Questions before I try starting to box, please help.

[Chris Nagel]

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.

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!

[N Maiberg]

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

[Chris Nagel]

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.