If you ever find yourself a bit out of your depth again don't be afraid to throw in the low blow or headbutt. I've found this instantly gains you respect in the gym.
First few times I sparred was with the more experienced guys. Whenever I would leave myself open which was a lot) they would just touch me, to let me know what I had done. But they encouraged me to open up and try and hit them as often and as hard as I could, if its a decent gym, trainer etc you should be ok. It was demoralising at first, when everything is getting picked off and I'm not landing a shot.
This reminds me of a fight I had at school. Cause I was competing at karate then took up the boxing also there was sometimes someone in school (always a chav/ned) who would act like a hard man or try to get the better of me. Anyway, a new guy moved to our school and he was brand new with for for a couple weeks, then he started hanging about with the a**holes and decided that he would beat try and have a go after class. He was easily about a good half foot taller than me and had a good 2/3 stone over my at very least (I wasnt a big guy, quite skinny and wiry to be frank) anyway he just started wailing on me. i constantly kept the head moving and didn't really throw anything (its funny cause I can still remember every detail of it vividly) anyway, most people watching prob thought I was getting my ass handed to me. I knew what i was doing though, after about a minute or so of him wailing hail mary's at me, he was done...I just waited and then genuinely said to myself, "you finished?" he was knackered, i literally landed 2 quick punches right on his beak that just exploded took one step back and landed a belter of a straight right right on the mouth that put him off his feet. I told him to stay down or he would get proper leathered. He stood up and spit the blood from his mouth all over my white shirt and I just lost it, took a two steps forward and planted a nut straight on him and he collapsed. I was ready to start teeing off on him on the ground but was pulled back. Suspended for a week and the other guy suspended for two weeks! Ah school days !!
Really appreciate all the advice. Some of the stories are brilliant and I'm sure theres many people who can take a thing or two from them. I think in my next spar I'll turn it up a notch and try to land, I can tell boxing is going to a bumby ride for sure. But if I give up I definitely wont get better. Thanks again , there was alot of good stories! Aha and to reply to someone's comment, one thing I'm not going to do is headbutt my sparring partner lmao, the coach will give me a bollocking for sure.
Remember if your gonna take it up and continue with it your gonna get hit chief, you will bleed and you will get hurt at somepoint. Its par for course. its kinda the appeal in it also, part of me has always wanted to be in with a high level hard hitting pro.... Just to sample it and find out in person the difference. Lol you deliberately headbut or foul someone the coach wont give you a bollocking if he knows your at it he will let someone else teach you a lesson !!!
Leon, the key is to be unpredictable. Your coach (and opponent) will EXPECT you to follow the rules etc. Don't give them the comfort. Everything for a reason mate.
I’ve sparred a pro, it wasn’t fun! They were on taking it easy and I got thumped, I don’t even think they got out of first gear lol! I’ve been in the ring shadow boxing with one of the guys that fought nick Blackwell before he fought eubank jr and that was scary in itself
Can relate to what you're saying mate as an inactive white collar fighter. Just do what you're comfortable doing. I've found I'm reluctant to properly hit someone in sparring but not for what will come back but simply because it's sparring and I wouldn't want to go there every spar. But let me put it this way, there's no way like the hard way. If you have intentions of competing use your sparring partners for what they are there for; your development. No boxing gym worth it's weight in salt will allow a seasoned boxer to go to town on a newbie. They'll lose the money they'll get out of you because when you go home ****ed up you will more than likely decide it's not for you. People I knew I could take out I used to try new things with, so that will probably be where you come in. Unless you're extremely naturally gifted you are going to be very predictable. So do your best, make these fighters respect you. Whenever someone clipped me in sparring, I was happy for them because I know shots that hurt me will hurt any man. People who I was tagging I would tell them why and what they can do. If you are in the right hands you aren't in any harm. Ps if you are a left handed orthodox fighter that's an advantage in my eyes especially if you can go southpaw too eventually. I find I got harder with me left but I find it more awkward to throw. Are you a tall guy? If so a strong jab can be your main weapon and a good jab is hard to beat
Take a 3 punch combination, nice advice. Anyone who has genuinely boxed would not say or do that. Sparring is for learning and gaining experience, just do your thing.
From my own experience, i find its better to learn how to become relaxed and composed in a combat environment initially. If your muscles are all tense your body will use up more oxygen and you'll gas, same as if you constantly throwing power punches you'll be shattered. Like if you throw power punches at the bag constantly for a round your ****ed, so imagine the same but some geezer trying to knock you out. So one way I learnt to how to become more relaxed in sparring was for the first few weeks doing body sparring or jabs only sparring. You become way more relaxed knowing where the shots will be going or even just knowing that your not going to receive a massive bomb to the head, it saves you from yourself as well in making you learn how to pick your shots, parry/block shots and not always looking to land the big hayemaker. Once more relaxed introduce full sparring. Human instinct is to move away from danger, but in boxing your moving towards it, once this becomes 2nd nature, confidence will grow and you'll learn more.
Always spar with better opponents but don’t let people take libertys on you. If you spar with guys not as good as yourself come fight time you will be found out imo. Don’t spar if you aren’t fit, end up taking needless punches, you only get one brain!
Can I ask how come you box orthodox when you’re left handed? Bit of an unrelated question but were you just advised to do that or does it feel more comfortable? I don’t see it being too difficult to switch to southpaw if you’ve only just started to box and it might suit you better in the long run.
As said before which I forgot to mention, jab only sparring or body sparring is a really good way into it. Later on my trainer got us sparring where only one could jab and the other couldn’t throw anything Really good learning
