Learning on your own

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Mojorisin99

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I was wondering if you guys can give me a little help as I am trying to learn boxing on my own. I'm live north of Boston and suprisingly there aren't any decent gyms in the area. So I got a 100 pound bag, some gloves, and the Vitor Belfort video. This is my routine:

jump rope 3X3 min rounds
heavy bag 5X2 min rounds
shadowbox 3X3 min rounds

I do this 2-3 times a week as I have to fit it in with my weight lifting and judo training. Any advice? I also would like to know if there are any defensive drills I can work on my own.
 
How far from Brockton are you? That's like one of the meccas of Boxing activity.
 
Yea lots of gyms there, unfortunately I live over an hour away. With my schedule I can only make a 20-25 min commute at the most. There is one gym about 20 mins from me but it's almost all little kids and there is only one instructor, not really worth the fee. The other places are cardio boxing classes that don't have rings.
 
I learned how to improve my jab by watching a kids class, of course the instructor was Harvey Reti, Canadian junior middle Champ from '52-'57, Empire (now called Commonwealth games) Games bronze medalist and participant in '55 Tokyo Olympics. This guy is like 67, and the kids were all his grandchildren, but I warmed up and took the class, and guess what? I'm a lot better for it.
 
Of course, I didn't do any sparring! But after he had the kids going he put on some focus mitts and asked me to use the jab, he corrected my form for like an hour, and taught me to pivot on my lead foot and get power from my hips when I jab. Later, when I kept coming to classes, he hooked me up with a grandson of his that's my age, and we sparred for months. Harvey took me to my first Bronze gloves, he's my hero. 67 y.o. still works out every day and he's in better shape than most 30 y.o., I guess why I'm telling you this is so that you might consider going to class, even a kids class. Live instruction from a legit boxer is way better than any amount of instructional dvd's, altho' these are good too.
 
Mojorisin99 said:
I was wondering if you guys can give me a little help as I am trying to learn boxing on my own. I'm live north of Boston and suprisingly there aren't any decent gyms in the area. So I got a 100 pound bag, some gloves, and the Vitor Belfort video. This is my routine:

jump rope 3X3 min rounds
heavy bag 5X2 min rounds
shadowbox 3X3 min rounds

I do this 2-3 times a week as I have to fit it in with my weight lifting and judo training. Any advice? I also would like to know if there are any defensive drills I can work on my own.
Click to expand...


you should check out king kabuki's heavybag routine. its really good. i believe is a sticky now.
 
You're right, it is surprising that you can't find a decent gym or boxing club in the Boston area. I thought Boston was packed with good boxing coaches.
 
Learning alone does work to a certain limit. You probably could learn the basic technique and get in a good shape, but you'll never learn any combat sport alone, you need someone to spar and make drills with. Learning alone is like learning a new language from a book, you may be able to build sentences but it doesn't mean you could realy talk and use this language untill you practice speaking it with someone.
 
Learning on your own can be ok if you can realize your mistakes and correct them which is very hard for most people to do. If you are going to train on your own take the time to tape each training session so you can watch it after you are done then try to pick out what you have done wrong and then work on fixing that. Also there are much better intructional tapes than Belforts. I would check out Titleboxing.com they have a great series of tapes out that cost s 10 dollars each they start from the basics and gradually build up to more advanced techniques.
Lastly i would try to find a gym to go to because the best way to learn boxing is to be taugh it by someone who knows the game. I bet if you checked out the kids gym and told the trainer your goals he would either help you out or point you towards someone that could. You will only go so far working out on your own.
 
I suggest you film yourself shadowboxing and post it here so people can correct your mistakes.
 
ya, the video tape thing is a good idea but also, I'd suggest picking up a big mirror. I find them so helpful when you work out or shadow box because you can see yourself and pick out minor flaws and correct your form
 
BTW, what do you think of Vitor's video?

I think its a very good introductory video. It pretty much covers the basics (stance, movement, offense, defense) so its good for someone like me who is just starting out.

Anyone know any other good tutorial videos?
 
Taping yourself is good advice. But without actually sparring you'll never realize everything you're doing wrong. And it's difficult to practice setting up shots without a partner. If you just want to mess around go ahead and learn on your own. But if you want to get serious I'd suggest at the very least getting a partner to train with or even better go to a gym and train with a qualified instructor.
 
Last year I did exactly what you did. I went and bought a bag, some gloves and a boxing DVD. I would hit my bag for hours and hours. I thought I was getting better and better. Until I joined a boxing gym. I quickly found out that I wasn't doing things the right way. I had to unlearn a lot of bad habits, that I had no idea were bad habits. Find a class. It will be better in the long run.
 
Thanks for the info guys, I may to just bite the bullet and take the long commute to a gym. How does my routine look, should I tweak it at all?
 
Mojorisin99 said:
Thanks for the info guys, I may to just bite the bullet and take the long commute to a gym. How does my routine look, should I tweak it at all?
Click to expand...

I would add a minute to your heavy bag rounds. I usually mix up my heavy bag rounds, either 3 or 5 minutes.
 
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