Faith

Happy Star Wars Day! May the 4th be with you! 
For my quote today, I’m going to do my favorite quote:

“I find your lack of faith disturbing.” —Darth Vader, A New Hope
I like that the villain says this quote. Faith in the force is needed to be a powerful Jedi, whether good or evil, and that lack of faith can minimize your ability. I feel this quote can apply to so many scenarios in life: Faith in yourself, faith in the future, faith in the people in your life, faith in a humanity, faith in a higher power, whether that be Gd or aliens or science. In the Bible, the Hebrew word for belief or faith originally meant reliability, not the belief in something unseen. The writers intended the word to convey the reliability of the higher power. I think there is much truth to this even today. People think that faith is belief in something they cannot scientifically prove, making it unreliable. But my belief, despite what it is, will always be there as long as I believe it, will always give me comfort and the feeling I look for. My ability to chose, whether my actions or reactions, even though many times unseen, will always be my choice. 
One thing I love about boxing as a concept is that it will always be there. I can rely on skills of the sport, get lost in the training whenever I want. People in the sport may not be always reliable, but I can trust in my ability to always lose myself in boxing. Learn from boxing. Grow from training. I can always have faith in the process. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Being in the present moment

 I have always warned by boxers about telegraphing, or showing the move they are about to do. This includes winding up punches, stopping or starting certain movements before throwing, body language, etc. I have noticed that telegraphs can appear during mitt work when a boxer knows the next move, and instead of finishing their current move, their body prepares for the next step or next punch. This interrupts their current action and telegraphs their next move.  Thinking about being present in the moment, not letting your thoughts and state of being remain mired in the past or future can easily relate to this philosophy in boxing. Many boxers have their thoughts in the future: anticipating what their opponent may throw or do, which in turn may give their action away as their mind and therefore body have already started an action in response to something that hasn’t occurred yet. Telling my boxers to be in the present, observe what is happening right now and react appropriately should hel
Read more

Younger Me

  What would you say to your younger self? I have always found this an interesting question, because even if I could talk to my younger self, would my younger self listen to my advice? Probably not. We all come to our view on life through experience, and without going through those experiences I feel like we never really change. I also think giving advice to my younger self, or telling me what to expect, would be a disservice. When I first started boxing I lost a lot of fights. I kept fighting to prove that I could be better, than I could win, mostly to myself above all else. Had I had the ability to go back and tell my younger self not to worry, that I will eventually continuously win fights, I may not have trained as hard or been as motivated. And thinking about it further, there were people along the way that would offer encouraging words to keep me going. But I don’t think those words really mattered to me. They were just band aids that helped briefly. The pain of failure helped pu
Read more

Managing Fear

 I train a client who is extremely afraid of getting punched. This fear, according to her, does not stem from a past trauma, it’s just something that is there. She is determined to overcome her fear of being in the ring. Most new boxers are intimidated about getting into the ring with another person, especially if they know they will get hit. Over time, the athlete slowly adapts and learns to take a punch so to say. Her fear can be paralyzing, freezing her action and reactions. Thinking about coaching others to not anticipate what is coming so that they do not telegraph their moves, I was thinking about this particular client and fear. Fear is a reflection of the body’s anticipation of the future. Her fear is her mind remaining in the future of what might happen. In our last training session, I told her to work on being in present. What action is happening at that very moment, what am I doing, what is she doing. Our sparring session went significantly smoother. It was obvious when her
Read more