My First Taste inside a Boxing Ring
June 13th 2008 05:59
I must have watched the Rocky movies a million times over, but trust me, you don’t want to box the way he does! I had my first experience inside the squared circle and I have to say it is one of the toughest things you can do. I was put through my paces for oven an hour, going through various drills, both offensive and defensive and it has given me a whole new appreciation for the sport.
I think it was summed up in Million Dollar Baby really well:
This is a pretty accurate description of the sport. For your casual observer, who only switches on to watch the Main Event, this is all they see. Mundine-Green was the perfect example. Packed into a pub to watch ‘the biggest fight in Australian history’ every man and his dog was apparently a closet boxing expert. We all believe we know what we are talking about and how we would have fought differently…
But how many have actually bent the ropes back and stepped inside the ring? Felt the mat bounce underneath you and be hit by the reality that no words can save you, it is time to put up or shut-up? It has to be one of the most brazen things a person can do, it is you versus your opponent for the whole world to see, and only you know if you have truly prepared, if you are truly ready. Even though I will never fight competitively, I felt that rush, I acknowledged and felt some connection with the guys who do it for a living.
“To make a fighter you gotta strip them down to bare wood: you can't just tell 'em to forget everything you know if you gotta make 'em forget even their bones... make 'em so tired they only listen to you, only hear your voice, only do what you say and nothing else... show 'em how to keep their balance and take it away from the other guy... how to generate momentum off their right toe and how to flex your knees when you fire a jab... how to fight backin' up so that the other guy doesn't want to come after you. Then you gotta show 'em all over again. Over and over and over... till they think they're born that way.”
This is incredibly poignant. Boxers have to be up there with the fittest people on the planet, never have my arms ached so much, my thighs throbbed so much, my lungs screamed for a break. It is the ultimate test, amongst all this, with the body screaming at you to stop, your opponent moves in, just waiting for your arms to drop, if only for a second. That is all it takes, one lapse, one omission from your body that it is tired and you will experience another form of pain.
I was never put in a position to be knocked out, after all I was only sparring, but what a great description of boxing, it is so clever, so to the point. But it is this next line that really hits home after a session in the Boxing ring…
Now I have played pretty much every sport imaginable and am fairly coordinated, but Boxing has to be one of the weirdest things I have done. Everything feels backwards. In Boxing, technique is everything, with good technique, you can punch up to 60% harder and almost three times as quickly. It is why some smaller boxers hit so hard, their technique is flawless. The power from a right cross is not derived from the right shoulder, but builds up from the toes, the kinetic energy builds like a pendulum all the way up through the quads and hips and explodes like a shotgun. The more fluent the motion the more powerful and effective the punch.
Written – it makes sense, it also sounds easy, but I assure you it is harder then it sounds.
Now, you can perfect this technique against a stable opposition ie a punching bag, but as soon as that target moves, it changes everything. Anybody can throw a punch, but Boxing as I discovered is a strict science of its own. Footwork is paramount. If you throw a punch off balance or reach to hit the target you can be easily pushed over – and yes, this happened a fair bit at first.
The trainer stepped backwards and forwards and occasionally I was too eager to pounce and was exposed… not surprising for a newbie…
But the other thing I noticed was that it was easy to lose technique, as soon as you get fatigued, you fall into old habits, your feet don’t move, your arms drop and you go for power not accuracy. How they ever go 15 three minute rounds and hold their form… It gives you a whole new respect for these guys.
You could say I was hooked, from the moment I peeled the ropes back and made those first awkward steps around the ring. If nothing else, it is the greatest fitness work out you can do, it is physically and mentally very tough - but you get to release built-up tension in a controlled and rewarding fashion.
Yes, you have to be a little mad to fight for a career, but these guys are incredible athletes, it is a shame it is a circus a lot of the time, because there is so much to admire about these guys. The more you watch, the more you see, how they position each other, how they set-up openings, how they keep coming back, no matter how hard they are hit. Some say it is barbaric, and yes they have a point, at times it can be.
The Don Kings and the excessive money has undoubtedly had an adverse affect on the sport, and damaged it. But I am not talking about going out and fighting for a title, I am talking about the science behind the sport and sparring with a mate.
Learning the intricacies and battling the fatigue, this is what it is all about.
For I have learned that Boxing is more a battle of self doubt and battle of mind over body than it is against an opponent.
I think it was summed up in Million Dollar Baby really well:
“If there's magic in boxing, it's the magic of fighting battles beyond endurance, beyond cracked ribs, ruptured kidneys and detached retinas. It's the magic of risking everything for a dream that nobody sees but you.”
This is a pretty accurate description of the sport. For your casual observer, who only switches on to watch the Main Event, this is all they see. Mundine-Green was the perfect example. Packed into a pub to watch ‘the biggest fight in Australian history’ every man and his dog was apparently a closet boxing expert. We all believe we know what we are talking about and how we would have fought differently…
But how many have actually bent the ropes back and stepped inside the ring? Felt the mat bounce underneath you and be hit by the reality that no words can save you, it is time to put up or shut-up? It has to be one of the most brazen things a person can do, it is you versus your opponent for the whole world to see, and only you know if you have truly prepared, if you are truly ready. Even though I will never fight competitively, I felt that rush, I acknowledged and felt some connection with the guys who do it for a living.
“To make a fighter you gotta strip them down to bare wood: you can't just tell 'em to forget everything you know if you gotta make 'em forget even their bones... make 'em so tired they only listen to you, only hear your voice, only do what you say and nothing else... show 'em how to keep their balance and take it away from the other guy... how to generate momentum off their right toe and how to flex your knees when you fire a jab... how to fight backin' up so that the other guy doesn't want to come after you. Then you gotta show 'em all over again. Over and over and over... till they think they're born that way.”
This is incredibly poignant. Boxers have to be up there with the fittest people on the planet, never have my arms ached so much, my thighs throbbed so much, my lungs screamed for a break. It is the ultimate test, amongst all this, with the body screaming at you to stop, your opponent moves in, just waiting for your arms to drop, if only for a second. That is all it takes, one lapse, one omission from your body that it is tired and you will experience another form of pain.
“The body knows what fighters don't: how to protect itself. A neck can only twist so far. Twist it just a hair more and the body says, "Hey, I'll take it from here because you obviously don't know what you're doing... Lie down now, rest, and we'll talk about this when you regain your senses." It's called the knockout mechanism.”
I was never put in a position to be knocked out, after all I was only sparring, but what a great description of boxing, it is so clever, so to the point. But it is this next line that really hits home after a session in the Boxing ring…
It is as much a battle with yourself as anything else
“Frankie likes to say that boxing is an unnatural act, that everything in boxing is backwards: sometimes the best way to deliver a punch is to step back... But step back too far and you ain't fighting at all.”
“Boxing is an unnatural act. Cos everything in it is backwards. You wanna move to the left, you don't step left, you push on the right toe. To move right, you use your left toe. Instead of running from the pain - like a sane person would do, you step into it.”
“Boxing is an unnatural act. Cos everything in it is backwards. You wanna move to the left, you don't step left, you push on the right toe. To move right, you use your left toe. Instead of running from the pain - like a sane person would do, you step into it.”
Now I have played pretty much every sport imaginable and am fairly coordinated, but Boxing has to be one of the weirdest things I have done. Everything feels backwards. In Boxing, technique is everything, with good technique, you can punch up to 60% harder and almost three times as quickly. It is why some smaller boxers hit so hard, their technique is flawless. The power from a right cross is not derived from the right shoulder, but builds up from the toes, the kinetic energy builds like a pendulum all the way up through the quads and hips and explodes like a shotgun. The more fluent the motion the more powerful and effective the punch.
Written – it makes sense, it also sounds easy, but I assure you it is harder then it sounds.
Now, you can perfect this technique against a stable opposition ie a punching bag, but as soon as that target moves, it changes everything. Anybody can throw a punch, but Boxing as I discovered is a strict science of its own. Footwork is paramount. If you throw a punch off balance or reach to hit the target you can be easily pushed over – and yes, this happened a fair bit at first.
The trainer stepped backwards and forwards and occasionally I was too eager to pounce and was exposed… not surprising for a newbie…
But the other thing I noticed was that it was easy to lose technique, as soon as you get fatigued, you fall into old habits, your feet don’t move, your arms drop and you go for power not accuracy. How they ever go 15 three minute rounds and hold their form… It gives you a whole new respect for these guys.
You could say I was hooked, from the moment I peeled the ropes back and made those first awkward steps around the ring. If nothing else, it is the greatest fitness work out you can do, it is physically and mentally very tough - but you get to release built-up tension in a controlled and rewarding fashion.
Yes, you have to be a little mad to fight for a career, but these guys are incredible athletes, it is a shame it is a circus a lot of the time, because there is so much to admire about these guys. The more you watch, the more you see, how they position each other, how they set-up openings, how they keep coming back, no matter how hard they are hit. Some say it is barbaric, and yes they have a point, at times it can be.
The Don Kings and the excessive money has undoubtedly had an adverse affect on the sport, and damaged it. But I am not talking about going out and fighting for a title, I am talking about the science behind the sport and sparring with a mate.
Learning the intricacies and battling the fatigue, this is what it is all about.
For I have learned that Boxing is more a battle of self doubt and battle of mind over body than it is against an opponent.
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