The Glowing Edge

Tag: preparing to fight

  • The 100 Rounds of Sparring Rule

    The 100 Rounds of Sparring Rule

     

    How many rounds of sparring should you have before you enter your first amateur boxing competition?

    I love this question, and coaches enjoy arguing about it. We’re naturally argumentative. We’ll punch you, if needed.

    Seriously. If you make the transition from boxing fitness to sparring, you’re almost always going to be asking yourself the question “Should I compete?” And if you decide to compete, how do you know when you’re ready? Is there a physical bar? Is it about conditioning, or skills? Or is it primarily mental? A mix of both? (more…)

  • Before You Compete in Boxing…

    Before You Compete in Boxing…

    Because an amateur boxer’s passbook runs from January to December, there’s a lotta “getting ready to fight” going on in boxing during the last few months of the year. You need to be in good condition and getting close to your weight category position.

    And Thor knows you want to get that first looming match over with, out of your system, and finished with (for good or ill) so that you can move the hell on and start to settle into the competition groove.

    Because the truth is that you operate at about half — or less — of your usual power at your first show. Why? Because of the intensity, the anxiety, and all the (normal) insanity of a boxing event. Plus it’s just fucking scary, that’s what.

    So here’s how to dremel the killing edge right off that wicked blade, and make it a weapon that works for you, rather than slicing you to the bone when you go to pick it up. (more…)