you're going to spar for the first time well on this video i'm going to give you my top 10 tips
for sparring at the first time or even if you spar regularly these tips can really help you prepare
and know what to expect for when you do spar i had 106 fights in my career and if you're new
at this channel you'll know about me background i won an olympic bronze medal seven national titles
of european gold medal i was an undefeated professional boxer and let me tell you this
even coming to the end of my career at the end of my career i still got nervous when i was sparring
no matter who i was sparring with i still got some little nerves so if you're feeling nervous
for your spar please don't worry about that because it's natural and everyone gets nervous
even for spars which might surprise you so with my top 10 tips you will know exactly what to
expect when you're sparring and what you should be doing and at the end of this video i'm going
to give you some great tips that you can do after you've sparred these things i used to do all the
time and it only helps improve your boxing so the end of the video i'm going to give you some
great great knowledge on what to do at the end of your spar practice yes number 10 is practice and
what i mean by that is think about why you're sparring why do we spar we spar to practice we
practice because we want to get better and that is what sparring's all about it's all about getting
better and learning while you're in there we're not going in there for a fight we're not going
to try and knock our opponent out he's not going to try and hopefully not knock you out we're in
there to learn and practice so think about that that is the ultimate thing here we're going in
there to practice and get better working on the basics of boxing this is what you need to be doing
when you're in there you need to be working on the basics don't be trying to throw a uppercut with a
pivot hook or trying with your hands down and look all flashy work on the basics working on that jab
working on that one two and working on that good footwork because that's what's going to help you
do what i said number 10 is practice practice on them basics and the basics of boxing is what helps
you get better at boxing so don't get ahead of yourself and try and do anything crazy just
working on the basics of boxing hit and not be hit that's the name of the game here yes you read that
right listen to your coach your coach has put you in there because he thinks you're ready or
he thinks it's time for you to step up to the next level now when you're in the ring sparring
and someone's throwing punches at you it's hard to think about anything else other than not get hit
or hit your opponent but you want to be trying to stay relaxed and stay calm and listen to what your
coach is saying he might be shouting out advice work that jab do this do that do whatever he tells
you to do because obviously he's your coach he knows best and do that and that will really help
you improve with your sparring keeping your eyes on your opponent is very important no matter where
you are in the ring no matter what's coming at you or what you're throwing keeping your eyes open and
on your opponent is crucial it's common for boxers when they're very new or novices to turn away when
a punch is coming at you or cover up and put your head down this is the worst position you can be
in because you don't know what punches are coming at you so keep your eyes open and on your opponent
at all time i've done a full video on giving you tips on how to keep your eyes open you can click
the link below after this video watch that and check out that video but yes you want to keep
your eyes on your opponent at all time no matter how uncomfortable it may feel breathing is one of
the hardest things to do when you're in there yes you heard that right it really is yeah we breathe
every day naturally walking around without even thinking about it but when you get in the ring the
thing that we tend to do when we're unexperienced is hold our breath someone's punching it holding
your breath you're throwing them punches trying to hit someone you're holding your breath no you want
to breathe breathing is very important breathing and staying relaxed another thing i've done a
full video on is breathing so again i'll put that link below watch that video giving you tips on how
to breathe when you're in the ring and someone's throwing punches at you but yeah if you're holding
your breath you're going to get tired very very fast and you don't want to get tired when you're
in the ring and someone's throwing punches out here so yes don't forget to breathe number five
pace yourself you don't want to go out there throwing 100 punches 100 miles an hour because
you will get tired within 30 40 seconds no matter how many rounds of boxing you've been doing on
their heavy bags or how much mitt work you've been doing when you get in the ring this is completely
different you will get tired a lot faster because when you are working on the heavy bag
and you're using energy from throwing them punches from moving your feet now you're using a different
sort of energy you're using mental energy you're thinking a lot you're thinking about these punches
coming at you thinking about punches going out so you need to really pace yourself
because you're going to be working your mind a lot when you're in there i don't know how long
your rounds are or how many rounds you're doing but you definitely want to pace yourself you
want to be able to finish the round off and not looking really messy where you've seen
beginners before when they're hanging on the ropes so they've got their hands down
you don't want to be that guy you need to stay relaxed and if you did what i said
on the previous point breathe stay relaxed and that's going to help you get through the full sparring
and looking good as well thinking about defense is crucial when you're in there if you're sparring or
fighting even any level you're at if you're a beginner or not you've got to think about your
defense and what i used to like to do i used to throw the punches and always think about a punch
coming back out you because if you're thinking about a punch coming back at you it's harder for
your opponent to hit you so yeah think about defense and like i said earlier on the name of
the game is to hit and not be hit if you're just getting in there for the first time or you haven't
got that much experience sometimes you just think about trying to hit your opponent and your defense
will go out the window that is a bad thing to do because you will get hit a lot more so yeah think
about that defense if you think about the defense it's going to be way harder for someone to land a
punch on you number three your sparring partner who are you sparring with and this may or may
not be your choice if it is your choice believe it or not you want to spar with someone who has got
lots more experience than you who was way better than you because if you're in there with someone
who is better than you like i said in point number 10 you will learn more these guys can help you
develop you and they're not going to try and knock you out hopefully they're not going to try and
knock you out but when you're in there with someone who's might be their first spar as
well or someone who is inexperienced they don't know how to pull their punches they don't know
how to take the sting out their punches so they might try and hit harder and that's when you know
these sparring sessions can end up messy and you really want to be able to spar again you want
to enjoy this and learn from it but if you're in there with someone who's a novice as well and he's
thrown bombs and you're throwing bombs it'll get messy someone will get hurt and you'll probably
not want to spar again or your opponent will not want to spar again so if you are sparring with
someone it's always better to spar with someone with more experience than you and the better the
people you spar with the better you're going to become so when i say you might cry i don't mean
you might cry like that but what will happen a very good chance will happen is your eyes
will water when you get punched in the nose and you're not used to it even when you are used to it
your eyes may water and if the water don't worry about it people don't think that you're crying
people don't think like wow he doesn't want to be in there because his eyes are watering it's
a natural thing these things happen to everyone the eyes water and another thing that might happen
there's a good chance that will happen actually your nose my bleed if you get punched in the nose
good chance there'll be blood don't worry about that it happens to everyone you've not been
punched in the nose before so you're about to get punched in the nose your nose is not used to this
it might start pouring the blood and if it does one thing that you shouldn't do is this
look at it you know and i used to do that and i used to get told off by me coach tony keep
your eyes on your opponent stop the spot what are you doing what are you looking at for stop that
you keep your eyes on your opponent all the time that's what my old coach Bobby Bute used to say
it to me so yeah that's what you want to be doing you want to be keeping your eyes on your opponent
so if there is blood you feel like it's going to be run the last thing you want to do is this this
because that'll happen yeah so keeping your eyes on your opponent if your eyes water don't worry
about if your nose bleeds don't worry about it it's all part of sparring now number one
is a big one a visualization if it's Sunday night and you know that you're sparring with
johnny on monday night what you're going to do is visualize that spar visualize what you're going to
do when you're in there and when you visualize it and you walk through the fight in your head
lying there with your eyes closed walking through everything you're going to the gym you're warming
up you're getting your hands wrapped everything like that and then when you come to getting
in the ring to spar with johnny you've already done it in your head so the nerves will be less
than they may have been if you never did it in your head so yeah visualization is a is a big one
and i used to do this before every single fight not so much sparring but every fight but if you
are sparring this is something you can definitely do so them are 10 great tips that you can use
for every time you spar now i'm going to tell you what you can do after you've sparred that's going
to really help improve your boxing but before i do i just want to quickly tell you about my be
a better boxer video package where i give you over 70 videos of the best boxing tips around the world
that's going to help you be better at boxing click the link below check it out see what you think and
that will really help improve your overall boxing working from your jab to your speed to your power
to your mindset to warm up stretching you name it it's in there to help you be a better boxer
so what can you do after your sparring session well one of the things you can do is think
about how the sparring session went if you were getting hit with the overhand right that means
you were dropping your left hand if you were really really tired in there it either means
you weren't breathing and relaxing properly or you weren't pacing yourself or you just weren't fit
enough so you know what you can work on next time you're going in the ring and what will be
great is if you can video the spar i know some coaches and some boxers are a bit funny about
video in the sparring sessions but if you can if you can video the spar and then watch it back
and see what you can do to improve the next time you spar that will really help you guys thank
you so much for watching and if you're new to this channel please subscribe for more videos like this