The Truth Behind Boxing And The Brain [COMMENTARY]

Hold up! But, what’s boxing?

Boxing is a popular contact sport that can go from a stoic and chess-like match to a chaotic and dynamic battle. Prominent traits of the sport include offensive and defensive style, technique, rhythm, and speed. These traits make the tactics and fighting styles of competitors wide-ranging and diverse.

Importance of boxing in health

Boxing is an anaerobic workout that stresses most body muscles at a high intensity for bursts of time. Boxing is great for cardio endurance, weight loss, and reducing the chances of developing heart diseases and type 2 diabetes. Moreover, boxing trains your brain’s executive functions, especially, working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility.

Training your working memory one punch at a time

Why is it crucial to train your working memory? Working memory is the ability to retain and recall a small volume of information in a short period of time. Is one of the pillars of learning since it precedes long-term memory, and it gives a person the ability to solve daily short-term tasks. The more someone trains their working memory the better their learning skills will become.

For instance, boxers train their working memory routinely throughout their workout session. They hear, understand, retain, and recall a sequence of punches, blocks, and evasions usually coded in a number form. Sometimes, the length of these sequences can reach up to 30 numbers at a time! This is quite impressive considering that the average person is only capable of memorizing 7 digits at a time.

Then, how are boxers able to memorize such lengthy sequences? They achieve it through associative memory. Punches in boxing are usually assigned to a number to facilitate a boxer’s memory recall. It’s more effective to recall “1-2-3-5” than “jab, right cross, left hook, left uppercut.”

The inhibitory control is vital for world champions

The inhibitory control is in charge of preventing a reaction to stimuli. In a learning context, the inhibitory control prevents you to engage in actions that would disrupt learning processes (i.e. standing up, looking at your phone, talking to your friends, etc.).

In boxing, inhibitory control is widely practiced through different bluffing kinematic techniques including “feints.” A feint consists of pretending to throw a punch to create an opening in your opponent’s guard and set up other punches. Boxers are able to trick their opponents by engaging their whole body as if they were throwing a real punch and stopping right after their opponent reacts.

Additionally, training the inhibitory control through boxing can translate to everyday benefits. Small-sample studies suggest that children with troublesome behavior shift to a more tranquil lifestyle following long-term boxing training.

Boxing for an enhanced cognitive flexibility

Boxing also trains the brain’s cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility is the ability to make immediate decisions with a set of information.

When practicing shadow boxing drills, fighters get in an empty ring with nothing but their thoughts. The fighter then starts picturing an adversary who might start attacking, forcing the fighter to start blocking and dodging. Then, the fighter might “see” an opening in his adversary, resulting in a tactical offense featuring combinations previously learned.

The core of shadow boxing consists of working your cognitive flexibility through frequent visualizations of different scenarios in a boxing match. For this and many other reasons, worldwide-known boxers such as Mike Tyson praise shadow boxing and consider it the best exercise to improve a boxer’s skills.

Better focus or get KO’d!

Attention is the ability to focus uninterruptedly on a specific stimulus. It is one of the main pillars of learning and precedes all the other executive functions. If a student is unable to pay attention, there’s no way they will retain nor recall information.

Attention is regularly trained through a boxing session. Imagine a boxer working the boxing mitt pads with their coach. If the fighter is unable to pay attention he’ll be incapable of learning combinations or even worst he might get hit as a consequence of his own mistakes. No one likes being punched in the face, thus, the only way to avoid damage is to maintain focus throughout the entire session.

Additionally, boxers constantly exercise their selective attention. Fighters tend to train in a gym full of people, meaning there are an enormous amount of distractions at all times. Noises of punches, music, and buzzers are just a small fraction that contributes to the overall distracting stimuli. Boxers must pay attention to their coach while ignoring visual and auditory stimuli from their surroundings if they want to optimize their performance.

Is boxing safe for cognitive training?

While boxing remains an effective way to maintain your brain healthy, fighting and even sparring might result in irreversible brain damage. Cumulative concussions caused by constant blows to the head can lead to dementia, Parkinson’s, and chronic pain. If you decide to start your journey in boxing be sure to acquire all the safety equipment prior to training.

Follmer, B., Varga, A. A., & Zehr, E. P. (2020). Understanding concussion knowledge and behavior among mixed martial arts, boxing, kickboxing, and Muay Thai athletes and coaches. The Physician and sportsmedicine, 48(4), 417-423.

Jump, Deborah , and Hannah Smithson. 2020. “Dropping Your Guard: The Use of Boxing as a Means of Forming Desistance Narratives amongst Young People in the Criminal Justice System.” The International Journal of Sport and Society 11 (2): 55-69. doi:10.18848/2152-7857/CGP/v11i02/55-69.

Miller G. A. (1994). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: some limits on our capacity for processing information. 1956. Psychological review, 101(2), 343–352. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.101.2.343