Tips For Dealing With Being Too Stiff In Boxing

Being called stiff by your coach or other fighters is a sign that you’re approaching your boxing training wrong in one way or another.

Not always is being a little more tense is a bad thing, but more often than not it can impact your overall performance.

The usual reason

Boxers are commonly too stiff because they haven’t got enough experience in the sport. The more you spar or fight, the less stiff you become when doing it, although that isn’t always true as even more experienced fighters can be having the same issue.

If you indeed know your ways in the martial art, or are a beginner and want to know how to get rid of the habit as soon as possible, read further.

Ways to be less stiff

Warming up

Before doing any sort of boxing, get a good warm up. If you’re actually boxing in a gym, the exercises provided by your coach should already warm your body enough, and if they don’t, that’s probably because you don’t pay much attention to it.

If you are indeed doing everything as said and don’t feel as if you have warmed up much, try doing the routine below, and besides, alternating between them can keep things fresh and more fun.

Visualizing the fight

Before you start fighting, sparring or really do any activity in boxing which makes you redundantly stiff, sit down and visualize it. Think about how relaxed yet focused you are going to stay in the moment, the punches you’re going to throw, take, blow and counter.

It does sound a little weird at first, but trust me it can help you tremendously and might be they key in being less tense.

Another thing you can do is simply listen to some music, read books, browse the internet or do any sort of thing which soothes you.

Once in the fight

As soon as you start to fight or spar, constantly remind yourself to relax. Most of the observed stiffness comes from the overtight shoulders – it’s definitely true that they should rise when you keep your guard up, but you shouldn’t be unnaturally keeping them tight at all times.

Next thing you should have your mind on is breathing in a rhythmic pattern. Breathing consciously does wonders when dealing with day-to-day stress, so why shouldn’t it work when boxing? Doing so will also help relax your body and shoulders more which will definitely make you more loose, just make sure to not fall asleep on the spot!

Problems with being too tight

One of the main ones is definitely the decrease in ability to throw more and harder strikes. It should be clear by now that punches are thrown in a relaxed manner, tightening only your fist as it’s about to hit the target, and failing to do so will fatigue your body and arms more than needed.

Being stiffer will also impact your stamina, which will further reduce your punching and fighting performance.

Other reasons for stiffness

Growing too much muscle can impact your fluidity in the ring. Not to mention if you do lift weights more than box, that can slow down the whole development of your boxing skill.

If you aren’t eating a ton of food and lift heavy weights, or do specific exercises that build unneeded muscle it shouldn’t be a problem.

It’s not uncommon for boxers to be more tense, afraid and nervous when sparring with bigger people. Different gyms have different opinions about it, and in my you shouldn’t be really doing that – stick with people around your level and somewhat better, which will let your skill gradually evolve and that’s going to let you train with even better fighters.