September 2019 | Ringside Boxing Blog

5 Effective Ways to Encourage and Motivate Young Fighters

A coach provides feedback to a boxer during mitt-work. — Keeping a fighter encouraged and motivated is critical to their successful development.

When a fighter first starts training, it can be hard to contain their fire and passion. It’s all you can do to keep up with them as they eat up everything you throw down.

But then, sometimes, you can’t seem to connect. You can’t get them to see the value of a particular exercise. Or you can’t get them to understand why they need to “fix” they way they throw their cross.

In those situations, you need to find a way to break through and get on the same page. Read on to learn about some of the tactics that might help motivate your fighters.

5 Ways to Improve Hand Speed

Fighter hits the speed bag to develop fast hands — A fighter trains hand speed by hitting the speed bag.

They say, “Speed Kills”. People get excited about punch power. But fighters who can throw more punches than their opponent usually win the day.

You don’t need some innate, natural-born talent to have fast hands. As with every other aspect of boxing, you develop fast hands through deliberate training. It takes time.

And like many other aspects of boxing training, you need to train your mind as well as your body.

We gathered together five of the most fundamental exercises for improving hand speed. Read on to learn more.

7 of the Greatest Mexican and Mexican-American Boxers

When Andy Ruiz, Jr. got the TKO against Anthony Joshua back in June, he made history. He became the first boxer of Mexican descent to win a world heavyweight championship in boxing.

But Ruiz is just the latest in a long line of history-making boxers from Mexico.

In honor of Mexican Independence Day we wanted to highlight some of the greatest Mexican and Mexican-American boxers to step into the ring. Continue reading “7 of the Greatest Mexican and Mexican-American Boxers”

Focus on Fighting Styles, Part 1: The Swarmer

Once you’ve gotten past the basics and begin sparring, you may notice that the art of boxing is more than just standing toe-to-toe trading punches.

A fighter should enter the ring with an overall strategy and specific tactics to make that strategy happen. How you box in the ring, though, doesn’t just begin from a blank slate. You have to understand fighting styles, the kind that you use and the kind that your opponent will use.

There are many different fighting styles out there, but typically, most fighting styles fall into one of five categories: The Swarmer, The Brawler, The Out-Fighter, The Boxer-Puncher, and the Counterpuncher.

In our post today, we’ll focus on the Swarmer style. Over the next few months, we’ll dive into each of the other four to give you a feel for the main fighting styles you might choose or see in the ring. Continue reading “Focus on Fighting Styles, Part 1: The Swarmer”