Taking up boxing. Advice tips please :)

[MoneyMoneyMoney]

Sup guys.

I am a huge fan of boxing and have always thought about taking it up as a sport. I proposed the idea to my dad a year or so ago and he said he 'didn't want me to have a broken nose for the rest of my life'. lol. I'm 17 years old and stand at about 5 ft11. I weigh about 150 pounds.

I'm really looking to get into shape and build some self confidence. My friend got into a fight last night with someone and I couldn't help but think too myself 'what if that was me, I would be ****ed!' I'm not trying to give the impression that i'd go around beating people up! just a form of self defence if it was ever necerssary.

So what i'm really asking you guys for is some advice on how to get started? what gloves, shoes shall i look into? How did you guys get into boxing?

Thanks

[Ivansmamma]

You probably won't break your nose in training and if you do it can mostly be fixed. I think the most important thing for boxing is determination and consistency in training. If you train 50 % you won't get much out of it and you might get hurt if your going to spar. If you wan't to do it just for fitness it's great training for that to and you don't have to spar. You probably won't have to buy any gear at once, just find some good shoes, go down to your local gym and try it out. When you done it for a few weeks and if you feel like you want to take it up seriously then start buying gear.

[StrongLikeBear]

You're not a man until you've had your nose broken and rebroke lol.

I got started the wrong way. I was an MMA fan in high school, which eventually led to me becoming a boxing fan in college (education has a way of maturing you). Wanted to try out for the boxing team at my school but always had some sort of schedule conflict.

So all that time I just played around 'learning' techniques myself from guys in the military and friends who 'knew karate.' Picked up some techniques from youtube videos and boxers I watched. Took a semester of judo.

Then a guy I knew tried out for the team and made it, and he found out I only weighed 152 (I'm 6'0) and was like dude you HAVE to do it. So the next semester I went to a local gym and took a beginners class, then I tried out for the team the next semester and made it.

But I had and still have a lot of bad habits I picked up on my own. So the way to get started is to go to a gym, tell them you're a boxing fan and want to have a go at it, and then roll with it from there.

You can use basketball shoes, they work fine and are more durable. Some people even fight in them. You'll need a pair or two of 180" Mexican handwraps. Check out Ringside.com, titleboxing.com, and boxingdepot.com for a pair of 12oz bag gloves (or get them off ebay). You want them to be leather but they don't have to be anything special. Shouldn't have to spend more than 50-60 bucks on them unless you really want to.

Enjoy it and treat it as something you do for fun.

[MoneyMoneyMoney]

Thanks man. Yeah for the record i've never really liked MMA. Always been straight up boxing where as most of my friends are big UFC fans.