Hi
Over the years I’ve done a few different martial arts, but I’ve realised I’ve never been taught to punch properly. The obvious solution would be to join a local boxing club, but this isn’t possible at the moment.
A local boxing club offers private lessons, but I couldn’t afford these on a regular basis. I was wondering if it would be worth having a few hours of lessons to work on punching technique and then practise on my own punch bag?
I’d appreciate it if anyone on here with boxing experience could let me have their opinion.
Thanks
If it’s not an open door gym that produces winning competitive fighters it’s not worth shit.
Its what I’d call an everyday, community boxing club - open to everyone, lots of local kids, quite cheap, I think they’ve got one pro boxer. Apparently, the coach is a qualified amateur and professional coach, but I don’t know what that really entails?
You say that it isn’t an option to join, but that they do private (expensive) lessons which you are considering. I am probably not being too smart, but I’m struggling to get my head round that one. Either way, good technique is what you can land in the ring. Lots of people can be bag champions, fewer can reproduce those skills in the ring. If you really want to learn how to punch effectively at a human being (what else is the point of being able to punch?), then you need to spar with decent boxers.
Short answer - private lessons are a waste of time for anyone who wants to be able to punch to actually hit someone.
The reason I can’t join a club is more to do with time than money (own business and a young son who needs driving to various clubs & lessons), and I know a one to one lesson is going to be ten times the cost of a club night, that’s why I was only considering a few of them.
I also agree that actual sparring is probably the best way of training, but I’d have to train regularly for a time at a club before they’d put me in the ring, and I haven’t the time to do this (If I had the time I could train boxing 3 nights a week for only £2.50 a night).
Way I see it, if all I can do at the moment is train with a punchbag, then I’d like to be doing it properly and if a few lessons are going to set me off in the right direction then they’d be worth it for me. I appreciate that working a bag is limited compared to sparring (lack of timing, movement etc), its better than nothing.
I didn’t start feeling truly confident in defending myself until I joined an American Kickboxing gym where we had classes on boxing technique and Kicking technique both together and seperately. It was then when I started getting punched in the face I started to become a better fighter. Spared hard at other schools in my martial arts background but they didn’t allow hits to the face. It was pretty much full contact sparing with headgear, shin pads and gloves.
So to answer your question, I would say to seek out a good boxing gym with teachers who are willing to teach and not just throw you to the dogs. I’ve seen a lot of schools that treat new commers as chum and just throw you to the sharks for them to feed on. You don’t want these types of schools. You want teachers who are qualified and know what they’re doing, but willing to let you experience gradual contact for you to start your learning process. Sign up somewhere good, get hit in the face, make friends, discuss technique and become a better fighter/the fighter you want to be.
I trained a little bit to box a number of years ago and I found these videos very refreshing in terms of relearning basic technique. Others exist in the series.
