Thread: 'Thinking Out of the Box'

Sometimes when everything fails, you got to open your eyes a bit more and see beyond your usual myopic horizon for some other possible solutions. You ought to think out of the box, so to speak. Examples most well illustrate this point:

- Years back when my brother was working at a Japanese company, he heard this story about a boardroom discussion at the famous Ajinomoto company. Ajinomoto is a flavor enhancing condiment (m.s.g.), which is sold in Japan usually in shakers to be sprinkled into foods during cooking. The board was discussing their sales problem and wanted find a way increase their sales by 10%. After much discussion on how they might be able to increase their sales, with all the business experts and technicians present and employing all forms of usual corporate presentations to expressing their varied ideas, they came to a standstill and was about to take a break from the long, serious discussion when a company janitor came in for his usual round. Just to have some respite from the serious discussion, one company official jokingly asked the janitor his opinion. He answered, 'No problem, sirs, just increase the numbers of holes on the shakers by 10-20% and you can increase your sales by at least 10%!

Without going into the merits of the idea, this story illustrates pretty clearly how we can come out with unlikely solutions to our problems if we think out of the box. Here’s another story I read in Reader's Digest some years back, though not in it's exact original form:

- There was a man who was trying to get a ping-pong ball out of a hole in a ground just little bigger than the ball itself in diameter and about 2 feet deep. While he was about to give up after trying every creative way to snag the ball out of the hole, his 8-year old son said, 'dad, just pour some water in the hole,' and as he did what his son said, the ball just popped out of the hole as soon as it was flooded by the gushing water.

Here, the man has set his mind just on how to snag the ping-pong ball out and never thought that there might be other ways to get it out. Sounds familiar, huh.

Applied to boxing, I’ve always wondered why most boxing gyms still use those ancient system of training as I doubt the effectiveness of some of those old methods of training. About the only things improved are the gym equipments but the training methods are basically the same today as it was then. Boxing trainers should start thinking out of the box and start coming up with some innovative ideas for training than to rigidly (and stubbornly) sticking to the old, outdated methods. For example, why does Pacquiao punches so hard? It’s because, good for him, he started punching outside the gym, barehanded. He started punching coconut trunks, padded with rubber flip-flops, barehanded. Punching steady objects barehanded forces you to punch correctly. I think Clubber knows that. Barehanded punching requires you to keep your arms firm and tight, from the fists on, to the wrists and way up the shoulders and chest (sometimes the whole body). One of the biggest mistakes of boxing training method is that they start punching with gloves on, and to make it worse, with wrappings around the hands. It’s really difficult to tighten your arm muscles with gloves on, especially for beginners, because it is difficult to clench your fists tight inside heavily padded gloves, coupled with the wrappings. I will not go into details but it’s sufficient to point out here that the training system is outdated, IMO, and boxing trainers need to think out of the box to come up with new ideas for more effective method of modern boxing training.

Of course, the idea of thinking out of the box applied to boxing is just an example. It can and should be applied to any difficult situation or problem that needs creative solutions.

I agree , you would get more bites on this thread in Ask the trainer bro.

While I'm all for thinking out of the box, we've already had a topic on barehanded punching and such. I just fail to see it's benefit for a boxer. I also don't attribute it to why Pac is who he is. I'm fairly certain he'd be just as good or tough without that particular aspect. He is naturally gifted. Lucky he hasn't smashed his precious hands to bits, IMO.

I know this was just an example of the concept of abstract thought, but don't really feel it is a good one. Would have a lot of boxers out there breaking bones trying to be like Pac.

Originally Posted by Andre

I agree , you would get more bites on this thread in Ask the trainer bro.

Thanks Andre, but I'd rather not cuz I might start a riot our there where the traditionalists reigns, haha. Actually that was just a sample of 'out of box' thinking and I thought boxing example would suit well than anything else here.

Originally Posted by Youngblood

While I'm all for thinking out of the box, we've already had a topic on barehanded punching and such. I just fail to see it's benefit for a boxer. I also don't attribute it to why Pac is who he is. I'm fairly certain he'd be just as good or tough without that particular aspect. He is naturally gifted. Lucky he hasn't smashed his precious hands to bits, IMO.

I know this was just an example of the concept of abstract thought, but don't really feel it is a good one. Would have a lot of boxers out there breaking bones trying to be like Pac.

Sorry about that, Youngblood, I wasn't clear enough there. Actually punching barehanded doesn't mean banging your fists to crack some hard stuffs. Barehanded punching can be done by punching an adequately padded posts. The idea is not just punching some solid stuffs, but to punch barehanded, which more easily allows you to tighten the grip of your fists. That tight grip, or clenching, of fists is an important aspect of correct punching. It's really difficult to have a solid punch with your hands in a sort of loose grip that you naturally have when your hands are wrapped with bandages and your grip further hampered with heavily padded gloves. One of the most important aspect of good punch is well-tightened muscles from the fists, to the wrists up the whole arm, and up to the shoulders and chest, and even the whole body in some cases. You can more easily learn to do that with a firm, tight grip of your fists than trying to do that with loose grip inside the gloves. If you have any doubt, just try gripping or clenching your fist real tight and at the same time tighten all your arm muscles up to the shoulder and try punching. If you seriously do that for awhile, I bet you'll see the difference. It would be better if someone can actually show you, though. Wish I could do that for you but you'll need to pay for my plane ticket first.

Yes I get what you mean, pacfan. Sorry didn't mean to detract from the object of your post. I also realize you bring with it a history of martial arts, that are now focused on its spiritual aspects. I'm always looking for new and interesting things, in training and in life. So I very much like the point you are conveying about keeping an open mind.

Originally Posted by Youngblood

Yes I get what you mean, pacfan. Sorry didn't mean to detract from the object of your post. I also realize you bring with it a history of martial arts, that are now focused on its spiritual aspects. I'm always looking for new and interesting things, in training and in life. So I very much like the point you are conveying about keeping an open mind.

Thanks Youngblood, and congratulations for your new outlook of things in life and a rep would be a nice little reward for that... If you are really serious about punching, observe how good punchers like de Leon, Katsidis and Darchinian cock their arms during fights; they are actually trying to tighten their arm muscles before they actually throw their punches.