Just starting sparring....questions

1. Leave hooks and uppercuts for counterpunching and inside fighting. You are in the punching range if you can land your rear straight punch. You can't hit your opponent because:
- you don't step forward when throwing a punch
- you make a step forward and your opponent moves backwards in a straight line or changes angle, thus making you miss
__________________________________________________

- learn to double or even triple your jab
- throw another punch right behind, learn shift-punching (shifting your stance and throwing punch with purpose of shortening distance)

- try to adjust the position of your feet so you are positioned in a good angle while your opponent is not

Feint. More advanced strategy is leaving "openings", you make your opponent come at you because he thinks you are an open target and then you try to catch him off balance with a counter shot.


2. Yeah, you will drop flinching reflex after some time. Since you are beginner don't even bother to parry whole combinations - GRAB HIM. Use your feet, circle and pivot away from his combinations. You can't let your opponent plant his feet. Always try to be in better position than your opponent, find angles. Fire back if you see an opening, you can't only concentrate on evading and deflecting his punches.


3. You should have a coach watch your sparring or some of more advanced boxers, they will point out your mistakes and tell you how to fix them. If you have a coach who doesn't give a fuk, change gyms. And work on your balance and footwork, it's very important - you can train your balance with shadowboxing, throw your hands at home, in the gym it doesn't matter.

 

Work on your foundation like the above poster said. Judging distance and range come with practice/experience. You've just started sparring occasionally so don't expect overnight success just yet. You'll grow into your style and from there your trainer should advice you what approach is more productive for you

 

Like the others said, you are doing fine, most of your progress will come through sparring then working on both strengths and weaknesses through various drills. 10 times isn't very many times to spar. As for landing jabs, don't let them see you set before you punch. For the most part just keep working. Hopefully you have a boxing coach who knows what he is doing and has had success in working with others. Good luck:good

 

This, I forgot to mention it. Don't telegraph your punches. Throw the jab from your chin straight to your opponent's. Don't drop your left hand beforehand, don't pull your hand backwards to "increase" power, don't rotate your hips too much. All this stuff is just a part of body language which can be read pretty easily so your opponent is ready to evade even before you throw your punch.

 

A lot of the stuff about range, distance, and moving your feet to get there, you can work out on the heavy bag. After you spar a time or two, if your outlook on how you approach work on the heavy bag hasn't changed, then you aren't paying attention.

 

Best thing to do when a raw novice is sparring is to start in a conditioned spar, this means we set conditions, the first one i use with lads is to simply give each lad a jab, that means that all you need to worry about is his jab and obviously you try to counter with your own jab, this helps with distance and timing, you simply cannot do enough of this( i still go back to it myself) you will find you don't flinch as much as you are constantly watching for the one shot, you can then progress to bringing in a rear straight shot and so forth as you feel more comfortable, they recommend 3 conditioned spars to every open spar depending on level of boxer.

 

my advice is simply head movement! its almost a lost art in the amateurs around. where im from anyways

 

The flinching thing will improve gradually. It probably takes years to totally erase.