Category Archives for Boxing

One of the things I love about boxing is how affordable it is to start. It lowers the barrier of entry and opens the door for people to choose learning how to box over learning how to do other sports.

There are only a handful of sports where you, by yourself, can progress and learn skills without having to buy a whole lot of equipment.

Even better - if you're at the point where you do need or want some boxing equipment to take your training to the next level - there is nothing spectacular or complicated about boxing equipment and it's possible to improvise most of what you need and DIY with low cost materials. So if you're broke or simply don't want to go out and buy equipment you should consider building yourself a home made boxing gym.

I'm going to show you how to make your own home boxing gym which is every bit as functional as one equipped with brand name equipment.

You're about to learn more about boxing gloves than you really need to know.

Boxing gloves protect you and your opponent. The earliest form of boxing glove originated in Greece (cestus) and consisted of something meant to inflict pain and suffering rather than reduce it. It was basically leather straps that may or may not have things such as studs embedded in them. In short, they made boxing fights good and bloody. 

Lucky for those of us practicing boxing today, boxing became more civilized. We now benefit from boxing gloves made out of better materials based on an understanding of the science and forces involved in punching.

When looking for gloves - you'll find a wide selection of various weights and styles. You may see them called training gloves, bag gloves, sparring gloves, boxing gloves, and so on. So what is the difference?

One of the reasons I love boxing as much as I do is that it directly relates to my profession.

Being in the military, a lot of the strategy and tactics that are relevant at work are also relevant in the ring.

Once you step in the ring, the following tactical principles apply. They are not applied separately but combined to achieve maximum effect.  Base your training and strategy on these principles and you can't go wrong:

At some point in your development as a boxer, you will have to find a boxing gym or boxing trainer that you can work with and let them take you to the next level. As I've mentioned on this site over and over, you can only learn so many skills needed to box from a book or website.

Commando Boxing is great if you're trying to get in shape or just learn basic boxing skills, but at some point, you actually have to box and you need a boxing gym or trainer to arrange fights, venues, and generally manage your boxing progression. You will learn more from a good trainer in one session than you will from every website or book out there.

Boxing weight classes are a way of ensuring that boxers of similar size and weight are matched up.

While one can argue that a true champion would fight anyone, fighting within one's weight class makes for better fights.

Bigger boxers have more natural weight behind their punches. Heavyweights tend to inflict more knockouts but the fighters tend to be slower. Featherweights, on the other hand, are blindingly fast.

Dividing up boxing into weight classes helped to reduce the number of lop sided victories and the ability of boxers to pick on smaller opponents.

Luckily for your wallet, boxing is a pretty inexpensive sport to get involved with, at least when you are first starting out.

There are people out there who will tell you you need every latest gadget guaranteed to help you KO every opponent you have. Don't believe them. All you really need are some equipment and supplies designed to protect you while you provide the hard work and determination.

Where conditioning is concerned - your body is your equipment and a lot of the other boxing gear and equipment can be made at home if your budget is tight.  Discount and used boxing equipment is also available if you look for it.

Boxers will naturally gravitate towards a certain boxing style.

That style depends on many things including the boxer's skill, quickness, aggression, ability to take a punch, and personality.

Eventually as you box more and more, you will probably find yourself fitting into one of the following boxing styles:

• swarmer
• slugger
• boxer
• boxer-puncher

Boxing styles are more of an instinctual thing than a learned thing and in general, when certain types of fighters meet, the outcome can more or less be predicted based on the boxing style each boxer employs.

Try and picture this - you’re by yourself or with your coach in your dressing room or warm up area. You've been skipping, lightly hitting the pads, stretching, and generally loosening up. You feel good, your mind is clear, and you are ready to fight the fight you've trained hard for for many months.

You have a game plan. You know how you want the fight to go and when the time comes you head out of the dressing room and walk toward the ring with crowds of people cheering and screaming on both sides of you. Suddenly, as you realize you’re headed into combat, your pulse becomes a little quicker. Your mind starts thinking irrational thoughts and is no longer focused.

Your field of vision starts to narrow to the point of tunnel vision and you find it harder and harder to hear anything. Your trainer’s advice becomes nothing more than a low mumble in the background. Just before climbing the stairs to get in the ring, you notice your legs feel like blocks of concrete.

So you want to be the next boxing champion of the world?

Well - you're not the only one. I get about three or four emails a week from people all over the world (usually from Africa) asking me to train them or asking whether I think they have what it takes to make it as a boxing champion.

To be honest - I have no idea if you will become a championship boxer.

What I do know is that it will probably take at least 10000 hours of training and a focus on long term athlete development. That is the theoretical minimum amount of time it takes for someone who is relatively talented to achieve elite status in their chosen sport or activity.

Now that I've destroyed your dreams - the good news is that while it takes 10000 hours to achieve elite status - you can get pretty damn good in as little as 20 hours of focused practice. I'll show you how in a few minutes, but first let's talk about how a champion is formed.