Learning to Box

[DMC]

Hi all, back again.

Tonight I faced my first Southpaw. DAM it's hard.

I have been going well, I am starting to feel the rhythm and blocking and moving ok. I still need to work on moving around the ring more I tend to plant myself and throw punches they move back but I keep throwing into thin air. (Dumb ass)
But they guy's at the gym and my trainer tell me I am looking better and catching on quick. Anyway back to tonight, So the trainer thought it might be interesting to confuse me and stick me with a southpaw, I had no idea someone in a reversed position would be so hard. I also found it interesting how all the stuff we learn sticks in the brain(Sub conscious) and we do without thinking. I am only new to this but I think my brain has started to get the feel and I am doing things without thinking to much. Now here i am with a southpaw and we start moving around but I felt really really awkward and right out of place. It was like a red light was going off in my head going this is wrong. Anyway I started moving left to cut off his left hand and found it worked ok. Anyway only did one round with him but I found out how hard it can be to be in there with a lefty.
I was a little pleased with myself tonight I landed my first decent head punch. My last opponent for the night, we were just free sparring to the head, he was allot heaver than me and had a hard punch so I found blocking his punches difficult. My trainer has had me moving left and right more trying to open up more places of opportunity to sneak in and get a punch through my opponents defense. anyway we are going at it and finally my slow 31 year old brain reacted at the right time. he through a straight right I moved left saw he was open and I came right in with a left, I nailed him flush in the face with some decent power as well.
Now what I should of done was keep swinging punches but NO I was:

a) Stunned I landed a flush punch.
&
b) Worried about him.

So I paused for a second and said sorry and asked if he was ok, to which he answered with a very nice left jab to my face. My trainer and some other guys were almost on the ground laughing. we kept going for another few minutes and I got him a few more times in the jaw.
Anyway after he told me he was fine and can take more than I gave him. We both laughed about me stopping to say sorry.
Everyone at my gym is so supportive of one another.
I am having so much fun and I am learning every time I go there.
But it's only going to get harder as these guys are taking it easy on me at the moment.

Hope everyone has a great week
Thanks for reading, I will post again soon.

DMC

[DELETED ACCOUNT 06]

Haha, i've seen a few guys who've started boxing say sorry when they've landed a decent crack.

I know i went through a phase at the very start where it is difficult to get used to the idea of actively hitting someone, when your not cross or angry. Boxing is such a mental game.

Sounds like your loving it DMC. Glad you are getting some decent sparring. Good to hear the update.

[potatoes]

Everything I have read here exemplifies the poor quality training so typical of these modern times. Sparring after only a few weeks of sparse training is not only inadvisable, it is just plain dangerous. How many hundred posts in this forum have we seen from guys who have been seriously hurt from premature sparring? I will admit I did allow one kid to spar after a 3 week course of defensive training drills, but this kid was one hell of an athlete. I seriously doubt that any of the people posting in this thread has this kid's natural talent nor his athletic background. Everybody likes to claim they are "going easy" but that only happens if the gym is full of *******. In a real boxing club freindship ends when you climb into the ring. Once you start throwing some heavy leather somebody can get hurt if they don't know what they are doing. Sparring is the worst place to learn anything, the best place is training drills. Ask any sergeant in the army.

[fraidycat]

. Everybody likes to claim they are "going easy" but that only happens if the gym is full of *******. In a real boxing club freindship ends when you climb into the ring.

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[DMC]

Everything I have read here exemplifies the poor quality training so typical of these modern times. Sparring after only a few weeks of sparse training is not only inadvisable, it is just plain dangerous. How many hundred posts in this forum have we seen from guys who have been seriously hurt from premature sparring? I will admit I did allow one kid to spar after a 3 week course of defensive training drills, but this kid was one hell of an athlete. I seriously doubt that any of the people posting in this thread has this kid's natural talent nor his athletic background. Everybody likes to claim they are "going easy" but that only happens if the gym is full of *******. In a real boxing club freindship ends when you climb into the ring. Once you start throwing some heavy leather somebody can get hurt if they don't know what they are doing. Sparring is the worst place to learn anything, the best place is training drills. Ask any sergeant in the army.

Your probably right, However in defence of my gym, we are not an ordinary run of the mill place. There are no Amateurs at our gym and no pro's. Our trainer has had decades of both boxing when he was young and training fighters. Our gym is made up of men and women who want to learn to box but have no desire to prove anything in an amateur or professional way. If we had boxers who were competing they would train very differently. We have a few boxers at our gym who should go Amateur but don't. Why because there not interested in competing they just want to learn a skill and train hard. The sparring I have been doing has been very light and controlled. quiet often I am throwing punches and they are blocking and throwing some in slow motion so I can correctly execute what I am working on. it's only been the last 2 weeks that the sparring has stepped up a bit. All sparring sessions are well supervised and if the trainer feels anyone is in danger or tired or in trouble he yells stop and everyone stops right away. there is also another guy in the ring keeping a close eye on things. We hold in house comps once a month were people who the trainer thinks are ready get a chance to compete against other people in the gym. No one gets in there trying to knock the other person out. everyone tries to score points by Skill not by force. We have a few past Champions and current pro boxers pop in from time to time to help out and watch what’s going on, and help out, we also have Ameteur boxers and trainers come down to our comps to learn control and execution in our comps because they have to hold back.
You may not agree with how the training in this gym is done, but I bet if you walked into 100 gyms all would do things different. Just because it's different doesn't mean it's wrong.


DMC

[DMC]

Hi guy's just a small add-on.

When I started this whole experience and posting on here
I weighed 90kg (198lb) I am 176cm tall.

I weighed myself today just to see how I have been going.
Now I am 77kg (169lb)

I can't believe I have lost so much. I know I look different but to see it in numbers hits me more.

Thanks guy's for your support and help on here. Without reading many posts on this forum I might not have done this well.

The running and boxing is paying off.


DMC

[potatoes]

There is little doubt that traditional boxing training is a good way to cut weight and get in shape. As a matter of fact most guys don't have to try to lose weight, it just happens automatically. Historically boxers have been rather narrow looking fellows. The bulk and excessive muscularity we see these days is largely a function of modern training which leads to lack of proper boxing fitness. Tonight the muscular Edison Miranda run out of gas by the third round. A man who has problems making weight will nearly always buckle when he is put under pressure.

[potatoes]

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I am aware that some boxing clubs which do not allow heavy sparring. Jim Watt, once super-featherweight champion, wrote a book called Watt is My Name, where he describes training in such places. There are other clubs where you will hear the old expression "beat a man into shape." Robert Anasi, an amateur boxer, wrote book called The Gloves where he tells of his experience training for the New York Golden Gloves at some hole in the wall boxing club run by a nutcase from Puerto Rico. Needless to say anybody training in that place was sure to get their heads punched in. Some of the experiences people can have in boxing are truly bizarre!

If you read my posts you will know that I am strong on defense but I have never advocated ***** sparring. If you don't get the right kind of action in the gym you will never be prepared for what some opponents can do to you in the ring. The problem is if you allow the guys to throw lots of leather while sparring, that is what they do. Telling them to go easy is a waste of time. If they got any fight in them that is usually the end result. The only way to get around the problem is to be sure they are ready for it.

[fraidycat]

If you read my posts you will know that I am strong on defense but I have never advocated ***** sparring. If you don't get the right kind of action in the gym you will never be prepared for what some opponents can do to you in the ring.

I've read The Gloves.

There is a huge difference between "***** sparring," and "friendship ending once you step in the ring." I have sparring partners I throw heavy with -- wind-knocked-out-of-you / bloodied-noses / seeing-electric-purple-Cheetos heavy -- and we are friends inside and out of the ring. It's a mark of honor among us that we think each other capable of taking what we can dish out. Did I mention I hit like a truck? None of us are in this to hurt each other, but it is fun as hell to play rough. We know we learn best when there is an "oh, ****," factor in play.

I find it hard to believe that you have such an extensive background as a trainer as you claim, and yet you can't seem to comprehend the mindset of a recreational boxer who's constantly seeking to test his limits.

[potatoes]

I've read The Gloves.

There is a huge difference between "***** sparring," and "friendship ending once you step in the ring." I have sparring partners I throw heavy with -- wind-knocked-out-of-you / bloodied-noses / seeing-electric-purple-Cheetos heavy -- and we are friends inside and out of the ring. It's a mark of honor among us that we think each other capable of taking what we can dish out. Did I mention I hit like a truck? None of us are in this to hurt each other, but it is fun as hell to play rough. We know we learn best when there is an "oh, ****," factor in play.

I find it hard to believe that you have such an extensive background as a trainer as you claim, and yet you can't seem to comprehend the mindset of a recreational boxer who's constantly seeking to test his limits.

All I know is what I have seen and what I have experienced. Sparring sessions get out of hand, it happens all the time. Not all the kids in the gym have a boxers body. They have limited athletic potential and they haven't got the durability to prematurely play rough. Haven't you seen the posts from some of these kids who describe the injuries they got while sparring? I remember seening one kid get his jaw broken the first time he sparred. It wasn't to suprising that was the last time he sparred. I never saw him again. This was 40 years ago, yet things like that are still happening today.