I know talent varies from person to person but say you have a kid with decent ability, how long should you wait to put them in. I'm just a boxer myself but I think it's stupid when you see kids who've been in the gym about 6 years before there first bout showing off about tearing through novices. Surely it's better after 6-7 years to have a kid with 30 odd bouts with 5-10 losses than a kid with 10-15 bouts with 1 or 2.
No...:huh Lol title change I agree I would rather have the experience with more bouts than training longer with less bouts. I think it's just once you feel comfortable enough to step in the ring and fight.
I've got 1 bout and been training off and on about 4 years. I'm going to literally murder whoever I fight next, and I'm ok with that =D Actually i think a lot of it is sort of my situation. A lot of guys train off and on, never really long enough so they get to the point where they're in shape to fight. Then when they finally do, the skill level is just higher. At least that's what I'm hoping ;p
In my opinion when they are able to spar everyone in their own gym comfortably while doing good too, then being able to spar well outside their gym like exhibition match, then if they good outside their gym then they are possibly ready for matches.
It depends at what point a fighter feels prepared, and just what their goals is. If someone wants to be a pro, they may not care much for their amateur record, and to some even thatg matters. Professional or amateur to some just hate losing a lot more then others. Once you're fighting competitively the pressure is on. Fighters train for fights for months and the pressure is enormous to a lot of one's that aspire to greatness they can learn a lot that way, but when fights are usually months apart, THAT'S A LONG TIME and every lose is devasting, so having too many loses is a little discouraging. I mean their is such thing as loses that feel and teach MUCH MUCH more then wins and even though it was a lose , it's one of those fights looked back on that was just great. But when it's the kind of lose when a fighter says, I could've tried harder, I wasn't comfortable enough, I took the easy way out and gave up that's when reality hits and that lose stings like a dagger to the heart for months. You're disappointed in yourself, wondering if your trainer is disappointed in you. Sometimes it even takes a week until the lose feels real. Of course it's humbling, even to those already fair and humble, and pushes one to achieve more then a win could ever do. But some men have their pride, and a lose hurts to the core. All that training, all the suffering, all the commitment, one's own spirit, personality, courage, and dedication manifest themselves in the ring... but... Their can only be one... In the sacred ring, their can only be one, that leaves a winner, and the other broken... Although they say a bone breaks it heals and becomes stronger then before, in the same way often time, when we break and when we heal, if we take away as much as we can from the experiences that tore as up, then we become stronger too, and train hard enough, that no one can break us again. I believe, that is the unstoppable spirit, not just of a boxer, but rather of a true fighter in it's purest form.
god damn, sadly you just summed up how i feel whenever i lose at something. When i feel like don't do well in sparring this is how i feel also. Although i havnt had my first fight yet and it will be soon, i expect my first loss which i know everyone takes in the amateurs at least once will be pretty devastating but it'll push the guy to the limits to work even harder.
Yep. Just go in there with an attitude to win. And even if a lose does come your way eventually, you only lose the fight, the war rages on as long as you don't quit. Giving up from a lose is the only to truly lose. So take your wins, your loses, and especially your love of boxing and use them as fuel to stay motivated and committed to your training. Set your goals high and work hard enough that you can be proud of your performance regardless of the result. Nothing more can asked of a man.
In the UK, I would say most people have there first bout after approximately 1 year of training (plus or minus a couple of months) providing they train consistently 3 or more times per week. I have seen lads who have clearly been in the gym a long time (e.g 2/3 years +) having their first bout against a lad who has been training about a year. This shouldn't happen. It's not fair on the less experienced lad. it's what we call being "stitched up". Most coaches aim to get their boxers even bouts but a few are more concerned about getting wins rather than the development and welfare of BOTH boxers. Of course, some of the really young lads have been in the gym for several years before they are old enough to box competitively (i.e. 11 years old in the UK). In which case, you have to hope the coaches are honest and match these lads with a suitable opponent. I see amateur boxing as being about development and I think this is best achieved through even contests. I have seen many boxers with impressive records come up short in Championships (when coaches cannot pick and choose opponents). There are plenty of very good amateur boxers with 50/50 or loosing records. This just means they have been matched competitively. I watched a young lad box last year and was extremely impressed with his ability as was everyone else. He was very good. I looked up his record on the database when I got home to find he had won about 15 and lost about 20 ish (not sure exactly). Clearly he had been matched hard (i.e. giving away age/weight/experience). A couple of months later, this lad won the Junior ABA's. All lads should be matched as evenly as possible if development is the aim.
I am of two minds about this. I am a big believer in giving everything to a fighter that he needs before putting him in. By that I mean a proficiency at all the punches and how to defend against them (to fight, not spar), knowledge of how to move and think, on an elementary level, in the ring. You cannot be too careful. On the other hand, you can, in fact, be too careful. Years ago i trained this young man, I had known him since he was 1 or 2 years old, and was (still am) close friends with his father and his grandparents. He was 11 when we got started, and, because he had elaborate braces on his teeth, he was unable to get hit for two years. So I trained him for two years, 4 or five days a week, and I knew, even then, a little about boxing, and had access to people that knew much more, so when I started taking him to gyms, people took notice. His first time in the ring, he and the other kid (he had had 50 amateur fights at that point and is currently 33-5 as a pro), got into a war and he held his own. But I nearly cried every time he got hit; I was scared to death that he would come back to the corner and hate me.(even though it was his own dumb ass that kept walking into right hands) We continued to train, but I never pushed him into the ring beyond sparring. Looking back I cheated him out of seeing how far he could have gone, and in every gym we went to for sparring everybody said he was top flight.
What exactly do you mean by the difference between being proficient at throwing/defending punches to fight, not to spar? I always assumed when I fight it's gonna be similar to a sparring match, only both of us will be throwing much, much faster and harder.
I'm talking about confidence level, to where you know how to jab, then hook, without having to think about it, or where you don't have to think about how to defend. I like to have as much of that as possible straightened out as possible before somebody gets in the ring, through drills, or limited sparring sessions, where you just jab, etc... It is my belief that in sparring, at first, you are learning things like getting your distance on a moving, thinking opponent, that punches back and doesn't want to get hit, and that you should work on out-smarting and out-thinking that opponent. Not on trying to remember how to throw a double left hook. By the way, in my mind the difference between sparring and fighting, between opponent of equal skill, is different than your's. You box fast, you always work sharp, and sometimes the punches may come hard. You are thinking fast and moving fast, you have to in order to get your "slip, counter" timing right. But when you land a punch you step back and don't throw the second or third punch. This, of course, is not the case with boxers of widely different skill levels.
Hopefully, within the first few months of training if you can learn a few of the basics then a beginners novice bout would not hurt. The important thing is not the first bout, but what you do with the experience from the first bout.
That thing about these idiots showing off after tearing through novices. I would not want them in the gym or the ring. If they turned pro, they would be the same type that build up a big win record on the backs of easy opposition and a home town crowd and friendly officials.atsch:fire
