Switching Gyms/Disciplines

sorry an edit i asked about sparring in a couple months

With that information, I would suggest you are at the wrong gym. It may be the norm where you are, in which case disregard everything that follows.

To me, boxing is a community sport, that has its roots in blue collar attitudes. It is not some yuppy. ‘earn X to be able to afford private lessons and then we’ll talk’ kind of sport. It’s about graft, sacrifice and dedication, and to me, that cuts both ways. Growing up, I had thousands of hours of focussed input from a couple of the top coaches in the UK. Help, advice, tuition, time - all were given freely, and all that was asked in return was that I worked my balls off when I was there, that I was polite and respectful inside and outside the gym, and that I represented the gym to the best of my abilities. That, to me, is boxing. Anything else is someone making a living off someone else’s passion. Private lessons are all well and good, and I spent money I earned in the past from holiday jobs on the odd lesson here and there. They should not be a requirement to advance as a boxer. Had I not taken them, I would have got just the same input.

It can take time to get there, and it can be frustrating when you want to make progress and you aren’t being allowed to spar the guys you want to spar or whatever. But it’s fine as long as there is a good reason for it - ie a coach is watching your development, has a good idea of where you are, and doesn’t want you to get discouraged by throwing you in too hard too soon. What isn’t fine,to me, is the situation you describe above. No partner drills? How the fuck are you supposed to practise? It’s not fucking boxercise. No body sparring? Again, how are you supposed to start building your abilities?

Anyway, rant over. If you can move gym, I would. I personally wouldn’t waste my time in a gym like that. I’d buy a bag and take up another sport.

[quote]LondonBoxer123 wrote:
With that information, I would suggest you are at the wrong gym. It may be the norm where you are, in which case disregard everything that follows.

To me, boxing is a community sport, that has its roots in blue collar attitudes. It is not some yuppy. ‘earn X to be able to afford private lessons and then we’ll talk’ kind of sport. It’s about graft, sacrifice and dedication, and to me, that cuts both ways. Growing up, I had thousands of hours of focussed input from a couple of the top coaches in the UK. Help, advice, tuition, time - all were given freely, and all that was asked in return was that I worked my balls off when I was there, that I was polite and respectful inside and outside the gym, and that I represented the gym to the best of my abilities. That, to me, is boxing. Anything else is someone making a living off someone else’s passion. Private lessons are all well and good, and I spent money I earned in the past from holiday jobs on the odd lesson here and there. They should not be a requirement to advance as a boxer. Had I not taken them, I would have got just the same input.

It can take time to get there, and it can be frustrating when you want to make progress and you aren’t being allowed to spar the guys you want to spar or whatever. But it’s fine as long as there is a good reason for it - ie a coach is watching your development, has a good idea of where you are, and doesn’t want you to get discouraged by throwing you in too hard too soon. What isn’t fine,to me, is the situation you describe above. No partner drills? How the fuck are you supposed to practise? It’s not fucking boxercise. No body sparring? Again, how are you supposed to start building your abilities?

Anyway, rant over. If you can move gym, I would. I personally wouldn’t waste my time in a gym like that. I’d buy a bag and take up another sport. [/quote]

I agree wholeheartedly.

Expensive private lessons are not a prerequisite before you spar. Or they shouldn’t be - not at any gym looking to make real fighters.

just as an update I left the boxing gym yesterday nothing was changing still no one doing pad work, any descent movement drills, partner work of any kind or even more than a sentence of instruction every few days while hammering away on the bag except for a couple of his prize ponies. i would have traded the last three months for a weekend at my old gym.

any way some more fees came up and i couldnt allow that place to take my any more of my money i can do honest bag work at home and actually add important things like footwork slipping and general head movement that i was unable to incorporate at that gym.

so i have a really good bjj gym by my house 5 min drive and i have a really damn good muay thai gym about 20 minutes away bjj would be way easier to get to and more cost efficient and I love it.

can i maintain a descent competence striking at home doing bag work shadow boxing and pad work with my room mate until summer rolls around for me to get back to my mma gym?

Sounds like the right decision - you should have been doing some sparring by now, or at least have seen signs that you were headed that way. One of the best bits of advice I read on here time and again from the blokes who know their stuff is that the best discipline is the one that you can get the best instruction in. Forget boxing if the gym is crappy. Better to be well taught and excel in BJJ than be a shitty boxer. There is nothing worse than being a shitty boxer.

As far as whether you can keep your skills up on the pads with your roommate: that really depends who your room mate is, and how well he knows his stuff. If your room mate is the next Emanuel Steward, there is a pretty good chance you could improve a lot. If he’s more like Martha Stewert then you’ve got fuck all chance of being able to box…

La Flamme,

I agree with LondonBoxer, no real surprise there. We can wait for Irish and Sento to chime in so that I can really go against form and agree with those guys also. I will say that regardless of whether you increase, maintain, or even backslide/pick up bad habits just doing bag/pad work I still support your decision to focus on BJJ while class is in session. You know that the school is quality, so you won’t be questioning the training. This is very important since a large amount of your mental energy/focus is going to go to your studies.

Again, I second LondonBoxer.

However, in the interest of comedy:

[quote]LondonBoxer123 wrote:
If your room mate is the next Emanuel Steward, there is a pretty good chance you could improve a lot. If he’s more like Martha Stewert then you’ve got fuck all chance of being able to box…[/quote]

Bro, Martha Stewert has been INSIDE. Fucking federal time. She probably knows 52 Blocks now.

Regards,

Robert A

Sweet Jesus. I had no idea. There’s another one added to the ‘Girls who could kick my arse’ group. What a depressing way to start a Friday.

I too agree with London and Robert (who woulda guessed?).

In regards to focus mitt/Thai pad drills, like London said the skill and knowledge of the holder is going to determine whether your skills improve, maintain, or deteriorate. If your buddy is used to training fighters, or you know how to coach someone on how to become a good pad holder, then you’ll probably be fine. If on the other hand they have no clue what they are doing you may wind up developing bad habits and actually regress in your striking skills. We really have no way of knowing which is the case, that’s for you to honestly decide for yourself.

If they are not a good pad holder, then I’d actually prefer to hit bags, perform solo rhythm drills, and shadow box for most of my training until you can either develop them into a more capable pad holder, or have access to someone else who is.

thank you all very much for the input and advice. Im really excited to get back on the bjj train i also discovered this gym does do a bit of striking geared towards mma so that will give me a good opportunity to learn and get more things to work on at home. for the next little bit i think il take the advice here for my home training and use shadow and bag work in place of pads. bjj is going to have to wait a week or two until i am capable of financing both enrollment fees and later a gi (luckily the store near me has a reject section thats like 20-70 % off on stuff thats scuffed or not perfect in some way suits me just fine). but that will give me a chance to rehab my shoulder a bit better and put the heavy bag on the floor and do some drills and try to remember how to use my hips/weight

thank you very much to you all! il be sure to update on the new gym