Re: boxing training
 

what's amazing to me is how effective slipping punches is. there are a few guys I spar with that can slip even really fast jabs like nothing. I am pretty slow in terms of reflexes, and even I can slip punches better than I thought would be possible for me.

Re: boxing training
 

That's one of the things that elevates boxing so high as a sport and makes people call it chess with muscles. You have to learn to read people, and quick!, which is endlessly fascinating and razor's-edge stuff against a good or sometimes merely really fast or non-telegraphic opponent. And on the other end, you have to learn to be deceptive and non-telegraphic yourself. It's a great war being waged on a mental and physical level at the same time. Once both you and your opponent have your tools pretty well down, unless there's a big disparity between your physical abilities, a fight can turn entirely on who reads and plays the other guy better.

Re: boxing training
 

you are totally right on re: strategy. I sparred a heavyweight today who is training for a fight on wednesday. he was taking it easy on me but him at 50% is worse than most people at 100%. a few interesting things I noticed:

- I used to have "tunnel vision" and as a result would get hit by a lot of punches I never saw coming (a bad feeling). now I am much better keeping everything in sight.

- usually, I am the slow guy who punches hard. today the roles were reversed, and I really had to dance around the ring a lot more. it's a whole different approach to fighting, like night and day.

- we did a fair amount of work on the ropes, and that's a whole different dynamic.

Re: boxing training
 

I keep wanting to close my eyes when I get punched.

Re: boxing training
 

Very natural and for a lot of people it can be very hard to get over. It doesn't necessarily fix it right away, but it helps if you keep reminding yourself that you shouldn't worry about getting hit or hurt because you WILL get hit or hurt, and that the only way to keep it to a minimum is by gutting it out and fighting through it. You have to be very aggressive even about getting hit.

Re: boxing training
 

Boxing is definitely chess with muscles... also if your interested, it appears someone has already combined the two.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_boxing

Re: boxing training
 

There was an article on that in the BBC the other day:

Chess boxing

Funny thing was, the idea actually sounded less and less hilarious as the article went along -- and it wasn't the first one on this subject I had read. By the end, I was rooting for the, er, sport.

Re: boxing training
 

[ QUOTE ]
There was an article on that in the BBC the other day:

Chess boxing

Funny thing was, the idea actually sounded less and less hilarious as the article went along -- and it wasn't the first one on this subject I had read. By the end, I was rooting for the, er, sport.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is awesome