Full head gear, mouth piece, 16 ounce gloves, a good coach to match you up properly, get your cardio up to a good level before you start sparring at all because if you can't keep your hands up you're going to get whacked, start with 1 2 minute round or even 1 1 minute round, it helps to know it will be over quickly, remember to breathe, I would tense up and forget to breathe and tire out immediately, remember to move your head, remember move your feet, nothing wrong with moving side to side or back and to the side to avoid shots, lot of young kids think they can just storm forward Terminator style, try not tense up to throw big shots, stay loose and try to be smooth not powerful, anytime your opponent gets near you jab to keep him off balance, if they are off balance they aren't going to hit you with anything too hard Then work slowly toward 1 2 minute round, etc. I started boxing way late in life, mid 40's and only did light to medium sparring never a full speed session, I was always the older guy in there often by 20 years or so, so had to accept I was going to be slower and get hit to land any of my own, I didn't have my ego on the line, like I would've younger, which helped. I did get over the fear of getting hit, but it took time. I hated headgear but used it early on anyway, I always felt like I couldn't see shots coming with it on, so once I got past the fear of getting hit, I went without. I'd go back to work, did this on my lunch hours, and have that weird semi dull fuzzy feeling for an hour or so after a good session. Strangely, sometimes I miss that feeling nowadays.
