Page 99 - Doug Werner Boxer's Start-Up

Sparring

Your performance is a direct product of your training.
It’s not enough to know what to do in your head.You
gotta know in your hands and legs.Hence the need for a
long, sustained training period before your first bout.

Go Easy
It’s wise to adopt an easy-does-it approach to sparring.
Learning how to hit and take hits in live action takes
some getting used to. Just swinging away without pur-
pose is no good.It won’t be boxing,it won’t be safe and
it won’t be much fun.There’s simply no point to it.

Plans
Your initial sparring should be highly controlled
learning sessions.You’re working stuff out, not trying to
beat somebody up. Go into these practice bouts with
simple game plans. Work on specific things. Perhaps
during one round you’d like to sharpen your jab and use
alotta slips. During another round try a lead right and
certain counterpunches. Pick one or two offensive
things and one or two defensive things. Keep it manage-
able in your mind. Otherwise it’ll become a brawl.Why
all the training if you’re just gonna throw it all away in a
free-for-all? You want to build yourself into something.

Flow
Sparring is an opportunity to try out those things you’ve
been applying to the bag and punching mitts.Of course,
the other guy won’t be standing still because he’ll have
his own game plan. All those skills that looked so pretty
in practice won’t come off exactly as planned. Maybe
they won’t come off at all.You and your sparring partner
will create your own little world of boxing in three-
minute,action-packed chunks of time.Go with the flow.

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