Bleeding Excellence

For six years, I’ve trained in the art of boxing.

For six years, I considered the ring to be my second home.

For six years, between the ropes and canvas, countless rounds of mitts and sparring, I’ve noticed patterns.

Patterns that have given me small insights not only within the sport properly titled as “The Sweet Science”, but within any craft in the pursuit of Mastery.

The following are not lessons, tips, or advice. Simply, observations I’ve made.

I. Instructions Are Infections

Technique is the foundation of any sport. Boxing is no exception. Anybody can teach you the basics: how to jab, slip, move, hook, etc.

But the moment someone begins to instruct you, you‘re ruined. You’ve immediately placed a limit on your game.

Allow me to explain…

The Jab is the foundational punch in the boxing. When I started, there were three main coaches at my gym. All stressed the importance of The Jab, but they all taught it differently.

To one coach, I was nearly perfect. The others, I was utterly horrible. One revered me. The others deemed me a moron. One praised me, the others scolded me with hits to the face.

Each coach contradicting the other. But I couldn’t tell them that—I dare not disrespect brothers under their own house.

But I was frustrated and lost. What was the “correct” way?

I kept adjusting and refining. Constantly pulled in three different directions, praying for the tension of equilibrium would eventually hold—hoping to satisfy the conditions of all three coaches.

Eventually, I learned My Jab. But with a realization, NOT due to coaches (respectfully). A realization that arrived only when I tried to “teach” others The Jab.

With new boxers, I aimed to use plain and simple language. Basic, 1+1 = 2 movements. No complexity, all simplicity.

But even with knowledge and simplicity, the new boxers couldn’t perform The Jab to save their lives.

Their movements were always full of tension, friction, and unnaturalness.

Despite “teaching” from the most fundamental, stripped-down form of the technique, their jabs became better, but never PERFECT.

Why?

Because I was imposing MY technique, MY jab, without cultivating their own. I was imposing MY personality, MY nature without nurturing their own. They weren’t failing the technique, I was.

Anyone can point out what‘s wrong with your technique, but no one can tell you what‘s right.

Anyone can show you how to punch, but any and all instructions, including my own, will hinder you from punching with Perfection. Why?

Because my fist is not your fist. Your fist is not their fist. Your fist is YOURS.

You can’t be taught to punch with perfection because Perfection is never given, it’s grown. It’s grown because it’s discovered. What’s discovered is your Essence.

Essence is that which cannot be destroyed—your Nature. “Instruction” is the invasion of one essence to another. It’s counterproductive and violent. Understanding can never arrive from violence.

It’s violent because instruction is imitation. As Emerson said, “Imitation is suicide.”

So what is to be done? It depends who’s asking and what’s being asked.

The most effective “teachers” (though I loathe the label) observe with the most delicate touch of direction. Specifically, the direction of knowing where NOT to go.

The most effective “students” (I loathe this label too because it’s more about collaboration rather than mentorship) experiment and discover.

“Absorb what’s useful, discard what’s not, and add what’s uniquely your own.” — Bruce Lee

They experiment with others to absorb what’s useful and discard what’s not. They discover for themselves as themselves to add what’s “uniquely your own.”

…add what’s uniquely your own.

The “student-teacher/teacher-student” study the mechanics and observe patterns. They see The Core and principles. They mimic techniques to experiment, but never experiment to mimic techniques.

For mimicry is NOT mastery.

To master a technique is to own the technique—Yours. Not mine, not your coaches, not your peers. Yours.

Once a technique is yours, it can never be taken away. Once a technique is yours, it is Mastered.

II. Discipline Is For Dummies

Legends, masters, elites, those who win, again and again...they are who they are NOT because of discipline or hard work.

“Hard work”, “consistency”, “effort”, “discipline”

Romantic words, but not the cause of results. Present, no doubt, but they’re insignificant by-products. Symptoms of a much more Serious ailment: Intention.

Pure. Raw. Sincere. Desire.

What do you want? Where do you want to go? What do you Intend to become?

If your house is on fire, you don’t need to “practice discipline“ to get out the house. You get out the house.

No practice. No discipline. No thoughts. All fire, all desire.

Those who need to be told, or worse, instructed to "work harder", "do more", “become disciplined” do not stand a chance because they‘ll be dragged by the deadweight of other fragmented desire(s) as opposed to being driven from a Whole One.

Instead of being The Fire, they’ll be the ash.

I remember a short conversation with a fighter at my gym. His first fight was coming up.

“First bout. What’s your game plan?” I asked.

He said, “Kill him.”

In text, it’s hard to accurately convey his response without it being misinterpreted as obvious, cocky, or immature.

But the Intention in his eyes and voice didn’t make me think twice about the outcome of the fight. Calm without doubt. Simple and plain. Serious.

I didn’t need to believe or have faith. I Knew it, and he did too.

Since then, he‘s fought multiple times. Undefeated.

Once The Intention is set, so is The Path.

III. Goals Go Against You

Look at a ceiling. Notice you can only ever stand under them. If you stand above a ceiling, it’s no longer considered a ceiling. It becomes the floor. With ceilings, you‘re never above, always below.

A ceiling implies a limitation. Goals are ceilings.

To have a goal essentially guarantees the failure in achieving it. Like running a race, it’s the condition of The Mind to slow down at the sight of the finish line. Almost as if seeing the finish line is just as good as crossing it. Yet, never crossing it.

I’ve noticed this countless times in boxing. When boxers are told or state they’ll do four rounds of either mitts or sparring, they’ll begin to struggle at rounds 2.5 or 3.

By round 4, they’re already checked out. They’re gone. Tired and exhausted, huffing and puffing, form and technique out the window.

However…if you take the same boxers, and they’re told/state they’ll be doing 8 rounds. They‘ll begin to struggle at Round 6 or 7 while cruising through Round 4.

Why is that? It’s not a physical limitation, but a mental one. I’ll take it even further, everything mental is limited. How so?

The Mind functions in frameworks. Once given a framework, it’ll limit itself only to that given framework, NEVER outside of it.

This can be seen outside of boxing. For example, pull-ups:

• Tell yourself you’ll do 10 pull-ups, you’ll struggle around rep 6 or 7.
• Set your sights on 35 pullups, the first 10 will feel significatly different.

Note: This isn’t a trick to implement, but an observation on the patterns of Desire.

You can’t trick The Mind. Nature does not bow to cleverness, it can only bow to Sincerity & Seriousness.

High-level performers do not work harder than low-level performers, they simply have a larger framework.

The size of the framework is dependant on the seriousness of Desire. The Desire determines the limitation.

• Frameworks = (Desire-permissioned) limitations
• Limitations = ceilings
• Ceilings = goals

Goals limit you because, like ceilings, they can never be crossed. You can’t operate outside of a given framework.

A ceiling is “crossed” or you stand “above“ a ceiling because it was never your ceiling/framework to begin with. It was your floor.

Therefore, it’s not a question of what is your ceiling? It’s an answer of what is your floor?

• The most effective way to perform 10 pull-ups is the aim for 35 pull-ups.
• The most effective way to become a millionare is the aim to become a billionaire.
• The most effective way to become fit is the aim to become a high-performance athlete.
• The most effective way to become the best fighter in the world is the aim to become the best fighter in history.

IV. The Most Dangerous Fighter

The freest fighter is the most dangerous fighter.

The most dangerous fighter is the one who loses himself completely or finds himself completely in the ring. If you are in-between, you’ll lose. Even if you win the fight, you lost because you’ve become a fragmented fighter, not a whole one.

“Breathing & Balance” is the my most given advice for fighters. Find your balance, you’ll find your breathing. Find your breathing, you’ll find your balance.

It didn’t occur me until writing this. What I’m truly saying is “Find your home.”

When a fighter finds his home, all his tools become available to him. There’s no interference, no hesitation, no fragmentation. He is Here. He is Whole.

When a fighter is Whole, he becomes more than a fighter. He becomes a dancer of destruction, a painter of ferocity and passion, an impenetrable fortress of Spirit and a Master from Mind. He becomes a Human unleashed.

Once unleashed, he needs nothing. Once The Human needs nothing, he becomes everything.

The Way in One Is The Way in All (Final Words)

“Once you see The Way in one thing, you’ll see it in all things.” — Miyamoto Musashi

Boxing is no different than any other art because all arts are the same. They only differ in tools. Different languages, same idea: discovering yourself via discarding your Self.

All Art follows Excellence. All Excellence follow “The Way.” “The Way” follows No One.

“The Way” has always been this way.

• “The Way” isn’t in the technique.
• “The Way” isn’t in the discipline.
• “The Way” isn’t even in the mastery.

“The Way” is in You. Not the striving of excellence, but the allowance of It.

The Masters of any craft have always known It. No secret hidden because it‘s visible in plain sight.

What every fighter feels in that perfect movement of feet and fist.

What every artist finds when the brush seems to move on its own.

What every craftsman discovers when their hands create without thought.

Mastery, Excellence, The Way—it’s in your blood. Let it bleed.