To quote legendary boxing trainer Cus D'amato:
" Fear is the greatest obstacle to learning in any area, but particularly in boxing. For example, boxing is something you learn through repetition. You do it over and over and suddenly you've got it. However, in the course of trying to learn, if you get hit and get hurt, this makes you cautious, and when you're cautious you can't repeat it, and when you can't repeat it, its going to delay the learning process. When they come up to the gym and say I want to be a fighter, the first thing I'd do was talk to them about fear. I would always use the same example of the deer crossing an open field and upon approaching the clearing suddenly instinct tells him danger is there, and nature begins the survival process, which involves the body releasing adrenalin into the bloodstream, causing the heart to beat faster and enabling the deer to perform extraordinarily feats of agility and strength. It enables the deer to get out of range of the danger, helps him escape to the safety of the forest across the clearingan example in which fear is your friend.
The thing a kid in the street fears the most is to be called yellow or chicken, and sometimes a kid will do the most stupid, wild, crazy things just to hide how scared he is. I often tell them that while fear is such an obnoxious thing, an embarrassing thing, nevertheless it is your friend, because anytime anyone saves your life perhaps a dozen times a day, no matter what how obnoxious he is, you've got to look upon him as a friend, and this is what fear is. Since nature gave us fear in order to help us survive, we cannot look upon it as an enemy. Just think how many times a day a person would die if he had no fear. He'd walk in front of cars, he'd die a dozen times a day. Fear is a protective mechanism. By talking to the fighters about fear I cut the learning time maybe as much as half, sometimes more, depending on the individual."
Time to ramp it up. Eye of the tiger, baby, eye of the tiger.
- Jim
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