Beginner looking for tips

[bradsand]

Hey folks, I'm new here, and new to the world of boxing. I'm 20 years old, and while I've always had a passing interest in boxing, it never occurred to me to try it myself until recently. Now I'm really serious about it. I want to have my first "real" (in the sense of officiated, definitely not professional) fight next January, so I've got about a year.

Right now I'm about 165 pounds, and I want to stay super middleweight for when I actually fight. My plan is to spend my first couple of months just getting into the best physical shape of my life from a cardio and stamina standpoint. After that, I'm going to start to work out with some boxing instructional DVDs I'm buying until I can join a boxing gym in about July. Then I'm just gonna take classes and spar until I feel ready for a proper match.

What I wanna know from some of you experienced guys is a) Is this plan ridiculous? If so, how would you improve it?, b) What nutrition advice do you have to go with this? I've been at a comfortable weight for a little while now (in high school I was quite overweight) so I know what it takes, but I'm not sure if there's a particular strategy for getting into boxing shape, and c) what balance of cardio vs. lifting should I look to achieve to stay super middleweight? I've never done much "bulking up" in my life, only light lifting, but I think at my height (about 5'10") the most I should really be is super middleweight.

Thanks for all your help in advance, and sorry that I come off as such a massive n00b. I'm excited to do this thing.

[Squirrel]

Why are you waiting to join in July? To get boxing fit you have to box, the first tiem you work a heavy bag your arms will hurt like hell and you think you'll never get it - if you wait until July to even start on actual boxing then you've pretty much halves the amount of training time until your first fight.

A lot of people will post garbage about not lifting weights but don't buy into that. However, for the time being just work on your technique - amateur fights have very few rounds, and the rounds themselves are short - work on boxing efficiently and effectively in those rounds. It's all well and good being able to clean and press hundreds of lbs and being able to run 9 miles a day, but you need to be able to box. And you learn how to box by boxing. That said, plyometric exercise and cardio such as sprint training, swimming etc will be very beneficial.

You can do stuff at home or with friends of course - when i used to box I went to one training session a week and trained several times on my own at home.

In terms of diet; if youre maintaining a weight you feel fully functional and healthy at, then stick with it. The general idea is lean meats, rice, pasta, fruit and veg, dairy, fish, grains etc. You don't have to live like a monk but if you're eating takeaway most nights, having chocolate bars and soda every day then youre gonna have to address that.

[bradsand]

Well, I do have a bag myself and I'm going to do a bunch of different boxing instructional DVDs from home, but the thing is, I go to school where there's no boxing gym for about 60 miles so it's just impractical to think I'd be able to get out often enough to make it worthwhile. In July though I'm going to be living back at home and starting an internship there and there's a good gym in town. So by the time I get there hopefully I'll be as good as someone self-teaching can be, then I can take classes and spar to fill in the blanks.

Really appreciate all the advice, man.

[Barn]

These are great videos.

Stance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H64JG...eature=related

Footwork
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvWFw...eature=related

Jab
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-ugc...eature=related

Straight Right
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKXqk...eature=related

Jab and Straight Right Combo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtLaP...eature=related

Basic Defence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohH37...eature=related

Defence through movement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0nz9...eature=related

Perfect these and you'll be in good stead.

[killsomething]

If you can't get to a gym til July, I'd use the time you have to get in amazing condition. Lift 2-3 times a week (strength/power-oriented), run 5-6 times a week (focusing on sprints/intervals with longer runs to recover), etc. Just focus on becoming a better athlete.

Teaching yourself is bound to create bad habits, and in boxing bad habits are really hard to break.

I did what you're thinking about doing, and 2 years later I still have a lot of the habits I had when I first went to the gym. Boxing isn't a sport you can learn from videos, unfortunately.

If possible, try to get to that gym once or twice a week until you can start going full-time. If you go on Saturday and learn some techniques, then go home and drill them on the bag during the week, then go back the next Saturday, your coach will be able to tweak whatever you're doing wrong. This will prevent you from forming any detrimental habits. You can spend the rest of the week just drilling and drilling what you learn on the day you're in the gym.

It'll be boring as hell, but you'll have the fundamentals down near-perfect by the time you can go every day. (A lot of times a coach might give you too much information too fast, so you become mediocre at everything and try to advance to more complicated techniques too quickly. Better to have a really solid base to start from before you get into actually training for a fight.)

Sorry for rambling lol, good luck.

[jasbar]

Just run every early in the morning for at least an hour. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Go to a boxing gym and do all exercises that most boxers do like skipping ropes, hitting the bag ect. Do not lift weight coz it will build muscle and put additional burden to ur heart and ul lose stamina.

[bradsand]

If you can't get to a gym til July, I'd use the time you have to get in amazing condition. Lift 2-3 times a week (strength/power-oriented), run 5-6 times a week (focusing on sprints/intervals with longer runs to recover), etc. Just focus on becoming a better athlete.

Teaching yourself is bound to create bad habits, and in boxing bad habits are really hard to break.

I did what you're thinking about doing, and 2 years later I still have a lot of the habits I had when I first went to the gym. Boxing isn't a sport you can learn from videos, unfortunately.

If possible, try to get to that gym once or twice a week until you can start going full-time. If you go on Saturday and learn some techniques, then go home and drill them on the bag during the week, then go back the next Saturday, your coach will be able to tweak whatever you're doing wrong. This will prevent you from forming any detrimental habits. You can spend the rest of the week just drilling and drilling what you learn on the day you're in the gym.

It'll be boring as hell, but you'll have the fundamentals down near-perfect by the time you can go every day. (A lot of times a coach might give you too much information too fast, so you become mediocre at everything and try to advance to more complicated techniques too quickly. Better to have a really solid base to start from before you get into actually training for a fight.)

Sorry for rambling lol, good luck.

Really appreciate this, thank you. Glad to hear some perspective from somebody who was in my shoes. I'll definitely be doing what you're saying. Again, for the first couple of months here, the most important thing is gonna be to get my heart and strength and stamina where it needs to be, since until now I haven't been training for anything per se, just trying to stay healthy.

Thanks for all the tips everybody, keep 'em comin' haha.

[Rockin']

Don't buy the videos. Just take the time until school ends to get into good shape. By you trying to follow these videos you are going to develop bad habits that will just take a good trainer longer to get rid of those bad habits and teach you the proper way. I know it sounds odd, but trust me. Just get into shape and let somebody who knows boxing develop your skills. To properly train you need somebody to watch you who knows whats up. Good luck bro......Rockin'

[ChowAce]

Do not get the videos, they may be able to teach you some things, but they can not correct mistakes you will make that a trainer can. Buying instructional DVD's could hurt you more then help you. If you learn something the wrong way, it will take even longer to learn it the right way once you finally do go to a gym.

[clarky75]

After recently starting boxing I agree with the previous posts, do yourself a huge favour and get your conditioning right, if like me you are unfit your hands and feet get sloppy and you dont get the most out of your sessions, do some running, situps, pushups just get in shape, makes a huge difference, I am working on that now myself.