How To Not Freeze Up When Street Boxing

The mind is often clogged by many needs and concerns; and a clogged mind is the last
thing you will ever need in street boxing. Fighters mostly ignore this need, not knowing that
often this could make or break a performance. An boxer needs to learn how to free his mind
from worries, especially during fights.

Setting the mind free takes some getting used to, but the real need is how to have a free
mind at the spur of the moment—or better yet, how to have it always. A free mind frees the body
also to perform an artwork, not a program. This means, such mind desires nothing—specifically,
it doesn’t think about winning or losing. A desire automatically assigns the spirit to a particular
bias or leaning, and there it becomes bound, consciously or otherwise. Once a desire to win (or a
fear to lose) is present, the mind is bothered by options, and a mental shackle keeps it narrow and
mechanical.

It’s something like a mind that wants to spell “ACKNOWLEDGE” but then is too rigid
and mechanically puts an “A” always with a “B” and thinks a “C” cannot come after an “A,”
more so a “K.” Thus, it takes too long to finally spell the word correctly.

But a free mind can write the word almost without even thinking of it. So what if it was
misspelled a bit? There’s always an eraser. With such a mind, the whole task of writing becomes
smooth and free flowing. It ceases to be a spelling job and becomes a composition. Likewise, the
competition ceases to be a win or lose situation, but the athlete takes part in a drama where he
actually gets to write the script and the plot, if he chooses to. An internationally acclaimed,
undefeated fighter and superb actor, Bruce Lee once wrote in his book that a state of
“nothingness” (desiring nothing) can give the athlete full authority on the whole play or drama
that the competition has become, and actually write the script and even decide the plot.
Storywriters assign roles to characters. They don’t think about winning or losing.
In boxing for the street we should learn how to let their minds and bodies just flow with the present
situation in a game, after a good training. Such freedom from the desire to win or fear to lose will
give his whole person leeway to compose rather than compete.
We will discuss more on the topic of freeing the mind in Chapter Six.