My First Experience With Boxing. And Why I Don't Want That To Be Your Experience!

The very first combat sport in which I started training was Muay Thai. I had never even heard of it until I saw Pat Smith in UFC 2 and thought it looked super cool. There happened to be a Muay Thai gym not too far away from me and I had a co-worker who trained there, so he took me in one day to check it out. I am not sure what I was expecting but the experience was a little bit of a surprise. There were people kicking sand bags, punching heavy bags, shadow boxing, some light sparring, someone working with pads, someone skipping rope, and some other drills going on. Trainers might come around and help with something but the problem was, I was brand new and had no idea what to do all. Where do I even start? How do I throw those cool round kicks with my shins? Or those brutal elbows? I kind of looked around at other people and tried to mimic them but I still had no idea if I was doing anything right or for how long I should do it. After a while, one of the trainers stopped by and fixed my round kick a little. I was still pretty lost though. My co-worker helped as well and also told me that eventually, after training for a while and talking to others, things started coming together very slowly and my improvements were small. I wasn't really enjoying it much either so I quit after a couple months and didn't really stick with anything else for another 10 years.

I didn't know it at the time but this is also how many older-school boxing gyms function. They are mostly open gyms, open training facilities, but then also with 1-on-1 training for certain folks. Everybody else show ups, works on your own or finds a partner, and as they get better and better, the coaches may start to spend more time on them. No real structure to the training whatsoever. Maybe this is in part to weed out the people who aren't super serious about becoming fighters, but I can tell you that for me, this kind of system was NOT a good fit. I was a 20 year-old video game developer with no experience other than playing Streetfighter II and watching the Rocky movies. There was no internet back then either (well, it technically existed but mainly for universities sharing information with other universities) so I was totally clueless. I needed someone to tell me EXACTLY what to do. When to do it, why to do it, how long to do it, frequency, etc. This is how I define structure in a boxing workout.

Instead of feeling like the "open gym" format of many boxing facilities made sense as I improved and developed skills, it was actually the opposite. The more I learned myself, the more convinced I became that structure - specifics, planning, timing, clear directives - is necessary to effectively teach boxing (or any combat sport). Even for talented, experienced fighters this is true. I have seen what many of them do in an open gym and I can guarantee their training would be more productive with some structure. Especially when training on a heavy bag. Just noodling around and punching aimlessly is not going to help your speed, stamina, power, reaction time, defense, footwork, anything. Technique may improve - provided you are punching properly - but not as much as it would improve with actual structure. I've also talked to some higher-level fighters who feel like they are “above” something akin to a class format. While I get that they may not want someone to correct their form, practicing different combinations and drills at a faster pace will only enhance their skills- as well as their fitness. Plus, nobody is ever so good that they can stop working the basics. Someone trying to box for the very first time likely starts with the jab and at the same time, someone like Canelo Alvarez is very likely in the gym throwing jabs right now. That is a beautiful thing about boxing. You never become perfect at anything. You just get better and better.

Then for that person learning the jab on their first day, proper structure is critical. A coach needs to tell them what to do, how to do it, why to do it and how to incorporate it into a training session to maximize their time spent in training as well as keep them engaged in the sport. Whether that happens in a 1-on-1 session or small group setting depends on the student. Leaving someone brand new to their own devices may not only not teach them how to box but could even make their skills worse. At our club, everything is very directed. Whether you are boxing for just pure fitness, stress relief, or you want to actually get in the ring some day, we will give you the direction that will take you where you want to go. This is how I wish I had been initially been taught and have seen others improve much faster than I ever did in the system.