Sparing and over Protective Parents

[Neogeek23]

I'd like to start sparing boxing and have some home training background. This is my senior year and I'm 17. Two years ago I got a heavy bag and a pair of light bag gloves. For a good 6 months I worked that heavy bag and got some good punches and combinations down. Then I got side tracked by this girl and was on and off in train for a year. For the last 6 months I've gotten back into training much more. I got a speed bag and a double end (headache) bag, and have gotten good with the double end bag. I was doing 20 minutes of jump rope over the summer, but now since school started up I've been too busy to jump rope everyday, I have just enough time to research more boxing and do about an hour of training. I want to start sparing, but I'm not sure if I'm ready. I've been looking for a boxing gym here and there are like none - though I did here of one place and I called left a message and they have yet to call back. I'd like to know what u guys think - should I start sparing or should I continue training more. Also is there any suggestions for over protective parents that think combative sports make u stupid?

 

All help appreciated

[Beiner]

Well assuming its possible, find a gym that'll teach you the moves, condition you further and let you spar with other people. Your trainers won't let wade in over your head.

[Neogeek23]

yea - I'm joining a karate club at school and I'll be learning the basics of judo there - at the very least I'll get some sparing in there. I'll also get some good cross training, b/c if I am right judo is a grappling school and that is good to know as a boxer b/c is boxing's biggest short coming in my opinion.

 

I think I could convince my parents that boxing.... sparing isn't bad for you if I had some kind of statistics - anyone have any or know of any?

[OceanDragon]

Boxing will only make you stupid if you get hit in the head enough lol. Why don't you have your parents come to your sparring and maybe they'll see it isn't too bad anyway. Or they'll dislike it even more. Sorry, never sparred before in my life.

[Neogeek23]

maybe a viewing of a sparring session wouldn't be so bad. I finally did get a call back from that place and they are a boxing gym and are an associate of usa boxing. Then again if they played dirty.. that'd be a bad idea

 

If anyone knows much about USA boxing and their rules regulations ect. please let me know - thx - guys!

[Vito]

boxing might effect the the minds of professionals (like muhammad ali), but even most of them turn out okay. (just for the record, tyson has always been that messed up.) tell them, or better yet do a little research yourself to prove that boxing as a hobby is safe enough.. and has less injuries than many other sports, including basketball.

[Shane]

Training on your own is great, but before you jump in and start going at it sparring, you should get some actual training to help develop good technique and train on defensive tactics so you can defend yourself during your sparring sessions. Also its best to have someone in charge of sparring matches for safety issues. Thats another big one with the parents. Ofcourse they dont want their kids beating each other up, but a controled sparring match is much more safe than just puting on the gloves and going at it. Trust me I know

 

Good Luck and have fun with it!!!!!

[Neogeek23]

Yea - this gym I found is registered affiliate associate or whatever of USA Boxing, which if I'm not misinformed is the boxing organization that does the olymics. So I'd get a well set sparing rules there, but yea - I may not be up to code and ready to spar. I think I am, but maybe not, and if not I will definately get myself their asap. Thanks guys for the feedback.

 

However is there any suggestions for convinecing my parents that boxing isn't nearly so dangerous, and I check online for stats., but everything goes both ways.

[Shane]

I got this information off of the usa boxing web site.

 

http://www.usaboxing.org/ visit this site and click on safety on the left side of the screen. In there they show questions about safety within the sport of boxing.

 

Safety is #1 when training, so find a school that believes in that also. We use to just go at it and I mean we spent more time waiting for bloody noises and water eyes to clear up than we did sparring so make sure you also find a gym with the proper equipment and one that starts you off with light sparring, until you are ready to move up the pace. Getting hurt because of something that could have been easliy prevented is just going to keep you from training that much longer.

 

GOOD LUCK

 

How does boxing compare to other sports in amount of fatality rates?

 

Fatality rates per 100,000 participants

 

Horse-racing...........128

 

Sky-diving...............123

 

Hang gliding.............55

 

Mountaineering........51

 

Scuba diving............11

 

Motorcycle racing......7

 

College football..........3

 

Boxing...................1.5

 

Cited in Cantu, Boxing and Medicine, Human Kinetics Illinois, 1995

[Neogeek23]

Yea - I found that too and showed it to them but their only response was that "of course that says it is safe it is the boxing's site." Though I don't think at the time that time they realized that this was supported by studies. So I will show it to them again. I did also find other statistics that I typed up and gave to them last night - no word yet, but I think a compromise may be at hand (I hope).

 

I have to say I agree completely with you Shane. It may be that the coaches there don't think I should be sparing yet, but I won't know till 10-5-04, when they start coming in. Also if I do spar - I'm not planning on getting over my head you know - what fun would that be? Since they are a USA Boxing Gym associate affiliate or whatever - wouldn't that make there gym have to be up to code so to say?