Yesterday I had my first real sparring session. Not sure if I wanna spar again.

[_Maxi]

Sparring every-week is overrated! you should spar once per month. I can remember watching an interview i believe, with Freddie Roach or Emanuel Stewart! (I can't quite remember).......where one of these trainers was stating that? some of the most brutal fights they have seen where inside of the gym sparring! also they spoke about how certain fighters become shot from constantly sparring! and how some amateur boxers are completely ruined by the time they turn professional!

Evander Holyfield was one of the first boxers to revolutionize boxing training, and one of his strategies was to limit sparring! and when he did spar it was quality sparring! for his preparation for Mike Tyson, David Tua was his chief sparring partner.......

When i hear boxers stating that they have sparred 100's of rounds in preparation for a fight? i think its completely ******ed.

Quality of Quantity!

Joe Calzaghe was another fighter who was not obsessive over sparring, and he was a athlete who had immense longevity! there was never a distinct decrease in his physical components (He was old school in his training techniques, but his father was also smart with the application of the training)...

Add Sergio Martinez to that list. He said he did very very low sparring before each fight.

[PRINCEKOOL]

Add Sergio Martinez to that list. He said he did very very low sparring before each fight.

He was a smart trainer Sergio Martinez! probably because he was a professional cyclists before he got into boxing! in sports like cycling or athletics, where everything is purely physical! purely down to your will-power, you become hyper sensitive to your body! mainly because in them sports are not really about tactics (You have no choice but to learn about the science of the human body in action!).

From my experience anyway, sports have different cultures.

[FeFist]

I didn't go back, I switched gyms. I don't know if the trainer was trying to **** with me or what, but I didn't go to the gym to become a pro fighter, just to learn how to fight.

You probably knocked and ran away from his door as a kid. Pushing people on the physical side is what I'd expect to break people in. Trying to break them in with sparring is irresponsible.

[mkmona04]

my trainer started with firt few sparring sessions just throw and block jabs with about 50% power on both. then once he felt i could properly block and parry jabs, he then added straight crosses. then once he felt i could block those too, he added a 1 -2 combo, then a cross afer that. just kept adding new punches to block as i developed. workd for me. slower to learn, but less damaging and humiliating. sounds like ur trainer didnot prevent you from possibly being humilated and possibly turned off to teh experience.

[BBFM]

Boxing is not for everyone!!

[Richard P]

Straights only, or body shots only is always a good start. 1 for 1 punches so you throw, I throw, can be head or body at any speed but you know that a punch isn't coming until you fire the trigger.

One I use for the juniors is we do a 1 minute round, straights only, you can throw as many jabs as you want but you have only 2 rear hands, if you use them up early they are gone.

This is great as it gets kids jabbing, jab, jab, jab, everything comes off the jab. Not enough boxers jab in my opinion

[Mr.MojoRisin']

Reading through this and hearing some of your experiences I feel really sorry for you all. Sparring should never be 100%. I had only 1 sparring session where the guy went 100% and I can only surmise that it was because I caught him flush in the first 10 seconds. I could see it in his eyes he was drawing blanks in his head and going for broke. Luckily I managed to slip most of his wild punches.

A first timer should never be in the ring sparring. My first session was after only a month and that was because the coach thought I progressed really well. I'd say I got beat up but not like you guys talk about. No bloody nose or anything like that. Just took a few punches and didn't give much in return. I got over my nerves after that session and started doing really well.

I hope you guys don't give up on boxing. Those trainers that do that are idiots. There is absolutely no rationale behind putting someone with zero boxing experience in the ring with an experienced fighter that goes even 70%-80%. It's going to be instinct to cover up and go on defense your first time especially if you don't train 3x per week throwing punches. Probably ego or something. They spend 30 years training in boxing just to take advantage of a newbie in sparring.

[jlocs]

For a first time sparring session, I understand how it could be a bit traumatic. This kind of sparring, sometimes detracts people from wanting to do it. Remember, you gotta crawl before you can walk and, eventually run. Don't worry too much about it and if you decide to continue, maybe focus on training with headgear in order to gain experience and some confidence as well. Its always tough at first just remember, the more you improve, the easier it will be to deal with. Best of luck man!

[Metho_4u]

I've been training for a few months and doing some joke sparring sessions with one friend, but now things got more serious and yesterday I had to spar for real.

I'm 5'9'' and walking around at 142 now. I have good reach, at least 70'' but maybe more. I was put to spar with a guy that was almost 5'11'' and arms slightly larger than mine. I think he walks around 145. He had some sparring experience, I hadn't.

So it was a fair sparring. The thing is, I love to train boxing, but I'm not sure if I love sparring.

I just sparred two minutes, with a 10 seconds break in the middle. I was hit in the head twice, hit in the forehead once, hit in the right eye once, and hit in the mouth once. I hit him a few times too.

Yesterday when I went to sleep, I felt pain in my forehead, pain in my head, pain in my eye. I put some ice, and I still feel some pain, which I think will take some days to heal. I guess this is normal. I think it's too brutal, not sure I wanna take punish to be honest. I might not spar again.

I started good, I caught him so nice with an overhead right (Maidana's like), just in the cheek, and I almost score a KD. I didn't throw it with full force that's why he didn't go down. But that's when he put some ****ing angry look on his face and started throwing more at me, and at some point I entered in survival mode and lost my stance and didn't know what the **** I was doing. Then I tried some jabs to the body. At that point I realized that I didn't actually want to hit his head, because I didn't wanna hurt him, another reason why I think maybe sparring is not for me. But he had no problem in hitting me a few times in the head and after that second minute I had blood in my mouth and said I'm done.

Then my friend also sparred for the first time, and he was going forward like Porter, but throwing no punches, so he got worked easily. He had no pain on his head, just pain on his jaw because he was caught there a few times.

So, my thoughts are:
1) I don't wanna get hurt to be honest. I don't want permanent brain damage.
2) I feel like I don't wanna hurt the guy at some point. I want to control the strength I put into my punches but at some point you can't control it right?

Very important point. None of us were using protecting head gear. Yes, that was some savage shit I guess, but our trainner doesn't give a **** about that and just wants us to get used to it.

Do you think I should train in another place? Or should I just quit sparring?

It's called an adrenal response and you can quickly forget everything when that is triggered.

In a study I read not long ago, men were 4k (yes 4000%) less effective than they thought they would be in real life self defense situation. You're in a controlled setting, but it doesn't change the fact that some people aren't meant to be hit in the face. Over time, you would get used to it, but there's a line of being a "warrior" and being ******.

I'm sure your head is fine...I sparred with my 230 lb instructor (I was about 160 at the time) and I always got my azz kicked (this was also muay thai). The key is to always stay loose. You literally have to let go of all tension in a combative situation, which, goes against ALL reasoning and logic built into us as fight or flight.

Keep in mind that in today's world, with all of the awareness of TBI's. People are wising up and taking their health more seriously.

There's nothing wrong with just training, building speed, power, and endurance and letting it become second nature...but that takes a while. https://blog.bufferapp.com/why-pract...er-performance

Just find some guys who are willing to do light sparring. "Being a man" means not being ******, in the gym you get punched...in real life you'll find yourself gutted like a pig.

[Metho_4u]

Just quit being a boxer in general, you're just pathetic.

LOL betting you're the biggest puzzy on this thread.