This is Adam Haniver from the Box Gathering. Something I heard several years ago while listening to a podcast from Dan Abrahams, is the acronym W I N, win. WIN for him stood for what's important now. And it's a question that I constantly ask my boxers, whether it be at my club, whether it be at DiSE. I'll tap them on the shoulder and I say, what's important now? 

Now when I ask that question, that could be as they're walking through the door or they're just about to go through the changing rooms, I'll ask them a little question. In fact, I asked this question to someone when I was just getting out my car in the car park the other day and they're walking into the gym. I said to them, what's your win today? What's important now? And it was a conversation that we had the night before about something that they just needed to develop a little bit more tactically and they just needed a bit more of a higher work rate and putting their shots together. So I said, what's important now. And I didn't want to give them the answer. I wanted to know whether they had in their mind what was important. And they said I need to put my shots together and work harder. Okay, why is that? Well, I'm doing single shots at the moment and my work output's not high enough. Okay, great. 

So I wanted to one check that their intentions were the similar to what we had agreed last night, and they were actually had that drive to be able to take it through into that night session. So that told me that their intentions were the same as mine, which is really, really important. So that simple question beforehand becomes such a vital way to you to check what their intentions are, to help direct intention if need be, but also help direct attention onto certain aspects of that problem. So I was watching him to see what he was doing. And as he was shadow boxing, and although that is an uncoupled exercise, I was waiting to see what he was doing. And part of me was actually thinking, I wonder if he's just going to be throwing single shots like a jab and just a single backhand moving his feet. But instantly I could see the boxer, who is actually not competing yet, but he's on the brink, just to see if they would be actually throwing more multiple shots, moving their feet, going again, sustaining their attacks, that kind of thing. And they were. So that told me one thing, that they did have their intentions, they had an objective and they were sort of wrapping their intentions around that. So that was great to see. 

So the W I N is a very, very simple word to remember. Win. Everybody wants to win. What's important now. And it just gets the boxers, when you ask that question, accessing a different part of the brain. So actually when I say, what's your win? You can see their eyes focus clicking up the top of their brain to try and access some part of information. Because I think in general, boxers aren't used to being asked what's important now. They're not being asked, what's your goal today? It's usually they'll come in and wait to see what the topic is and they'll get told that, which sometimes can be the case. But I think if we really want to thrive, they need to have that individual focus of what's important now to them. So during the session, I try to ask that question all the time just to, yes, there might be a theme for the whole session, but I want to see if that individual has something specific that maybe we've had a conversation with, maybe they've been working with. Maybe it's something they're a little bit curious with and trying to develop themselves, just to direct their intentions back to something that's important now. 

And what it does do as well is it helps you as the coach get on the same page as what they're trying to develop. Because then your feedback, whether it be augmented feedback in the moment, can be geared around what they're trying to do. Now, they might try to do something in a spar or in an exercise and it fail, it go wrong, it not maybe look that that fantastically well executed. And therefore we jump in with our, what are you doing? That's rubbish, that's not working. And then some of the boxers might just take that as, oh, well, I better change it then. But really what they're trying to do is explore something. But if you don't know what their intentions are, then it quells that instantly because you're either not happy with that movement or your feedback isn't formulated around what they're trying to achieve. The W I N is a very quick, simple, I don't want to say intervention. It can be used in intervention, but a very proactive way of seeing if we're all on the same page, discovering what they're trying to do, what their intentions are, either for the session or in that moment, then we can actually see what they're paying attention to. So I think that's where the skill of the coach then comes in and asks questions like, why did you do that? I'm interested in why you move there. Why did you choose that type of defence? Why did you move that way? Why did you move this way? So your questioning then can be around what their intentions are. So we start homing in on trying to work towards a common goal, as opposed to me just using my coach's eye, but have no idea what their intentions are and then really kind of quelling their motivation because they're trying to develop something that you're not supportive of that and whether that feedback be positive or negative, shall we say? So the win is really, really important. 

And another thing, just before I sign off, just a quick episode today, is I like to use the WIN at the end of the session as well. And the reason I like to use that win at the end of the sessions is I want them thinking about what they're taking from today's session and then linking to the start of the next session. So at least there's an element of memory recall and you're directing their intention at the start of the next session. So we're linking it and I've said it before, like the Olympic rings, I want this session to be linked to that next session. Because having memory recall of certain information does help strengthen those links, those bonds, that learning. If you're linking it before you have that, that memory retrieval and that, that becomes back into the working memory and hopefully recodes it in a different way the more you refine it, etc. 

So the question, the WIN question at the end of the session is really, really important, but I kind of reshape it a little bit and I say to them, what's important now? But only if you have one thing that you can put in your pocket and smuggle out of this session and smuggle it back into the next session. So if no one else was to know about it, what would you stick in your pocket and what would you try and smuggle out of the gym and smuggle back in that one thing that you're going to protect and make sure it's your own unique thing that you will bring in and develop and work on. And then I'll ask that question again because I want to then check just like I did with the lad in the car park. I want to see if he actually has his intentions in that right place. And it also gives me an idea about what their motivations are. So are they motivated? Are they focused on their own learning and taking accountability of what it is that they need to do? So just to summarise, really, I can ask a question as what's important now in this session, help direct that intention, see where their attention, where they're paying attention to as well at the end of the session then as well. And I can give feedback throughout at the end of the session, what's your win again? What's important now but what you're going to smuggle out and bring back into the next session and then I ask them in the next session just to see if they're focused. And I think it just accelerates learning quicker, it makes time much more effective as opposed to maybe a warm up which has no relation to any of their intentions. It certainly doesn't help stimulate the rest of the session because there's no relation from the warm up into the main part of their session. It should be, I think, quite seamless. So just a few thoughts there. Try asking that question, guys, what's important now? Like I said, heard it from Dan Abrahams years ago and it's been something that's been a really important part of my tool bag to help boxers stay focused, stay motivated, and have their intentions in place. Cheers, guys.