DIRTY WHITE NOISE

HOW IT MAY AFFECT YOUR PERFORMANCE IN THE RING?

It’s sad how many times I’ve witnessed amateur fighters losing their focus during rounds in their first match in a boxing ring. This may be due in part to their lack of experience in the sport, uncontrolled anxiety or testosterone, plus the distracting sounds of the crowd filling their ears, which often leaves them deaf to their trainer’s ringside coaching, during an actual bout.

Because of such distractions, coupled with their natural apprehension and the uncontrollable pumping of adrenalin in their system, they frequently lose sight of their overall fight-plan in the middle of competition. They may even find themselves either standing flat-footed, while struggling to think of their next move and becoming easier targets for their opponents, or they may become too hasty when executing techniques and waste too much of their own precious energy. This may cause them to tire too quickly and lose the match due simply to fatigue.

As a coach, attempting to shout out instructions to competitors while they vie for some advantage over one another in the ring, I’ve found a unique occurrence happens to most novice fighters that many trainers do not properly prepare their students for. I call this unusual circumstance, “Dirty White Noise.”

Although it’s a bit difficult to completely describe this strange phenomenon to those who’ve never experienced its effects first hand, it may be best explained as follows:

Imagine yourself underwater in an ocean with someone on the surface yelling down towards you. The sound of their voice is usually very muffled as you swim. They may be screaming, “Shark! Get out of the water,” but you can’t really make out what they say as you focus on your swimming and what’s in front of you? The noise of moving water in your ears making all sounds from the surface even more indistinguishable. Panic may be added to the situation when your adversary suddenly attacks you! Then your pulse quickens and you begin to run low on air! You feel like you’re drowning!

“Dirty White Noise” is a distracting disturbance that can cause novice fighters to lose their confidence and counter awkwardly, unraveling their defenses. Now a fighter’s offense may only consist of flailing punches or miss-timed kicks as they struggle to survive the remaining rounds. All the while feeling like they can’t breathe in enough air!

At this point the fighter may no longer be able to understand any of the instructions their coach attempts to shout towards them from their corner of the ring during the bout. They are completely deaf to anything but “Dirty White Noise”.

Under these conditions in the ring, an amateur fighter is essentially on his own. Even fairly calm and relaxed amateur fighters can easily fall victim to this if they are not properly informed of it prior to their fight.

A good coach will prepare his fighters for their first encounter with “Dirty White Noise”, by training with peripheral distractions and by inviting in excessive noise during all sparring matches, before allowing his fighter to jump into an actual competition in a boxing ring. This may help to help counter the adverse effects of “Dirty White Noise”.

This phenomenon is not unique to fighters. It is generally brought on by extreme adversity.