Hi, it’s coaches Paul and Brian with Sand & Steel Fitness, and we’re here today to talk about private boxing lessons at Sand Steel Fitness. We’ve had a growing number of clients express interest in boxing, so we’re going to answer some of questions we get about getting started with boxing, and how a private boxing coach can help you reach your goals.
Private Boxing Lessons Near Me
In our below question and answer session, Paul (the personal trainer) is asking the questions. They appear in the headings. Boxing Coach Brian is answering the questions in the normal font.
How Does Group Instruction (i.e. Bash Boxing, UFC Gym, 9 Round) Compare to Private Boxing Instruction?
The difference between large group instuction vs a private boxing lesson is the same as in any other fitness setting. Group classes are a great way to train with friends in a high energy environment. However, group instructors are limited in ways they can modify and scale their sessions. It is also very difficult for them to give clients individual attention. A private boxing coach can quickly adjust a session to work on or around any particular challenges their client may be having. Sessions can be tailored to different goals. If a client wants to work on their body composition and endurance, then the workout can be conditioning oriented. If the client is more interested in learning fundamentals and working technique, then technical instruction will be the main focus.
How Does Boxing Instruction Differ from Personal Training?
That answer to that depends on what the person is looking to get out of their training. Someone who searches for private boxing lessons near me is going to compare boxing to other forms of fitness. So whether you’re talking about weight lifting, swimming, cycling, or running–there is always a skill component that’s involved, and the same goes with boxing. If you want to make boxing part of your fitness regiment, it’s a good idea to learn how to box so you can maximize your training.
Why Should I Pick Boxing over other Forms of Fitness?
What is Boxing Lessons Near Me Good for?
Boxing is a great way to get in shape that is readily accessible for a wide range of people. A boxing workout will use all of your metabolic pathways (anaerobic and aerobic), which makes it great for conditioning and re-composition. While boxing can help you learn how to apply your strength, it is not as good for improving absolute strength (maxing out). So if your goals are to improve your strength-endurance and getting in some weight-loss, then boxing is a fun, interactive way to hit those goals.
Is Boxing Easy to Learn? It doesn’t look that complicated … why do I Need a Coach to Help Me Learn?
Boxing looks simple, especially when you see an experience boxer hitting a heavy bag or working the mitts. A lot of people find out that there is a lot more to boxing than what they first thought. Boxing requires conditioning, balance, and coordination. Moving the hands and feet independently while maintaining proper posture takes time and practice. A private coach will be able to help a beginner work on developing the basic stance and foot work necessary to box effectively.
What Approach Can Help People who are having a Hard Time with the Basics?
Taking it slow. A lot of first-timers want to go as hard as they can hitting the heavy bag or the punching mitts. Instead of working on moving fast and hitting hard, it’s a better idea to start slower and work on being as smooth as possible. Power and speed come from combination of strength, conditioning, and technique. Taking the time to build good habits early pays off in the long run.
What are the Safety Issues with Boxing?
Boxing training is safe, fun and effective. Self injury is possible as with any form of movement, but proper coaching and instruction will limit the chance of getting hurt. This is one of the big differences between a group class and a private lesson. The individual attention ensures the development of good form and prevents bad habits from forming. Good form equals less chance of injury. Also, contact is not necessary to gain all the benefits of boxing lessons.
What is an Example of a Workout for a New Client?
I like to start with some light conditioning, review basic stance and technique, and then drills using the heavy bag and mitts. For conditioning, jumping rope is my first pick because of the carry over to the other parts of the workout. If a client is unable to jump rope, rowing and stationary biking are also good for warming up. After warming up, the next thing covered is basic stance. It is important to know how to take a stance, as that is going to set up movement, offense, and defense. Once the client understands stance and movement, the six basic punches will be covered. To put it all together, I use a combination of heavy bag and mitt work to help the client begin to apply everything in real time.
Where Can I Find Sample Boxing Workouts?
There are many websites that feature sample boxing workouts. For example, Brawl Brothers published an article that summarizes the main elements for a boxing workout.
What is the Difference Between a Heavy Bag and Mitts?
The heavy bag and mitts are both tools that are used to refine punching technique and movement. The heavy bag is a great tool for developing power and conditioning, while the mitts are an excellent way to develop accuracy, timing, coordination, footwork, and conditioning. Like all things, they both have their pros and cons.
The heavy bag does not require a partner, so it allows people to train on their own. My advice when using the heavy bag is to pay attention to technique instead of simply hitting the bag as hard as possible with every punch. Bad habits can form and be reinforced, and it is important to take your time when you are first learning. Plus, if you do not have good technique, it is possible to hit the bag incorrectly which can be painful.
Mitts are more involved than bag work. When doing mitt work, the person holding the mitts will call out different punches while working in defensive movement and foot work. Mitts require more focus, and they are an excellent way to begin bridging the gap between doing drills and applying technique. Mitts are an excellent way to develop technique and conditioning simultaneously. Beyond mitt work, parnter drills and sparring can be very productive if done correctly.
What is Sparring? What Sort of Contact Should be Expected in a Private Boxing Lesson?
While sparring and contact drills are extremely helpful, they are not required for getting benefit from a boxing lesson. It’s ultimately up to the client if they want contact training or not. If you are interested in adding contact training into your program, your coach will be able to safely guide your session to prevent anyone from getting injured. As with the other aspects of boxing, it is best to start slow and light, and gradually work you way up as your comfort level permits. Contact drills work well here in that they allow the coach and client to work through different scenarios at a controlled pace.
Sparring can be a fun and exciting way to put the skills gained in training to the test. To that end, there are different ways in which people spar. Technical sparring is light to medium contact in which both people are working with speed and intent, but are not applying full force. It is a great for conditioning and testing what works and what doesn’t work.
Hard sparring is good for athletes who are preparing to compete. It is intense and should only be undertaken after sufficient training, and with the coach’s permission and supervision.
Contact training is best done under the supervision of a qualified coach. Your coach will be able to observe you and give feedback based on your performance. It may seem tempting to train with your friends, but if there is nobody experienced to keep an eye on things, accidents and injuries can happen. Train smart, train safe.
How Many Lessons does it take to See Improvement?
That’s depends on the individual. Just like anything else, some people learn quicker than others.
The most important thing is to start slow, and really focus on anything that may give you trouble. If you’re working with a private coach, let them know what your having a hard time with. They will be able to work specific drills to help you overcome challenges as they arise.
What are some common mistakes people make when training by alone?
Some of the most common mistakes people make are very simple. Dropping the hands, crossing the feet, and telegraphing punches happen frequently with beginners. These mistakes can be very difficult to address when training solo, because fixing them requires a good amount of self-awareness. If you are working with a coach, they will be able to keep an eye on your form and correct it when necessary.
While these mistakes may not seem significant, they can slow down your work out, or make things harder than they need to be. Good technique increases the effectivness of you movement, and helps make your work out more fun and productive.
Key Question: How Do You Find a Good Boxing Coach Near Me?
Finding a boxing coach used to be difficult, but thanks to the increase in combat sports and fitness, it’s become much easier. A quick google search will help reveal boxing programs in your area. Go check out a local gym near you and see what it has to offer.
If you are not looking to compete, many boxing gyms offer non-contact and fitness oriented programs. It may be challenging to get one-on-one coaching if the coach(es) are primarily focused on preparing athletes.
I just slow things down. One of the things I always try to stress on people is to try to be as smooth as possible instead of worrying about being fast, or trying to hit hard
How Do You Find a Good Boxing Coach if you aren’t Local to Alexandria VA? How Do you Determine Who is Good and Who Isn’t?
That can be tricky to answer, because boxing and martial arts studios can be a little more insular. Boxing coaches can actually be pretty difficult to find. One way you could look is perhaps to see if the gym has a competition record that might be available. To see what caliber athletes they’re able to turn out. But then again that doesn’t necessarily indicate who is a good coach. If they have a good population of people to pick from, it’s easier to make great athletes. As someone who’s done martial arts and boxed for awhile, it’s a little easier for me. I have a better idea of kind of how “legit they are” just by watching them. Many people in my community can see talent this way. I can look at the population in a gym when they are training and instantly know whether their coaching staff is better or worse than gyms I see in Alexandria VA.
Judging the quality of a boxing gym isn’t like judging a big box gym. It’s not a luxury spa gym, or even your boutique boxing gyms like Title Boxing, or UFC Gym. Good boxing gyms tend to be very barebones. They can be a little rough around the edges, but again, it’s more so about the quality of work that goes on there.
What are 5 Key Exercises or Drills that a Beginner Boxer Should Learn When They are Starting with a Boxing Coach? In our Alexandria VA, personal training studio, we’re teaching the squat, we’re teaching the deadlift, Maybe Push up Positioning, Planks, etc. What are those kind of Equivalents in Boxing?
Outside of the aforementioned six basic punches and movement, the next step is to focus on moving and putting your hands and feet in concert. The thing with boxing is there’s not always a ton of variety in technique. But there’s a lot of refinement that goes into developing good technique. So what happens is you end up doing a lot of technical drilling. That is how you put it together sequences of a workout.
What Kinds of Fitness Pairs Well With Boxing?
Nearly all the kinds of fitness that Sand and Steel offers in Springfield VA and Alexandria VA works. That is to say, personal training, CrossFit, Yoga, etc. If you wanted to do powerlifting — obviously boxing wouldn’t necessarily be a great fit for that because if you’re really, really trying to get strong, powerlifting wise the sort of conditioning you do in boxing may work against that a little bit. Boxing is going to burn a lot more energy. Whereas powerlifters generally want to save as much energy as possible, because they’re really focusing on their big lifts. In that same vein, I would say there are certain movements that wouldn’t work as well for boxers. For example, heavy bench pressing. Heavy bench pressing doesn’t really do much to improve the power of your punches. If you try to generate a stronger punch, bench pressing, overhead pressing even certain Olympic lifts I would probably stay away from. If you’re really trying to box seriously, you want to try to make sure that you’re keeping your wrist, elbows, and shoulders safe.
What about other Styles of Training Such as Kettlebell or Yoga?
Kettlebells are great for boxing because kettlebells are great for strength and conditioning. Yoga would also be very good for boxing just in terms of the way you can use it to sort of deload the body. It’s powerful as a means of active recovery and strengthening the connection with the muscles and improving your movement quality.
What are Two Tips You Would Give to New Beginner Boxers?
1. Always start slow. Let the comfort and familiarity build organically and allow that to sort of be the basis, again, for speed and power. 2. Don’t try to rush anything, don’t try to hit hard all the time. That’s another common mistake I see a lot of people do especially with mitt work. They want to just punch with everything they have, and again, that’s a way to form bad habits.
How Does Breathing Work in Boxing?
Holding your breath, like in other forms of fitness, may allow to you generate a little more force because you increase your muscular tension However, in a sport like boxing where conditioning is king, it would just make you tired over time if you holding your breath with every single punch you throw. So you generally want to exhale–a nice sharp, quick exhale–with each punch you’re throwing. This helps maintain rhythm and gets the CO2 out
Boxing Lessons Near Me Wrap-up
On behalf of Sand and Steel, I really want to thank Coach Brian for his help in writing Boxing Lessons Near Me. It was an amazing interview, and we sincerely hope you found the article relevant and helpful. If you did please share it, and help others find this article. And of course, if you are in Alexandria VA or Springfield VA, please drop by our gym!
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Brian Leos – Senior Coach
Personal Training Certifications
- USA Boxing Coach
- ACE Certified Personal Trainer
- TRX Suspension Trainer Qualified
- CPR Certified