to throwing punches is still fuzzy..
ive been boxing a lot lately.. i admit i dont get even close to the amount of sparring i would like.. but ive been shadow boxing daily for years now.. bag work, instruction.. ect.. but something is missing..
does anyone ever talk about this.. from an instructional stand point... Im looking for the complete mental breakdown when someone is across from you... the feeling out process that you go through mentally.. like what are you looking for..
hope this could spark a conversation where i could get a few pointers from.. thanks guys..
When in the ring facing an opponent, adjust your eyeline so you are looking at your opponent's chest or thereabouts, so you can your opponents feet.
Don't look in their eyes, you'll be easily feinted and won't be able to see their feet.
Learn to watch your opponents feet to see when they are going to punch or move.
When attacking with your jab, aim to land your lead foot directly between your opponents legs.
If you got the how down, the rest is simple.
See open target, hit open targert with appropriate weapon.
I think that your how may need more work.
I have this problem too, I think it's just not enough sparring. Everything else is just trying to teach your body to move, but you'll never be able to really execute it well without enough time in the ring.
We had a packed gym for most of the summer (and tons of sparring partners); I was sparring 1-3 times a week (usually 5-10 rounds/week) and saw a ton of progress in my skills.
A lot of people haven't been coming in for the last couple months, though, and frustratingly I've only been getting to spar once every 2 or 3 weeks. My progress has stalled and my wind is crappy (despite hitting the gym 4-5x a week and killing myself with conditioning, bagwork, and working the mitts regularly with a good trainer). My gym rarely does sparring-related drills, which also kind of sucks.
How often are you getting to spar?
Just jab in the beginning. Once you establish it, throw some straight rights after a good jab connects. Once you got that down you can learn jab-cross-hook, then working body and other intermediate stuff.
Besides imposing combos such as the above learn the counters to each punch your opponent throws.
If you're sparring regularly and have boxed for years, then it's a little puzzling that you're having this problem. Whenever I'm a little rusty and start sparring again, I can usually get by just by trusting my instincts and using a lot of feinting/slipping/movement to throw them off. Then after a few rounds, I'm good to go.
I guess I'd say just make sure you know the counters to every punch, and work on a specific area to improve on each sparring session ie. Work on jab today, defense the next day, etc. Then put it all together. Also, stay relaxed but focused, trust your instincts and just let your hands go. Dunno if that will help you, but it's usually what I tell myself.
There are lots of reasons to punch. As a beginner, you can just throw shit out there and see what actually works. At the very least, you should be jabbing defensively to keep the other guy from attacking all the time. You can hit to set up more powerful follow-ups. You can feint. You can hit when you see an opening.
Watch the pros and look at when they punch.
Do light sparring drills with a low-level guy where you're just doing defense. That allows you to watch and feel your opponent all the time, without the distraction of planning your own attack. You should start to notice times when he's leaving himself open, and you'll think, "If I wasn't just doing defense, I could have really popped him right then." Frequently a beginner will drop his hands after punching or be off-balance because he's trying to throw haymakers. Sometimes this happens when the guy is over-thinking and sits in your range too much while feinting.
It's surprising that you guys go to gyms where you do "lots" of boxing but you rarely do light sparring drills. Sparring is how you test whether you really know how to punch.
"It's surprising that you guys go to gyms where you do "lots" of boxing but you rarely do light sparring drills. Sparring is how you test whether you really know how to punch. "
I am not happy about this. I've only done really light "play" sparring once since I started training (i trained for about 3 months, took 3 months off for school, and have been going back for about 4 months since). it seems like a great way to work everything without getting beat up and really let me open up and try things, but it's pretty uncommon at the gym I go to.
I know I've barely gotten started, though.
I was just a boxing gym rat who sparred fairly regularly for nine years, never did any amateur bouts, so take this for what it's worth.
It's good that you're not doing heavy sparring with only seven months of on-off training. Even the pros don't go full-speed all the time, they save that for training camp. No sparring is bad, but too much full=speed sparring is just as bad, in my limited experience. There are tons of light sparring drills that teach you stuff without ingraining bad habits. For example, you can do an "I-jab-you-jab" drill where you can only throw one jab at a time, and as soon you throw one, you have to wait for your opponent to throw one. I really benefitted from focus-mitt drills where the mitt holder swipes at you with the mitts occasionally to keep you from letting your guard down. You can also learn defense by holding the focus mitts for your partner and looking for openings.
Let me clarify: the gym policy is to spar once a week. We don't try to take each other's heads off very often, but it's hard enough I had my nose busted a couple times (I've got a deviated septum, lol). I've probably sparred ~40 rounds since I started.
I started sparring my second or third week there, but I've got a brown belt in a karate style that sparred full contact kickboxing once a week; not the same by any stretch, but it was enough to let me get started pretty quick. I hadn't trained standup for probably about 4 years, though (dropped the karate for wrestling/grappling and then dropped that for watching tv and drinking).
I was pretty satisfied with my progress for a while, but things have been pretty slack (sparring infrequently, only getting mittwork every other time I go in the gym, etc etc) for a couple months now.
I've only gotten to do defense drills twice, though, and I don't get as much mileage out of trying to block stuff during mittwork (i can do it fine then, but stiff get busted during sparring). We've got a few different coaches (each with radically different styles) which also can complicate things.
I just feel like I need to get more rounds in the ring (preferably at lighter intensities, lol) to make much more progress, but it's getting harder and harder to get on a regular basis. I'm not all that enthused about competing (not against it, necessarily, but it's a pretty low priority right now), but I'm not just in it for the exercise.
These things come and go, though, I'm sure at some point there'll be more sparring than I can handle and I'll have to take time off from getting beat up too often.
Light sparring? I've almost never seen that in a boxing gym, you might have to go to a martial arts, kickboxing or mma school for that. I wish there was more of that in boxing gyms though.
OneScoup - Light sparring? I've almost never seen that in a boxing gym, you might have to go to a martial arts, kickboxing or mma school for that. I wish there was more of that in boxing gyms though.this.