Nerdcore Boxing

For those new to sparring, this post lays out what I remember to be the stages of my progression until the point I became comfortable sparring with good boxers. If you haven’t sparred yet, in addition to reading this you might want to start developing pre-sparring skills.

Stage 1: Basic Defense

No matter how hard you try, new boxers seem destined to keeping their hands down during the initial rounds. Forget trying to look like Sugar Ray Leonard the first time you spar. Set a modest goal such as keeping your hands up. Try overcompensating, put them extra high.

Other basic defensive goals are, stay calm, don’t lose your temper and generally try to circle away from your opponent’s power hand.

Stage 2: Endurance

The first major barrier to sparring proficiency is getting your wind. When you start sparring will probably be the first time you take roadwork seriously. Not only will lack of endurance rob you of the latter parts of rounds, but it will make you afraid to do certain things when you’re fresh. Best get to work on your sparring endurance training.

Stage 3: Developing a Good Jab

Against a good boxer, you’ll have difficulty landing punches at all and likely the first punch you will land regularly will be your jab.

To be continued…