fitness and skill...

Well I went to a boxing gym throughout the entire summer. My endurance improved and I learned basics. The thing I was, and still am, angriest about is that I always did terribly when I sparred. There were 2 people I sparred with. One was this guy who was only slightly less tall than me (maybe 5'11"-6' and I'm about 6'1") but was pretty big. He wasn't overly aggressive and I kinda managed to hold my own, but I felt I lacked some skill, though. But then there was the other guy who was much shorter (must be between 5'7"-5'9") who was very aggressive and fast and built like an ox. I would always hate life after I sparred with him. He would just charge at me I'd get in a couple of jabs but couldn't stop him, he'd still get close and go ape on me and I'd just cower like a chicken. Anyway, as august was approaching, I had to leave the state and that totally interrupted me.

I've tried to keep my fitness up by doing tabata burpees and sprints at least 3 times a week and body weight exercises and I've kept doing shadowboxing with what I remember. I can do lots of pushups, I can do tabata sprints, but still feel that I'm very far from considering myself an athlete, cause I'm not even fit enough to do a pullup or chinup. And I think even highschool, and especially college athletes can benchpress a lot and do like 20 pullups or chinups, and it's just something I should be able to do... When I was going to the boxing gym, I'd do negatives 3 times a week and felt I was getting closer and closer to that. But it's been a while. I used to go there 3 times a week for about 2.5 hours of which about 1.5 hours would be with this coach who'd come in and there'd be 2 or 3 other people and he'd go drill sergeant on us. It was good for fitness but I felt I could always use more technique, so I'd try to practice that, especially jabs, whenever I could. But now I'm only gonna be able to afford 2 times a week and without that coach, so I'm pretty much by myself. I'll be counting on your help and the help of the coaches who'll hopefully walk by and give me some pointers. But I think if they see that I'm not very good skill-wise, they'll never put me to spar, and I want to do that as often as possible again, because I seriously wish to get over that fear of getting pummeled.

I plan on keeping on with tabatas 3 times a week and either body weight exercises 3 times a week or weights 3 times a week (I'm thinking 5x5 type of thing with compound exercises) and then those 2 days at the boxing gym mostly for the heavy bag, speed bag and technique. I want to work hard, but I want to know, at the same time, that I'm doing it correctly.

Basically, I want to get back to sparring level (and hopefully more fit and with more technique than previously) as soon as possible. So any tips on progessing your fitness and improving technique are most welcome. Cause over the summer, I felt I started stalling technique-wise cause that coach was focusing on fitness mostly. I definitively need fitness too, but I know that can come with the skill.

Any suggestions or advice?

One word - Patience.

I was in a boxing gym for 6 months before I sparred. I wanted to do it sooner, but the coach wouldn't let me. I wasn't ready, and few really are.

Focus on the basics. Develop your jab. Footwork. Your guard. Get fit in the process. It isn't a race, and you'll be better off for it when you do get in there. Develop your jab (I say this twice because it is so important...this is as much for defence as it is offence). It is very tough to unlearn bad habits, so get the fundamentals down now.

Hey welcome to the forum, I'm guessing you know most of the body weight exercises. But here's a nice thread to help you out and spice up your routine.

http://www.saddoboxing.com/boxingfor...xcercises.html

Well you will get a hell of a lot fitter if your doing tabata's 3 times a week, if you hang around here for a while you will realise it's my favourite thing :p. With the pullups and chin ups maybe start with some isometric holding at 90 degree angles for time. Each week try and improve until you can do those pullups. Also consider trying to do handstand pushups by gradually icreasing the angle of your feet in the air to build some upper back/shoulder strength.

On the technique front, just practise practise practise. I find doing it slowly to start with and perfect technique helps me learn things much more effectively than just wailing on a heavy bag or trying to go flat stick in shadow boxing. Also practise your footwork, day in day out, you want it so you don't have to think in there. When the guy charges you, you instinctively just hook and turn. This is where balance comes in as well.

So ineffect just keep practising the basics until you master them, your never going to be beaten badly if you have them downpat. Hope that helps.

I can sort of relate to your dilema. I have found it is very difficult to work both fitness and skill well even when you can get to a boxing gym often.

My last gym was fairly casual in when we would arrive to training and the coaches would randomly give us pointers when they felt like it.

I found that randomness terrible for planning any kind of routine. Sometimes I would have too many hard nights in a row because I would kill myself on the bag etc and then have hard padwork from one particular caoch offered to me.

He would always offer to help when he saw I'd been thrashing myself because he was impressed by that but then i didn't really get enough recovery between these sessions to improve my conditioning.

He would get me to do pad work towards the end of the night when I was already well past warmed up and tired too so it didn't even really train my maximum explosiveness either.

Another coach would talk so much that I would get cold listening to him. If i was warmed up before we began i was shivering once we were into the session because the gym doesn't have heating and i'd sweat during the warm up.

What made it worse was the randomness of the coaching sessions meant i got the feeling he was basing what he felt i needed to know on observations made briefly months ago and wasn't really 100 % aware of where I was up to at the time he was talking to me.

It also meant he didn't know if he'd shown me something before so when things became repetitive and i wasn't improving something the way he might have suspected there was no further investigation into what else we might do to tackle the problem in another way or something else that needed strengthening in order for me to be able to do what he was asking. Plus I just got stale.

Randomness is really too much to deal with in training i think but if you know what to expect from your two gym sessions a week you can plan to make the best possible use of that time.

I'd try to get a feel of what type of gym sessions these typically are. Also maybe ask the coach if there's something simple he thinks you understand well enough to practice at home alone and explain your financial situation to him. If he is impressed by your eagerness and notices you trying he is more likely to try to develop you in sparring when he feels you are ready.

Once you have that information come back here and post it and you may be able to get a plan going for what you can do for your conditioning which will help you improve as much as possible.

I'd also let him know how you feel about the sparring and that you are eager to get back in there and overcome your fear of it as soon as he thinks you are ready.

I stress that point because sometimes a coach will have one or two things for you to learn before you go back in there which will make sparring so much easier for you it is worth being patient and developing yourself for another month or two outside the ring.

If he feels you are patient enough to wait he's more likely to feel you're going to stick around a while and that could work in your favour too.

Everyone gets beat up when they first spar, its a baptism of fire that tests your mettle for the sport.

Sparring isn't meant to be a competition, or even a gauge of how good you are. What it is is a learning tool to be used to apply what you've learned and to steal tidbits from the guys that you work with in the ring.

The more "beatings" you can come across the better. Sparring will accelerate your learning and will teach you things your coach could never impart with words.

cheers for that salty good read,

why did you quite fella ? try skipping for like 10 15 minutes picking the pace up every 30 seconds for 10 seconds, and running picking it up every so often maybe at one point of the run lampost to lampost

Based on your description of your opponents who made you feel like shit when you faced them, I can understand why you're frustrated, especially with the shorter guy. As for the taller guy, guys your own height are such a pain to fight because you guys have the same advantages. For a guy your own height, I suggest this:

Master parries and use them whenever your opponent throws straight punches at you. It is easier than you think. Look for patterns when he throws straight shots and when he throw these shots, counter him.

As for the 5' 8"-5' 9" guy, you have the advantage on this guy, I just think you didn't know how to deal with him. As a taller guy, you can't afford to stand still too often, especially against a Inside Fighter that comes in and unloads on the body, which I believe is what your opponent does. Like in "Rocky", as Apollo Creed's corner told him "Stick and move". Basically, move in with a Jab or a Jab Cross, and move out. Always move side to side, if you move back your opponent will just "chase" you some more.

If you're clever and devious, you can set "traps" for him. For instance, you can cover up or just stand there throwing Jabs. Your opponent will move in and slip your Jabs , thinking you're covering up. Just before he unloads with body hooks or head hooks, give him a vicious Right Uppercut, Left Head Hook, Cross. Here is a perfect example, Tyson vs. Buster Douglas at Toyko:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=herKRIrsks4

Buster flicked that Jab out and Tyson moved in, and Buster unleashed that Uppercut, Left Head Hook, Cross- and Tyson stayed down. Boxing is strategy and aggression. Short guys are annoying and aggressive, but if you know their weaknesses, like the Right Uppercut, they aren't so tough (with exceptions of course).

Thank you all for your advice. I did have some trouble with randomness too. I would go monday, wednesday and friday, and on a tuesday I'd do lots of legs exercises and ab exercises at home, then on wednesday that trainer would have us do lots of ab exercises again, and stuff like that killed me too. I will post more details on those gym sessions. Some tips on nutrition would be great too. I feel like I could get rid of some fat (I'm definitively not obese, but I'm not that lean either) and I'd feel much lighter. I guess I could check the nutrition threads, though. I feel like I've got a decent jab and 1-2 (not saying it's perfect... heck, it's still what I practice most), but could definitively use help with footwork and guard.

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Originally Posted by troubleBound

Thank you all for your advice. I did have some trouble with randomness too. I would go monday, wednesday and friday, and on a tuesday I'd do lots of legs exercises and ab exercises at home, then on wednesday that trainer would have us do lots of ab exercises again, and stuff like that killed me too. I will post more details on those gym sessions. Some tips on nutrition would be great too. I feel like I could get rid of some fat (I'm definitively not obese, but I'm not that lean either) and I'd feel much lighter. I guess I could check the nutrition threads, though. I feel like I've got a decent jab and 1-2 (not saying it's perfect... heck, it's still what I practice most), but could definitively use help with footwork and guard.

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might sound a bit weird but jamie olivers just realsed a new book which i think is spot on some really healthy nutrious meals in there
footwork i had a big problem with just shadow loads, move round look at your feet stance move about throw the odd shot then it comes naturaly

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Originally Posted by troubleBound

Thank you all for your advice. I did have some trouble with randomness too. I would go monday, wednesday and friday, and on a tuesday I'd do lots of legs exercises and ab exercises at home, then on wednesday that trainer would have us do lots of ab exercises again, and stuff like that killed me too. I will post more details on those gym sessions. Some tips on nutrition would be great too. I feel like I could get rid of some fat (I'm definitively not obese, but I'm not that lean either) and I'd feel much lighter. I guess I could check the nutrition threads, though. I feel like I've got a decent jab and 1-2 (not saying it's perfect... heck, it's still what I practice most), but could definitively use help with footwork and guard.

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You might find some threads in the Useful Posts section good for this :)

Quit Now While You Can
Your Only Going To Get Lasting Headaches So Some Fat A-hole Can Make Money Off You, And When You Get Older They'll Toss You Off Like You Arent Even Roadkill.

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Originally Posted by Trainer Monkey

Quit Now While You Can
Your Only Going To Get Lasting Headaches So Some Fat A-hole Can Make Money Off You, And When You Get Older They'll Toss You Off Like You Arent Even Roadkill.

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That's a bit negative considering he said his coaches don't even get him to spar often. Why do you think he's at risk of brain damage from what he's said?