Has their ever been an elder member of your gym that does boxing for fitness but wants to spar? One time this old guy in decent shape for his age maybe 60 was telling me how no one wants to spar with him because he's a "old man" I told him i'd put in a round or two with him to be courteous and my coach looked at me like if you hurt this guy i swear to god you're dead. I worked on head movement and defense while he threw his punches. I would tap him every now and then so he didnt feel like i was letting him win or anything. He seemed really happy afterwards and I believe it was a feather in his cap. He had a better jab than I thought. Have you ever sparred with older members of your boxing club? if so whats your experience/story? Seems like a lame thread but i'm just curious and what the etiquette is for sparring old guys lol
Depends what you count as old. My 2nd fight ( a week ago) was against a 41 yr old firefighter. I'm 20 by the way
there was a guy in our gym who won the masters world championship, guy was in his like late 40s but used to spar all the kids.
No, but once a 60 yr old guy showed up at kickboxing and I was praying he wasn't going to try and spar...lol. Honestly, I dunno, I would probably do the same thing that you did. Which is let the old guy have his day. It ain't about you today. That's respectable. I would probably rather eat shots that dish em to a guy that old.
one of my coaches is 61 years old and spars regularly with guys in their 20's and 30's at my gym, mma guys, boxers, pros amateurs, you name it. guy is tough as nails and in pretty good shape for his age. we dont try and hurt him in sparring but hes alot better then you think hes going to be, he won the ringside worlds for his age and weight class last summer
That sounds like the proper way to go. Be defensive, give a tap and throw every once in a while to make it real for them. A jab to the body is a good way to keep it lively; not a terribly stiff punch which you can let up on, and it seems tricky so they actually become aware of things they weren't prior.
i was going about showing it off as you can imagine i was a bit wary, old man but still a former champion, we were both going very light until i thought **** it and hit him with a hard straight 1-2 to the body,he grimaced and just turned the heat up and started laying in to me, suppose its like a switch that these guys can turn on no matter what age
My first time body sparring I sparred with a complete lunatic of an old man. He was about 60 and before we started sparring he put his head through the arm part of his vest so It rode down and everyone could see his flabby grey man boobs. We touched gloves and I threw a couple of light jabs just to test the water but he just raced towards me full pelt throwing left and right hooks non stop until he started to tire. I thought I'd just concentrate on my movement rather than trying to beat up an old man, but whenever we got in a clinch instead of break he would just hold and try and judo throw me to the mat and if we got near the ropes he would charge at me grab my arms and then hold me against the ropes by grabbing onto the top one and smashing his chest into me! My instructor was doing pads with some of the kids so didn't see any of it, but was one of the strangest experiences in a boxing ring. Tbh I think the guy just loved fighting and didn't really care about rules or technique as his nose was broken in about 3 places
Thats quality. Body shots are the best way for that kind of thing. Bodyshots hurt like a **** but you can go easy and still get the message across.
My old gym was like this. The guy who ran it used to fight in backroom smoker bareknuckle matches before he went pro. When he was in shape he used to spar with Aaron Pryor. I asked him one day "When was your last fight? How did it go?" He said: "I was last week in a parking lot. It was a round 1 KO. Some punks tried to jump the wrong guy." Also, I've sparred the boxing coach at a local university.. he's mid 50's and very good. Beat my ass easily (I was 36 at the time). My current gym one of the coaches just won the Ringside Nationals at Bantam and he's older than me, probably late 40's, and I'm sure he would beat me easily also...just from doing mitts and drills with him.