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Understand Tactics and Win

One of the reasons I love boxing as much as I do is that it directly relates to my profession. Being in the military, a lot of the strategy and tactics that are relevant at work are also relevant in the ring.

Once you step in the ring, the following tactical principles apply. They are not applied separately but combined to achieve maximum effect:

1. Decisiveness. An essential quality – indecisiveness leads to inaction which leads to you reacting rather than controlling a fight. If you are reacting, you are defending and receiving damage rather than dishing it out. You must have a clear purpose and gameplan. You must enter the ring knowing you are going to destroy your opponent and not hesitate giving him openings to get inside your decision cycle (OODA loop).
2. Speed. Instinctive, rapid movements that come from muscle memory and drills executed without thought will help you gain the initiative over your opponent. If you can act and react faster than they can, you have surprise on your side and they don’t stand a chance.

Try and picture this - you’re by yourself or with your coach in your dressing room or warmup area. You’ve been skipping, lightly hitting the pads, stretching, and generally loosening up. You feel good, your mind is clear, and you are ready to fight the fight you’ve trained hard for for many months.

You have a gameplan, you know how you want the fight to go and when the time comes you head out of the dressing room and walk toward the ring with crowds of people cheering and screaming on both sides of you. Suddenly, as you realize you’re headed into combat, your pulse becomes a little quicker. Your mind starts thinking irrational thoughts and is no longer focused.

Your field of vision starts to narrow to the point of tunnel vision and you find it harder and harder to hear anything. Your trainer’s advice becomes nothing more than a low mumble in the background. Just before climbing the stairs to get in the ring, you notice your legs feel like blocks of concrete.

As you stumble your way up the stairs and clumsily step through the ropes, you realize that at this point, if someone were to ask you to write your name or perform any type of fine motor skill it would be completely out of the question.

The referee comes over and checks your gloves and mouthguard. You hear the bell and that’s it…next thing you remember, the fight is over and someone (hopefully you) has their hand in the air. What the hell happened?

Boxing, like all contact sports, is a form of combat – and combat causes your body to do some whacked out things. You can never truly negate all of them, but with proper training and preparation, you can reduce their effects. That training includes recognizing the symptoms and then initiating measures to control them.

Photo by jlcernadas

Don't get me wrong here, I believe the majority of sports supplements on the market are gimmicky wastes of money, but a protein supplement is the one supplement that I believe has any worth.

There are some people who lump protein supplements in with the rest of the supplement industry - as just another money grabbing product you don't really need sold by snakeoil salesmen. While I completely disagree based on personal experience and study, I feel it is important to present both sides of the story in an objective manner as possible so you can make up your own mind. All of the arguments for and against will be supported with published articles from sources such as the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition which are available online if you wish to research further.

I am not going to differentiate between the various types of whey, soy, and other protein supplements, but rather establish the case for and against protein supplementation altogether.

The basic premise of the arguments against protein supplementation revolves around the belief that the human body does not require protein supplementation - that all protein required can be derived from regular foods obtained from eating a balanced diet. Those against protein supplementation believe it is a fallacy that more intense training demands an increase in protein consumption.

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First, let's establish why you may want to consider consuming a protein powder.

If you are a healthy, adult male, are happy with your weight, and engage in moderate to high physical activity such as boxing 3-4 times a week you need about 2600-2700 calories a day. In accordance with the nutritional principles I mention elsewhere on this site, at times, up to 40% of that should be protein which equals about 285g of protein a day.

So, to consume 285g of protein a day, you would have to eat something like 4 chicken breasts, 7 cans of tuna,  48 eggs, 36 cups of milk -- get my drift.  Not only would this be near impossible for you to do on a consistent basis, but think of the cost.  I bought 2 chicken breasts for $7 yesterday.  That's $14/day or  $98 a week just on chicken.  That doesn't take into account all the carbs and fats you need to consume as well.

So, how does a normal human manage to eat this much protein?