4 those that boxed: What were u'r thoughts before the opening bell?

My mates always ask me questions like 'Are you nervous/scared?'

There is no time to be nervous when a guy is punching you in the face.

Once that first punch comes at you, you just know what to do and emotion goes out the window.

 

First time I boxed very nervous won the fight but was blowing out my arse at the end, since that moment on I've just been calm and relaxed, focused on the fight, its not unknown territory now.

Its makes a huge difference to stamina, thats the biggest difference I've noticed

 

just thinking of some combos and trying to anticipate what he's gonna try to do

 

Throw the left hand as hard as you can.

Against opponents whom I knew could take that shot without crumbling, I would try to resolve to throw lots of left hands as hard as I could.

To be young and inexperienced.

 

yeah when me and my trainer do pad work I always think it's just stupid. some of the things he shows me just seem so useless.
one time in the gym I was having a hard time landing the uppercut- always was and is a hard punch for me to score. so we working on that on the pads. I would double jab, feint, double jab, and throw a straight to the body and roll. then I would double jab and try the uppercut to the head, as my opponent was probably expecting a straight to the body.
in a bout I had a few months ago, I did exactly that, and the uppercut connected perfectly. it was probably the cleanest punch I landed in the fight.
I didn't know it would really amount to that.

 

A good, clean uppercut is one of my favorite punches to land. About 2 years ago I was "sparring" someone who was trying to take my head off and I threw a stiff jab and quickly followed up with a hard right hook to the body-right uppercut combination and all 3 punches landed. Felt great, especially when the guy went reeling back into the ropes.

 

Left-handed as crooked voodoo!

 

I always thought about driving my opponent back in a corner with a southpaw 1-2, and sucking the life out of him!

Of course . . . . . .



It didn't always turn out that way:nono



And to John's question about the opponent who looks like he could shread godzilla: Never in boxing. MANY times in amatuer wrestling. We all know physique does NOT equal strength and skill.

 

extremely nervous to the point of near shaking. didnt know what to expect and was completely worried about letting myself, and the club, down. Was more concerned with giving a good account of myself and winning was a bonus. Fear of being embarrassed in front of my clubmates. Thought all the audience were probably on my opponents side and all the usual doubts that enter the mind of a 12yr old novice.

After 30 secs into the 1st round i settled down a bit and got more confident as my punches landed, still nervous but nowhere near as bad. Could hear my father from the back of the hall telling me to jab and that made me feel better. Won on points without being hurt and felt like a million dollars.

We are talking bout first time right?

 

If we're talking about everytime then i must admit i suffered bad from nervousness to the point of almost nausea most of the time. Could never understand that when i got older, cos i was grand when sparring ( a few of the guys were internationals plus older) and there wasnt a bother, even though you knew that sometimes they would go hard on you. Hard one to get my head round.

 

I still have trouble connecting with it. i can easily go to the body with it but it's just hard for me to set up to the head.