Nerdcore Boxing

Many people want to get in shape before beginning boxing training. While recuperating from injuries I’ve used the following fitness rules of thumb to ensure I don’t get too out of shape. These are probably good guidelines for those wanting to ease into their first boxing class.

I must say I hesitate to give these rules of thumb to those who haven’t started training. Fear of pushing your body past it’s limits is the biggest barrier to development. Instead learn to embrace how the boxing gym environment pushes you. Continually showing up is the fastest path to boxing skill.

Here are my 4 rules of thumb, some modified for beginners:

1. Cardiovascular Fitness

I do an intense 2 hour boxing class and spar 3-4 rounds afterwards. To do this somewhat comfortably I look to be able to run at least two 8 minute miles. To start a boxing class, being able to do moderate intensity running or biking for 15-20 minutes is sufficient.

2. Jumping Rope

If you can do two 3 minute rounds, you’re where you need to be. You’ll get pushed harder than this, but that’s what trainers are for.

3. Punching

If you’re taking a class as opposed to a traditional gym, you’ll get a rest while holding the mitts for another person. If you can do 4 rounds of bag work, shadow boxing or mitt work at home, you’ll survive. Don’t worry if you don’t know how to punch right, just punch for 4 rounds.

I’m looking at more like 6-8 rounds and being able to do the “300 Drill,” or throwing 300 punches in a 3 minute round.

4. Calisthenics

You should be able to do 3 sets of push-ups and 6-8 sets of ab work.

Good luck, and don’t forget to show up!

One thing I want to do with this blog is profile individuals in combat sports that typify the scholarly warrior. This is a distinctly old school character, often going unnoticed in modern society. I’m talking about the gentlemen dualist, the educated samurai class, the men that once made boxing the sport of gentlemen.

Today’s society often contrasts intellectuals with thugs. Tough men are stereotyped as uneducated thugs, while the highly educated are often cast as weaklings. But as you’ll see from my new blog feature, this distinction doesn’t often hold true.

I want to profile my first Nerdcore Warrior by pointing you to a very interesting fellow by the name of Steve, author of Lawyerboxer.com. Steve has a Law degree, was a former IT manager/analyst and is currently a writer, prolific web publisher, businessman and serious amateur boxer. I can’t think of a better way to cover Steve than sending my readers to this excellent post, Pledging the Fistic Fraternity: A Brief Boxing Story.

Go to a doctor! I might be a big nerd, but I’m not a doctor. This post is based on research I’ve done on the net and is for educational purposes only.

Ok, I got the disclaimer out of the way. I hope you find this information useful. So far it’s been a great help with my sprained ankle.

Sprained Ankle Basics

Ankle sprains are one of the most common sports injuries.

Your ankle is held together by elastic ligaments. Sprains occur when these ligaments stretch past their limits. This might also involve tears to, or in, the ligaments.

The most common sprain is cause by damage to the Talofibula ligament shown in the picture above. A bad sprain may also affect the Calcaneofibula ligament on the bottom.

Types of Sprains

You should have a doctor diagnose your sprain. But in a few words, here are the basic types of sprains.

• Grade I - Slight stretching and some ligament damage. You may not even see any swelling on a Grade I sprain.
• Grade II - Partial tearing of ligaments. May cause some joint “looseness.” A Grade II sprain would involve lots of swelling and difficulty in walking.
• Grade III - Complete tear of the ligament which takes many weeks to heal

The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons has a nice chart laying out details on the different types of sprains.

The First 48 Hours Are Key

Once the swelling and inflammation goes down you’ll probably regain a good bit of mobility, and hopefully loose your limp. In the first 48 hours make sure you RICE your ankle! In case you’ve lived in a cave for the past 10 years, R.I.C.E. stands for Rest, Ice, Compression (wrapping it) and Elevation.

Moving your ankle and regaining your range of motion are also key.

Rehabilitation
If you don’t make your ankle strong again you face re-spraining it. To begin this re-strengthening program you can do range of motion excercises:

Alphabet Writing - Write all of the letters of the alphabet with your foot.

Achilles Stretches - A familiar stretch for boxers, I need not elaborate.

Most of the strengthening exercises are also common to boxing. Toe raises or jump rope, cutting drills, running in a figure 8, etc.

Balance is heavily dependent on ankle strength and sprains can leave a lasting affect to your balance. Proprioception is the body providing feedback to the brain. Ankle proprioception can be damaged following a sprain, leading to problems controlling ankle movements. Range of motion and balancing drills such as standing on one foot can re-develop these.

For more information on ankle rehabilitation, checkout articles on About.com and the Orthopedic Association of Portland.

Prevention

Besides strengthening your ankle you want to avoid reinjuring it as the ligaments continue to heal. Go buy some tape and wrap your ankle before working out.

If you’ve never wrapped an ankle before, I found an excellent video on the eHow.com.

Good luck and happy rehabbing!

I bet before the yuppie boxing and girl boxing days, a very high percentage of boxing students sparred. I bet it used to be common for trainers to pressure people to spar. Today lots of students don’t spar and I rarely see trainers put any pressure on beginners to spar.

In my opinion everyone should spar and at least to get a taste of real boxing. You won’t appreciate what boxing is really about until you spar. There’s a lot more than making a punch look good in the mirror. There’s defense, knowing when you’re safe, where to put your head. There’s what punch to throw, when, at what angle, and against which kind of fighter. Hell, 80% of boxing can probably only be learned inside the ring.

You can have a lot of fun “cardio boxing,” get in great shape and add a little adventure to life just by stepping into a boxing gym. But no matter how much effort you spend on your skills you won’t know if you’re doing it right until you can do it against a quality opponent.

During sparring I twisted my ankle twice over the last 3 weeks. Much to my frustration, this second sprain is healing slower. Instead of moping about my injury I’ve been doing some research on ankle injuries which I’ll post this week.

I’ve spent my time working on tucking my chin and covering with my shoulder on my straight right and developing my overhand right. I’ve also been watching film of great boxers that attacking their opponent then exit at angles where it’s safer (this generally requires your opponent to pivot before following).

Even when injured you can always ask yourself, what drills can I do? What new skill can I spend this extra time on? Even if you’re in a full-body cast you can always watch film…

I am proud to say I was a UFC fan back as far as 1995, I even started grappling that year. Now that MMA is mainstream, many fans are having to catch up on their MMA knowledge. One of the biggest misconceptions I encounter amongst new fans is anti-grappling.

MMA Strikers Are Grapplers
Take a look at some of the top strikers in MMA: Andrei Alovski, Gomi, Chuck Liddell, Fedor, George St Pierre, Cung Le. Is it a concidence that most of them had extensive wrestling backgrounds before going into MMA?

Some MMA History
Watching today’s great MMA strikers can be quite deceiving to the untrained eye. It fools one into thinking that it’s easy to keep the fight standing against an MMA fighter. This is not the case.

Before greco roman and freestyle wrestlers flooded MMA and brought the sprawl, it used to be commonly believed that it was impossible to keep the fight standing. This period was when MMA transitioned from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu’s domination to wrestlers who could box a little (Marco Coleman, early Randy Couture, etc.).

Sprawling: The Real Anti-Grappling
Avoiding the ground doesn’t have to do with becoming a better striker, though it helps. You might think, “When they grab me I’ll start hitting them hard” — wrong! There is nothing easier than taking down a flailing striker.The most important anti-grappling skill is the sprawl.

Checkout this excellent instruction from Iowa State coach and wrestling legend Cael Sanderson:
Video: How to Sprawl

People unfamiliar with training at a boxing gym might be slightly intimidated by the environment. There’s no reason to be.

Boxing gyms are diverse places housing thugs, wannabe tough guys, criminals, kids, yuppies, women, amateur boxers and celebrity pro boxers. Due to the testosterone overload you’d think there would be a lot of tension at boxing gyms, but I’ve almost never seen it.

So much of masculine behavior is posing and attempting to display power: a man’s image, his dress, his tatoos, the way he walks around other men. There’s often a hint of violence behind these things, no matter how deeply buried. But in the ring it doesn’t matter how many tatoos you have, how long your criminal record, or how many untrained fighters you’ve beat up. To get in the ring and face another man in combat cuts through all this bullshit.

It takes a special kind of person to box, and these unique people develop a natural kinship. This bond goes across all boundaries, no matter race, nationality, creed, socio economic status or criminal profile. Boxing is the great equalizer.

I don’t care who you are, where you come from, or what you look like, if you keep your mouth shut and work hard you’ll fit in.

This is the second part of my two part series of posts on how to evaluate a boxing or kickboxing gym. (See: How to Evaluate a Boxing Gym - Part I)

Watch Out for Frauds in MMA and Kickboxing
Boxing is a more regulated and popular sport at the amateur level, so frauds aren’t that common. MMA and kickboxing on the other hand are infested with frauds. With the rise of MMA, every mini-mall McDojo is looking to hop on the bandwagon by adding the words, “kickboxing” and “MMA” to their signs.

Don’t just ask if they train fighters, ask around as to their reputation. Buyer beware.

Legit Gyms Train Fighters
Use the following criteria to determine if it’s the real deal:

1. Is sparring available?
2. Does sparring occur regularly?
3. Does the gym regularly train amateur fighters?

If the answer is no to the above three questions, it’s likely a cardio-boxing or watered down martial arts class. Of course make exceptions for a brand new gym that hasn’t recruited enough boxers yet.

Again, when in doubt ask around. What do other nearby gyms say?

Equipment
They should have a boxing ring, heavy bags, double end bags, focus mitts and lots of mirrors so you can watch your form. Most gyms have speed bags, but they are probably overrated. If the gym is missing one of these pieces of equipment I wouldn’t worry too much, but it should have most of the above.

Pricing
Boxing has traditionally been a poor man’s sport. Free training is out there. Inexpensive gyms typically run $30-50/month. You’ll also find well known pro gyms that let you in the door for $50 or so per month, but require additional hourly rates to get time from trainers.

Similar programs at MMA/kickboxing gyms often run $70-300/month, with MMA being on the higher end.

Happy hunting!

If you just want to get into shape there are many cardio boxing programs out there that will do the trick. But if you really want to learn to box and think you might compete someday, you’re going to need to learn how to pick out a good boxing gym.

Types of Gyms
Here are some of different types of gyms. Note many gyms fall under more than one of these categories.

1. Gyms with Classes - These are run a bit like martial arts schools, except the classes are a lot more physical. The class advantage is that you won’t fall through the cracks, each student is put through a specially designed regiment. The disadvantage is a lack of individual attention and having beginners hold (or try to hold) punch mitts for you.

You may notice some more experienced boxers only selectively participating in classes. These guys spend a lot of time working out between classes and during class are busy working on specific things (or possibly avoiding crappy mitt holders).

2. Traditional Gyms -Traditionally speaking, boxing and Muay Thai (as trained in Thailand) doesn’t have classes. Trainers hang around the gym and work with fighters individually or direct them to do bagwork, shadowboxing, calisthenics, or setup sparring. Since there are no classes, you get the benefit of flexible training times.

3. Mixed Gyms - Kickboxing and MMA gyms sometimes have boxing programs. Generally these gyms have large facilities, but training times are often inflexible due to the panorama of classes.

4. Pro vs. Amateur Gyms - This distinction generally only exists in traditional boxing gyms. Some gyms specialize in pro fighters and some in amateur fighters. Pro and amateur are actually completely different boxing styles. Beginners should stick to amateur gyms in my opinion.

Trainer Attitude
A boxing trainer trains boxers. They don’t run the welcome committee. When it comes to new arrivals, this is what a trainer sees:

• Say a sample of 400 people visit the gym to watch or workout
• Probably 100 of them become regulars
• 25 progress far enough (and are willing) to spar
• After the initial beating, 8 of them spar more than a few times
• Only 1 of them competes

In the first session you’re just one of the 300 people out of the 400 who won’t come back. Should the trainers politeness in your first session be a factor? No!!! Don’t rate the gym on the trainer’s initial gruffness with you. You start out a nobody, you’ll have to train hard to earn respect and build a bond with your trainer.

Stay tuned for Part II in this series.

I run into people online all the time that are training themselves because they couldn’t find a gym, even though they live right next to one.

Don’t just look in the phone book and then give up! Gyms can be difficult to locate, but every major city has them.

Resources to Locate Boxing and Kickboxing Gyms
The best method to find a gym is to go online to a boxing, kickboxing or MMA forum and ask for recommendations in your area. Some major forums worth mentioning are Sherdog, AX Kickboxing, Underground Forum and Eastside Boxing. Note Sherdog and the Underground Forum, being MMA forums, have sub-forums for MMA, kickboxing and boxing. You might need to post on more than one of their boards.

Here are additional resources:

1. Try looking for on-line gym directories. Here are some good ones: BoxingGyms.com, BoxingHelp.com, Fightfind.com and AXKickboxing.com.
2. Search Google Local using your local address. For example, “Boxing gym, Los Angeles, CA.”
3. Call up any nearby gyms you do find and ask if they can tell you who else is around. They may not tell you, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.
4. Go ahead and check the phone book, though you probably won’t find much.

Remember MMA, Boxing and Kickboxing Overlap
Many MMA schools have boxing and kickboxing programs. Many kickboxing gyms have boxing programs. If you want boxing, don’t only look for “boxing gym” listings.

Other Organizations
YMCA’s have traditionally had amateur boxing programs.

I’m not sure if you’ll be able to get serious training there, but check out your local colleges, sometimes they have classes or clubs.

Self Training
Can one train themself at home? No!!! You need a trainer. You need to be around trained boxers.

If you’re going to take this ill advised path, at least take a long drive to the nearest gym once and a while. Workout with a trainer, get some tips, get your form corrected and then work on these new things at home.