Very fast erratic, but predictable, head movement, bobbing and weaving. Aggressive, will not leave you alone, will do their best to stick to your side the entire match/sparring session, doesn't move away from you, likes to pummel you with hits at close range.

How do you counter somebody like this?

Yall have convinced me to just say F it and join a gym (im 26 and convinced myself i was to old for a long time). Been going for 2 months now, love it, great partners, great coaches, and overall just a awesome place to be(tues/wed/thurs for trainings) and i know its gonna take a long time to improve so i just want to make sure im on the right track with my workouts outside of the gym.

3 days of 3 mile runs, while skipping rope beforehand and after

Breathing excercises from wim hof on youtube nightly

Reflex ball, working on my 1 2 3 with a tennis ball. And shadowboxing (i do these periodically through the day every day pretty much)

What would you guys refine/add? Any words of wisdom for a complete newbie? Thanks all

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kPpcmfQd9ZY

Welcome to the monthly Off-Topic and General Discussion section of the subreddit.

This area is primarily for non-fight and non-training discussion. This is where you talk about the funny, the feels, and the off-topic. If you are new to the subreddit and want to ask training questions please post in the No Stupid Questions weekly sticky. If you wish to post some on topic content to the front page of the subreddit please request flair from the mod team with an outline of what you'd like to post AFTER you've reviewed the sub rules.

--ModTeam

Welcome to the Weekly Amateur Boxing Questions Thread:

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This is a place for new members to start training related conversation and also for small questions that don't need a whole front page post. For example: "Am I too old to start boxing?", "What should I do before I join the gym?", "How do I get started training at home?" All new members (all members, really) should first check out the [wiki/FAQ](http://www.reddit.com/r/amateur_boxing/wiki/index) to get a lot of newbie answers and to help everyone get on the same page.

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Please [read the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/amateur_boxing/wiki/rules) before posting in this subreddit. Boxing/training gear posts go to r/fightgear.

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--ModTeam

Maybe an obscure problem, but I have this issue sparring guys who, for a lack of a better term, simply don't care about being hit.

Basically I spar this southpaw guy, I had serious problems sparring him before because I never sparred a southpaw before him and he would always outperform me as I didn't have an answer to his left hand. As a result I started really focusing on our sparring sessions, trying to figure ways to counter him, I eventually learned to circle his front leg and now his southpaw stance doesn't pose much problems any more.

But, because I was always analysing him I observed something in him that I then started noticing in some other guys as well; he doesn't care about being hit. We'd be sparring, and I'd be landing 3x the amount of shots on him, but he'd just keep coming, he'd have his guard wide open, letting 1, 2 or 3 of my shots through just so he could then swing a wide overhand and land it on my guard. Even if I don't get hit by it directly, even through the guard I feel rocked enough to take notice, so I'd bob and weave out of there and recollect myself, then I'd go in again, land 2 or 3 clean shots just to be rocketed on the guard again with a power shot.

I obviously don't try to knock him out but he's just not bothered by the shots. I made a post a while back about being disillusioned with my boxing gym, and this is one of the issues; the coach treats him like one of his best students, seemingly encouraging this "reckless" behavior, where's when I prioritize defense he often yells at me to "throw more shots" and "be more aggressive". Obviously the coach has more experience than me, but from my point of view that guy is just setting himself up for brain damage. He's in his mid 20's and you can already notice some signs, he doesn't even compete.

I even felt like a pussy before for being bothered so much about it. I take notice of every hard shot I take, I spar regularly and whenever it's medium or hard sparring I first and foremost think about defense, and how to attack while staying as safe as possible, while it seems the encouraged behavior is mostly just to brawl.

Do you have any similar experiences? Am I being a pussy?

EDIT: I've been reading your guys' comments and I just wanted to clarify something, I made this post in part to see if maybe I'm just a pussy and coping with getting rocked a little too hard so I appreciate these comments very much, but just to clarify something specifically:

To the people saying he "doesn't respect my punches" that might be true, but he feels them. I rocked him several times in the past, never dropped him but I touched him just right to see his arms completely drop and him kinda hanging for a second there. I want to remind you guys that I'm talking about sparring here, not an actual fight. When I touch him I let him take a slight breather, I don't go pounding on him after he was rocked, I don't look to knock him out nor do I look to seriously hurt him. Even after getting touched he just shakes it off and keeps coming, this is my issue, the reckless behavior that prioritizes landing a hard shot even if it means eating some damage.

As a short person with terrible reach, I obviously can't be an outboxer like Bivol or a defensive counterpuncher like Mayweather. I will mostly likely have to be an infighter or at least incorporate elements of infighting into my game.

However, I was always a fan of more technical fighting styles, focused on outmaneuvering and outsmarting the opponent. So could I be an infighter that looks like an outboxer at surface level? I would have a bouncier, bladed stance, focused on outmaneuvering/dodging/countering my opponent. When I find an opening, I get on the inside and tear them apart with hooks and uppercuts, aimed precisely at vital spots like the liver, temple, solar plexus, etc, like a normal infighter would. I could also focus on counterpunching, and use my counter to transition to infighting and then end the fight with devastating blows like a standard infighter.

What do you think? It would look something like this https://youtu.be/gfFkX0AWXto?si=MESdz_-C16vBx6X5 (exaggerated of course)

I've been wondering for quite some time now. Are there any boxers with conditioned knuckles? And when i say conditioned, i mean kind of bruce lee's that look huge. I kinda wanna see how much that would affect his punches. Would the padding pretty much make them useless? Or would his punches be insanely hard

After training on and off for 2 years, I have a match coming up in December. It's a friendly tournament on my boxing club ( white collar event? ) we're you fight a teammate for a 3x2 min round for the audience.

I am 41 years old, and my opponent that is matched for me is 52 and has a lot of experience but never competed. Right now, I am 78kg, 5'7 height and my opponent is around 92kg, 5'7. He is more of a counter puncher but can explode when things get heated.

I am training with the experience group, and it's a group that is taking boxing much more seriously. In the past, I trained a few times with this group but normally with the advanced group that is more low profile with sparring on and off.

I train 3 times a week and sparring every training session in this group, I still have 2 months' time left. I often feel like a beginner again because the skill level is a lot higher, and sparring gives me more anxiety now when my opponent is throwing harder and/or is better.

I know the basics well, and I know some typical Southpaw tricks ( I am a southpaw). But my volume of punches is kinda low. Especially when I feel like my opponent is much better. Then, I am waiting for a counter. I think this is not the right approach for the match. So, what is a good strategy without overdoing it? My reach is not long, and I still have difficulty landing my Left-Straight.

I am very excited but also very nervous with all the audience and club members that are watching me.

Goal: 73 to 68kg

I've started boxing 1 year ago, but only trained once a week, and started to train 4x a week 5 months ago. At my gym we do 1 hour sessions which are mainly technique based stuff like partner drills, and at the end we usually do bagwork for conditioning, but we also do push ups a bit throughout the session. At the end of each session we do 3 sets of 10 chin ups and 20 tricep dips.

I was 66kg when I started boxing, and was apparently 16% bodyfat but I think the scale was inaccurate with calculating my bodyfat percentage, since I couldn't see my abs at all, and I looked the exact same as I do now, just weaker. I started eating more, but a lot of it was junk food and I ended up at 73kg, and currently I'm trying to lose weight by cutting out carbs and snacks, and I do bagwork at home for 3-4 rounds 4 days a week.

I was thinking if I should try running/walking 4-5km in the morning, previously I tried waking up at 5 am to run at 6 am after getting ready, but I would be too tired, but since my sleep is now fixed, I'm waking up at 6 am and I'm considering running at 7 am.

Also, 4 days a week, after my session, at night I do 3 sets of chin ups and push ups till absolute failure.

I haven't really been able to find a training plan to stick to and I've always been insecure of my body. I'd like to hear some suggestions for losing fat.

So, I have been boxing for 8 weeks now, and have fallen heads over heels in love with it and my gym. I am just obsessed with getting better. My goal is to just have really good technique and spar really well to where I can eventually compete.

I have a few questions as new boxer:

(1) At the moment, I desperately suck and while boxing takes time, the self doubt that I suck just makes my sessions worse. I can feel my coaches getting annoyed with me when they say a combo and I forget it, or I throw a crappy punch, and that just makes it worse. On top of that I am just so eager to learn and then feel so annoying after I ask a million questions. Basically my sessions can become a whirlwind of anxiety and obviously when I need to focus on technique, I can't. The few times I have sparred have been embarrassing because everything I have learned goes poof. After sparring, I hit the lowest of the low, like ocean-floor low. But I will not give up and want to get past this.

(2) I am a girl and feel like I don't fit in as much, I honestly don't know if I am taken as seriously as others (do they push me as hard, etc.)

(3) As for effective practicing to improve - should I stick to heavy bag practice on my own in between sessions? Right now each week is a mix of mit work, heavy bag classes, and personal sessions. On my own, do I just stick to combos/footwork drills? (also any tips on footwork drills would be a bonus)

Thanks guys!

edit: thanks for all the encouragement!! yall got me excited, I am not giving up.

Because of my height, I try to fight more in the pocket. Many times, I get in successfully, but once inside, I quickly get overwhelmed because often my opponent suddenly starts throwing 'punches' because they feel very threatened.

So I have my guard high, elbows tucked in and standing in the pocket, not really knowing what to do and maybe throwing one or two shots.

They say it's a great advantage to be inside when you're short but still not knowing what to do when things get wild. I try to be composed and stay focused, but it's hard when my opponent starts to unload a storm of punches.

The only time it gets successful is when my opponent stays kinda stationary and keeps his guard high, and then I am working the body and throwing a hook upstairs and sneaking in an uppercut. But that's mostly with beginners.

I'm a heavyweight 115kg (250lbs). I've sparred around different gyms over the past 10 years. Probably done 200 rounds or so.

I'm back boxing now and it reminds me of why I've never properly committed to the sport.

I get almost unbearable anxiety before sparring. I dread it. The night before and on the day I just wanna get it over with. Then during the sparring I find myself in a flow and enjoying it. When I finish I get euphoria, spend the rest of the day replaying the session in my head and the moves I pulled off etc.

I went back to boxing because it helps me to be confident and challenge myself, mentally above all. I want to conquer my anxieties in life.

It's not light sparring or technical sparring and the guys I train with are current or former amateurs and I may even spar a pro soon although I'm nowhere near that level but it's hard to find big guys and they're there in my gym.

As I'm a big guy, I'm afraid of sparring a much better fighter and being knocked out or hurt badly in front of the whole gym. That's my biggest fear. If it were meeting one guy and sparring in private I might feel better.

Never been dropped but I have been rocked badly when I was a beginner by a timed right hand over my lazy jab from an experienced guy and we stopped sparring. I've had plenty of bloody noses etc. I once saw my two sparring partners spar and one knocked out the other guy pretty clean the whole gym saw it. This was at an old school gym that has produced an Olympic champion.

I'm not timid or scared in the ring. Once I'm in the ring I bite down hard as I'm stubborn and proud in the moment.

TLDR: get pretty bad anxiety before sparring but enjoy it in the moment.

EDIT: I also feel like the anxiety zaps my energy and fitness.

Do you practice defending during different points of a combo or just constantly switch between offence and defence while either on the bag or shadowboxing.

I have this problem both in sparring and when practising combos with a partner, which is that every time someone throws a lot of shots or just a powerful one, i get off balance and pushed back. In my most recent sparring session my partner would start throwing a flurry of straight punches, i put up a high guard, but nope, nothing worked he pushed me back with ease. I don't know what's causing this. Is it cause I'm weak, cause I'm not gonna lie my strength is lacking. Is it a stance problem, cause everytime that happens my stance usually gets ruined. I don't know. But it is a big problem.

So I’ve got my first fight in 2 weeks and kinda nervous (obviously). Mainly because I don’t know what to expect.

Ild find it really helpful for any advice and also if you could send me videos of your guys fights so I can gauge pacing, aggro levels etc of what to expect.

Thanks immensely!!!

Today I had my 4th spar session. We did two rounds where one was on offense and the other on defense. Offensively my coach says I'm solid, but I need to practice my defense. He says my biggest flaw is when a punch is coming I freeze up, put up a shell, and look away. It's a real bad habit and I'm having a hard time fixing it. Any reccomendations for drills or ways to fix this habit? I know I need to keep my eyes on my opponent and what I'm doing is just a set up to get hit with a heavier combo. My coach says there are all kinds of defense and I just need to find mine.

https://youtu.be/jH9xIMzWas4?feature=shared

I tried to work on feedback last time where I was jumping too far away from the bag and also trying to throw more power from the ground up into my shots

Also trying to make my shots less telling by doing less tells

I want to put out there that I'm personally nowhere close to my first fight.

My gym works in the way that if you want a fight you get it, just ask the coach and he'll set something up.

But my question is how do you know when you're ready? Is this something that you'll never truly know and you kinda just have to go into it?

As of recently, I've found my self subconsciously "backing up" from certain punches (while also using slips and rolls as well)

I've found this easier for me, as I back up, regain composure, and attack. When I move to the inside, it gets a little rocky and I feel as if a preform better as a sort of "outboxer"

I just want to know if backing up like this is frowned upon, it's not like I'm backing up all the way to the ropes, and I'm going back in a little for the attack, so I just want to make sure this "style" of doing things won't piss off fighters.

Both are great, but which is the better boxing YouTube channel?

Welcome to the monthly Off-Topic and General Discussion section of the subreddit.

This area is primarily for non-fight and non-training discussion. This is where you talk about the funny, the feels, and the off-topic. If you are new to the subreddit and want to ask training questions please post in the No Stupid Questions weekly sticky. If you wish to post some on topic content to the front page of the subreddit please request flair from the mod team with an outline of what you'd like to post AFTER you've reviewed the sub rules.

--ModTeam

Welcome to the Weekly Amateur Boxing Questions Thread:

​

This is a place for new members to start training related conversation and also for small questions that don't need a whole front page post. For example: "Am I too old to start boxing?", "What should I do before I join the gym?", "How do I get started training at home?" All new members (all members, really) should first check out the [wiki/FAQ](http://www.reddit.com/r/amateur_boxing/wiki/index) to get a lot of newbie answers and to help everyone get on the same page.

​

Please [read the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/amateur_boxing/wiki/rules) before posting in this subreddit. Boxing/training gear posts go to r/fightgear.

​

As always, keep it clean and above the belt. Have fun!

​

--ModTeam