How a Boxer Thinks.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 August 1922, Page 1

How a Boxer Thinks.

(By Arthur Lynch in “Daily Mail”). When a. boxer sees another in front of him in the act of delivering a blow, a long series of operations becomes involved before he makes the appropriate response. The image on his retina produces a complex stimulus to the nerve strands that at length carry the impulse to tho hinder part of the brain. A mental image follows, and this is associated with a number of other images that rapidly give some notion , f the total situation. A judgment is Formed, hut tin's operation. must be carried out so quickly that it is determined in part by impulses which have not resulted in conscious impressions. No two men in similar circumstances will act quite in tho same way. The special personality of the individual becomes involved in this rapid judgment. “The whole man thinks.”

When the judgment is completed, a directive is sent out to the muficles of the legs for side-stepping, or to the muscles of the neck and trunk for countering, to the muscles of the arm for guarding; perhaps to all simultaneously.

Tho appropriate movements are executed without delay—necessarily, for all these acts must be accomplished in less than the time during which the glove of the adversary is being projected from its first position towards the body of our boxer.

That all these actions and reactions may h e carried out with perfect co-or-dination, a vast complex of conditions must have been established. At every part of tho pathway from the exterior surface of the eye, to the brain, to the muscles, the organism must ho not only healthy but highly efficient.

The analysis required to show this in detail would he very extensive. Consider the eye alone: if either the cornea, of the lens, or the retina—to mention only these—were affected, the process would he faulty at tho beginning. The greatest loss of time, occurs in the onerations within the brain—those involving Judgment. A polished state of physical excellence is necessary, and this in turn involves the efficient working of all the vital organs : hut above and beyond good health hard training, practice and experience are essential.

We have had an indication of what one single change of position means. Multiply this by a thousand, with varying details, then we find other factors becoming important—those involved in staying power and the ability to withstand nervous shocks.

I have not dealt with these and the intellectual and moral qualities that go to make a great boxer, for tho subject would lead too far afield. Having due regard to all tho factors that make brilliant attack and good defence, and giving 1000 points to the highest possible efficiency, no boxer attains anything like the maximum. *

The weak point with most is defence. Carpentier. carried away by his courage, boxed foolishly with Dempsey,‘standing up to him and taking blow for blow. It was magnificent, hut it was not war.