How to get into competitive boxing at 16, and how should i be training?

[Betts288]

Hello to any anyone reading,

About may time last year i went down to my local boxing club for a number of reasons, the main one being ive always had an itch to try boxing. Im 16 coming up to 17 and am in my first year of sixth form, my parents were always against it when i was young but i decided i finally wanted to give it a go. I did it for a few weeks but then had to stop for exams and came back in late september time and since then apart from a few weeks at christmas, ive been going once a week to the fitness/beginners class.

Ive sparred 3 times however it was against a guy thats heavier than me who really just wanted to have a fight so this obviously wasnt very helpful however it meant that i knew being punched wasnt going to put me off and ive decided id love to try to fight and get into the competitive side of the sport. However i dont see how i can do this. I know it takes time to build up enough skill and fitness to do this however even if i get fitter the coach doesnt seem to focus that much on technique. I have spoken to him and said i want to box and id love to give it a go however he doesnt seem to say much except to keep on coming and working on everything. There are sessions on three other week days that the fighters go to, the coach was talking to a few of us and he was saying that the fitness was on another level and was much harder and that there more sparring and they're all very good. However i think he'd allow me to go along if id like.

Fitness isnt a huge problem, ive competed at a very high level in a lot of sports, including, tennis, cross country and athletics, i also play a lot of football and rugby. Im 60kg, quite stocky and i have 7% fat so i think my builds quite good.

However i know my technique isnt great and theres lots of work to do, obviously because ive only just started. Ive just bought a double end bag and a heavy bag with a stand with a speedball attached. I have a skipping rope and a few other bits as well.

However after all this i have two questions, how should i go about getting into the club because it just feels like im too late? should i simply ask to go along on one of the other days and try it, even though ill probably look like a bit of a muppet? and the other question is what would i be best working on with the kit ive got? Id be preparred to train everyday as its all in my garage.

Thanks for any help!

[Beanflicker]

First off, you're not too late. With modern training/medical advancements, guys are fighting well into their 40s.

If you're serious about boxing, just ask him if you can go to the classes. Everyone stinks when they first start off. They're not going to expect you to go there with the experienced guys and blow everyone away, so don't be afraid of looking stupid the first few times. They'll probably have a lot of respect for you if you can hack it and you're not a pussy.

Supplement it with training on your own, go over the basics they teach you and maybe download a few tutorials (Freddie Roach's and Title Boxing are good).

I'm not a boxer, but one thing I learned in life is that personal teachers/trainers are great, but you learn the most by studying the masters. Youtube gives you about a hundred years of amazing fighters to study. Watch what they do, how they move, how they throw punches, ect.

[cambay411]

What Beanflicker said is pretty good advice.

To add to what he said, when you first start watching the masters on YouTube dont worry if you dont start picking up the true beauty of what they do immediately.

The more you stick with boxing and come to understand it, the more you will recognize the amazing things they actually do in the ring.

For example, you may watch a boring, chess match type fight and get bored with it because your not picking up on the very subtle things the fighters are doing in there that no one can understand if they dont know the sport.

Even in exciting brawl like matches there are amazing things you will eventually start to recognize that you didnt see when you were less experienced.

These are the reasons why I never hesitate to watch a fight more than a few times.

[Betts288]

Thanks to both of you for the advice, it's very useful, ill start to try and look for the more subtle things fighters do when I'm watching a fight and ill give it another few weeks, ill try to get ,y fitness up that little bit more and then ill ask if I can go to the other sessions, bite the bullet and give it a go! Again thanks a lot for the advice!

[boyla]

Welcome to the forum, 16 is not to late to start boxing.
Would look into ABA gyms in your area if you would like to compete.

Beginner and Advanced classes are usually separated, with the beginners class focuses much more on technique and skill development, while advanced is more focused on fitness.
Why not go to both, if you are serious about training you need to be going more than once a week.

Foundation is important, you need to focus on footwork in the beginning.
Running is excellent way to improve fitness, so you should go running when not in the gym.
If you are able to skip at home, this can be a great way to improve conditioning. Try to skip for 10-15 minutes in a row, do not worry about skipping rounds.
Nothing stopping you shadow boxing at home, running, skipping, pressups, sit ups, leg raises.
Pay more attention to running.
There are plenty of youtube videos which can teach you about boxing, one I would recommend is

https://www.youtube.com/user/myboxingcoach

Just focus on jab, cross(right hand straight) and left hook(all to the head), while using your footwork.
After you master this, move on the defensive side of boxing.