Hello:

I was wondering if you could possibly write an article based on your experience as a boxing coach about the minimum equipment makeshift or otherwise needed for training for a broke ass guy like me with next to no facilities for training. Been training at a local YMCA alleged "boxing programme" which caters more to the average Joe or plus sized male and or female more interested in their delusions of obtaining a beach body by doing a few half assed rounds on the heavy bag and then proceeding to hobble their panting ass out of the what I consider to be "anything room," being that the room is used for any and everything. But, moving on. I am an actual fighter with intentions of competing. With no dedicated boxing gym or halfway affordable location within the vicinity of my city what would you advise?

Regards,

Armando Williams

Armando, first, I wish you the best on your competitive venture. What follows are those resources you need, in the order that you need them. At the bottom of the page you will find your equipment list. The preceding list, however, is of greater importance.

1. Technical information. I recommend accessing Jason Van Veldhuysen’s You Tube channel and checking out his dozens of free boxing videos. Any technical point that you are not clear on, you may write me about and expect an answer in the form of an article that same week. The best boxing manual I know of is Jason’s e-book, which I helped edit.

2. Functional examples can be had in the form of YouTube videos of boxing matches, some of which I have analyzed on this site under Video reviews. If you see a fighter or bout that you want me to address, just send me the link and I’ll break it down for you in an article with video window.

3. Now you need a coach. You may have to train your coach. My best coach was a pro fighter. My second best coach was a little league soccer coach to whom I taught the basics of boxing as an observer, not a practitioner. Find a person who believes in you and has an athletic eye—could be just a fight fan or even a baseball fan—and teach them the basic principles of boxing as you sit together watching a fight. You need someone to look at you shadowboxing or hitting the bag and be able to tell when your balance is off, your hand is low, etc., and remind you to correct yourself.

4. You need a training space. What you absolutely do not want to be involved in is the type of boxing fitness program you explain in this e-mail. You need a jump rope, a mirror, a heavy bag, and a double ended punching ball, which can easily be set up in a small space. Your most important tool in the beginning is going to be a line on the floor to practice your guard and movement on.

5. Your guard, which includes your ability to step and drag and pivot and cut angles while unconsciously maintaining an equal distance between your feet and keeping your head behind your lead knee at all times is the one absolute requirement that I want to see in my fighters, and which I find is absent in most boxers who are taught in a group fitness or martial arts or MMA environment. Armando, you must move as a boxer moves for at least 40 minutes per day, every day. Shadow boxing is your most important tool for molding yourself, and can be done anywhere. I do it in the dairy box at work

6. Your jab is the second must have skill. Do not practice another punch until you have mastered it. If you are already throwing the jab, straight, hook, uppercut that everybody seems to teach, and you have not been handled yet by an experienced fight trainer, then throw all of that away—forget it brother, and just practice moving, guarding, and jabbing. Man, even if you have had some fights, and some success, if you started out throwing more than the jab on your first day in the gym, than your form is off, and will impede your progress and eventually come back to haunt you while you’re wondering why you’re looking up at the referee.

7. The most important aspect of you, as a fighter, is what is in your soul. Boxing is 90% mental, and that is no exaggeration. Believe in your destiny as a fighter. Fuck your ability. Your destiny is to punish dangerous men, and you will develop a skill set that will channel what ability you have into that sacred purpose. Anyone in your life who does not believe in that purpose does not deserve to be a part of your life. You are the punisher of dangerous men. That is what a boxer does, no matter what his ability. In your mind, you must not only be a dangerous man, but a punisher of dangerous men. Do not worry about being tough. That is baseline. You woke up tough. You were born tough. What is important is that you cultivate the ability to dominate the combat space when it is occupied by others of your kind.

Items 11-17 are typically provided by the coach or gym. It may be best to give up the YMCA membership and use the dues you would pay to buy equipment for a home gym. They may not even let you spar at the health facility. I once tried to restart my boxing team at a local health and fitness facility and came to despise the "anything room of delusion."

1. Mouthpiece, train with it in, always, and clean it with mouthwash

2. Boxing shoes or minimalistic sneakers, such as tennis shoes or wrestling shoes

3. Jump rope [see Jason’s video’]

4. A line on the floor

5. A mirror

6. Wraps, the long hybrid Mexican style wraps with both elastic and cotton

7. Saline solution for toughening your nasal membranes, to be snorted at least three times per day

8. Contact gloves for hitting mitts and light bags

9. Pre-curved bag gloves for hitting the heavy bag

10. A cup is cheaper than a groin protector and works fine for sparring

11. Heavy bag, or access to one

12. Punching ball or access to one [I have made these from bungie cords, a roll of paper towels and duct tape.]

13. Boxing gloves or access to a pair

14. Head gear or access to a set

15. Mitts or access to a pair

16. Someone to throw punches at you so you can practice defense. For starters this is more important than a sparring partner.

17. Your most important piece of equipment is some tough, disciplined guy who you can spar with in an intelligent learning manner rather than ripping into each other.

Armando, we’ll be wishing you the best here in Baltimore, wherever it is you are fighting. The tips above just get you started; are just the beginning of your boxing trials. If there are any specific questions you have in the future send them to me at jameslafond dot-com at gmail dot-com and they’ll get priority attention.

Good luck. Every boxer can use some of that.