Are You a Hermit Boxer?

When it comes to training hard and eating right, it is far easier to stick to a training plan or regime if you aren’t doing it alone. Unless you are one of those people in the world that is extremely strong willed and has the self discipline of a Navy Seal, it is highly unlikely you will follow any training plan or regime in isolation for any significant length of time. You will get bored and your training will stagnate.

Box in isolation, live like a hermit, and the majority of you will give it up. Maybe not in a week or even a month, but eventually you’ll move on to something else to alleviate the boredom. This is part one of a two part series that will first tell you why you should be looking for someone to train with. Part two will then tell you how to effectively use your partner in your training sessions.

Partner Drills: A whole new level of training
Photo by mborowick

Why Do You Need to Find Someone to Learn Boxing With?

A partner, friend, enemy or some other human shaped body is absolutely essential if you really want to learn boxing and here are the reasons why:

1. Accountability – Put aside boxing for a moment and look at this strictly from a fitness viewpoint. If you are training with a partner, you will naturally compete with each other and push yourselves harder. That is, of course, if you both have similar goals and reasons for training. The wrong partner could just as easily sabotage your training as make it better. However, if you get the matchup right, you will be accountable to someone. They will ensure you don’t slack off, miss training, and stick to your schedule and you will ensure the same of them.



2. Chaos - There is a randomness and chaos to boxing that cannot be replicated by yourself in front of a heavy bag or shadowboxing in front of a mirror. You can pretend to slip punches all you want, but the reality is that you know when you are going to throw them at yourself. If you don’t I question your sanity. A sparring or training partner introduces that bit of randomness into the training session. You don't know what he or she is thinking and thus have to react. This builds your reflexes and fine tunes your ability to pick out the subtle cues that precede an onslaught of punches. You'll have a much better idea of how good your defensive and offensive techniques are when it really matters.



3. Bigger Selection of Boxing Drills – With a partner, your training toolbox gets a lot bigger. There are plenty more partner boxing drills that you can use to hone your technique. Your partner only has to be willing to go through the motions to help you train – they don’t necessarily need to be boxers themselves (although it helps). I regularly try out combinations on my wife (no I’m not beating her). No offence to her, but her idea of a cross hangs in the church. A partner allows you to do focus mitt drills, technical sparring, and work out techniques and combinations in real time. This helps you to truly understand the mechanics involved in a situation rather than trying to imagine every possible event. Again, part two of this series will explain more in depth how to train with a partner.

I hope I’ve convinced you not to limit yourself to training and learning to box alone. I also want to point out that where one partner is good, many are better. The more variation you have in skill level, the more variables and randomness is inserted into your training. That is the reason boxing clubs exist – they bring people with the desire to learn the sport together. You will do yourself a huge favor by joining one.

Plus, inherent to any group is a sense of belonging and competition. The social aspect of the group is going to help you stick to your training and push you to raise your standards. Boxing naturally attracts people who are competitive, so a group of boxers who are intent on learning and improving will naturally push each other harder than you ever could alone. Plus it makes training a lot more fun - can only talk to a heavy bag for so long no matter what kind of relationship you develop with it.

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