Sparring against a girl

[RossyJames]

I am one for equality and am actually a big fan of women's boxing but when in training your coach tells you to spar against a girl, what do you do?

The obvious thing to do is do as your coach tells you duhh?? but I just couldn't bring myself to actually try when I went against her. Luckily before I went against her someone else had and I noticed they were rarely hitting her on purpose.

The first time I went against her I wasn't even jabbing back and I really hope that this didn't upset her so the second time we went I was sending jabs but very light ones, still, I wasn't sending them as much as I could have.

I'm new to boxing, started in May so naturally I'm in the bottom part of the group when it comes to skill etc, this is what makes it worse I don't want my coach to actually think she's better. He's obviously seen me spar against other people but I've not exactly won any of my sparring bouts as I've always been fighting people that have much more experience (which I love) I've only ever came close to winning one which was my latest practice.

I feel like a dick and that I'm discriminating her and it's the last thing I want to do but at the same time I would feel like more of a dick if one of my jabs knocked her down.

Fyi, the whole thing is for charity, it isn't at a highly competitive level so I don't have the mind set of 'she's here to one day be a champion, she should be able to take a punch like the guys'.

Unsure on what to do. I've thought about talking about it to my coach but then I could look sexist, the same thing with talking to her, I would probably end up wording it wrong and make the whole situation even more awkward.

[Rip Chudd]

What kind of gym are you in. I've never been asked to or sparred a female at a gym. Helped out and worked with females but have never sparred one

[Brymansteel]

Spar with the girls, you dont need to avoid punching them, just dont go for your biggest KO punch, which you shouldn't be doing in sparring anyway. Any time there's a mismatch of any sort, the coach and boxers need to adjust and keep things safe but you dont need to insult the girls by acting like a light punch from you will put them to sleep. Remember boxing at a gym is not the same as fighting. You said your new, one thing I notice with new guys is they think sparring is a war, this is probably a great chance for you to practice your movement, breathing, and defence without worrying about getting knocked out. When I spar I usually have a goal for each round, and it's usually not "hurt the other guy." It might be "lots of head movement" or "keep proper distance" or "jab a lot." You can get better, show your skills, and not hurt girls all at the same time.

[RossyJames]

What kind of gym are you in. I've never been asked to or sparred a female at a gym. Helped out and worked with females but have never sparred one

What do you mean by what sort of gym? It's just a standard boxing club, the second best in the city (I don't attend the best one as it has rubbish opening hours so in my eyes that one isn't the best.) It's very family friendly you could say.

She's the only female on the fight card so she has to spar with men it's why I don't want to come off as a dick. I think they will be getting a woman to box to her level on the night (hopefully) I am unsure what I would do if I got to the weigh ins to be told I am fighting her. It would really knock my confidence.

[RossyJames]

Spar with the girls, you dont need to avoid punching them, just dont go for your biggest KO punch, which you shouldn't be doing in sparring anyway. Any time there's a mismatch of any sort, the coach and boxers need to adjust and keep things safe but you dont need to insult the girls by acting like a light punch from you will put them to sleep. Remember boxing at a gym is not the same as fighting. You said your new, one thing I notice with new guys is they think sparring is a war, this is probably a great chance for you to practice your movement, breathing, and defence without worrying about getting knocked out. When I spar I usually have a goal for each round, and it's usually not "hurt the other guy." It might be "lots of head movement" or "keep proper distance" or "jab a lot." You can get better, show your skills, and not hurt girls all at the same time.

I've never gone for my biggest ko punch when sparring, however I would feel bad if she got a nose bleed or something for example. Several lads have had nose bleeds from sparring already since I've been there.

If anything I punch the lightest in there (Intentionally) I've been hit quite hard when sparring. It's not at a highly competitive level, it's for charity so some lads do punch quite hard in there, I understand what you mean.

I guess it would be showing her respect by fighting her the same as I do the others I just don't want her to get hurt that's all and get criticism. I suffer with anxiety and am a really big worrier so this is a big thing for me as for other people it would be a minor incident.

[minemax]

You beat her badly, so she doesn't want to spar you anymore, and you'll be given someone else as a sparring partner.

[Rockybigblower]

Sounds like you were afraid of her. Were you worried that if you got a little rough that she might fire up and give you a pasting?

[RossyJames]

You beat her badly, so she doesn't want to spar you anymore, and you'll be given someone else as a sparring partner.

We're not assigned sparring partners, we all spar each other, take it in turns etc. I spar people better and worse than myself, I spar someone different every session and the aim is for us to all spar each other at least once if there's enough time.

Nobody else goes hard on her so I would look like a dick if I did that. Also it's for charity, it isn't about going in there and completely blasting someone, you would get kicked out of the ring if you did that. Our coach even said to save that sort of attitude for our actual fight and he'd kick us out of the ring if we did it in sparring.

[RossyJames]

Sounds like you were afraid of her. Were you worried that if you got a little rough that she might fire up and give you a pasting?

I like your sense of humour.

[Rip Chudd]

What do you mean by what sort of gym? It's just a standard boxing club, the second best in the city (I don't attend the best one as it has rubbish opening hours so in my eyes that one isn't the best.) It's very family friendly you could say.

She's the only female on the fight card so she has to spar with men it's why I don't want to come off as a dick. I think they will be getting a woman to box to her level on the night (hopefully) I am unsure what I would do if I got to the weigh ins to be told I am fighting her. It would really knock my confidence.

I asked because you have boxing gyms, mixed gyms with mma and boxing, or just those fitness boxing gyms where chubby people go to do some kind of Ti-Bo boxing class to lose weight.

As I said I haven't been to a boxing gym where you would have to spar a female but you said she is the only one there so I guess I could see that. Usually though in those types of situations they have the female spar the younger guys like 13-16 year old kids.

Can't imagine what you're going through, it would be awkward as heck for me especially with my size. Good thing is that you aren't sparring to go all out but to learn and work on things. I've had to take it easier on guys at times because there weren't any heavyweights in the gym to spar at the time so I'd imagine it's a bit like that