In training, you think you are in shape, and then your trainer asks you to turn it up even more, jabbing, heavy bag, speed bag, jump rope, stair climbing, medicine ball etc. Boxers are the most fit athletes in the world imo.
Yeah I remember when my old trainer put me in to spar for the first time, he said "Hop in with this guy" then whispered "He's not very good" it was a close spar at the time, which actually dashed my confidence a bit :rofl but years on he still hasnt improved lol
I've sparred with Harold Knight, Glenwood Brown, Tracy Spann, P-funk...who knocked me down in sparring when I was 19 years old just starting, and I was 160 lbs. I've gone on to spar with boxers from all around the world. After I sparred, we did the medicine ball thing, and then the stair climbing which tested my will to box. Albert "Steele" Mills and John Davenport were my trainers out of Plainfield, NJ before I moved on to other trainers. Can you guess who I am? One more hint. I won world title anywhere below 175 lbs, within the last 25 years.
Your trainer putting you in to spar, brought this to mind, I. As surely as the rustle of chairs signals a bar fight, bet this scenarios happened in your gym and maybe a right of passage for some on this thread. One day a muscled-up badass, covered in jail-house tats, shows up at the gym with his boys, calling everyone a bunch a pussies and stompin round kickin heavy bags, challenging anyone to spar, while his boys stage whisper whatta killer he is. To your surprise, your trainer tabs you to spar with him (a guy youd avoid like the plague in the street) Your trainer laces you up, sayin, Just do what ya been doin in the gym. Soon as the bell rings --with echoes of his buddies shoutin, WATCH THIS! -- Godzilla races cross the ring throwin haymakers so wide a blind man could avoid em, and you pop m with double and triple jabs, stopping m in his tracks. Hes huffin and puffin. The next rounds worse: hes target practice for jabs and combinations; butchered till he quits, bloody and humiliated. Slithers outta the ring and leaves the gym without a word -- tail between his legs never to return. And you walk a little taller; youre a fighter to the other fighters.
Relying on counterpunching?! Man, Counterpunching is learnt over the years and can't be exercised in your first sparring sessions unless you are super talented. You have to be able to see your opponent punches and then react quickly, it is learnt over the years and does not happen in the frst sparring sessions for god's sake. Even many pros do not know how to counterpunch these days. Like you later said, you cover up and throw basic punches at the beginning.
IMO, it is primarely the ability to make your opponent miss and then exploit the opening. Hardly something a beginner executes during his first sparring sessions. I do not see too many pros who are efective counterpunchers these days. Like you said, I agree that reflexes play an important role but also defense (head or foot movement)in order to get out of the way of punches.Setting traps is IMO more for setting the guy up to get hit with a big one.