Apollo’s Boxing tips – Sparring, Sparring in boxing is a massive part of training to box competitively whether you are boxing white collar, amateur or boxing as a professional sparring is important.
Sparring like all aspects of boxing training can be done in many ways however at a lot of boxing gyms sparring is used as a way just to replicate a boxing match so it is at 100% intensity the same way a boxing match would be, this is not wrong but it is just one way of sparring.
Boxing sparring is basically the closest way of actually being in a boxing contest so obviously is a very important part of boxing sparring however too much hard sparring can end with one or both or the sparring partners injured.
A lot of gyms in America only ever use sparring in the way of replicating a hard fight, one gym in particular the Mayweather gym in America have dog house rounds where there is no time limit on the round and the boxers just spar until someone gets knocked out or gives up.
At Apollos Boxing we like to be a little more intelligent with our sparring and as well as full sparring we like to break down our boxing sparring into different sparring drills below I will list three types of technique sparring we like to use at Apollos Boxing in Bolton –
Body Sparring – Body sparring is specifically just throwing shots to each others bodies, this reduces the chances of injuries to both the boxers faces but allows both boxers to work on setting up their punches and also working the fundamentals of boxing such as timing, distance and setting up their attacks.
Jab Sparring – As everyone in boxing will know or anyone who has ever watched a boxing match or even a boxing film the jab is the most important punch in boxing, during jab sparring you are not only forced to work on your jab but also to work on defending the jab, after all if the jab is the most important punch in boxing then its the most important punch to take off your opponent. again during a jab spar you will be working on your fundamentals that are necessary is all of boxing such as timing, distance and setting the jab.
Defense and attack – Working defense and attack with your training partner basically means you take turns with one of the boxers first working on opening up your partners defenses while your opponent tries not to let any shots land and swapping roles every thirty seconds. At Apollo’s boxing in Bolton we feel like this is one of the best ways to get our boxers and MMA fighters defense’s sharpened up but without risking too many injuries.
As well as three different boxing sparring drills above their are probably over a hundred different variations of technique sparring that we incorporate into our boxers and MMA fighters down at Apollos Boxing in Bolton to improve our boxers specific technical areas.
We are not saying that full hard sparring is not useful or a pointless exercise but it is something that we don’t believe in doing too much of, it also depends on the boxer we are working with, what we are saying that to prolong our boxers amateur or professional boxing career we work on different areas in sparring rather than letting our boxers get hit in the head five days a week.
The other problem with full sparring all the time is you will not be working on new boxing skills but more so working on areas that you already are competent with for example if you are more of an outside back foot boxer such as Muhammed Ali then it would be a good idea to work some boxing on the inside or in the clinch.
There is no one way of boxing or competing in an amateur boxing or professional boxing match that will guarantee that you will win so it is a good idea to improve all areas of your boxing and technique sparring is a way of forcing you to work on weaknesses so that you can get comfortable in what was an uncomfortable position.
If you are interested in improving your boxing technique for an up coming amateur boxing match, white collar boxing match or even a professional boxing match then please contact us down at Apollos Boxing and fitness in Bolton where we can help improve your boxing technique and strategy.