Here is chapter 19 of Jack Dempsey's Championship Fighting published in 1950.
Chapter 19: Your Sparmate
"Before you can learn the moves in aggressive defense, you must get a "sparmate" - some chap who can toss punches at you and who can be a target for your counter-punches.
In Connection with that activity, let me give you a bit of advice. At the beginning of this book I pointed out that it was being written for any 'healthy' boy or man - from twelve to thirty - wo desired to learn to defend himself with his fist. I'ts natural that anyone who is neither crippled nor under a doctor's care should imagine himself to be healthy. And usually he is. However, just make certain that you are physically okay for sparring, I suggest you have a doctor give you the once-over. The object of such an examination, of course, it to make sure that your heart will be able to stand a bit of strenuous activity. After getting the green light from a physician, go ahead and arrange for practice sessions.
If you're in a locality where you can practice in a gymnasium, you'll probably be able to find someone there who'll spar with you. I use the word 'spar'; but you'll do no actual sparring during your first eight or ten sessions with a sparmate.
Use the early portion of each session to perfect your punching moves against a live target. Then, you can devote the latter portion of each session to defense. Follow that rountine at each of your first 10 sessions, at least. If you try to spar too soon -before your defensive and countering movements are learned correctly - you may develop bad habits, careless moves."
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As you begin each defensive and countering with your partenr, DO IT IN SLOW MOTION a few times before speeding it up. It would be best if your sparmate were a chap about your own weight, although that is not essential in your early practice sessions. However, when you actually spar later BE SURE that your parnter or partners are approximately your weight. If you scale less than 175 pounds stripped, NEVER spar with anyone who out weighs you more than twenty pounds,even though he may be a raw beginner.
If you register more than 175 pounds, try to limit your partner's advantage to 35 pounds.
In practice and in sparring make certain tha both you and your mate use BIG TRAINING GLOVES - 12 or 14 ounces gloves. Until you are an experienced performer, let no one tempt you to practice or spar with 8 ounce gloves used in amateur tournaments or with lighter gloves used in professional bouts - five or six ounces. You can find the big gloves at almost any gymnasium, or you can buy them at almost any sports-goods store."
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"DO NOT BANDAGE YOUR OWN HANDS for early practice and sparring. Unless you know a first-class trainer who can show you exactly how to wrap up your PARTICULAR hands, forget about bandages and tape. Improperly bandage fist are more likely to be injured than bare fist.
For protection against accidental low blows or knee raises, you should wear an up-to-date scrotum protector, made of tough fiber, leather and rubber. Such a protector can be obtained at a sports-goods store.
Don't worry about headguards and rubber mouthpieces until you're ready for amateur competition.
Wear regular boxing trunks and soft leather boxing shoes if you can get them. If you can't, wear an old pair of trouser and tennis or basketball shoes. Be sure they are SHOES and NOT SLIPPERS. The shoes comes up around the ankle and helps prevent truned ankles. In either trunks or trousers, you can strip to the waist; or you can wear ashirtif you need warmth. If necessary, however you can practice and spar in regular clothes, right out in the street. BUT MAKE CERTAIN THAT YOU AND YOUR PAL ARE WEARING BIG GLOVES.
Now that you have a sparmate and gloves, we'll begin the study of defense."
End of Chapter 19.
Next time: Chapter 20 General Defense and Blocking
ttt
M.G thanks a huge amount for posting this on the forum, but I need to ask you a question.
What's with all the " quotes?
MG, you are, and always will be, THE MAN!
TTT
Bump
ttt
TwoSecondKO,
Good question. I guess I'm just trying to emphasize that what I'm posting is exactly from the book word for word.
Also in the book, there are some italized words and phrases, and since I can't replicate that I put the word(s) in quotes or capatilize them just to maintain the emphasis that was place on them by Dempsey.
Also another thing I do is I make frequent posts that is a few paragraphs long because I have, on a few occassions, typed out alot of pages into one post only to have the entire thing erased; I had to therefore had to retype the whole thing over again. So I do frequent posts with a few paragraphs because this way I know that what I am typing will post immediately.
Yeah I agree this man is a living legend. Not many people are great enough to post a book worth $100. Massive respect to m.g.
m.g I'm maybe putting it into a PDF/Acrobat file and I'd prefer if I had it more like in the book. Some paragraphs are in quotes but some aren't.
As for certain words in quotes I'll just change to italics.
What modifications in general would you say I should do to make it more like the book?
pictures j/k
TwoSecKO,
will you be able to email the pdf once all is said and done?
i would've done one too, but since you are doing it, i can concentrate on other projects. thx.
I can't email you I haven't got a pro acct. But it may take a while to make the PDF I'm having a few problems with the free printer drivers(for certain reasons I can't use a pirated version of the real Acrobat).
I'll have it on http://tsko.cjb.net/cf when I do it.
M.g can I edit out the quotes and put in italics when necessary?
I can't email you I haven't got a pro acct. HUH? what does having a pro acct have to do with having email? there are free web-based email like yahoo and hotmail.
TwoSecondKo,
Sure. No problem. In fact you really don't have to ask me just go ahead and do it.
As far as modification that you can make that will make it more like the book, well just italizes the quoted statements and phrases in the text as well as the capitalized statements and phrases. In the book they are originally italized
archive!!