Club/Home training

If your going to a boxing gym, ask your coach to give you a workout. If he doesn't, find a new gym cause that coach is a joke then.

 

Just do a lot of shadowboxing. Focus on specific things like do few rounds of only footwork then few rounds throwing fast combinations, a round of throwing just the jab, a round of throwing one two's etc. Then shadowbox few rounds of visualizing fighting an actual opponent and push yourself as hard as you can. Slip, duck, feint etc. That's the closest to actual boxing you can get and it will condition your body for fighting. Watch videos on the internet and watch as much boxing as you can. Skipping rope is good for warming up. Use the heavy bag to develop power but the focus of the training should be shadowboxing to develop the right balance and technique.

 

My experience is that most boxing coaches don't care about you until you prove to them that you're worth the attention. Doesn't mean they suck, it's just the way it is. It's better to inform yourself with the internet for a start

 

I understand their reasoning behind it cause it gets really tiring when people come up and ask 'Can you make me into a fighter?' when you can tell they really have no plan to commit to it nor do they understand what they are asking for. But if I'm paying X amount of dollars and he can't even be bothered to answer a few questions, I think your better off going somewhere else for training.

Then again, different coaching/leadership styles work better for different people.

 

What if he doesn't "prove himself", the coach going to ignore this guy's requests for help while continuing to pocket his money?

 

What are you doing at your 4-5 weight training sessions?

 

as a trainer i get it. its frustrating to invest time into someone who's going to quit. the reality is that boxing is hard, and people quit at different stages (after ... first day, first spar, first fight, first loss, they get a girlfriend, job, etc). BUT what keeps me grounded is knowing that spending time with that kid who isn't the ideal is going to make a difference. at least in their life. at most maybe with boxing.

i recently moved to KY from Los Angeles to open a gym in Small Town, USA. the guy who's doing the best in the gym is someone who spent the past two years in other gyms waiting for attention and never really got it. i'm so fortunate that he's here. he's dedicated, practices on his own and strives to get better. the investment is paying off.

and now to answer the original question ...

Shadow box A LOT on the days you're not at the gym. when you're at the gym, don't bug the trainers, but ask for just a couple of seconds of their time to give you a suggestion to work on. just a couple of seconds of advice to show you respect their time and thank them for what they give you. NOW go home and practice EXACTLY what they suggested. get better at what they suggested and then they'll see their small investment payoff. remember that the squeaky wheel gets greased so keep asking questions, but not enough that they want to replace the whole wheel.

if you're a dedicated guy in the gym a couple of times a week you may not become one of their prized fighters but you might get good enough to spar the new guys once in a while. it is possible for you to be a valuable asset to the gym environment. you get to work for and prove it first.

 

For me, this is the right way to recognize who has ambition to learn to box and who doesn't:

In the age of internet someone who really wants to be a boxer will look up his favorite fighters and fights on the internet and get some basic info about boxing that way. It's like football (soccer), kids train it because they love it, they know everything about Messi, Ronaldo, Barcelona, Bayern etc. They learn football by watching it, obviously they don't learn the intricacies of the techniques and tactics and all that but they understand the basic framework, they understand how it's supposed to look like.

In the same way I expect from someone who wants to take boxing seriously to know what footwork is, what a jab is, how defensive fighting looks like and how pressure fighters fight etc. I don't expect him to know how to do it but he needs to have an idea how it's supposed to look like.

When I see new guys who talk about boxing a lot, watch the fights and look up to the great champions of the past and present I know that they want to learn something and the guys who don't have a clue about boxing are there to exercise a bit.

Ask guys in the gym casually about boxing and talk about sweet science. If they don't know anything and aren't interested in what you're saying then there's no hope.

 

good point about the internet. you're right. someone walking into a gym now a days can very well have a basic grasp of boxing. thanks for bringing that up.

 

I mean think about it. Let's say you're an 18 year old and want to be a boxer badly. You'd google everything boxing related for weeks and know all the relevant fighter's records by heart if needed. People at that age need to have that sort of drive if they really want to do something. If they don't have the right passion for boxing they can't do anything. It's all about will.

Now I'm not saying one can learn boxing over the internet but it can definitely help or it at least shows some will and enthusiasm. Watching fights for 8 hours > 8 hours on social media.

No matter how hard you try as a coach you're only there for your fighters for few hours a week. How they spend the rest is up to them.

 

i got this new guy in the gym. i film all my classes so i thought i'd share this while the above conversations are fresh.

i get that you're way further along, being in the gym for 5 months and this is his third day, but if you can take anything away then it served its purpose.

noodles
https://youtu.be/qJKbW8JwY1I

shadow box and med ball
https://youtu.be/bDDiIUD4bdc