fIGHTERS ONLY( WHAT WERE THE RESULTS OF YOUR 1ST TIME YOU EVER SPARRED

They put me in with a 13-14 year old when i was 16..... the kid was smaller than me and i was too afraid to hit him and got a row from my trainer telling me to hit him so i landed a right upper cut and he had to hold on to me (not really proud of it tbh)

So after that they put me in with the welsh amatuer champ or a runner up to it i cant rly remember and started jabbing and throwing a few hooks but fair play i couldnt land because his defense was pretty good. he was a bit shorter than me and a lot lighter but for the first round he gave me a lot of trouble and kicked my ass.

2nd round i stopped head hunting and went to the body and made him drop his guard and he went for a straight right to the head and by chance it just about skimmed my head and i countered with a right of my own and sent him against the ropes and started throwing 1 or 2 combos and the bell went. was actually proud of myself minus a bit of a swollen eyelid but its all part and parcel of the game.

Sadly stopped boxing for a while cos of personal problems but im starting back in january and cant wait

 

I went three rounds with two different guys. Two rounds with a coach, and one with another "first timer".

I was very nervous, but thought I would do ok. My trainer told me that coach was an older guy (50) and I had to pull my punches. He told me "Jab only. No big shots or he won't work with you."

I'm overweight, but I run and workout quite a bit, so thought I would be OK cardio-wise. I was WRONG. By the middle of the first round I was sucking wind and he landed a counter right over every jab I threw. He was in great condition and had MUCH better technique. I stuck to the game plan, and only threw the jab while he threw whatever he wanted. The trainer didn't say anything to him, so I threw an occasional straight right to back him up. Whenever I got aggressive the trainer said "WHOA take it easy". Meanwhile, the other guy was pounding me in the forehead.

Second round I was in with the other "first timer". We were both nervous. Circling, jabs, circling. Finally, he shuffled up to me and started flurrying on me. Trainer kept telling me "Don't go straight in!". Mid round, I was TIRED, and so was he....but I was worse. Near the ropes he flurried on me again, nothing hard, just quick 1+2's. I came around with an ugly overhand/haymaker right and and wobbled him, spun his headgear around, and I thought he was going down. Between the ropes and my bad technique, it was just enough to keep him on his feet. I backed off and everyone yelled at me "WHOA! WHOA WHOA! Is that guy OK? You are just working in there!!!" We finished the round with me sucking wind, exhausted and him a little too weary to come in and get close.

Round 3. A repeat of Round 1 with the coach. I was more settled down, and was just trying to answer punches and give more than I got. Also, I wasn't going to let any of these smaller guys flurry on me because I was the only one following the "we are here to work the jab" nonsense. This guy was throwing everything at me, so I threw some big shots back to keep him off me. When I realized he was timing me, I mixed up my punches and landed a jab+uppercut. That was my highlight of the round. When he would hit me, I would get wild, go straight in and get countered all over the place. He did lose balance dodging me and fell into the ropes, got up claiming "I slipped I slipped!" He didn't slip.

Anyway, that was my first day sparring.

I learned a lot about me.

1. Get in better shape.

2. Don't count on the other guy "coming in to work" instead of trying to take you out..

3. Mix up your punches.

4. Don't come straight in.

5. Try to stay calm

6. Don't turn your head away when getting hit.

7. Don't believe visitors when they say they are "first timers". That guy had been training for years, was just his first time AT OUR CLUB!

 

I was confident before going in, not nervous at all (unlike now!). I had been practising technique and fitness for a few months and I just wanted to show what I could do. Had soem image of being a reincarnation of Roy Jones in my head

I was put in with a really hard hitting kid who had 3 fights. He was a lot short then me but probably about the same weight if not a coupe of kilos more. At first I didnt do too badly actually, my defense consisted of some kind of awful backing off shoulder roll but I managed to land a few. Coach said something like 'Attack him, he goes to pieces' though and he went for me. From what I remember I was pretty unsuccesful from then on in, coach was shouting at me to throw 3's and 4's at a time so we had this sort of scrap in the middle. For the last 5 ten seconds I was exausted and took soem big shots. If the coach hadnt called time I wouldve been on the floor in about 2 shots.
Ended up with a badly bruised eye.

 

Got knocked on my ass. Feels like a lifetime ago now.

 

Did three rounds with my trainer and was so gassed (mostly from nerves) that i thought i was going to vomit. Dropped my hands a lot, got my feet tangled, backed up in straight lines, and was nervous to throw! I'd say it was a typical newbie sparring session!

 

Learned why the coach was being anal about where my hands where. The first time you get hit over a low lead hand or caught with a right hook the lessons become "real". Next time in drilling I was like a sponge. I also remember the desire to get in and once in? I felt kind of eager, but at the same time reluctant to escalate and trust in what I learned. Miss that ish.

I had crap sparred before though with a bunch of guys that were wild like I was before that, but I don't count those.

 

I had been used to sparring in a traditional martial arts style where we conditioned the body, kicked only below the waist, and sparred without protective gear. Lots of shin and forearm conditioning and punches to the stomach since I was about 12.

My father had shown me a lot of boxing punches and I worked with him but he had never really hit me in a boxing match, just worked with me.
I went away to college and decided to join the boxing team, so this would be the first time I sparred in a real boxing sense.

They had a bunch of cards you filled out with your weight and kept track of your sparring there. Not many guys as light as me, so they threw me with guys who intended to make 125 lbs but had not yet. The guy pulled out the weights and looked at the short guy who weighed about 135 and confused us on the cards, as I was the taller and much larger looking guy, though I was only 118 lbs or so at the time.

So for the first minute I played around with him with my double jab and speed and just kind of touched him. All the motions I was used to for years, and I think I had more experience than he had from that martial art sparring. , but I was pulling everything just like I was used to doing with head contact. About a minute in he got desperate and hit me as hard as he could in the nose. Blood sprayed everywhere and I realized two things: that martial art sparring had given me some technique and hardness to my body, but that we never really punched each other in the face. How could I not have noticed that before? The second thing I noticed was that I was an extreme bleeder, and this never went away.

Throughout college my fights were either easy wins or easy losses - ie - I never had many competitive fights. I either overwhelmed the guy with my speed and power or he learned to adapt and, if he could punch, bloodied that stupid big nose of mine until the blood caused the ref to stop it. All four of my losses in college were from excessive bleeding from the nose, and one time it even complete soaked through my underwear. Bleh. It sticks out way past the head gear so hooks and straight shots both catch it, and it is so hard it just kind of breaks intead of moving. Guys like Mosley are completely protected by headgear with their flat nose. So mostly what I remembered is them stopping my first sparring session because of all that nasal bleeding. Lame.

One time I sparred a 185 lb guy and they gave me a full face cage, and I was amazed at how I could compete with him physically without the fear of my nose getting busted up. He was punching me, but the damage was just not accumulating. I think I would have been a decent fighter without this stupid nose, which also impeded my vision when both my eyes watered, and led to further punishment. Never really felt hurt by the chin shots, but the center of my face always took tremendous punishment and really bothered me.

 

I didn't do bad my first time. In with a guy who was returning from training from years ago apparently, he wasn't very good either but i stuck to my guns. The first few arse whoopings came when i started sparring with people who knew what they were doing.

 

i totally gassed out quickly my first time sparring. but i can honestly say my timing was on point. when i was fresh and not gasping for air i would catch the guy coming in with my strait left everytime, also caught him with a right hook before he could land his left hook. the only time he could hit me was when i was too tired to move or think even. that feeling sucked so much, twas a feeling of helplessness. the guy is an amateur fighter that had 3 fights at the time and outweighed me by 25-30 pounds. i remember thinking to myself after we sparred that if cardio wasn't a factor he wouldn't be able to really touch me. the 2nd time i sparred was with the same guy- i tried to remember to breath when punching and to try and stay calm and i didn't gas out as bad this time. turns out i was right-all he could land was a couple of body shots and one right hand i guess you can say landed and grazed my mouth. i used my jab more, strait left was on the mark, and landed an uppercut also. i still need to throw more combinations though.
im hoping i can spar someone closer to my weight next time for a more realistic matchup. if anyone reading this is planning on sparring for the first time my best advice would be to try and relax and remember to breathe when punching!

 

I did three rounds with smaller guy, who had been boxing 4 years by then.

I was about 290lbs of muscle and lots of fat, sparring against guy who was 180lbs of muscle.
He has bigger reach than me and is really fast with his feet

I chased him around and got jabbed in the face, occasionally trying to hit him with big shots.
I connected some body shots in first round, but I was throughout out boxed in the first.

Also I was surprised that my stamina was finished in the end of first two minute round, because even thought I had lots of extra weight, I do different sports like Ice Hockey and football and I have semi good stamina in those.

I naturally thought it would be the case in sparring but my nerves and too high work rate burned my stamina really quickly



Second round
I was too tired to throw constantly, so I just chased him throwing few punches that he blocked easily, getting beat by his jabs and straight rights for most of the round.
He also started jumping in close range and beat me with hard short hooks, giving me little swelling and black eye. I didn’t connect much of anything but couple of weak body shot in close range.
He was too fast puncher for me to answer much of anything, when he was punching. When I eventually punched he was long gone



In third I was more defensive backing down and trying my James Toney imitation in the ropes, with questionable success.
I landed something because he was more aggressive and close range, but most of the round he was just beating me in the mid and close range.

After that session, I remember thinking how ****ing annoying it was, that I didn’t connect any good head shots in three rounds.

 

Got my arse handed to me by a smaller guy who at the time I thought was fast as ****, busted my nose open within the first 20 seconds and had to deal with the thought of blood all over the canvas.. After that round my trainer put me in with another newbie who I just jabbed at for 2 mins coz I was gassed like ****. Had to go home with my White t shirt covered in blood and explain to the mrs what I had been up to asni didn't tell her at the time that was boxing

 

hell if I remember my first spar. that was a long time ago.

 

my first proper sparring session was with a guy who has studided kung fu,boxing and muay thai for 7 + years, i landed one clean punch and this was by switching stance and jabbing him.
his timing and speed was what one him the session we only did 1 round as i was a total noob, before i always used to spar with mates but only to the body (charlie z style) i became quite confident in those matches as i was usualy able to get the better of them but this guy bought me back down to earth.
i like sparring though it shows your strengths and weaknesses
ps. i have never fought amatuer or pro but i intend to take it up now i have stop smoking weed