By Lachlan Nantes — professional boxer and founder of LMN Method, Gold Coast, Australia
A boxer can look brilliant in a familiar drill and still struggle to find the same skill in a fight. That isn’t necessarily because the boxer didn’t work hard enough. Often, the practice taught the movement without teaching the boxer when to use it.
In a gym, the target is predictable. A partner might feed the same jab ten times. The boxer knows what’s coming, when it is coming and what response is expected. That repetition has value. It helps build the shape and timing of a movement. But the fight asks a different question: can you recognise the opportunity while someone is trying to disrupt your plan?
I learned to take that question seriously across roughly 50 amateur fights and my professional boxing career. My record is 3–0, with three knockouts, but the lesson I want to share isn’t about knockouts. It’s about making training more useful.
Start by asking what the drill is actually teaching. If the goal is to defend a jab, repeating the defensive movement can be a starting point. The next step is to let the partner vary the timing. Then add the possibility that the partner might not jab at all. Now the boxer has to read rather than simply perform.
This doesn’t mean every round needs to become hard sparring. Quite the opposite. You can introduce decisions at low intensity. A partner can offer two possible attacks, both controlled, while the boxer works on recognising and responding. You can slow the drill down, reduce the options or shorten the round when the boxer loses the thread. The purpose is to keep the learning challenge clear.
Attention matters as much as exercise selection. If a boxer enters a round trying to improve their feet, defence, breathing, punching power and confidence all at once, they may not notice much about any one of them. A more useful instruction might be: ‘For this round, notice where your weight is when you finish defending.’ That’s something the boxer can observe and discuss afterwards.
Breathing is another example. Many fighters remember to exhale when punching but forget to inhale when there’s space between exchanges. In controlled shadowboxing, I sometimes make the inhale the first thing to notice. The aim isn’t to promise a magic breathing technique; it’s to stop rushing past a basic part of the action.
There’s also a difference between being busy and learning. A boxer can finish a session exhausted and still be unable to explain what changed. A short reflection after a round can help: What did you try? What did you notice? What will you adjust next time? Those questions keep the work connected to a purpose.
Coaches have a role here, but the fighter needs to develop their own attention. In competition, the coach can’t make every decision for them. Training should gradually give the boxer responsibility for seeing the problem and choosing a response.
None of this replaces conditioning, technical repetition or experienced coaching. It simply makes those parts of preparation more connected to the unpredictable situations a fight presents. The aim is not to win every drill in the gym. It’s to build a skill that still makes sense when the drill disappears.
Author bio: Lachlan Nantes is a Gold Coast boxing coach, undefeated professional boxer (3–0, 3 KOs), and founder of LMN Method. He writes about intentional training and performing under pressure. https://lmnmethod.au
