Hi, I would just PM but unfortunately not enough posts.
Sharla, I've just realised you must training around my area, Port Adelaide/North Haven.
Can you please let me know where there are gyms within the area?
Can either PM or email.
Thanks,
Josh
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Hi, I would just PM but unfortunately not enough posts.
Sharla, I've just realised you must training around my area, Port Adelaide/North Haven.
Can you please let me know where there are gyms within the area?
Can either PM or email.
Thanks,
Josh
Who I would recommend really depends on what you're looking for Josh?Quote:
Originally Posted by FC
Competing? Fitness only? How much do you weigh? Experience level?
Zero experience so I guess at this stage for fitness, but I'd like to eventually end up sparring.
weight and age?
Lots of Qs I know but which club you go to really has a lot to do with who else is around for you to work with.
Some clubs in Adelaide have more smaller guys, some only bigger guys etc.
There's a few clubs which will really want to pressure people to compete and others than won't.
Some that will let you compete if you have before but unless you're close to the weight of guys training and already at competition level I don't like your chances of getting the attention you need to really develop. Whereas if you're useful for them weight wise then they'll find time for you.
t's complicated in SA and you need to start in the club which suits you best because people who go from club to club become outcasts more or less and some trainers won't touch them.
I'm 22, 168cm (5' 5") and currently 68kgs (150lbs).
Doesn't really sound that great for someone just looking to give it a shot.
To be honest it is very tricky!
Ok stay away from Foxys gym - pressures everyone to compete - and doesn't teach much technique.
Quite literally all his fighters are slappers - ok in SA where the judges don't know to penalize people for hitting with the inside of the glove but really pretty technically crap and while he coaches everyone to have a lot of aggression he has not much more to teach.
TJ Smith's Premier gym - not the greatest for someone your weight - the few guys you would have to spar are a bit heavier and the coaching could be good (sometimes in phases) if you had a similar build to a few of them but otherwise really won't be consistant. It's ok for fitness with some of the beginners coaches but not the fighters coaches oddly enough!
There's a Russian guy called Nermin who sometimes coaches people. He has a great fight record and even recently has done well as a pro but communication could be difficult unless you speak Russian. Also for some reason his fighters don't typically have much success - may be because he is a little on and off as a coach.
There's an aboriginal sobriety club which is in the city. I haven't trained there so don't know many details. Could be ok.
Rod Davies near Glenelg will only take very serious people who have to patience to be babied through everything. Seriously his fighters can't even do their road work alone - he drives behind them! Plus he takes medication for pain in his leg (some old injury and circulation problems) which makes him very irrational and angry at times. Still he has guys your weight who are very successful so if you can handle a controlling, angry coach you could check him out.
Northside might be a bit far for you to travel to but I'd rate it fairly highly. Don is firm but he knows his stuff and gives a lot to the sport.
The Cove Boxing club coach seems to know his stuff. I have sparred his son (tricky little bugger:)) and I really like the way he does things.
Anyway here's a link with a few gyms
Boxing Gyms South Australia
I know all this sounds really dodgy and it is but kickboxing in SA is even dodgier (i kickboxed before boxing) so if you ever consider that PM me!
sharla, thank u 4 your kind words,and good luck 4 the future , dave ,cove boxing gym.:D
Is this Dave from the Cove gym here in SA?
I completely thought you were someone else last time you posted!
Yes i did think you knew what you were talking about and your son is pretty damn tricky - in a good, talented way of course!
I haven't been around the scene much recently to hear how people are going.
Hope everything in your neck of the woods is going well! I hear the guys nationals are getting close - I hope if you have anyone entered this year they do well.
Apparently it's an even smaller team than usual this year?
Hi John,
Yeah as I have said I can recommend the cove gym. I have to admit i have been away from the scene for a few months. I'm not sure of who has other heavyweights to spar with at the present time.
The glenelg club had a guy who could compete as a light heavy last year but I've heard he hasn't been at state trainings this year so i don't know if he's still there.
I would just visit all of these different clubs and make it clear that you are just checking out a few places so they don't feel like you are their guy immediately.
Having some foundation in the sport may come with it's own BS meter as far as who seems to have the tools to coach you the way you need to be coached.
At the same time some coaches will jump at the chance to take you on because you may already be at a stage where you can be good for sparring etc but some of the same coaches would not have had the structure or the effort or passion for the sport to nuture you from the beginning.
I think most would have had that passion at one stage but some will have lost it and I feel you don't want to be battling the consequences of a coach who is gradually loosing his passion for the sport all together.
Ask about the structure of their trainings. Some places will be stricter than others and some will not have enough structure. Think about how often you want different aspects of your training.
Perhaps ask if they have any fight vids on hand of their current and recent fighters. I think that will be some indication for you. Coaches who don't have fight vids you can watch either have something to hide or they don't follow up on the performance of their athletes with a structured logical training plan enough to bother or to be interested enough to make the effort of getting the vids.
At your age I suspect you have some obligations or anticipate having some obligations as far as employment or study is concerned. This means you will want to be able to train in hours which fit in with that. Some places will have training times very difficult for people who work nine to five to attend.
Also ask how they feel about interclub sparring and boxing SA in general. I think you want a coach who may recoginize ways in which boxing SA might be improved but one who still has the ability to work with it as best as possible.
You do not want to miss out on interclub sparring and to deal with political issues just because your coach can not stop fighting with all the other coaches. Interclub sparring may also be a huge benefit to your development so even if the coach you choose doesn't approve of some aspects of Boxing SA you want to see evidence of a continued effort to work with oter clubs to get this.
Many places will have rare sporadic interclub sparring but sometimes that's just not enough. Especially if you find as a heavyweight you don't have to opportunity to spar people your weight often. SA is not a huge boxing state as I am sure you are aware so you really need to work with every resource you have to have much hope of being competitive with opponents interstate. Ask how often they travel to compete also.
I intend to look around myself in a few weeks once i have finished a pressing dealine i have for uni work but i am prepared to accept that this may also just be a bad time to be looking. Some clubs including some of the good ones will have an off season and be winding down towards Christmas soon. You don't neccessarily want to miss out on training with them if they would be right for you.
So yeah look around, let me know how it goes but don't commit to any one place too quickly as exciting as it can be and good luck!
Yeah last thing i knew (no really up to date knowledge) there were only a few half good Muay Thai boxing places.
Some of them have a reputation for being a bit rough and ready in a couple of ways.
1) There are often huge mismatches in kickboxing bouts and you would find you usually win too easily or are defeated in a dangerous, physically damaging fashion. There is less in between partially because of the nature of the sport and partially because of the types of clubs.
I've seen some brutal matches where a girl who was a real athlete and had spent far longer training than competing was paired against a novice for a bout with knees. On paper they may have looked similar but in reality it was a mismatch and i think it took less than a minute for the novice girl to be completely obliterated with about 8 consecutive hard knees to the midsection.
I wouldn't want that kind of mismatched empty victory at the expense of a novice's organs and i wouldn't want to be the one in the novice club thrown to the wolves.
Baring in mind this is what can happen with a small female bout where they have less muscle and body weight to use against each other. I can tell you i can get punched by most girls my weight ten times and not really feel it much. A heavier person will have me watching their jab like a hawk. Small women's bouts are often fast and high scoring because what we can dish out to each other is less damaging.
It was bare knee bone and a lack of the basic ability to move out the way which dropped this girl. If it was a bigger guy fighting the damage would be bigger so as a heavyweight i'd be especially safety conscious. In your own gym you'll be the bigger one but in a bout matched up against another heavy weight you should be especially careful of who you trust to find you matches and put you into compete.
2) Some of the big places are known for being more into toughness and the coaches have a reputation of being more into physical discipline. I've heard of things like the coach publically slapping his fighters around straight after a bout out of dissappointment over a loss.
I couldn't put up with that personally - i know some would respond well to it but I'd just want to tell him to F**k off! I also think there is something wrong with a coach who will put 100 % of the responsibility for a win or loss on te fighter. A good coach accepts that they help to prepare their fighter and responsibility comes with that.
If you wanted to go into Muay Thai i'd generally suggest getting a good boxing foundation in a boxing gym first because especially in SA boxing coaches are going to be better at showing you how to box. It's logical really since they specialize in boxing and put 100 % of their efforts into that.
Kickboxing in SA seems to use fewer angles and bouts are sometimes just down to who can handle the punishment more but you're less likely to get badly hurt is you are already taught to use boxing angles i think.
Plus because you're not kicking or blocking with your legs you'll learn to move around the ring more and use distancing so if you bring in the legs with that base hopefully you'll use them more efficiently.
I started in kickboxing and went to boxing and i think life would be easier the opposite way around. I think it'd be a LOT safer too!
Thanks for the birthday wishes and let us know how you go! :)
yeah ,sharla its dave. we have mostly juniors at the moment,but a couple of bigger [nice] guys for sparring. not sure about the rest of boxing s.a. i'm not into politics , too many egos. how are you? hope all is going well, dave osbourn.:D
Good thanks Dave :)
I think boxing SA is very political but I guess what i meant was it's easier to get the most of out interclub sparring etc if you don't have blow ups or fights with anyone.
Easier to avoid POing any of the egos and just to focus on the training.
So is your club looking at winding down over Christmas or is training still going strong?
moving to manchester to join a boxing gym, what gym would you say be the best noe for me, tommy vallen
I don't recall there being a Manchester in Australia. ;) Talk to Scrap, he probably knows of some good places.Quote:
Originally Posted by tommy vallen
Yeah ,I personally train all year round anyway. Weve got a couple of good prospects ready to box next year, the trouble is finding fights for them. I recon you are 100% right and that inter club sparring is a great thing we will probably do more of it next year. how are you getting on? The
last time I saw you was at the O.C.s place.[work it out ] at glenelg. You were moving really well.Hope all is Good with you. Dave.
Good thanks Dave :)
Have a big few deadlines which have had me a bit snowed under but hopefully i'll be finished with them in the next week or two.
I've been mainly training a bit in the mornings wherever possible but once i get past the bulk of this work and I know i can commit a set number of trainings to it i'm hoping to start at a gym again.
Maybe i'll drop by your gym if you dont mind!
I miss the boxing and even though i'm not probably at my peak fitness i like to think i have managed not to let myself go enough to make it too difficult to get back into things! :D
Yeah, drop in any time Sharla,your welcome.:D dave.
Awesome will do thanks Dave! :)
sharla can you help me....
i am interested in taking up learning boxing. I live 10minutes north of the city of Adelaide.
I have zero experience. I would love to eventually fight, and really want to join a club where i will have opportunity to spar.
I am Female, 23 years old, 50kg,
what gym would you suggest?
my main thing is i eventually want to fight so i want to join a gym that can get me fights.... so can you also tell me.....
do you think my chances of finding fights would increase if i did muay thai instead? I have a much greater love for the sport of boxing, but i would be willing to try muay thai if thats what i have to do to get fights.
It's hard to get matches at your weight but I'm not sure how many women there are in Muay Thai in SA at the moment.
Possibly more. Check it out perhaps.
One thing I'd say is don't commit to any boxing or kickboxing gym too soon and just remember no coach is going to say that they are crap or they throw their fighters in too soon etc.
Honestly in Muay Thai I'd go for the gyms which have the highest success rate - I think Flinders Uni and another gym (sorry I forget the name) down in the same direction maybe Brighton or a bit past there might be your best option.
Why do you want to fight though? How do you know you want to fight before you have a gym and know what the training is like etc?
I'd give yourself time just with training and skills goals before you worry about that. A good coach will make you learnt he basicas for a pretty long time before you fight. In my opinion that's the way it should be.
I think the ones who throw you in too quickly underestimate how much there is to learn and develop and don't know how to coach you properly.
To be fair I doubt there are many really great boxing coaches out there - it's such a difficult thing with so many elements I'd say most people probably peak being only about a 10th as good as they could be with a really good all round coach - especially in places like SA where the histroy and background is not as strong as say in the UK.
Last I heard there were very few girls close to you weight in boxing in SA so if you want to box you will need to be in a club which will travel especially if you want more than one bout.
I don't know if Don McKay from Northside is still coaching but last thing I knew he's probably one of the best but he's very firm.
Firm would be an understatement and since I've only caught up with him occasionally at coaching clinics and state training etc I don't really know what he'd be like to train with long term.
He knows his stuff (unlike many in SA) and I think he will always help people who train really hard to compete.
Unlike so many of the other coaches still in the business in SA he has had more than a couple of bouts - a more decent history in boxing so basically I give him more cred for knowing what he's actually asking of his fighters.
I'd also say politically there isn't so many coaches who get along in SA and it's all a bit of a mess. If boxing is what you really want then if you have any aspirations to move interstate or overseas in the next year or two I'd wait. Boxing in SA as it is - waaay too limited in many aspects and you're likely to just wind up frustrated.
If you choose to stay in Adelaide I'd recommend the Adelaide uni Judo club. I went there for a semester and really found it offered everything I felt was lacking in Boxing SA as for as coaching and opportunities etc. If I had my time again I'd probably be in Judo instead of boxing.
As much as I loved boxing Judo is probably more relevant for small women self defence wise too. We don't get king hit by some drunk at the pub we get grabbed and pushed to the ground.
We need to know how to defend against people choking us and trying to force our legs apart which you won't learn at boxing but you will in judo.
We are too light to only be armed with our own body-weight for most things as in boxing but we'd be much better off using our opponent's weight against them which is much easier to do in Judo.
You'll find more training partners the right size for you in the Adelaide Uni Judo Club. It has a really friendly atmosphere and is more forward thinking than boxing or Muay Thai club in Adelaide.
You'll be able to participate more as a beginner than you could in boxing and be treated the same way as the most experienced club member. You'll do more partner-work and drills and progress in a way which allows you to experience a lot more, more safely before you do anything too combative.
As long as you know how to tap out and how to fall properly you'll be able to get 'beaten' by heavier people over and again in training without sacrificing your brain cells.
As small people our heads move a long way in sparring when hit by heavier people. The weight in the fist of a bigger guy can throw you head back really easily.
To be honest most times I was hit I didn't feel a sting or like it hurt. It's very easy to ignore a blunt impact in some ways but that's really bad because any time your head is throw back you brain is thrown around inside your skull and impacting against it. You don't get new brain cells so any damage is never reversed.
I believe if I stayed in boxing learning at the rate I was with the coaches available I would have ended up with some form of brain injury before I progressed any further. It got to the point where trial and error was the only thing I had.
Past a certain point my only feedback was whether or not I got hit in sparring but you need a much smarter way to learn safely in boxing - especially as the smaller person which you always will be -over the long term.
You don't have that worry about that in Judo. The Adelaide uni club is much friendlier than any boxing gym perhaps because there is less of a division between the beginners and the more experienced people.
It's very reasonably priced since it's made for students and close to the city. If you really want my honest opinion I think that'd be your best option here.