Nerdcore Boxing

I think body punching is probably the most feared skill in boxing. This notion often seems counterintuitive to beginners,  everyone is afraid of that big shot to the head. But I think most experienced boxers would tell you that they cringe at the idea of facing a good body puncher.

After you face one it becomes obvious why they are so dangerous. They stretch your defenses, they dish out a lot pain and they play on your fear of fatigue.

Body punches are a multi-headed threat:

• Body punches can cause KOs. Take a good shot to the kidneys or liver and you’ll go down paralyzed. I’ve personally seen a guy take 2 minutes to get up after taking a left hook to the liver.
• They effect your breathing, especially if your ribs get busted or badly bruised.
• They sap your strength. Nothing is more frightening than gassing against a fresh boxer.
• Head punches are alarming, they bring about blackouts or unconciousness, but they don’t cause overwhelming pain. Body punches on the other hand can really hurt.
• Body punches stretch your defenses. Defending the body often weakens the defense of the head.
• Body punching is a rare skill, so most boxers don’t get a lot of practice defending against this attack.

I’d say I’m a novice level body puncher, but I’ve gotten on the road to becoming a good body puncher. So far the skills I’ve developed have been very welcomed in my game.

Unsanctioned Events

Unsanctioned events are not “sanctioned” or regulated by any of the governing bodies. There are a number of different types of unsanctioned events.

“Smokers” are events for inexperienced boxers to obtain ring experience before getting sanctioned. These are usually put on by boxing gyms to groom new fighters before their official amateur careers.

Since so many MMA schools have boxing and kickboxing programs, these days you’ll find mixed shows (kind of like smokers) with unsanctioned boxing, kickboxing and MMA all on the same card.

A relatively new type of event is “White Collar Boxing.” These are fights setup for professionals or white collar folks that want to mix it up with their peers.

There are also specialized boxing events for different types of organizations such as high schools, colleges, fraternities, police, firemen or military.

Toughman competitions are unsanctioned events that pay audience members to fight in the ring. Because they are paid, it makes the fighters into instant “professionals” and has the side effect of thereafter making them ineligible to compete in amateur boxing.

While I’m sure there are some tough guys in Toughman competitions, generally they are not thought of very well in the boxing world. Toughman pay is far too low for professional boxers, and an aspiring amateur wouldn’t take $100 (or whatever it is) just so they could step in the ring and destroy their amateur career.

Sanctioned Fights

These go on your official amateur record and are generally considered more prestigious than fighting in the unsanctioned events.

Amateur boxing has a number of divisions:

Divisions By Age - Generally fighters are matched up with opponents near their own age. For instance the masters division is for fighters 34 and older. There are also groupings for underage boxers.

Divisions By Experience - Sub Novice is where you start out as an official amateur boxer. Once you have over 4 fights you graduate into the next grouping. The Open Class is for fighters with over 10 fights and is 4 rounds vs. 3.

Tournaments

For registered amateur boxers with official records there are a number of tournaments: Junior Olympics, Olympic Qualifiers, Golden Gloves, Bronze Gloves, etc.

This post is a continuation of Boxing Tips: Sparring Comfortably, Part II.

As I developed in the ring beyond basic defense, some endurance and jab, I recall encountering these stages:

Stage 4: Getting Distance Right

Really to develop a decent jab you’ll have already developed some sense of distance. But now, even though you can find your opponents head with the jab, you might find you fall into the trap of reaching. Reaching refers to starting to throw the punch little too soon during the step forward. If you have this bad habit you’re probably wondering why good boxers always seem to slip your jab.

But even when your jab develops there is still a lot to learn about distance. I found getting distance right has a lot to do with getting used to contact. When you get closer to your opponent things get dangerous. Yet you need to get into range and come forward to land.

Watching a new boxer’s cross is often amusing, it’s kind of a girly pawing punch. But most people go through this stage so don’t be embarrassed. Partly it’s because the boxer is simply afraid to come forward.

Stage 5: Seeing Punches Coming & Slipping

It’s the punch you don’t see that hurts you. If you saw it coming it probably didn’t land cleanly. You need to gain the guts to watch the punch as it flies into your mug. You especially want to watch the big punches. If you close your eyes or turn your head then you’ll have little chance of slipping or rolling.

A trainer once said to me, “If you’re going to get hit, you might as well see the punch coming.” Following this advice dramatically improved my defense.

Stage 6: Telegraphing

I found when I first started to develop my cross, hook and uppercuts, I’d telegraph them, (meaning signal that I was about to throw). I’d cock my right, or start the punch by raising my elbow. Before my hook I’d pause to shift my weight to the left.

Ask your sparring partners why they can always slip a particular punch, they might be able to help isolate the problem.

Stage 7: Building Your Arsenal

Learning to regularly and cleanly land more than a jab against a good boxer can take some time. But by this time I had developed some comfort and the fun really began.

Well it’s been 3 days of training and I’m so happy to be back. Sitting at home eating pizza and watching TV can be fun, but during your downtime you really forget how fun training is. At this point I’d much rather be in the boxing gym than in front of my TV.

I wish I could say I followed my own conditioning advice on getting into boxing shape, but I’m still pretty sore from coming back. During my downtime I did do some drills to keep up my punch output, and as a result my arms and shoulders are fine. Unfortunately due to the fact that I was babying my ankle, I skipped on the cardio and jump rope. As a result, in my training sessions, I dragged my butt in those areas.

I went to the doctor yesterday and he pointed out a few interesting points. I never thought of this ankle as a weak link in my chain, but when we went over the history of injuries there were quite a lot. I’ve broken this ankle and sprained it 6-7 times over my entire life. That’s enough injuries to build up a good measure of scar tissue.

My doctor approved of what I’ve done so far but said I should have stayed on the anti-inflammatory longer. Apparently it’s possible to still have a swollen ankle 2-3 weeks after the injury (which I still have). So 2 more weeks of rest and another regiment of anti-inflammatories. If it’s not better in 2 weeks I’m getting an MRI.

While I’m on the bench I’ve been coming up with creating ways to continue my boxing development. I’ll post about them later. Stay tuned.

Some of you might have noticed my decreased post frequency. Well I tweaked my ankle a little bit doing some light shadow boxing. This is the 3rd time I’ve hurt it in a month and I’ve decided to take a vacation. Maybe it’s a bit too long of a vacation, but I’ll be back training and posting hard on Monday.

Happy training and enjoy the weekend!

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…

“The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.” -Muhammad Ali

Have a great weekend of training!

This past Saturday I weighed in at 171 lbs, one pound down. When I decided to train for amateur boxing my original goal weight was 174.  When I approached 174 I revised the goal to 170, then more recently to 165.  Beating goals makes me happy. 

It seems like exercise programs gain a head of steam and provide the greatest effort-to-benefit rations after you have been in them for about 3 weeks. This seems to be the case after I increased the intensity of my cardio.