buildings.
Itโs perfectly normal to have a lot of different thoughts about a lot of different things. Every now and then our minds are going to wander away from whatโs important, but having a strategy in place for when that happens can be a real advantage.
On fight night itself, it can be easy to get distracted. Thoughts, emotions, physical feelings, as well as things like the crowd, the referee, even the colour of your opponentโs shorts, might all take your focus away from whatโs important.
The key thing really, is how you see these thoughts โ are they negative and distracting, or are they โjust thoughtsโ, which come and go and donโt necessarily mean anything?
As boxers, we should probably accept that every now and then our minds are going to wander away from whatโs important; thatโs just human nature. But having a strategy in place for when that happens can be a real advantage.
What should I focus on?
We started by asking what matters most in terms of focus โ what should we focus on? But the honest answer is that it really does depend on the athlete. Sometimes using focus cues in the ring can really help you to keep your attention on whatโs important. If you find yourself being distracted or getting โstuckโ on negative or unhelpful thoughts, focus cues are a great tool to help re-focus the mind.
These focus cues can be single words, or longer phrases, used to direct attention to different aspects of performance, but itโs really important that boxers develop their own cues so that theyโre more meaningful.
How do I know what my focus cues should be?
So letโs say you want to develop your own focus cues that you could use in the ring for a particular fight. The first stage is to decide where you want your focus to be. In previous articles weโve talked about the need to โcontrol the controllablesโ, so itโs best that your focus cues relate to things that you can control! Perhaps you want to focus on something technical, or maybe itโs something physical.
Perhaps itโs something more to do with your mind-set or your mental approach to the fight.
Dominate the centre of the ring? Stay light on your feet? Keep using the jab? Once youโve decided what your areas of focus are, come up with one cue word for each of those things โ โDominateโ, โGlideโ, โStingโ โ but make it something particularly meaningful for you.
THE GAME PLAN
These cues should be simple, but should remind you of the job at hand. Some athletes find it helpful to pair their focus cues with a physical cue; perhaps a couple of deep, abdominal breaths, rolling the neck and shoulders or a squeeze of the fist.
This can help draw attention away from any distracting thoughts, and help you to focus on what is relevant at that particular moment, or just help you relax and feel loose.
Conclusion
Focus cues should be quite basic and specific to the individual to maintain focus on the task at hand.
Itโs really important to practice using your focus cues in training. Get comfortable with them long before fight night. See what works and what doesnโt work for you and change your cues if you need to.
Practice them consistently, and when it comes time to perform, your cues just help you to focus on whatโs important and remind your body to go out there and do exactly what youโve been training for.
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