Distracting factors.2

I designed a lesson to practice ignoring distractions, or punches, while still focusing on the task at hand, trying to not get annoyed or frustrated. I had athletes lift weights or punch, while softly hitting them, having them try to ignore it and continue their actions. The reactions I received were interesting. Not surprisingly, different people responded differently. One boxer was annoyed, but managed to tune much of it out. She claims her new puppy gave her a lot of practice. Another gave me looks like she wanted to murder me, or responded with nervous laughter. Another was not irritated, but felt he got tired with so much going on. 
After establishing trying to ignore soft taps while trying to punch, we worked on getting the head offline or moving the head while punching, reacting to the hits. But I made sure the amount of hits was overwhelming, so it would be impossible to miss all of the hits. My goal was to get them to continue punching and reacting despite getting hit here and there, sometimes quite a lot. I found many of my boxers to not only start moving more, but thinking less about the actual movement or direction, and their body took over and reacted properly much of the time, surprising themself. Trying to not be perfect because you know that you won't be, knowing that you will get hit despite how hard you tried, almost created less mental effort but better performance. This showed that the body not only knows what to do, but our efforts to always be perfect hinder our abilities. 
In my attempt to make it more interesting for myself, I would softly tap them in certain patterns, then changed the pattern, then make sure I never followed the same pattern. This created even more annoyance. This gave me a strategic idea. I tell many athletes to be aware of their patterns, that patterns can be quickly learned and taken advantage of. But what if you establish a pattern, then break the pattern ever so slightly, to create an annoyance? I have always taught to avoid being predictable, but what if the goal is to cause mental disturbance, causing distraction and creating openings for punches? 

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