Advice for a starter

[Superheavy]

Guys, I'm new to the board and your advice wld be appreciated.

I'll try to keep it brief, but here are my facts:

I'm based in London, 28 yrs old, 6'1" and currently weigh in at around 105KG. I started training 2-3 times a week with a boxing coach roughly 3 months ago - basic technique, pad work, defence, shadow boxing, circuit training. In addition to this I hit a heavy bag for 6 rounds or so a couple of times a week in a regular gym. I do other stuff on top of this: cycling to work every day, swimming, x-trainer and weights.

For my weight, I've got decent cardio fitness (which I've built up over the past year or so during which I've lost over 30KG - at one point I was 138KG due to inactivity following a long term injury - happy to expand on this if anyone's looking to drop 30KG) but I could certainly do with shifting another 10KG or so.

I'm getting comfortable with basic boxing technique, I'm (usually) "moving like a boxer" as my coach says, and I can bang a bit. I doubt I'm anything special, but I've picked boxing up maybe quicker than the average guy and I'm certainly keen.

The next step I want to take is to join a boxing gym - one of the local London clubs eg St Pancras ABC. I'm keen to start sparring and using the boxing skills in the ring. Please forgive my ignorance on all this - but what's likely to happen when I turn up at the club? Will I be assessed and if so how? How quickly could I be sparring? And what type of guy am I likely to be in against (I realise that at my weight I could be fighting guys 7 feet tall !!)

I'm aware that I've left it late to start, and to be honest I'd probably be quite happy if all I ever achieved was to spar regularly at a decent level. But have any of you guys seen a similar situation to mine? Is there any chance of me doing more than just sparring? What would the usual progression be?

Thanks in advance guys, your wisdom would be much appreciated - a lot of the posts on here I've already read are very useful - great site.

SuperH

[msagrain]

Got to the gym and eat your vitamins.

[Landon S]

Sparring might take a week or it might take 4 months, it depends on the gyms policy for such things. You will definitely have a chance to fight down the road if you keep at it. And farther down the road (if you box for this long) you can fight in the masters division (old guy division) which starts at 35 or 40 I believe.

The 'type of guy' you will likely spar will be an experienced heavyweight for a little while. Youll spar an experienced guy because he has control and can go easy on you and teach you a few things. After that you'll spar guys more at your level and then the real fun begins

[Oriachim]

When you spar, they'll try to match you up so KOs don't happen. Should take about a week or more, depending on how fast you have learnt boxing.

[Superheavy]

cheers guys, appreciated. SuperH

[JulioCesaChavez]

Do your roadwork! Alot of late starters have problems with this comapred to younger ones and you can see it in their legs. Don't be one of them people coming into the game with bad legs. Since you are a Londoner, play some sunday league games on Hackney Marshes. The change of tempo in your runs will do you some good:

[kenny91]

Dont worry about sparring just yet the gym will sort that when they think you ready for a spar.

But going in, go in with confidence (not cocky sorta confidence) just levelheaded confidence. All you have to do mate is walk in, show your thirst for learning, push yourself and be confident. Everything else will come from the trainer, he'll probably just watch you do your own thing for a lil bit and step in with tips and help you from there.

You don't need to do **** mate just have a good head on ya and graft

[KostyaTszyu44]

yeah just get to a decent boxing club ASAP and work hard...


yeah if you stick with it and train hard for a while you might have a few fights down the track....

[Floydmayweather]

Go to the gym and learn basic footwork and the Jab. The jab is the single most imporant punch in boxing everything comes off of the jab.

[Superheavy]

Thanks guys

I overcame the initial nerves and went along to the gym as suggested - I've done a couple of squad sessions now, plus am training on my own most days of the week and seeing a boxing coach 1-to-1 on a weekend. It's a decent place - they have a couple of pros training there, and the main coach knows what he's doing.

There has been no mention of sparring or anything yet - I assume they can see from my shadow boxing that I'm not a total novice but still pretty green. I'll just keep on turning up to the squad sessions and working on skills with the 1-on-1 coach.

By the way, the squad sessions are good but hard work - I came home last night and had lost about 3KG/half a stone. I drank a ton of water, had soup and bread for dinner, then weighed myself and had put 2.8KG of it back on. Not sure if this is normal - during the session I did a half litre of water.

Thanks again,

SuperH