Boxing Basics: all the advice you wish you knew

[theranch]

when it comes to beginners and the skills they need to learn give me your opinions on the order they should be learned and how to break them down.

while there is certainly a "Wrong" way to teach and learn boxing there isn't really a "Right" way.

I am fascinated by the way different clubs, coaches and countries change and teach things differently so what are some of the skills you have been taught and how? if you are from the UK do you drill a certain skill differently to someone from the US? What bit of information would you give yourself if you could go back to being a beginner?

Discussion, Advice, Thoughts, Theories and Instructionals on all parts of boxing are welcome. Questions are also welcome and i will do my best to reply to them (although many many people in this forum know a lot more than i do)

 

[j123]

I'm not a boxer, and haven't been in a boxing gym before. But I am a MT competitor, done MMA and the styles that make up MMA for a bit now. So while it's not exactly the same, but the concepts still apply imo.

Warning: this is long

When I started out, there was alot of fundamentals I didn't learn that I feel beginners should learn.

• Emphasis on stance and footwork
• Defensive Shadow boxing inc. footwork. Starting out SB for me was basically beating an imaginary opponent that didn't hit back. too much on offense on my end. Once I worked with a more advanced fighter he showed me how things really worked, and I started doing SB with footwork and stance emphasis.
• Core basic mechanics behind basic strikes like 1,2
• How to wrap hands, I learned on my own via YouTube, but the way I ended up doing for awhile wasn't too good (too much wrapping on my palm), I learned another way to wrap, but it would have been good to have the coach show me first how to protect my hands.

I'll get shit for this, but at the beginner stage I feel a basic high guard should be emphasized, once they know "how to fight", different types of guards can be implemented. I say this because at the novice and beginner level, the fights are very very aggression and instinct fueled, there really isn't much in the way of technique. Its an ugly brawl where two fighters just press forward and impose their wills.
Normally I'd like to say we should have beginners focus on distance and utilizing reach, but really at the beginner level they don't have the exp. to capitalize on it fully. Like I said earlier, fights at the early stages is very aggression feuled, and distance and range is the last things beginner will ever do. Adrenaline, nerves, crowd pressure does that to a person. So while it is optimal to teach distance and reach, overall to the situation, learning "to fight" is more important at that point. When I say learning to fight, I don't mean technique, but being aggressive, controlling the center (ring control), retaliating ASAP on your opponent's combos, interrupting with combos, not bailing when your combo gets interrupted. I'm not a naturally aggressive guy, but I had to learn it. Being more technical when it came to a fight, I did lose out my early ones not being used to the level of aggression that came. Lots of people will be like myself as well. Alot of people who do combat sports are hobbyists, some eventually transition to becoming competitors; Regardless, on average, they're not the rough blue collar, street people we stereotypically associate with the sport. They're white collar workers, college students, come from decent or good homes.

My problem in not having a large emphasis and correctness on stance kinda plagues me to even this day, though minimal at this point. Its much much better now due to my exp. but old habits die hard. My case was balance. I've had problems retracting me kick and being a bit off balance at times before I really put effort into fixing it. I'd retract my leg too far back and end up borderline "tight roped", or my weight was too forward and I'd have to brace my lunging into it.

I do get why I was taught like this at first though. People who walk into the door of a combat sport gym want to do fancy "cool" type stuff like 1,6, slip, spinning elbow, flying knee. I've taught classes where a trial guy came I had him focus on stance, footwork, and at most 1,2. These are people who lack hand-eye coordination and have no athletic background at all, but I knew afterwards that he wasn't gonna come back. To them that stuff's boring and not what they want or expect. But its something I lacked at first and felt everyone should have, which is why I taught it.
At the end of the day its a business, and losing on potential customers you'd have to give them what they want, even if its detrimental to their progress.

A teammate of mine says if he has to give them the stuff I normally do, he's mix in high intense cardio segments throughout the class to keep them interested with a good workout. Not a bad idea actually.

On the other hand another teammate does not give trial guys any mercy. Trial guy walks in, he puts them on the bag. I said they ain't gonna come back then, no technique, or instruction, etc. His reply was "fuck them, if they don't come back, we don't need that shit anyways" lol.

 

[rmongler]

Personally i think if you're going to teach guy striking, be it in boxing, muay thai, mma, or other wise, you need to inculcate a system of defense into them. Until they know how to avoid damage, it is inappropriate for them to spar. It is as essential i'd say to doing striking training as learning breakfalls is to doing judo training; until you have it you can't do it without hurting yourself.

 

[j123]

Personally i think if you're going to teach guy striking, be it in boxing, muay thai, mma, or other wise, you need to inculcate a system of defense into them. Until they know how to avoid damage, it is inappropriate for them to spar. It is as essential i'd say to doing striking training as learning breakfalls is to doing judo training; until you have it you can't do it without hurting yourself.

For sure, we had a guy who wanted to try sparring without even knowing the fundamentals. I said no, but you can't control people

He went at it, didn't know what stance was, and a light 30% power leg kick swept him. Got hit with a entry jab, and turned away where he exposed the back of his head to his sparring partner (pro female MMA'er)

 

[Ilk]

I just wish I have not watched that much of youtube and try to practice myself. In addition I wish my first coach was better. He is a good fighter, but not a good coach. So right now I am full of bad habits. It took me awhile to get less front foot heavy. To get a proper guard and to actually learn to close down distance. But as j123 described I still havent learned to fight. I am still way too passive, cant break opponents combos with my owns (the max I will trow is usually 1 punch to counter). I stop doing what I wanted to do if I get countered. And yeah I am a hobbist and come from a good family.

 

[aerius]

A proper stance was the first thing we learned in my first boxing gym. This is how you stand, this is where your feet go and how you angle them, your weight is here, your hands are in this position, your head goes like this, etc. Then it was lots of cardio and basic conditioning exercises to get everyone in shape, then we learned basic footwork and how to move while keeping good balance & posture. All that stuff had to be up to the instructors' satisfaction before they started teaching us any punching, which of course started with the jab. We started from the very beginning and built our skills from the ground up.

When I think back it was actually very similar to how my TKD instructor taught us, everything there started from stance, conditioning, and footwork before we learned to throw any strikes. First strike was the rear punch, then the front snap kick, then roundhouse and side kick plus all the blocks and footwork to defend them, and it was only after we got all that down pat that sparring was allowed.

IMO things should always start from the very beginning and build from there even if the student has previous martial arts or combat sports experience. Some of the general concepts transfer around but a lot of the details are different and will lead to bad habits if you just jump into the thick of things. If I used my TKD footwork in boxing I'd get stuck on the ropes and killed, using my boxing guard in Muay Thai would get my body killed with kicks & knees, and so on.

 

[theranch]

I'm not a boxer, and haven't been in a boxing gym before. But I am a MT competitor, done MMA and the styles that make up MMA for a bit now. So while it's not exactly the same, but the concepts still apply imo.

Warning: this is long

When I started out, there was alot of fundamentals I didn't learn that I feel beginners should learn.

• Emphasis on stance and footwork
• Defensive Shadow boxing inc. footwork. Starting out SB for me was basically beating an imaginary opponent that didn't hit back. too much on offense on my end. Once I worked with a more advanced fighter he showed me how things really worked, and I started doing SB with footwork and stance emphasis.
• Core basic mechanics behind basic strikes like 1,2
• How to wrap hands, I learned on my own via YouTube, but the way I ended up doing for awhile wasn't too good (too much wrapping on my palm), I learned another way to wrap, but it would have been good to have the coach show me first how to protect my hands.

I'll get shit for this, but at the beginner stage I feel a basic high guard should be emphasized, once they know "how to fight", different types of guards can be implemented. I say this because at the novice and beginner level, the fights are very very aggression and instinct fueled, there really isn't much in the way of technique. Its an ugly brawl where two fighters just press forward and impose their wills.
Normally I'd like to say we should have beginners focus on distance and utilizing reach, but really at the beginner level they don't have the exp. to capitalize on it fully. Like I said earlier, fights at the early stages is very aggression feuled, and distance and range is the last things beginner will ever do. Adrenaline, nerves, crowd pressure does that to a person. So while it is optimal to teach distance and reach, overall to the situation, learning "to fight" is more important at that point. When I say learning to fight, I don't mean technique, but being aggressive, controlling the center (ring control), retaliating ASAP on your opponent's combos, interrupting with combos, not bailing when your combo gets interrupted. I'm not a naturally aggressive guy, but I had to learn it. Being more technical when it came to a fight, I did lose out my early ones not being used to the level of aggression that came. Lots of people will be like myself as well. Alot of people who do combat sports are hobbyists, some eventually transition to becoming competitors; Regardless, on average, they're not the rough blue collar, street people we stereotypically associate with the sport. They're white collar workers, college students, come from decent or good homes.

My problem in not having a large emphasis and correctness on stance kinda plagues me to even this day, though minimal at this point. Its much much better now due to my exp. but old habits die hard. My case was balance. I've had problems retracting me kick and being a bit off balance at times before I really put effort into fixing it. I'd retract my leg too far back and end up borderline "tight roped", or my weight was too forward and I'd have to brace my lunging into it.

I do get why I was taught like this at first though. People who walk into the door of a combat sport gym want to do fancy "cool" type stuff like 1,6, slip, spinning elbow, flying knee. I've taught classes where a trial guy came I had him focus on stance, footwork, and at most 1,2. These are people who lack hand-eye coordination and have no athletic background at all, but I knew afterwards that he wasn't gonna come back. To them that stuff's boring and not what they want or expect. But its something I lacked at first and felt everyone should have, which is why I taught it.
At the end of the day its a business, and losing on potential customers you'd have to give them what they want, even if its detrimental to their progress.

A teammate of mine says if he has to give them the stuff I normally do, he's mix in high intense cardio segments throughout the class to keep them interested with a good workout. Not a bad idea actually.

On the other hand another teammate does not give trial guys any mercy. Trial guy walks in, he puts them on the bag. I said they ain't gonna come back then, no technique, or instruction, etc. His reply was "fuck them, if they don't come back, we don't need that shit anyways" lol.

This exactly the type of response i had in mind. Personally i think. Foot work should be taught first and foremost, no point in learning to punch if you've got no legs to get close enough or far away enough in the first place. Plus one for the high guard no matter what rules or style. So many begginers or novice fighters try to emulate the fancy low hands style without having put the time in to learn proper distancing and head movement and 90% of what you know will go out of the window in your first fight but the reliable old high guard is useful no matter what your level.

 

[theranch]

Personally i think if you're going to teach guy striking, be it in boxing, muay thai, mma, or other wise, you need to inculcate a system of defense into them. Until they know how to avoid damage, it is inappropriate for them to spar. It is as essential i'd say to doing striking training as learning breakfalls is to doing judo training; until you have it you can't do it without hurting yourself.

Definitely. The comparison to breakfalling is brilliant, i have seen a worrying number of coaches who will teach a begginer 3 varieties of jab and have them drilling fancy 15 punch combinations on mitts without even showing them how to hold their hands properly let alone block or parry or move their head. No use building a cannon if it's made out of glass.

 

[theranch]

I just wish I have not watched that much of youtube and try to practice myself. In addition I wish my first coach was better. He is a good fighter, but not a good coach. So right now I am full of bad habits. It took me awhile to get less front foot heavy. To get a proper guard and to actually learn to close down distance. But as j123 described I still havent learned to fight. I am still way too passive, cant break opponents combos with my owns (the max I will trow is usually 1 punch to counter). I stop doing what I wanted to do if I get countered. And yeah I am a hobbist and come from a good family.

Often times teaching the mentality and focus required to fight or spar properly is much more difficult than the physical skills

 

[theranch]

A proper stance was the first thing we learned in my first boxing gym. This is how you stand, this is where your feet go and how you angle them, your weight is here, your hands are in this position, your head goes like this, etc. Then it was lots of cardio and basic conditioning exercises to get everyone in shape, then we learned basic footwork and how to move while keeping good balance & posture. All that stuff had to be up to the instructors' satisfaction before they started teaching us any punching, which of course started with the jab. We started from the very beginning and built our skills from the ground up.

When I think back it was actually very similar to how my TKD instructor taught us, everything there started from stance, conditioning, and footwork before we learned to throw any strikes. First strike was the rear punch, then the front snap kick, then roundhouse and side kick plus all the blocks and footwork to defend them, and it was only after we got all that down pat that sparring was allowed.

IMO things should always start from the very beginning and build from there even if the student has previous martial arts or combat sports experience. Some of the general concepts transfer around but a lot of the details are different and will lead to bad habits if you just jump into the thick of things. If I used my TKD footwork in boxing I'd get stuck on the ropes and killed, using my boxing guard in Muay Thai would get my body killed with kicks & knees, and so on.

My philosophy is all the offensive weapons in the world are no good to you if you dont have the vehicle to carry you to the right range. Basic footwork is the first thing i look at if I'm helping out with a begginer. It's very difficult to relearn a stance and how to move your feet once it's ingrained as you have to change the mechanics of how every punch is thrown, basic footwork saves a lot of hassle down the road.

 

[Chesten_Hesten]

These aren't too bad.