Glossary

Some terms you’ll hear a lot here at the Box Gathering…

Here are some terms that we often use here at The Box Gathering, some are boxing terms that newer coaches are still getting to grips with, while others are educational science terms that may be new to even the most seasoned coach.

Term	Meaning
Affordance	‘Opportunities for action’ provided by the training environment that can influence learning and skill development.
Attentional Focus	What/where a boxer is focusing on while performing, and how that focus impacts their learning and performance.
Attunement	The process of boxers becoming sensitive to specific cues or constraints that influence their behaviour and performance.
Bernstein’s Hammer	Named after Nikolai Bernstein’s studies around how skilled smiths adapt their technique to work with various materials achieving the task in various ways. Compared to sport skills which coined the phrase, ‘Repetition without repetition.’
Constraints Based Approach	Restrictions that shape the training environment, guiding boxers toward specific behaviors or strategies.
Ecological Dynamics	How individuals, particularly athletes, interact with and adapt to their environment they train in.
Counterattacking	Defending and attacking at the same time.
Counterpunching	Defending then attacking after the defence.
Drawing	Creating openings for the opponent to think they can exploit, then having a counter pre planned to exploit them in return.
Feinting	Pretending to attack or move to one target but exploting another. Or one action, then completing another. Creating deceptive information.
Intentionality	The purposefulness of boxers in their actions and decisions, guiding their exploration and adaptation in training.
Perception/Action Coupling	The tight link between what we perceive in our training environment and the actions we take in response. As well as how we act to perceive new information.
Repetition Without Repetition	A learning approach where boxers repeat a task or skill, but they do so in a way that is not an exact replication.
Representativeness	The extent to which a practice or learning environment mirrors the performance context where the skills or knowledge will be applied.
Self Organisation	A process where boxers develop behaviors or skills through interaction with the constraints and the environment, without requiring direct instruction.
Skill Acquisition	The process through which boxers learn and refine skills through practice and interaction with constraints in their training environment.
Triggering	Using a fake attacking movement to make the opponent punch, then subsequently countering.
Variability	The degree to which the conditions or situations a skill is practiced differ from each other.