Expert: Jackson Rose - 7/2/2006

Question
hi a was just wondering how to start up boxing because i have had intrest in the sport for a fiew years i have being weight training for nearly 6 months and max out at 80 kg.

im only 16 and would love to start up boxing i was wondering what to eat and what to do training wise

and would i lose my muscle from weight training if i started boxing up.

please get back to me thanks  

Answer
Marc,   The weight training your are doing is very beneficial to boxing. The more muscle the better. Although, remember to stay flexible and do plenty of stretching before and after your workouts. You will not lose any muscle as long as you continue to at least do a maintainance type of routine in the weightroom. So you don't want to stop hitting the weights try to incorporate the weights into your training routine on your off days from boxing. Boxing makes you lean, it doesn't add much muscle size but it improves your definition and muscular endurance.
As far as your training, boxing is 80% conditioning and 20% skills. For conditioning you will mainly run, jump rope and do a series of excercises. I would start with 3 mile run every other day. Work on improving your time each outing. Start learning to jump rope for 20 minutes and try to be as consistant as possible. You will do this in place of running when the weather is bad. Get a good leather rope that is fast. Your excercises will consist of crunches, leg raises, pushups, if you have access to a medicine ball let someone throw it into your stomach 3 sets of 20. Start off light until your stomach builds up a resistance. On the other excercies you should do one minute on the crunches and leg raises and 30 seconds on the pushups 3 sets each.
For your skills, start working on your jab first. Then your right cross (assuming your righthanded, if not, just reverse everything). Next comes the lefthook, right uppercut, left uppercut and then the rightook. These are the only 6 punches in boxing. There are variations of these but there are only 6. Master each one before moving on to the next one. When you get them all down, start putting them together in differnet combinations. You then need to start working on defense. The most important part of defense is keeping your hands up in front of your face. Get in front of a mirror and start moving your head from side to side in a smooth rhythem with hands still up. Then start moving your feet. Never cross your feet over, you always keep your feet seperated and stutter step everywhere you go to maintain leverage at all times. After a while you should feel comfortable enough to start throwing your jab while moving, then you should begin throwing combinations everytime your stop your feet. Keep you hands up all the time.
Just remember to take it one step at a time and dont jump ahead to fast. There is lost of repitition in this sport, it's just a matter of who has mastered the skills the best and who has conditioned hardest.
I'm glad you have chosen boxing, it is an awesome sport and I'm sure you'll love it.
Keep up the weights and slowly ease into the boxing routine. You are at a great age to start.
Best of Luck,
Jack "bnimble"

www.heavyweightcontender.com