Had my 1st spar, need defence advise!

[Leoboxes]

Hey All!

I've been boxing for a little under a year, I've had many interruptions to training partly due to having a girlfriend out of country which means I'll go and visit her for two weeks (no training) or she'll come visit me for two weeks (no training), I've also been ill a couple of times and lazy a couple of times. I kept wanting to try sparring but kept putting it off because I didn't feel fit enough etc but then I figured 'hey, I'll get fit whilst sparring!' so I took the plunge and had a go on Thursday night.

1st impression:

- I got hit a lot harder than I was expecting to get hit!
- My defence needs a lot of work.
- My quads got worked a lot harder than I thought they would.

I sparred three rounds with a guy who's around 47 but apparently did a ton of boxing in his 20s, I also sparred one round with a guy who looked about my age (mid-20s).

When I was boxing the older guy, most of my punches were either hitting his gloves or they were over-reached (he was good at keeping out of my way). But he said that I caught him well a few times - I couldn't really tell, partly due to inexperience and partly due to the gloves maybe.
He certainly caught me very well a bunch of times. Once to the chest which winded me pretty good, a few to the cranium/temple which shocked me a bit and kinda made me stop for a second, and a couple of really big shots - one to the nose which made it instantly bleed (and it's still sore over 3 days later), one perfectly to my chin which made me wobble just a tiny bit for a couple of seconds... if he hed've gone full power on that one, I would've probably been on the canvas.

Getting hit that hard was good because I guess I need to get a little used to it so that it becomes less shocking every time. I'm also thankful that the guy sparring with me knew it was my first time and he wasn't a douchebag, when he had me hit hard or in a very vulnerable position, he would back off after a few shots and give me a couple of seconds to get back in the game. When I sparred the guy that was my age, I did the same for him - I seemed to be very good at slipping / parrying his punches and I KNOW I caught him really well a few times, including one straight down the line onto his chin which I could tell rattled his cage a bit and made him back off.

The head coach was supervising and he said that I did very well for my first time which was a good confidence boost but I also know that I have a huge amount of things to work on.

I noticed that with the more experienced guy, I had a lot of trouble hitting him flush because his gloves were always tight to his face. His counters were where I really got smashed up - if he threw a single punch or two, I could bounce back out of the way or parry but when he came at me like a steam train, I would get caught with a hum dinger, raise my gloves to protect myself and kinda turn away from him - BIG MISTAKE - it was 10x worse when I couldn't see what was coming an he could've easily finished me a dozen times because of this. The problem is that even when I'm facing him, I still can't see a lot of his punches coming because the head guard and my gloves are blocking to much of my vision. I notice some boxers box using their jabbing shoulder to guard their face and only keep their opposite hand cocked/at their face which seems like it offers a lot more visibility but also seems kinda vulnerable to me. I'm really not sure what's best.

I think I need to work on:
- general defence
- bobbing/weaving/slipping, I use my legs fairly well to move forwards/backwards but I'm not really bobbing/weaving - I'm just not used to those movements nor fit enough to keep doing them, which I guess makes me an easy target.
- my right hand. I found my jab to be very useful to keep my opponent away (some of the time) but I also had to rely on the jab to have the reach to actually land punches, my right would fall short a lot or be very obviously thrown and thus avoided/blocked. Maybe I'm standing too sideways?

I think my counter punching is ok, like when I was boxing the younger guy, I would see his jabbing hand come at me and my reaction was to immediately fire a jab back - which seemed to hit his unprotected face quite a lot.

I definitely need to learn techniques to deal with an opponent throwing lengthy combos.

I think generally, I feel a bit of a mess - like I'm sure most people do after their first sparring session. Hopefully the head coach wasn't just being nice / trying to ensure I don't give up.

If anybody has any advice or comments, they'd be most appreciated!

Sorry for the long, rambling post ;0

Thank you all.

Peace,
Leo

xx

[Ace Dutrey]

Great post, love the detail and honesty. It seems you are really interested in learning and improving. that's a great thing. There are so many things me or anyone else can advise or help with so I'll stick to one of the first and best tools i've learned and stuck to. The thing I can tell you is double up and triple up on your jab, you'd be surprised how much your defense will improve due to it. I've noticed that when I'd double up on the jab my opponent would either not throw or be so preoccupied with the jab that when they did throw it was easier to read and in turn easier to avoid/slip/parry/block/counter off his punches. As far as offense, again, by doubling or tripling up you can set them up and control a fight much better. That is my one advice to you. Others can chime in as well on my 2 cents or some other aspect of the game they've used to help themselves. Happy training.

-Ace

[Voz de Mando]

tldr........

[Leoboxes]

Thanks Ace! I'll definitely try that out. Just to clarify, do you mean throwing double and triple jabs or just throwing the jab more often (or both ;0). Gonna need a lot of time on the heavy-bag to get the stamina up to throw more often!

Voz.... why bother posting just to tell us that you're not interested?

[punchDrUnK MONK]

ill try to make my resply short..

def sounds like u did good for ur first spar. 4 rounds is a fair amount of rounds to go also.
never worry about how bad u do against a guy with that much experience, its always great work for u, and he should always be able to get the better of u with so much more experience..
if not then u know ur good when :P

but as far as workin on ur D.. i love workin on my d. if u really wanna try it, the first thing is to get past the worry ,or scare of getting hit... u kinda learn to like being hit , obviously not flush tho, always keep ur hands tight so u can place them in each spot to block the 3 different types of punches.. to block hooks put hand beside head blocking ear and temple n side of chin area.. to block straights u gotta catch the punchs.. and to block upper cuts also catch them..

slipping is a more advanced way of defense, its really fun to work on and try, but to be honest its risky for beginners to try too much, bcuz u run the risk of slipping or ducking the wrong way and right into a punch which then the slip or duck actually added more impact to the punch u just took, which can end up bad...

dont forget the 3rd type of defense... footwork! if the opponent cant get u in front of him for long enough to throw and land a decent shot, he has no chance! so footwork and good timing can really mess a guy up

[DeepSleep]

In general newer guys tend to freeze up on defense and simply block without moving, this allows guys to tee off on them. Whenever your blocking punches in your guard remember to move laterally or back at an angle. It's very hard to land a lengthy combo cleanly on an a moving opponent who has his guard up.

Relax everyone generally feels like a mess after their first time sparring. As you get used to sparring you will notice you abilities will improve rapidly. Above all though listen to your coach.