Calling a GYM tomorrow

[Young Legend]

Alright, I visited a gym I found online a month ago and on their site it looked some what like a decent gym, I went and checked it out and it seemed basically like a exercise class. They only sparred on Sundays... is that normal??

So I looked up Indiana Golden Gloves and found 2 gyms close that had some fighters win last year. I plan on calling them tomorrow what questions should I ask..? Maybe this is common sense, but I don't really know what to ask lol

Any help would be great.

Peace

[fraidycat]

Every gym does it differently. My gym is run like a martial-arts class, with 30 minutes of calisthenics, a 30-minute circuit of skills and drills (pad work, bag work, etc.) and then 30 minutes of full-contact drills with headgear and mouthpieces. The ring is open for sparring afterwards. There are exercise classes during the day, and then the lessons are the last thing of the night so that people can stay later and spar if they want.

I think that one reason it's done this way is to keep the riffraff out; we are in a tough neighborhood and we get a lot of thugling dip****s who drop in just to "prove they're hard, yo" -- but they have to survive the first 60 minutes before they get a chance to swing at anyone. This usually takes the wind out of their sails and they're in no shape to do any kind of damage by the time we put the headgear on.

You might be better off, IMO, in a structured environment like my gym, or the one you said looks like a class, for a month or so to get some basic skills down. People will dispute this, and they may be right.

Questions I would ask are:

- Class environment or self-paced?
- Cost?
- Hours and days of operation?
- Number of trainers?
- Number of boxers?
- Any boxers of note? Gloves champions, local heroes, pros, etc.?

[kryo]

I'd never join a gym that made you be there at a certain time every day, had you doing a set routine every day, and ran the gym like a class. **** that. You go to school for that ****. My gym, you go in, everyone does what you gotta do, theres 6 trainers there all helping everyone FOR FREE. You can ask one of the trainers what his opinion is and he will help you with everything, and then you can ask him to spar if you want. It's ****ing perfect. Different **** everyday.

[Kayo]

Mines done like a martial art class but theirs classes all day and everyday. and then after class your allowed too do whatever you want. Then theirs competition classes where you work on specific things

[Mistadobalina]

I'd never join a gym that made you be there at a certain time every day, had you doing a set routine every day, and ran the gym like a class. **** that. You go to school for that ****. My gym, you go in, everyone does what you gotta do, theres 6 trainers there all helping everyone FOR FREE. You can ask one of the trainers what his opinion is and he will help you with everything, and then you can ask him to spar if you want. It's ****ing perfect. Different **** everyday.

same here. in high school i went to this great AM gym. it was in the same lot as a community activities center. our gym was actually a renovated weight room on the campus of an old high school that the city now uses for adult school and as a community sports compex (in fact, back in the day it was the school they used as rydell high school in "grease" and "grease 2"). kids and young teens were trained for free, everyone older paid a $30 YEARLY donation. you could do anything you want there. our gym was next to a 1/4 mile track where you could do road work, stadium benches to do stair runs, and the adjacent auditorium had a basketball court with a place to lift on the 2nd floor. everything for free, only thing is there is quite a few shady people in there these days, especially the weight room lol.

[Kayo]

same here. in high school i went to this great AM gym. it was in the same lot as a community activities center. our gym was actually a renovated weight room on the campus of an old high school that the city now uses for adult school and as a community sports compex (in fact, back in the day it was the school they used as rydell high school in "grease" and "grease 2"). kids and young teens were trained for free, everyone older paid a $30 YEARLY donation. you could do anything you want there. our gym was next to a 1/4 mile track where you could do road work, stadium benches to do stair runs, and the adjacent auditorium had a basketball court with a place to lift on the 2nd floor. everything for free, only thing is there is quite a few shady people in there these days, especially the weight room lol.

thats sick, i wish my gym was that cheap lol

[fraidycat]

Had a dude in our gym last night, a new guy. He was Latino, about my size, in his 20's, tough, tattoos, had that hard look to him. Paid his money and spent the first half hour with his jumprope tangled up around his feet and the second half hour learning the difference between a jab and a hook. We get a couple guys like this per month.

Then when it came time for mouthguards and headgear, they put him with me. (I have excellent control and I'm told I'm a good teacher; I often get paired with the new guys.)

This was supposed to be a straight 1-2 exchange to help the guy get his fundamentals down, maybe give him a few pointers on stance and footwork, but he came at me ready to rip my head off. I could tell immediately that he had been in fights before; what he lacked in skill he compensated for with confidence and aggression. BIG punches, leaning into them, wide hooks, shoving jabs, and clumsy overhands with the occasional short-range flurry, but nothing you wanted to get hit squarely with.

I weaved and countered, mostly working his body (why do streetfighters or streetfighter wannabes never guard their body?) until he was so tired that he had to go sit down -- he'd punched himself out in less than a minute and I'd taken a lot of the wind out of him with heavy straights to the body.

I am ****ING GLAD that he had to go through the workout; I would not have liked to have faced him when he was fresh. I probably could've taken him (in the ring, mind you; not on the street) but it would not have been pleasant. As it stands, he shook my hand at the end of class and said he admired the shape we were in and that he had a lot of work to do. Here I earned his respect and I didn't even have to hurt him.

I do like the way my gym runs things. Your mileage may vary.

[Kayo]

Had a dude in our gym last night, a new guy. He was Latino, about my size, in his 20's, tough, tattoos, had that hard look to him. Paid his money and spent the first half hour with his jumprope tangled up around his feet and the second half hour learning the difference between a jab and a hook. We get a couple guys like this per month.

Then when it came time for mouthguards and headgear, they put him with me. (I have excellent control and I'm told I'm a good teacher; I often get paired with the new guys.)

This was supposed to be a straight 1-2 exchange to help the guy get his fundamentals down, maybe give him a few pointers on stance and footwork, but he came at me ready to rip my head off. I could tell immediately that he had been in fights before; what he lacked in skill he compensated for with confidence and aggression. BIG punches, leaning into them, wide hooks, shoving jabs, and clumsy overhands with the occasional short-range flurry, but nothing you wanted to get hit squarely with.

I weaved and countered, mostly working his body (why do streetfighters or streetfighter wannabes never guard their body?) until he was so tired that he had to go sit down -- he'd punched himself out in less than a minute and I'd taken a lot of the wind out of him with heavy straights to the body.

I am ****ING GLAD that he had to go through the workout; I would not have liked to have faced him when he was fresh. I probably could've taken him (in the ring, mind you; not on the street) but it would not have been pleasant. As it stands, he shook my hand at the end of class and said he admired the shape we were in and that he had a lot of work to do. Here I earned his respect and I didn't even have to hurt him.

I do like the way my gym runs things. Your mileage may vary.

Yeah my gym gets alot of those they usualy last a few weeks dont even make it to sparring sometimes. I sparred one of them last week but he wasnt super wild he just kept his hands up at his face and slowly plodded towards you then made an effort to land a haymaker left(he was a southpaw).

Needless to say he wasnt able to get off after 30 seconds into the round cause i figured out his plan and if i just through quick combo's and moved he'd never hit me because he'd only try and punch when i wasnt punching.

[Kayo]

Then after the trainer pulled us aside and told him what he was doing wrong for like 15 minutes then he came up n thanked me for sparring with him. and for being good about it and beating up a new guy because during the round i hit him with an uppercut and i was like "oh **** are you okay?!?"

[ReadyUp]

I do like the way my gym runs things. Your mileage may vary.

No offense, but I see no reason whatsoever that a person should spar (no matter how controlled) on their first day at a gym.

There is too much other work to be done than just get in the ring.
My gym is more skills-oriented. First day, nothing but the left jab. Second day, jab-right hand. It was done at different speeds and on different bags but the technical aspect was taught first.

Here we are sometime later and I still tinker with the mechanics of my punches. I want everything as crisp down the middle as possible, from jabs to uppercuts.