r/amateur_boxing

Hi there guys I'm a hobbyist and I'm 29 I'm a big boxing fan and know bare basics on actual boxing, I don't have access to any local boxing gyms but a good coach in my area does 121s, he's good as I've used him before and shows you how to box not just fitness

I was wondering if I were only to go once a week as that's all I can afford would I be able to get to a decent below amateur level or is that not enough sessions. I'd be training myself aswell with his guidance on 121s with a training regime.

He also does big classes but it's mostly boxercise with the actual boxers doing sparring.

Any advice would be great thanks. (There's no good boxing gyms in my area just boxercise)

Hi,
I’m back to gym after two years break. I’ve gained a lot of weight about +10kg of pure fat from drinking, eating at home taking care of the newborn.

Two years ago, I was really into boxing and trained and sparred heavily for about two years.

Now I’m back to boxing just two weeks in, and noticed the same issue spotted by the coach; upper body leaning forward.

I notice myself too that my balance is broken as soon as I lose focus on my lower abdominal muscle.
I also notice I get lower back pain after each training session. The pain goes away when I engage my core and glutes activated.

This “leaning forward” issue was there since the beginning. And now, I think it might be due to Anterior Pelvic Tilt.

So, I’d like to ask: do you guys tighten your core (the lower abdominal to be specific) all the time while you are punching or moving? If so, is it natural or on purpose?

I’m 6’2, and my posture is not great in general.

Any comment would be appreciated.

Hi everyone, I just wanted to share my story.

Last Sunday was my debut fight, and I got knocked out in the second round. I took a knee and got counted out after eating a big overhand. I’ve taken harder shots in sparring before, but this one felt different. I could literally feel my face change from the impact, and the shock of it just made me give up mentally for a moment. Turns out my instincts were right — my nose is pretty messed up now.

Leading up to the fight, my confidence was at an all-time low. Every week, it felt like both my performance and physique were getting worse. I felt weaker, slower, and less sharp every day. During the final sparring sessions, I got knocked down twice, which hadn’t happened once earlier in camp. Even my coaches and gym mates were basically saying, “We don’t know why things aren’t clicking for you right now, but you worked hard, so let’s just see what happens on fight day.”

Ironically, most of my nerves disappeared on the actual day of the fight. Final week was awful — I barely slept and was anxious constantly — but once I arrived at the venue, I felt strangely calm. Maybe I had already accepted that I wasn’t going to perform well, or maybe it was just adrenaline.

Now that it’s over, I have really mixed feelings.

Part of me is genuinely proud that I went through with it. For most of my life, I was the nerdy, sickly kid who was terrified of sports. During PE class, I always found excuses to avoid participating. Even as an adult, I never worked out, never ran, never did anything athletic before walking into a boxing gym at 29.

As a fan of the sport, I’m also grateful I got the chance to experience a real fight myself. I’ve daydreamed about it ever since I was a kid watching Pacquiao beat up Cotto. Safe to say I’ll never feel comfortable criticizing fighters again haha.

I’m 30 now, and I never planned to compete regularly. I’m just a fan who wanted to know what fighting feels like and wanted to become a better version of myself. One and done.

But another part of me keeps wondering what winning would’ve felt like, and whether I should’ve continued.

This morning, I rewatched the fight for the first time, and honestly it made me sick to my stomach. In my memory, I got completely dominated, swarmed, and destroyed. But watching the footage back, it really didn’t look like that at all. I was actually much cleaner and more disciplined than I’d ever been in sparring. My hands stayed up, my jab was sharp, I rotated properly, slipped and blocked shots, smothered punches — a lot of the usual problems I had simply weren’t there.

Now I honestly don’t know what to feel. Before watching the footage back, I felt proud and at peace with everything. But now I can’t stop thinking about what could’ve been.

I’m still 90% sure I’ll never fight again… but who knows.

Thanks for reading, guys.

I am the one in the white gear! I think I moved pretty alright except for sometimes when I got sloppy and left myself too open, watching this though I see myself being open a lot.

Any insights, tips? How'd I do?

How a Beginner Boxer Knocked Out a More Experienced Opponent (The Boxing Ballerina Story)
Most people think boxing is about talent.
It’s not.
It’s about structure.
This is the story of the Boxing Ballerina—a complete beginner—who ended up knocking out someone with three years more experience.
And no… it wasn’t luck.

Been training as a boxer since June 2025. I became an amateur boxer in China and the US in November/December 2025. Stayed at a gym between June 2025 and March 2025. in that time i had five coaches who quit after their contract expired with gym. i asked each coach why they left andthey each said the same thing, the head coach/gym owner was too overbearing. I left that gym, hired a private coach (my first coach from the gym) andin two weeks, the training was exceptional. it fit my style. i am becoming exactly what i am training for. consistency is key. I will say, learning to fight different styles is better than learning different styles of fighting. to each their own, this is my two cents. anyone else got a similar experience?

I’m looking for advice on how to balance boxing, weightlifting, and soccer in a way that improves performance without burning me out.

I’m a 36 yo male, almost 37. I work a 6am-5pm desk job, so my training has to happen after work. My fixed schedule is sparring on Saturdays (5-7 3 minute rounds) and playing soccer on Sundays for about 2 hours.

My goal is to do bagwork on my own twice during the week and lift weights twice during the week. The main purpose of weightlifting is to improve my body for sparring days, not bodybuilding. I want to continue building strength, explosiveness, durability, and injury resistance while still having enough gas for boxing and soccer.

The challenge is figuring out where to place the lifting and bagwork sessions so I’m not going into sparring or soccer overly fatigued. I also want to make sure the lifting complements boxing rather than making me stiff or too sore.

How would you structure the week? Would you do lifting and bagwork on separate days, or combine them? What kind of lifting split would make the most sense for boxing performance at my age and with this schedule?

Any advice on weekly layout, recovery, volume, and exercise selection would be appreciated.

Thanks to everyone in the community in advance!

Been boxing for 3 months and looking for some honest feedback on my footwork, form, technique, defense, balance, punch mechanics, movement, or anything else you notice.

If possible, watch the full video — the combinations get harder as it goes on. It’s clips from two different mitt sessions combined together.

I've got a high level amateur referee (and one of my mentors) on the neutral corner podcast tonight and want to know what everyone would like me to ask her to explain. Any questions?

This is important for competition for you to understand what's happening with the refs and how they score.

Questions here will be asked and answered clearly for you.

Hey guys,

I am a fellow hobby boxer, not competitive yet. I recently started boxing, and I have found that only two sessions a week is not enough for me.

So, I developed a website that calls out a number, which you follow up with a punch. You can train in:

- FORM mode: Calls out single punches slowly, so you can maximize getting the form right
- COMBO mode: Calls out combos
- REACT mode: Calls out a punch and you just throw it as fast as you can
- DODGE mode: Calls out slips, rolls, ducks, etc
- FEET mode: Calls out cut in, sidestep, cut out, step forward, pivot, etc
- FREE mode: Basically just a shadow box mode, with some motivational computer-voiced quotes

There are also programs, which are still in development, but some of them do work. These programs have pre-defined settings that tries to achieve something in the session.

There are also more customizable things in settings, so I do recommend for you guys to check it out!

What would you do if your coach is overlooking you like literally paying you no mind frfr
(I’m consistent/ hardworking literally haven’t missed a day etc etc , do everything I’m asked to do )

Whatsup everyone, had a sparring round this weekend and was hoping for some pointers on things to focus on to improve my game. Apologies in advance for the music, couldn't post the raw footage without getting copyright.

In the video Im the smaller guy. Sparring bigger guys is scary even in a controlled setting because one mistake can be painful, I was trying to be super respectful of power and also worried about not getting hit with anything clean. I was trying to work my head movement but and high guard but I feel like I was almost too focused on defense and couldn't really get my offense going. Even in the round I felt like my gaurd was too tense but I couldn't really relax and because of that I feel like I was slow to capitalize on offense when I saw openings. When I did find openings, mainly to the body, I felt like I couldn't really dig into my shots with my hips how I would have liked too.

Anyways, appreciate you guys watching, and appreciate any tips or feedback you may have.

Hello, I’m a 16 M who has been struggling with feeling ready for my 3ND fights after losing my last two. The first was was a round 2 TKO and the second was a spit decision, both of the losses were tough for me to get over even though it might seem small from the outside and everyone keep telling me it fine but I can’t help but feel awful by it.

Now I’m having my 3ND fights soon and the thought of me losing keeps coming back no matter how much I try to focus on training or something else.

Does anyone been through this and if so, how do you deal with it?