Boxing Gyms – 3 Golden Rules To Survive Them!

Boxing Gyms – How to Survive Them!

Before we get started, let me make one thing very clear. Being an active, competitive boxer requires that you attend one of the many boxing gyms scattered throughout many towns and cities across many countries all across the world. Even in those countries where professional boxing is banned (for example Norway and Sweden), there are a wealth of well-run amateur boxing gyms where the skills and techniques of the noble art will be taught at a very reasonable price.

It being the case then that there are many boxing gyms and it will only be by a quirk of geography, a lack of desire to box competitively (that is you only wish to box for personal fitness reasons) or some medical-type reason (for example acute agoraphobia) that might prevent you from joining one of the community boxing gyms, I wanted to write a short article for you which provides three pieces of golden advice if you are about to cross the threshold of one of the boxing gyms in your area.

Rule 1:

Don’t feel the need to go and spend a pile of cash on sparring gloves, head gear, boxing boots etc. Keep it simple in the short term. You will need, as a minimum training clothes and shoes, boxing wraps and shower gear.

That’s it. You don’t even need in the short term to buy bag gloves or a skipping rope as the gym will undoubtedly provide these. As time passes and you make a decision as to whether you like being around boxing gyms, then you can spend your hard earned cash on the bag gloves, skipping rope, boxing boots and gum shield. All other gear will continue to be provided by the gym. In fact, you might want to avoid buying gloves for the purposes of sparring as the coach will often want to assess their suitability to be used in his or her boxing ring. On a number of occasions I’ve had to disappoint boxers by refusing to allow them to wear their freshly imported Cleto Reyes 16 oz gloves for sparring because of the paucity of padding in the knuckle area! For more on this, check out the 6 things to know about boxing gloves article.

Rule 2:

When you join, don’t feel hard done by that the coach does not immediately drop everything in order to give his or her undivided attention to you. The reality of most boxing gyms is that the coach is extremely busy and their time is very much at a premium. Whilst being busy is often not an entirely acceptable excuse for ignorance, there is a much more logical reason for them to, as you see it, disregard your considerable efforts. So, what is this reason? It’s simple really, they are testing you!

In boxing gyms of old, the number of young boxers wishing to participate in the sport probably outnumbered modern patronage by at least 10 to 1. Back in the day, when human rights were less of an issue, the main method employed by the coaching staff to measure the commitment of a particular individual was to throw them in a boxing ring with little or no guidance, against an experienced sparring partner, and allow the slaughter to commence. After a few evenings of such blood-letting, if the newcomer kept coming, then their commitment was deemed not in question (unsurprisingly) and the coach would honour them with some advice and guidance…everybody’s happy!

Nowadays, coaching staff have to be a little more humanistic! The most efficient way to measure the commitment of an individual in the modern gym environment is to ignore the individual. In fact, many coaches go out of their way to utterly blank the individual. If that person just keeps on coming to the gym, then they have proven themselves worthy of the coach’s attention and their journey to boxing superstardom has begun!

Rule 3:

Watch and Listen! This might seem like obvious advice, but it is critically important. It goes without saying that you must listen (and obey) your coach. It is also worthwhile considering that in some cases challenging what the coach says often brings benefits as it demonstrates an inquisitive mind. Be careful though as depending upon their coaching style the coach might appreciate the debate unless of course they employ a more authoritarian approach in which case you’ll probably find yourself in the midst of a storm of press-ups!

As importantly, watch the other boxers in the gym. Boxing gyms have a varied mix of skill and experience levels. As a novice, watching the more experienced and skilled boxers when they shadow box, spar, work the heavy bag, or anything else for that matter, will help you learn. Success breeds success! Be warned though, don’t make it too obvious, you might give the wrong impression, if you know what I mean! If you have any doubt, ask for advice from the boxers themselves. Boxing gyms are a melting pot of learning and by and large all are considered equal. In my experience, boxers tend to be very giving in their guidance to less experienced peers, so make the most of this and soak it up like a sponge!

So there it is, rules for survival in boxing gyms. Keep these tips in mind, and you’ll not only survive, you’ll positively prosper!

Any comments or questions, leave them below and I’ll try my best to respond!

Cheers

Fran

by