New to boxing, again.

My 15 yr.old son has taken an interest in boxing. He already works out for football. He's 5'9", 145 lbs. He does 500 sit ups, and 600 pushups, 5 times a week. He also jump ropes, and runs 1 or 2 miles 5 times a week. His fundamentals are pretty good, (keeps his guard up, when hitting the heavy bag, and coaching mitts.) His feet are OK.
We don't have a boxing gym locally. So what he wants to do is, go to a gym in another city, and get a sparring session. To see if this is something he wants to do. Is this a good idea.
I haven't been involved in boxing since the early 80's. I don't want to mess my son up.

As a boxer myself I can understand your concern. From what it sounds, your son is in great shape, and looks like he'll find his fit in boxing. Go ahead, you and your boy check out that gym. Makesure it's not school of hard knocks, also keep in mind that no boxing gym is the same, some are more physical, fundamental, and breath-taking than others. Alotta people switch gyms to find one that suits them, I'm just try'n to say that you should check a few places out to find out what fits your son.

I think it's a good Idea for your son to see what boxing's really about. Even though your son has a head start over most people, the coach will probably go over the fundamentals with him, (Footwork, Defence, Offence, Range, Timing, the works) and only after the coach thinks their student's are ready, that they put them in the ring for sparring. Remember sparring isn't about bust'n the other guy's nose and doin him in/vice-versa, its about learning the skills at hand. So give it a try see how it goes and as long as you are willing to be supportive, then give it shot.


Regards'n Good Luck,

'Rocky

By the way, besides checking the yellow pages, here's a couple boxing gym address listings that you might find useful:
www.sasktelwebsite.net/hubcit/

www.boxinggyms.com/addressbook.htm

www.ibopboxing.com/gym/gyms.asp

www.boxinghelp.com/gyms.html

Thank you very much for the input.
I forgot to ask. My son is right handed, but he says he is more comfertable as a southpaw. I opted not to change that, should I or not.
I'm moving to Tampa, and the links you gave me were very helpful.

Just let him know what he's doing. He'll have a strong jab, but this sacrifices the power he could use if he was orthodox. It has it's advantages, but I'd urge your son to start off as orthodox, and if he gets comfortable with all the advantages/disadvantages of the strong lead southpaw stance then he can have at it. You better get a coach's opinion on that, and good luck too.


Regards, Rocky

he sounds in great shape and should be a great boxer but im a southpaw right handed and have been urged to be a orthadox let him try out as what he thinks he is more comfortable then the next session get him to do it orthodox see how he is

Thanx for the help. I'll see a coach. "Since I've forgotten most of what I might have known." I'll keep checking back, and ask some more questions, I'll have them. Thanks again Scott Webb.

You're Welcome Scott, n'good luck with that, if you have any more q's you know where to shoot.

Cheers, Rocky

hmmm. interesting point.. Do you really think a fighter loses power just because he's right handed and fights southpaw? I'd really like to know that - I really would... My logic is that - since I've been boxing my left has been getten stronger and stronger... I almost feel sometimes like my left hand is stronger than my right now! So I'd assume that if he just always trained that way - he'd strengthen it up enough to the point that it's as powerful as it needs to be... As long as he keeps up his speed - which I'm sure he can do with all that football and running he does - he could actually become a pretty versitile fighter. Imagine the power his right hook would have since it's his power hand? And once he develops that straight left hand and learns to keep on the outside of the other guy boy I really think thats luck that some people have it like that.

Have you ever tried to stand in front of the heavy bag and fight as a southpaw? Feels really weird doesn't it? Maybe thats just how they feel when they're standing in an orthadox stance? Right handed but just feels more comforrtble. If it works go for it ya know?

What do you all think?

That was some food for thought. When I boxed in 83, I was right handed, but I had no problem fighting southpaw. when I was fighting orthodox, I was more of a puncher, as a southpaw, I was more of a boxer. ya know. My coach wasn't very good, no defensive training really. I survived with a 10-0-0 6KO. But I had typical white man syndrome, hit me in the nose and I would bleed like someone shot me. My major concern is I don't want my son to feel overwhelmed or intimidated. That has never been a concern be for, because he has always been very good at any sport he's tried. And he seems to have allot of potential at this, it hard not to get excited.
Ive already started to fined Gyms in Tampa.

well if you go to a cool gym you can hang out there and since you used to box - im sure you could work him on the pads n stuff - at my gym alot of dads like to train their sons mostly the mexican boxers because it just tends to run in their blood in this area - u could also addon to the coaches training and show him mistakes that you made and show him how to defend against them etc... - just make sure you don't call the coach wrong or totally not let him do his job - he probably knows what hes talken about - my first 2 weeks i was in stance, stepping forwards, stepping backwards, tepping forwards, stepping backwards in a straight line for 2 rounds, then another 2 with the job going forward and backward and then the bag. Then after that we talked about sparring and if I feel ready. Most coaches seem to be that way but some guys are assholes and wanna throw them in there on their first day so just make sure you pay attention to things like that

Have another question, after about 10, 15 minutes on the heavy bag, his for arm begins to hurt abruptly. Sometimes after a couple combonations ending with a hook to the body. Is this normal?

RE: yeah, you lose power if a right hander fighting southpaw. And I'll go one further; a southpaw fighting orthodox will pick up on how to.use his right before the orthodox fighter boxing lefty even has aclue about the southpaw left. And take an orhtodox boxer with the lamest left you can imagine and he'll be throwing hooks like Chavez before that first guy gets close to that southpaw left. And there are few if any in this world that get abused like southpaws with weak left hands. Where does his arm begin to hurt- up at the shoulder? The first thing is to raise the bag; the closer to the bottom of the bag his punches land the easier it will swing. If it is in the shoulder he's not not getting his weight involved . Make sure he's not hooking off the front foot, that whenthat punch lands his weight is on the right leg. Then watch to make sure his right foot doesn't try to be flat on the floor becausethen his back will wcgd

It hurts him above the wrist, half way to the elbow. At the moment I've got him orthodox. Working the shat out of the left.
It is the right hook to the body, that seems to hurt him. Here is the scenario, We start off working on his feet and head movement. We then go to the heavy bag, get him moving the head and popping off a combo to the body doubling up on the right body then head, snapping a left jab and stepping out at an angle. I can see when it hurts him generally on the first right to the body. He goes through the set then complains. When that happens we go to shadow boxing and the rope. We got through this routine for about half an hour at a time.
He hits hard as shat. I have niticed that the bottom of the bag is allot more solid than the middle and top. Could this attribute to the problem.