My First Boxing Sparring Experience (Light Spar)

• I am new to boxing; I have 14 sessions in total prior to the spar.
• I joined a boxing/kickboxing gym on July 22, 2023, while my first spar (this one) was on August 12, 2023 (21 days after joining).
• Before joining the gym, I have been educating myself in boxing by watching YouTube videos for roughly 2 months and almost a week.
• I was offered to join a boxing tournament on September 3, 2022, I accepted. Participants only consist of members of the gym, so no outsiders.
• My primary stance is a bladed peek-a-boo stance where I only slip on one side or duck to evade punches, but I do tend to square up unintentionally when hitting with hooks and uppercuts.
• Upon writing this, the spar recently happened, so it is still somewhat fresh in my mind.
• I am 5’6 close to 5’7 and weigh around 85kg.
• I am Right-Handed and Left Leg dominant.

Story

August 12, 2023. I was performing ladder drills after my warmup (So this happened early in the session) when one of the coaches in the gym asked if I wanted to do a spar in order to prepare myself for the boxing tournament on Sept 3, 2023.

I eagerly accepted and was asked to do some light bag work on the heavy bags to warm myself up, after a while I was called to start the spar.

I was so tensed that when he walked towards me, I thought the fight was on, so I jabbed first.

I forgot about the touch gloves courtesy! (Oof, embarrassing)

Anyway, after that hiccup, we touched gloves, then my first spar that only consist of 2 rounds finally started.

Round 1

*Just to clarify things, I was asked to go all out in the spar and both of us are using headgears.

My Strategy was simple: Jab, Jab, and the occasional 1-2 to advance, Stiff Jab to block eyesight, then power punch right after, which are either straights, hooks, or uppercuts;

And if possible, Attack aggressively from the sides. (This is the part of my strategy that backfired against me, which you will understand why, soon)

I start off the round by double jabbing the face and a 1-2 then duck in case of a counter.

After that I advance by encircling him from his center line to the side of his lead foot, sadly, this was not working because he simply adjusted his stance to face towards me in a bladed stance.

But because of my stubbornness, I refused to give up this part of my plan and kept doing this throughout the spar. I spend, what I felt like was over half of my energy just encircling him.

After jabbing him and chasing him around (I should have cut off the ring instead of chasing him, this was stupid of me) I discovered that his primary defensive stance is the Philly Shell.

After identifying his stance, I forfeited any idea of attacking from the body, instead I relied on my jabs, straights, and hooks to the head. I still am not sure if this was the right move.

Throughout the entire round, most of the things I did was jab, jab, and the occasional 1-2, which are mostly blocked with his right hand. As I chased him around for a little over half the round of round 1, I realized a problem…

My hooks (especially my lead hooks) and uppercuts are not reaching him, either because he has very good footwork or I suck at advancing properly. The answer is most likely both.

I didn't have a proper response for this problem. So I kept doing Jabs and 1-2's.

*At least half of my energy are depeleted at this point and my sparring partner hasn't even thrown a punch yet. My punches were slower and ineffective, while my ducks and slips became more and more sluggish.

I performed the occasional slip and duck while advancing and immediately jab, which was very effective at the first 30 seconds of the round, but now it was ineffective;

Probably because I keep aiming for the head and spend a lot of energy encircling him.

It was at this point of the spar I realized he wasn’t really throwing his right as much or rather, I have yet to see him throw a punch!

There were so many instances that I left my guard open after I punch and ducked immediately out of fear only to find no counterattacks every time.

This did not do well for my mental state, because it was either him going easy on me (which I am thankful for, but did not like it at the time) or I was effectively pressuring him and blocking his vision, which discouraged him to fight back (which I doubt).

The thought of my coach going easy on me frustrated me, so I over-committed by stepping inside more as I jab than I was normally comfortable with and was rewarded with at least two clean hits (a 1-2) and a missed right hook. He escaped the hook by moving back and sideways.

After that, it was the same old 1-1-duck-1-2 or 1-1—slip-1-2 and other variations, only this time, much sloppier.

Then it was the end of round 1.

Round 2

*This was the worse round for me, not only was I not able to recover at least half of my energy back, I also keep getting jabbed in the head whenever I become inactive because of fatigue.

Start of round 2 was a repeat of my opening in round 1, only this time it was cut short because my opponent (My Coach) sidestepped to a new position, so I had to adjust and face him.

Fortunately, he sidestepped near the corner of the ropes, so I just bum-rushed him with a 1-2;

I really got him this time, the straight however unintentionally moved my rear foot and squared me up, and when I attempted to do another right straight, my right foot moved forward which unintentionally turned my stance into southpaw.

I didn’t know what to do so I jabbed his head using my right hand and stepped back two steps and fixed my stance.

*My sparring partner then was able to escape from the corner.

At this point my techniques were deteriorated or straight up non-existent; Footwork was slow as hell; Reach was surprisingly not affected, maybe, I don’t know; Power however, was at least cut in half.

My strategy nor tactics didn’t change, the only thing that was different was my stamina. My Coach (My Opponent) will occasionally ask if I am alright, probably due to my now lack of active movements. Every time, all I could do was nod.

*My breathing is in shambles and I rarely charge or move around now.

My hands were still up but I doubt it was close and tight to my chin. I think I stopped slipping and ducking entirely at this point too. The rest of the spar was either me jabbing to get the opponent get away or me squaring up and not moving.

I got hit occasionally with light punches (Which were jabs I think) on the face, forehead, and body whenever I am not actively moving. No combos were performed by my opponent though (Now I know he was going easy on me!)

Round 2 ended in a lackluster fashion, it was just me getting lightly jabbed time to time, and me poorly jabbing with slow footwork.

Conclusion

After the spar, I was told by my Coach (My sparring partner) that I did good, but I needed more stamina. I ignored his compliment and focused more on the needing more stamina part.

Prior to sparring, I knew my stamina was bad, but not this bad, this is awful!

I spend most of my time at the session replaying the events over and over again seeing how I would’ve won that fight, while resuming my training routine of course. (It was just a spar so there was no winners or losers, but I felt really bad about myself, this was just a way for me to console myself)

I thought my power punches were strong, but after the spar, I realized that they ain’t shit.

I realized now that I should have thrown more lead hooks to the head, to keep his right hand from defending the front side (or right side) of his face. Next time, I will be ready.

*Right after I arrive home, I educated myself about the Philly Shell and how to advance better by watching YouTube videos.

In conclusion, I suck at Boxing.

Final Words

I’m going back to improving my 1-2 and its other variations, as well as implementing shadow boxing to practice advancing. The rest will be conditioning training.

Going to have another spar on August 16, 2023. I don’t know if it is with the same coach or another light spar though, wish me luck.

Lessons Learned

Mistakes and shortcomings that I realized I was making after the light spar:

• Not hitting the body: I didn’t even try to hit the Body, big mistake. If I had hit the body, maybe I would have had better chance on hitting him clean in the head (He was however using the Philly Shell, so I don't know).
• Tunnel Visioned in my Strategy: I wasted at least half of my energy circling around him while jabbing time to time trying to get into a superior position to unleash my barrage.
• Improper Boxing Guard: Whenever I was trying to encircle him, my guard slightly drop so it wasn’t protecting my chin. (Then again, it was probably because I was jabbing non-stop)
• Inefficient Footwork / Lack of Deceitful tactics: Even at round 1 when I am fully energized and warmed up, my footwork was so inefficient that my opponent is able to adapt fast by either blocking predictable punches or use his superior footwork. After the fight I realized that I needed to find a way to disguise my intentions; If successful, that might buy me enough time to land a punch or two even if my footwork is slow and inefficient.
• Too many power punches: I need to think of speed more (especially in jabs) instead of power, not everything has to be power punches. Punches that don’t land are senseless.
• The breakdown of my Techniques: Round two was the worse, I noticed that whenever I do my straight punches, I also move my right foot forward, I suspect it is because I was so tired that I try to reach him by putting my feet closer together (squaring up).
• Poor stamina: If I want to have a chance of winning the tournament or any future fights, I have to increase my stamina through circuits or HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)
• Bad Positioning: My opponent this time almost always positioned himself in a superior position especially when defending, I need to do the same in my next fight.

Things I realized I need to incorporate in boxing fights:

• Cut off the ring instead of chasing the opponent.
• Occasionally Pivot after a jab to create a different angle of attack.
• Jab to the face; Jab to the face; Lead Hook. I need to add the lead hook in my combos more, especially against Philly Shell users

Goals for Future Boxing Fights

Main Goals: Loosen up; Don’t get knocked down; And survive.

Sub Goals: Kill their offence; And hide my true intentions.

How to achieve the goals

• Practice advancing to my opponents using shadowboxing;
• Make a habit of slipping or ducking after every combo, every half combo, every quarter combo, or every punch, randomly;
• Make a habit of slipping and ducking randomly. This will hopefully create new angles to attack, feints, and acts as a passive defense (Although I am not sure if this will work, nor will it be energy efficient);
• Training should consist of 80% conditioning and 20% of shadow boxing, heavy bag, and other every bag;
• Lose weight in order to be able to run without hurting my shins;
• Participate in more sparring matches to get myself more used to fighting inside the ring;
• And incorporate the things that I need to incorporate.