How do you feel Sparring?

The more you spar the more you'll enjoy it. The nerves are a natural reaction to the thought of getting punched in the head, but providing the sparring is monitored by someone who knows and cares, you'll get used to it. Then you'll have to contend with the nerves of fight night! Good luck, stick with it.

 

A lot of people get nervous. I never felt nervous before sparring, but when I started up, I used to have to kind of psyche myself into it, get into the right frame of mind. Now it's like going to the bathroom, nothing to it.

 

Yeah its normal to feel nervous

Thats a hell of a lot of sparring youre doing !

 

Just focus on conditioning. Rich, trust fund babies can't fight anyway so the guy who lands the most punches will probably win. Don't overthink it.

 

Nothing wrong with being nervous, if anything it's good for you as it puts you into a heightened more focused state.

Just wondering, if you're interested in getting into boxing why didn't you jump straight in instead of play fighting with random guys?

 

It's totally normal man. The more you spar, the more comfortable you will get. When I first started I would throw just a jab and shell up. Got beat up a little my first couple sessions but I started to feel at home in the ring sparring and then started really give guys problems. If it makes you feel any better, Errol Spence Jr said he used to get beat up a lot when he started. I used to play that over and over, it seemed to help me mentally.

Keep at it and don't quit if you aren't seeing good results. EVERY legendary boxer that you can think of was in your position at some point.

Congrats and good luck.

 

I don't agree with that white collar boxing. 12 weeks from beginner to boxing on a show is just not enough time. It's a rush job. Train for a few months at a club and then do the training for the show. That's the reason you're doing 80% sparring is because you've only got a few months before your actual bout. I don't like that. most people are going to pick up bad habits because the technique has taken a back stage for sparring.

I know people that have done this white collar boxing, it's good for a laugh, but not if you're wanting to take it seriously. I personally wouldn't do it if I wanted to take it seriously.

 

I also thought 12 weeks was a little soon for a match, especially if you're a beginner. But if all your opponents are going to be in the same boat as you, I don't see a huge problem I think. But yeah, after the show, id focus on training seriously and go from there.

 

I do boxing exactly because of the feeling of fear. I love fear, I love that feeling when you're totally scared but there's no going back and I get that feeling when I'm in the ring just before it's about to go down.

Like my biggest idol Ayrton Senna said: "Fear is exciting for me. ... Fear is part of people's life. Some of them don't know how to face it, others - where I include myself - learn coexisting with it or face it, not as a negative thing, but like a autoprotection sensation."

You need to learn how to embrace the feeling of fear because it's never going to go away completely. Most people do it the wrong way and run away from it and don't put themselves in situations where they think they'll be scared and they thing fear is a negative thing.

You need to learn how to love fear and always look for it. If you always look for challenges your entire mindset changes. In time you simply learn to cope with the feeling because you've been there so many times before that deep inside you know that nothing really bad is going to happen eventually. You get some innate confidence when approaching these situations and that's when you start to simply love it.

Personally I studied Senna's approach to life and sport a lot and it has really helped me in my approach to boxing. I think it also helps that I'm religious just like he is.

 

Another thing is that you shouldn't view boxing as something aggressive. You said that you box because you want to fulfill your aggression which is already a wrong approach. Aggression is wrong in boxing because you need to be calm and composed. If you're aggressive you'll fight too much on instinct. Boxing is an elaborate science. When you start appreciating it you don't think about being scared or hurt that much because you have to think about so many thinks in boxing to do it right.

You need to think about which range you want to fight your opponent at, how to set up the punches you think will be effective and what's the plan B, plan C etc., when and how to use to the jab, whether you should go to the body a lot or not, when to feint, where to position yourself in the ring, when to change levels, how to pace yourself, how much time there's left in the round etc. etc. Then you need to focus on specific reactions of your opponent and memorize them and already think ahead how you'll try to exploit them.

You need to approach it like the fighters approach their fights. You need a gameplan and what exactly you want to do in sparring. Everytime I spar I have a specific plan about what I want to do and what I want to improve and I play out the fight many times in my mind. I think about what the people I spar with like to do and how to counter it. I study what elite fighters with my physique and style do in their fights and then try to implement some of that.

When you approach boxing as a boxer should you don't even have time to think about being nervous or being in pain because you should be thinking about million of things.

 

But are they in the same boat? Theres no law to say that you can train at a boxing club aswell as have a fight on this white collar boxing. Some of these boxers on this white collar can be very good, whilst some are actual real beginners. Like all sports I suppose, some naturally pick it up quicker. One guy I knew trained for three months at a boxing club before then training at this white collar whilst waiting for his first bout. Obviously he saw it as a competitive sparring sessions and that's what it turned out to be for him. Good luck though with your boxing.