Lessons from Boxing

After a year of working out with the university boxing club and attending some tournaments, I can happily report that I have learned a few things. Boxing is excellent for teaching life lessons at any age. After all, it’s not as if I have it all figured out and don’t need to learn anything new. There is one thing in particular that I want to share now, though. It’s about doubt.

But first, when I say I have attended tournaments, I mean exactly that. I was a spectator at these events, not a competitor. It’s an entirely different thing to be inside the ring. I understand that, having practiced and sparred in rings myself, but none of that was against an opponent who wanted to tear my head off. Sparring partners aren’t supposed to do that, at least in theory.

What I have observed watching boxers getting ready for bouts is that those who looked doubtful almost always lost their fights. By “doubtful,” I mean they reflected, either consciously or unconsciously, doubt through gestures, visual cues, or speech. It’s as if they smelled defeat.

I clearly remember the 2001 World Series between the New York Yankees and the upstart Arizona Diamondbacks. At one point, legendary Yankee reliever, Mariano Rivera, expressed doubt in the media about the Yankees winning. It was a strangely haunting comment from an otherwise upbeat player who had become an icon of pinstripe dominance. The Diamondbacks ended up winning the series in the bottom of the ninth of the seventh game when Luis Gonzalez hit a blooper over the head of Derek Jeter into left field.

I want to make a subtle but important distinction between doubt and self-doubt. Doubt, I believe, is about the outcome of a contest as in Rivera thinking the Yankees would not win the series. Will we win, or will we lose? Can I counter the other guy’s left hook or not? Will I land enough punches to affect the score in my favor? Whose hand will the referee raise in victory at the end of the bout?

Self-doubt, on the other hand, has to do with inner uncertainty. It is not the result of outside forces or fear of what those forces might do to you (e.g., clobber you with a right cross). It is an internal state characterized by feeling uncentered, off the mark, not aligned properly. It comes from an overemphasis on external results like winning and losing over inner acceptance. Acceptance of what? One’s limitations, imperfections, and, ultimately, mortality. It is an acceptance of self, not a wish that the self were stronger, faster, younger, or smarter.

This is not to say that one shouldn’t try to improve, but it is a recognition that the effort is a spiritual one. Learning to conquer fear and settle into oneself requires serious reflection that goes beyond mastering techniques like footwork or combinations. Uncertainty results from a basic insecurity about identity, which is to say who and what you are. Insecurity, in turn, comes from paying too much attention to the outcome. Not only is there no shame in losing, but there is much to be commended in using that loss to get closer to the mark, your own mark.

It is no coincidence that sin is often described in terms of the Greek word hamartia, which refers to an archer missing the mark in a contest. The mark is not the contest, however, whether a World Series win or bout. The mark is you, the self. Aiming for it is the essence of holiness, which does not entail the quest for perfection but wholeness.

Speaking of hamartia, I just finished the Netflix series on Alexander the Great. It is conceivable that King Darius III of Persia lost everything, including his wife, daughter, and empire, because of self-doubt. He is certainly interpreted that way. Alexander was the opposite. According to the Platonist philosopher, Plutarch, the young Macedonian “esteemed it more kingly to govern himself than to conquer his enemies.” He ended up conquering Persia anyway.

There may be doubt about the outcome, which rests in God’s hands, but let there be little doubt as to the kind of boxer that enters the ring.

Image credits: feature by Dollar Gill; b&w by Joshua Jordan. Want more? Go to Robert Brancatelli. The Brancatelli Blog is a member of The Free Media Alliance, which promotes “alternatives to software, culture, and hardware monopolies.” Dedicated to the fighters and coaches, past and present, of the Santa Clara University Boxing Club.