Thinking of getting into boxing...

[PunchDrunk]

Get Joe Frazier's book, Box Like The Pros. It will give you an idea about how to start boxing.

Great advice! Get a book, do NOT go to a gym!!!

[KingDosia]

Great advice! Get a book, do NOT go to a gym!!!

FOR REAL, The book will never give you an idea of how you are going to feel about boxing. Just what Joe's idea of the experience is, or would be for an amateur. You got to make up your mind and put that first foot foreward. The gym is where your career will begin and your performance there, not in the ring will determine the outcome.

[fraidycat]

To paraphrase Elvis Costello:

Reading about boxing is like dancing about architecture.

[KingDosia]

Get Joe Frazier's book, Box Like The Pros. It will give you an idea about how to start boxing.

Potatoes is full of great advice today! first weights are useless and now get a book to see if you want to box.
I hope that people in these forums are researching advice given to them by other members here. The **** is getting thick

[fraidycat]

Potatoes is full of great advice today! first weights are useless and now get a book to see if you want to box.

I didn't even realize that that piece of stellar advice came from Potatoes. Is there an IGNORE button?

[KingDosia]

I came across a pretty good article that should also be mentioned, While considering taking on this life challenge "that being exactly what boxing and all combative sports is" Mentioning the heart of this beloved sport

The fighting sports are amongst the most difficult athletic pursuits known. Most sports require a high level of physical conditioning and mental preparation, but only the brutal one on one competition of a fight can so absolutely invoke the primal survival instincts that each of us posses. There is something raw, wild and unyielding that occurs when a fighter steps into the squared circle. Preparing for this activity requires more than physical preparation, it also requires spiritual strength. What motivates a fighter to go on despite immeasurable fatigue, pain and injury? Standing alone, almost naked and facing an opponent bent on knocking you out is a very unnerving experience. Doing that more than once could be considered insane! Champions not only do this many times, they thrive in this environment.

Miles of roadwork and heavy bag punching will not prepare you for the moment when your opponent lands a crisp punch and destroys your equilibrium. The human nervous system is a marvel of evolution. It allows us to think, move, create and express ourselves in many different ways. Unfortunately, it is also subject to the forces of physics. Disrupted nerve impulses lead to all sorts of alterations in cognitive, emotional and motor ability. A fighter that receives a hard blow on the chin could find himself suddenly dizzy, disoriented and unable to move the way he wants to. Does a champion admit defeat and quit the fight? Hell no! He summons up his spiritual strength and fights on. The old timers call the ability to do this heart. It is what separates champions from every one else. The most physically gifted athletes in the world will never achieve success if they fold when the going gets tough.

How does one go about training his �heart?or spiritual strength? This is something that a lot of us are born with to some degree. We all know people with an absolute can-do, never give up attitude. Despite this truth, spiritual strength must also be cultivated. A fighter needs to forge himself in a crucible of focus, discipline and hard work. Each day pushing himself to do more and be more than he was the day before. It starts in the gym, doing one more round of sparring, attacking the bag with ferocity and determination, getting out and training in the cold, wet, uncomfortable conditions that all of us must face if we are committed to winning. Staying disciplined with preparation and making oneself impervious to pain and resistant to fatigue through training, training and more training develops it even further. But training alone is not enough. You can develop a great deal of physical skill and toughness through training, but spiritual strength must be taken a step further.

You have to ask yourself how bad you want to win and be prepared to do what it takes to achieve victory. The time to ask yourself how bad you want it is not when you are reeling from a hard combination. When the day comes, and it will come, that you must fight through the pain and punishment being inflicted upon you by your opponent you need to already have an answer to that question. You must know deep down in your soul that you will be victorious at all costs.

Don�t hide from the truth. Live in the world of the absolute. Boxing is a brutal business, and you will be hurt in the ring at some point during your career. The hidden key to boxing is knowing that truth, accepting it and being prepared to fight through that hurt when the time comes. You must go about all of your preparation for boxing with this fact in mind. This type of spiritual strength is not developed over night. It takes time and work. Don�t wait until you get your bell rung in the ring, get to work today preparing yourself to deal with and overcome adversity. Boxing is perhaps the most challenging sport of all. A boxer requires a unique blend of speed, strength, and endurance. In addition to these qualities, he must stand up to the punishment inflicted by an equally matched opponent. To withstand the inevitable pain and fatigue, the boxer must possess a mind that is as tough as his body.

Boxing is not just about getting into shape and mastering the tools of the sweet science. An equally important aspect of the fight game is having the mental fortitude to succeed. Boxing is unique from other sports, as a fighter must stand alone inside the ring. Even legendary trainers such as Eddie Futch and Angelo Dundee would exit the ring during rounds.

Regardless of your abilitiesf, the time will come when you must battle fatigue. You may be hurt or injured, yet forced to continue. Boxing is not like other sports where you can look to the referee to call timeout. Instead, you must fight until the bell rings. You have the option to quit, but real fighters never will. Real boxers fight regardless of the adversity faced inside the ring.

A strong mind can help during these difficult times. The mind is a powerful tool that some never learn to control. For example, all boxers understand the importance of running, watching their diet, and training hard in the gym. Why then, are some fighters in amazing shape, while others only mediocre? Why do some fighters have difficulties making weight, while others weigh in perfectly every time? The answers to these questions lie within the mental discipline of the fighter. It is easy to cheat on your diet and easy to skip your roadwork. Unfortunately for many, boxing is not an easy sport.

A day in the life of a fighter consists of an early wakeup, followed by a morning session of running. Many fighters are up by 5:30 and running by 6 AM. While most people sleep soundly, boxers are out running the streets. Roadwork often consists of hills, sprints, and torturous intervals. The morning session is far from enjoyable, yet because of its importance, a fighter commits himself to it. There will be days when you are tired, perhaps you stayed up late, perhaps it is raining outside, or the wind is blowing feverishly in the winter. Boxing is different from other team sports, as many of the decisions must be made on your own.

What makes you decide to run, while others may choose to sleep? The decision often comes from deep inside. The man who wakes to run, runs not to look nice on the beach, rather he runs to inch himself closer to victory. He may be preparing for a regional amateur tournament, perhaps the nationals, or even a professional world title. At some point, you must decide on your own, how bad you want to win.

There will always be fighters who sleep, and others who wake. There will always be those who mess around at the gym, and those who train until the lights go out. You will have days when you�d rather not train. On your way to the gym, you consider driving past, yet you stop and turn towards the gym parking lot. Mentally, you must be strong to succeed in this sport. No one can make the decision for you to train. The decision must be made at the individual level. The best trainers in the world are only as good as the students they train. They can provide motivation and advice, but ultimately, the decision still rests in the hands of the fighter.

When you decide in your heart, that you want to succeed, your mind will take over. You begin to make boxing your sole purpose in life. You have to eat, sleep, and dream boxing to be the best. If you don�t, rest assured that someone else will. This is not a sport you play. This is a sport where you can get hurt. Boxing is a sport for warriors, those that are strong both mentally and physically. We will all face fear and doubt, but with dedicated training and experience, we learn to quell these feelings.

Consider the wait in the locker room before the bout. You are often left by yourself, while your trainer works with other fighters. You try to envision the fight in your head. There are times when you doubt yourself, even question your conditioning. Thoughts race through your head, but you remain calm showing no visible expression. You must hide your concern from the fighters around you. You shadow box to loosen the tightness fashioned from your nerves. When fight time comes, these thoughts quickly vanish. You rely on your training and fight your heart out. Through experience, you learn to overcome the anxiety. You realize that you are not alone, rather one of many who have faced such feelings.

The wait in the locker room is enough to break the average man. Most men have never been involved in a fair one-on-one fight. Most have never been punched in the face. For this reason, most cannot comprehend the feeling of sitting and waiting to do battle with another man, whose soul purpose is to knock you out. He has sweat and bled in the gym for one reason, to hand you defeat. You must face this challenge alone. Your friends and family can only watch from outside the ring.

If you lose, you must make the decision to get back up and fight. When a boxer loses, many are quick to call him a bum or over the hill. These people don�t realize that boxing is just like any other sport. It takes time to learn and master the techniques. You must learn from your losses and live to fight another day. No one can instill the mental toughness and work ethic required to become a champion. You must dig down, deep within and find these qualities on your own.

Train hard and believe in yourself. Through hard work, you will gain confidence in your training. Boxing is a sport that does not involve luck. Boxing is a sport that rewards those who work hard and overcome obstacles.

Make the choice. Train like a champion and you can become a champion.

[Southpaw16]

I'll start by saying you need to search inside you and see if this is really what you want to do. It's not a cakewalk, It is the hardest thing you are likely to do in your life time. And to me it sounds like you are doing it to satisfy your peers. This thing takes passion like you wouldn't believe. I get up at 3:30 every day to do my road work, thats 4 miles at a better than comfortable pace, then spints, pushups and burpees. 400 meters of carying a 100 lb bag matched with more sprints or stair climbing for four sets. Thats just the start of my day. I spar 10 rnds later on after work my warm up for that is 4 rnds jump rope, 4 rnds speed bag and 4 rnds shadow bowing. You can see that there isn't much of a personal life. I do have three off days all during the week so I can utilize my time on the weekends. Off days only apply to the gym still do roadwork.
And this is just to stay sharp, training for a fight is a whole different story with making weight and such. This takes guts man sheer guts. You can knock out a hundred guys on the street and it don't mean **** here. Boxers are warriors. Is that what you want? 16 is the perfect age I think. a lot of guys think you need to be younger, but thats not true. This skill can be picked up quickly if you train the fundementals rigorously. I have heard of 30 year old's starting there pro career and having a nice record. So your fine with age. Its the heart and desire that you have to question and test. Do you have what it takes?

Your regimen is very impressive. I box amateur, and when training with a lot of intensity, I think that 10 hours a week total is a reasonable amount of training time. I am guessing your are a professional?

[Cutthroat]

Yeah I've got the heart, once I'm determined to accomplish something I won't stop. I don't have much of a social life either thanks to my dumbass school. My classess are filled with juniors and seniors so I don't try to make any friends. I was talking to my mom, and she said if I ever do want to start boxing she'll just call up my dad's friend Johnny who's got punching bags and all this stuff. Before I was i interested in boxing he brought over a lot of things, like some bag with water in it, a punching bag, some gloves, head gear, and some other stuff.

[Verstyle]

A LOT of people want me to get into boxing all these mexican guys. They say I have the body for it (I don't know what that means), but my dad was a boxer and he won golden gloves before, I'm not sure how many times though. He made a lot of friends like that, and now all of his friends want me to get into boxing. My mom's bf (RIP to my dad 1995) wants me to get into boxing, his uncle who was also in boxing (fought professionally) wants me to get into it too, he also offered to train me. I'm interested in boxing a lot too, I'm just not sure about it. I have to get into shape first, I've got to drop a lot of weight. I'll also have to work on my endurance, I've got powerful legs but I can only go for short bursts of speed. I can't punch for crap with my left, I depend on my right hook to fight. I'm uncertain about how hard I punch like if it'd hurt someone, I'm undefeated in a game called bloody knuckles (30-0) but that doesn't prove **** cause that's how much pain you can take with your knuckles. I've punched people before and they say it hurts bad but I've never punched a boxer before who's used to that stuff. I can take a lot of shots to the face and body and I've got A LOT of heart, I'm very stubborn when I'm fighting someone I won't give up. I'm 15 turning 16 in October, if I start when I'm a little older than 16 will it be sort of like a "late" start?

come on over to my gym. plenty of kids your age to spar

[eazy_mas]

all your trouble will go away by time if you train hard and well.