The Inner Experience of Learning to Box

When you're learning to box, you learn a set of very tightly choreographed punches that you have to throw in a particular sequence. The key to boxing is not unleashing your belligerence, it's alerting your defensive reactions,. It's learning how to get your hands back in position. And over time, simply by practicing, persevering in those stumbling small steps, you suddenly find yourself in possession of what feels at least like a kind of seamless sequence of performance. That moment when you suddenly look and say, oh my goodness, I didn't just throw two jabs and a cross, I actually finished the sequence, I actually ended up on balance in my fighting stance. Those moments