Grey & Thomas's Fountain of Knowledge

[Chris Nagel]

The Jab:

The jab is a punch that is the product of not being tense. You must be loose, as in your muscles should be not tight, and the technique of the punch is very important. Exercises such as shadow boxing with hand weights should be under taken with care- for example do not snap out straight punches with hand weights as it is deleterious to your shoulders.
Try "catching the fly" with your left hand. Shoot it out lke you are trying to snatch $ out of somebody's hand. Learn to time the movemment of your left hand with the movement of your left foot.

Sparring:

Maybe you are trying to do too much in the ring. Everybody wants to step in and hit and not get hit before landing the huge shot that kos the other guy. But the reality of the game is something different. Also consider that sparring is a work session, a training session, and not an over all assessment or summary of your skills. The simple fact is that your will not be able to fully exert yourself offensively until you are comfortable defensively. You'll be punching from too far away, without setting your feet, pulling your head back and so on. Boxing is a game of pieces and to be effective all the pieces must come together.
You want to develope certain skills in the ring and this is done by sparring; never get in the ring without a purpose. Today work on your defense and countering with the jab. Do the same thing every day until you get it right. Then work on the hook...I digress into my left handed daydreams...The point is this. Focus on something each and every day in the gym and in the ring. Practice is the key and sense of purpose frees the mind in the sense that if you know what you are working on it will come easier. Over time you work on each and every thing to the extent that it all becomes automatic.

Boxing advice:

Congratulations on your first time: CC
Don't be afraid to not be in a fight all the time you are in the ring; choose the time, place and nature of the exchanges. Pay a LOT of attention to your feet in the next several weeks, and make sure to get your left hip and shoulder turned towards your foe; this will help you avoid many right handed punches.
Here is one last thing to consider: tension exhausts you no matter the level of your conditioning. If you are square to your opponent and thus vulnerable to nearly every punch and holding your hands unnaturally high to guard yourself you will suffer in two ways. First your arms will get tired. Second you will not be able to punch back effectively. Don't be afraid to lower your left to @ shoulder height and to use your left shoulder defensively ala Mayweather, Toney etc...It is actually the most natural way to do it and not some boxing magic. Drop weight to your right foot, turning back over a straight right leg pivoting the left foot inward and going up on the toe to raise the left shoulder. This will intercept the punch and put you in a perfect spot to counter.
Let them lead make them miss and Good Luck

Train for boxing:

Nothing is out of the question if the dedication is there. But the best thing to do is drop all the cross training time waste nonsense and train to box. Being in fighting shape is a different mtter than being in great shape to do anything else. Also, don't be afraid to 'train' yourself; watch tape of great fighters as often as you can because your eyes won't mislead you nearly as badly as many of the people you are apt to encounter 'training' amateur boxers.

Conditioning/Weight-Loss:

Here's a few thoughts for you on losing weight, conditioning and so on.
1) For road work try to fit in a very brisk walk of 2-3 miles in the morning, taking time to stop and stretch frequently. In the evenings, after work/school/boxing/etc fit in a 15 minute or so roadwork session, working 3 minute rounds with 1 minute between. During the "round" spend a minute each on sprinting, running, and jogging and vary the order from round to round. Walk as fast as you can during the one minute 'rest'
2) Do your sit-ups and other calisthenic (spellin g?) exercise religiously; this should be @ a 20 minute session either just before or just after your morning walk. What you want to gain here is flexibility.
3) In the gym shadow box to warm up and really work at it, imagining a real fight with a real foe. Don't jump rope on night that you run or on night that you spar. As you practice to perfect each punch also practice and master the basic blocks for that same punch. Between shadowboxing, hitting the heavy and double end bags your workout at the gym should lat @ 35 minutes; put in another two or three rounds for working the punch mitts or whatever but an hour of solid, dedicatwed and sharp work is plenty.
4) Please please please do not let Butterbean be your idol or your stylistic inspiration. He is probably a very nice man, loves kids and puppies and all that but he cannot fight a lick. Learn the "art" of boxing, how to get your left hip and shoulder ahead of your chin and how to avoid punche..etc...
5) Last, look to spar within the first 60 days max. The best way to get in shape to box, or to learn how to box is actually to box as often as possible. Sparring session in which both fighters only jab are helpful as are rounds where both cocentrate on defense and left hand counters for example.

Training before joining a gym:

Try waking up in the morning and doing 20 minutes of stretching exercises, situps and so on. If possible follow up with a 20 miute or so walk an walk very rapidly- before breakfast. Three times a week get to a place where you can do some road work: start with 3-4 3min. rounds, alternating jogging, running and all out sprinting during the round and walking very fast during the rest. In the gym warm up with a couple rounds of fast and serious shadowboxing, then 3 rounds on the heavy bag, 3 on the double end bag and acouiple on the speedbag.
I would suggest that you begin the exercising and roadwork a week or two before goin g to the gym. Once there you shoud be ready for some light sparring in @ 3-4 weeks maximum,

Joe's Training Method:

My personal method was to train daily, to run 3 times a week. When I got older my routine was to spend 4 evenings a week 3-4 hours nightly, training others, then do my deal after. That was about 40 minutes or so and I did it 7 days a week. But my routine was probably much different than what is typical among those on this forum; it was rarely more than 45 minutes and it was divided between shadow-boxing, heavy-bag, speed bag etc...I began each day with 20 minutes or so of stretching exercises, and calisthenics.
I don't know specifically what you are training to achieve, or what your regimen (spelling?) involves, and in general, after what I've read here, I think many ofyou are training too much. To train to box a brisk hour, working sharp, 5 days a week is plenty. That doesn't include roadwork but 3-4 miles 3 times per week is good and you can sharpen up for a match in a couple weeks by running "rounds"