Questions before I try starting to box, please help.

//EDIT: New post at the bottom, read that for the update.


Hello, my name is Nick, I'm 17, about 176cm, weigh about 62kg. Been considering various Martial arts to start practicing, but I recently opened my eyes to boxing. After a bit of thinking I've completely forgotten about Martial arts for now as I think the techniques from boxing would be much more fun to learn.

However, my birth was quite troublesome, and it ended up giving me a really weird stomach with a big scar, and ever since birth really, I've always had a very weak stomach. Even a softly thrown tennis ball would hurt my breathing a bit. So I'm starting to think I should just give up with trying to do anything with fighting, but I can't help but be upset at myself for giving up because of this.

So what I really want to ask is. Are there any guards/stances that can help my stomach take shots, and would practicing boxing help me to eventually be able to take several punches to my stomach without problems? I have been in a few fights at school, but only once have I come trough a stomach punch without going down, and that was when I was doing a lot of sit-ups. But I don't know if this would help now, as I think personally I was in a good shape back then.

Sorry for the really long post, if you actually read trough all that and understand my situation, please help. I really want to be able to defend myself after all these years. I hope you can understand.

-Nick

No problems Nick, boxing is by far the most physically difficult training regime about & I would suggest trying it out without involving yourself in sparring.

Go to a boxing gym & explain your situation & they won't risk doing anything bad for you. See how the physical workout goes for you. However, you will get hit in the stomach at some point, it's just a fact. If you don't keep your hands up you'll get your chin caught. Most people learn to take shots to the body with extensive conditioning, which with your condition of your stomach may be a problem.

If you're looking for a martial art that involves less hitting to the stomach, I'd try kickboxing & jujitsu talking from personal experience. However, in almost any martial art you will probably take a hit to you gut sooner or later. I definitely recommend giving boxing training a try, but if you do find it a bit much those other two are good alternatives. Also for a less aggressive choice, capoeira is a good option.

Hi Nick and welcome to Saddos.

First off, I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one online. I think it is important you confer with yours, or one, who better understands whatever condition you have and the potential complications of something like receiving hard punches in the stomach. They can, they do, and most certainly will happen if you decide to take up boxing and ultimately spar and fight.

A lot of people get into boxing for strictly the conditioning. More then ever go on to step through the ropes and test themselves mano a mano. It can be a great thing for feeling better about yourself for the conditioning, as well as gaining confidence learning the self-defence. And a lot of people get this without ever stepping in the ring.

Now if a doctor clears you for sparring, and you do wish to go to the next step (which really shouldn't be until you've been there a while training anyway), then you will be introduced to the competitive part of boxing, which brings in many factors of advanced conditioning, handling your nerves, concepts of strategies and techniques, dealing with both winning and losing, many many things.

Boxing is a great sport, and offers much for people of all levels of participation. Some coach. Some ref, teach, some organize. Some train, some fight. There are none that I can think of that have ever joined boxing, who stuck with it, that weren't in some way rewarded.

So welcome to it. Get yourself educated, as you are doing, and then remember what the most important step is to beginning. Get your butt through the front doors. The rest will sort itself out.

Thank you, thank you so much! I will try my best to start boxing, regardless if it's only for conditioning or fighting, I'm now convinced boxing is the sport for me. I'll definitely wait on the sparring when I do start though like you recommended, I'm not even fit to try punching a sandbag right now.

Thank you very much!

-Nick

Nick, I'd take that up with your doctor first.

Anyways, I've had the wind knocked out of me several times in sparring, and it's usually because my opponent caught me standing too damn square, which was usually just a for brief moment. :doh:

Some of the things that I do to protect by body is stand sideways (the side of my body facing my opponent), and my elbows are usually in close. This makes my body a smaller target, and prevents my opponent from landing a flush punch on my stomach. Back in the turn of the last century, boxers would even go as far as keeping their right arm by their stomach. Back then the solar-plexus or the region referred to as the pit-of-the-stomach was referred to as the "mark". As it's name implies it's spot that boxers would target, and strive to protect.

Anyways if you can't spar/fight, you can still learn boxing. A boxer's regimen can get you in good shape, and you'll learn a lot. This is great if you'd like to enjoy watching boxing matches more as you'll tend to see things from the boxers perspective, and really get into it! ;D

Sorry for reviving an old thread. But I didn't feel like making a new one since the situation I'm in now, fits with my previous situation. Anyway, I recently joined a gym and started boxing, and I've never had more fun in my life, it's really amazing and fun at the same time.

After the first practice day 2 weeks ago, my thumb on my right hand started hurting a little, it's been hurting slightly ever since, especially when putting weight on the thumb, or shadow boxing etc. Basically anything putting even the slightest pressure on the thumb makes it hurt a little. I waited it out hoping it would go away after a bit. But now I'm a little worried, is this caused because I punch in a weird way? Any advice on this would be helpful as it really hurts during practice, then after a while it goes numb and I can't feel it again until after I'm done.

Gonna get an appointment with my doctor to get it checked and see if anything is fractured etc. I would like to know if this could be caused by an odd way of punching, or maybe punching too hard for my hand to handle? Since my left hand is just fine, and doesn't hurt or anything even the slightest when I try punching hard with that.

Also thanks to Chris Nagel for the help and everybody else. Everything helped to support my stomach, especially Chris's advice by standing a little sideways, I myself try holding my right shoulder at the solar plexus as that is exactly where my weak spot is, the rest of my stomach is fine and just needs conditioning. Tilting my head a little seems to help as well for evading and weaving my head easily.

Any help is appreciated, thanks for reading if you did.

-Nick

If your glove is putting more pressure onto your thumb, then you might want to try a different pair of gloves. You could try out a decent pair of bag gloves that allow you to place your thumb correctly, or use a pair of gloves that doesn't put any pressure on your thumb. I think that it's ironic that since gloves now have the attached-thumb design that it's become to jar the thumb.