Boxing for Beginners | Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid

Having been a boxing coach for almost 30 years, I have worked with 1000s of beginner boxers. Learning boxing is a process, a process of learning a series of basic boxing skills. As with any process mistakes are made, and these mistakes can be common across all beginner boxers. This video details the 10 most common mistakes that I see being made by beginner boxers.

Beginner Mistake #1 – Losing the Line

When it comes to boxing for beginners, pretty much any coach worth their salt will focus on the boxing stance. There are a bunch of mistakes that beginner boxers can make when it comes to the boxing stance, but the first and in my experience most common fault is losing the line.

To give you good lateral balance, enabling you to defend yourself at all times and launch worthwhile attacks, the classic bladed boxing stance has a line running from the toe on the front foot to the heel on the back foot. When I say ‘losing the line’ I mean that both feet end up on the same line – one behind the other. We call this ‘walking the tightrope’.

Walking the tight rope most often happens with beginner boxers as they move forward or as they move backwards. Having your feet in this position is all well and good if you are actually walking a tightrope, not so good if you are in a fight. Boxing for beginners mistake #1 to avoid – losing the line.

Beginner Mistake #2 – Losing Your Front Foot

In a classic boxing stance, the front foot should be at 45 degrees.

I’m not saying that the front foot should be at 45 degrees some of the time, I’m saying that it should be at 45 degrees ALL THE TIME!

I appreciate that in other combat sports this is not true. For example MMA, kick-boxing or Muay Thai. Those fighters have to worry about kicks and takedowns. Kicks and takedowns are not something that a boxer has to concern themselves with, unless the fight has taken a very disturbing turn.

A boxer’s front foot needs to stay in 45 degrees for one key reason – maintaining effective balance. The balance problem is especially relevant when throwing the back hand/right cross. You can try this out. Go through the action of throwing a right hand and leave it extended with your front foot pointing towards the opponent – you will feel yourself over-balance to your left. This is not the case when the front foot is at 45 degrees.

As a beginner boxer, watch for this mistake creeping in when you move backwards, it’s a common fault for you beginners.

Beginner Mistake #3 – Nose and Knee

Another boxing for beginners mistake here, and again one related to the boxing stance. Don’t let your nose go past the line of your front knee.

Generally speaking, we can distribute our weight across the boxing stance for different purposes, pretty much whether we are in offensive mode or defensive mode. For beginner boxers, I like to coach the body weight being on the back leg, or central…never forward.

When I say forward, that doesn’t mean leaning forward. The body weight shifts forward in a very subtle way. When we never do is lean forward and allow the nose to go past the like of the front knee. This is a problem for two main reasons. Firstly, you are lending your body weight to incoming punches. Secondly, you can launch effective attacks.

You may see some experienced boxers lean forward, Floyd Mayweather Jr is a case in point. But here’s the thing, the title of this article is ‘Boxing for Beginners – Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid’. Floyd Mayweather Jr is not a beginner boxer and knows exactly what he can and can’t get away with during every moment of a fight.

Beginner Mistake #4 – Hands Up!

Keep it simple. I reckon that if you simply keep your hands up, in a good guard position, that you will stop 80% of head punches hitting you. You can make minimal movements to execute good blocks and parries. Just watch the top fighters. Whenever they are under threat, or in range, the vast majority of them keep their hands in a good guard position…common sense.

There are a range of configurations you can use with the guard position, from peek-a-boo to a more Eastern European style. The point is, when it comes to boxing for beginners, just have good guard discipline. Take fewer punches to the head, that’s got to be a good thing right?

Beginner Mistake #5 – Stance Narrowing

So we are still on the subject of the boxing stance. Your boxing stance needs to be a certain width. When working with beginner boxers, I tend to push for a boxing stance that is no narrower than the width of the shoulders. We can widen the stance, but we should not narrow the stance.

A narrow boxing stance is the equivalent of a house having foundations that are too narrow. As a beginner boxer, if you let your stance narrow you will not be able to move efficiently (or quickly). You will not have a sound base to drive good rotation for your punches.

This issue of stance narrowing, especially when talking about boxing for beginners, occurs when moving forwards and backwards. So the stance will narrow, sometimes with the feet coming together and actually touching. When moving forwards and backwards, remember to widen the stance and then narrow back to the starting width. Do not narrow the stance and then widen.

Beginner Mistake #6 – Crossing the Legs

In the same way we can break the stance by narrowing as we move forward or backwards, so we can break the stance by crossing the legs when moving side to side.

Think about it, if you move right and as an orthodox boxer you move your front leg first, your legs are crossed. What kind of damage are you going to be able to do to an opponent when your legs are crossed? The answer to that question is not a lot.

So, when moving left or right, open the stance and then close it. So when moving right make sure the right leg goes first (by pushing off the left leg to ensure explosive movement) and when moving left make sure the left leg goes first.

Coupled up with mistake #5, this is a vital boxing for beginners mistake to avoid. Work your boxing drills to ensure good movement discipline.

Beginner Mistake #7 – Telegraphing Punches

Lots of beginner boxers try to hit too hard. The sign of an experienced boxer is that they maintain effective and disciplined technique throughout the fight. They do not telegraph punches, they don’t try to overpower the punches, drawing it back and trying to destroy humanity every time they throw a punch.

So, get the discipline of the punch right. Start with the straight punches, the jab, the cross. Don’t develop any habits such as dropping the fist before the punch, or flaring the elbow as the punch goes. These are really boxing for beginners mistakes and again, much easier to not develop in the first place than have to fix later.

Beginner Mistake #8 – Return to Guard

Some beginner boxers think that the job is done when the punch lands. Wrong!

The job is only half done when the punch lads on the opponent.

Very often I see in boxing beginners the habit of the punching hand returning to the guard position in a very wandering way. The fist can droop and return in an arc, sometimes a deep arc, sometimes less so. Sometimes the punch doesn’t return to the guard position at all and ends up at the waist.

All of these variations have one thing in common – they are bad.

A key boxing for beginners point to remember – you are at most risk of being punched in the face just after you have punched the opponent in the face.

So, when you throw your punch, return your fist to the guard position in the most direct (and therefore fastest) way possible.

Beginner Mistake #9 – Home Hand

When one hand goes the other stays home.

That’s a really simple reminder of the importance to boxing beginners of ensuring that when you throw a punch with one hand, the other hand stays in a good guard position.

As I mentioned in the previous boxing for beginners mistake, your are at most risk of taking punishment when you are looking to dish out punishment.

When you throw a jab, keep your other hand in position around about cheek-bone height. When you throw a right hand, keep the left hand in a similarly disciplined position.

I see a particular issue with boxing beginners when they start the process of learning the left hook. Having mastered the jab and the back hand straight, and doing so whilst maintaining a good guard, problems sneaks in when they try the follow up left hook. The right hand will drop from the guard position. It’s very rare for a boxing beginner not to make this mistake, so be aware.

Beginner Mistake #10 – Under Rotation

For punches to be effective there is a chain reaction at play.

All punches start from the feet, which is a big reason why we need a solid and reliable boxing stance.

There is a drive from the foot, and this drive SHOULD generate hip rotation. Following the hip rotation the arm does what it is told.

Without the hip rotation, there are a couple of big problems. The first problem is that you lose range. With the lead hand it’s a few inches (still very important), with the back hand it’s more than a few inches. In fact, the most common fault I see with throwing the straight back hand is under-rotation.

Under-rotation is the final of my 10 boxing for beginners mistakes, definitely one to identify and either avoid or fix.

Avoid Dumb!

As a beginner boxer you need to avoid these mistakes. If you can avoid these beginner mistakes from the start of the learning process, life is much easier. Once you get past the beginner boxer stage, going back and fixing these mistakes is more difficult than simply avoiding them in the first place.

Remember, 95% of what the elite-level fighters do are the basics…they just do them very well.

The best piece of boxing for beginners advice I can give is to avoid these errors from the outset. If you can see that you are making any of these mistakes, put some effort into fixing them (this means drilling the correct execution over and over again).

As a beginner boxer, and even as an advanced boxer, it’s not possible to be brilliant all of the time. It is however possible to ‘avoid dumb’. Being aware of these beginner mistakes in your style and NOT doing something about it constitutes DUMB.

There you go, boxing for beginners 101.

Cheers

Fran

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