# hi i have a question



## darkboxer898 (Jul 18, 2012)

im new here hi.question[ ive been teaching my self basic boxing since mid janurary or so. i use the heavy bag, double end bag, ball hanging from celleing, and shadow boxing to practise. ive kinda of sparred twice[i can go into deatail about it if it will help your answer]. im tryong to find a gym but i live in the middle of no where theres no fighting stufv near me. my question if i ever got into a fight would this stuff come in handy if i kept my head cool.


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## Cyriacus (Jul 18, 2012)

If You are some kind of weird superhuman mechanical device that can keep cool just like that, no.
If You dont keep Your cool, still no.

It will come in handy in the sense that You are perhaps more used to punching, and fitter. You may also have more stamina. And that assumes the other guy is 100% unskilled.
Other than that, its Person Vs Person, and self taught and practised boxing will not help much, because You wont be able to keep Your head cool, and telling You otherwise would make You more likely to get hurt due to overconfidence. If You cannot find anywere to Train properly, get FIT. Get in shape. Stay in shape. Punching a bag is a way to stay in shape if used in conjunction with other stuff.

Lastly, Shadow Boxing without having Boxed for long is almost pointless. Theres more to Shadow Boxing than throwing combinations at the air.
And having sparred two times wont help much, because it ultimately wont have been very serious sparring. You may have even thought it was at the time, but I assure You, it wasnt.

Now, this may come across as harsh. But its the truth.


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## darkboxer898 (Jul 18, 2012)

thank you in your time answering i probaly willnt continue doing this as you said it realy willnt help.i do lift weights and skateboard ill just stick to those thanks for the help


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## Jenna (Jul 18, 2012)

darkboxer898 said:


> im new here hi.question[ ive been teaching my self basic boxing since mid janurary or so. i use the heavy bag, double end bag, ball hanging from celleing, and shadow boxing to practise. ive kinda of sparred twice[i can go into deatail about it if it will help your answer]. im tryong to find a gym but i live in the middle of no where theres no fighting stufv near me. my question if i ever got into a fight would this stuff come in handy if i kept my head cool.


Search this site for the threads about online training and DVDs and stuff.. There can be no substitute for a good instructor and people to spar with though do not give up even if you are in the middle of nowhere.. where are you Wyoming or Mojave desert or somewhere? still you can learn a few things from watching, reading and askin that will be of some use to you in difficult situations.. Also do you wrap your hands if you are going on the heavy bag? you sound young? you do not want to damage your wrists or whatever but it is matter of preference.. sparring is fine light or no contact just to get you into the way of moving around.. Go easy on your sparring partner if you are just messing around though!! practice your jumprope!!! best fitness activity you can do.. specially for boxing footwork.. Welcome to MT.. Stick around.. ask some questions and maybe you will find something that suit your situation.. Wishes..x


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## darkboxer898 (Jul 18, 2012)

im 17 i live in the north eastern part of the us. yes i wrap my wrist. only just got thw heavy bag its only 30 pounds and i weogh 200


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## WC_lun (Jul 18, 2012)

There are two major things that training solo can never give you.  The first is the knowledge of how you will react when being hit.  The other is practice dealing with the unpredictability of a human opponent.


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## darkboxer898 (Jul 18, 2012)

that is why ive been skeptical if this was going to work


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## Instructor (Jul 18, 2012)

Do you have a good friend who will spar with you?


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## darkboxer898 (Jul 18, 2012)

i have freinds but they live in a different state beacuse i moved i made some freinds but im not freinds with thim any more[its a very long complicated story] so no.


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## Yondanchris (Jul 19, 2012)

Welcome to MT! A DVD or online instruction seems best for this situation along with "working vacations" to places with short term training available (seminars/camps).


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## Gentle Fist (Jul 19, 2012)

Everyone has a plan until they get hit for the first time...   Try to find a sparring partner with similar attributes.


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## oftheherd1 (Jul 19, 2012)

Welcome to MT.  You have gotten good advice above.  Consider it well.  But do keep up your fitness.


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## Bill Mattocks (Jul 19, 2012)

darkboxer898 said:


> im new here hi.question[ ive been teaching my self basic boxing since mid janurary or so. i use the heavy bag, double end bag, ball hanging from celleing, and shadow boxing to practise. ive kinda of sparred twice[i can go into deatail about it if it will help your answer]. im tryong to find a gym but i live in the middle of no where theres no fighting stufv near me. my question if i ever got into a fight would this stuff come in handy if i kept my head cool.



I hate to take a contrary position from my friends here on MT, but let me add a couple things.

There are many people who can fight and are self-taught.  Mainly, there are people who seem to have a knack for it, and in my experience, they also tend to fight a lot.  Real fighting, street-fighting.

A good street-fighter, self-taught, is a dangerous person.  I don't care if a person is a trained martial artist or not, it's always possible to come up against a person who simply knows how to fight and they still represent a threat.

One of the major points of martial arts training is to teach a means of defense against such people.  In the best of circumstances, good training overcomes no training; but this is not always the case, and an untrained street fighter might well put away a well-trained martial artist - it can happen.  A lot depends on circumstances beyond the martial artists' control.  Even pure dumb luck plays a part.

With that said, I would always prefer to learn in a controlled environment.  As has often been said here on MT, the use of books and videos is probably not a good substitute for actual training.   However, working out with a heavy bag, speed bag, and shadow boxing can be practiced at home presuming one has been shown the proper way to use them.

To answer your question directly, _"if i ever got into a fight would this stuff come in handy if i kept my head cool?"_ I would say in general it's always good to keep calm.  If you are calm, you have more control over your abilities.  That is true whether you have any training or not.  If you are strong, that can help you.  If you are fast, that can help you.  If you have good endurance, that can help you.  If you have learned how to punch correctly and practice it frequently, that can help you.  All of these things are good.  None are substitutes for other forms of training, but yes, in my opinion, they are better than nothing at all.

I hope that at some point you are able to get proper training.  With a good attitude and proper training, you can do much more than you might realize now.  Good luck to you.


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## darkboxer898 (Jul 19, 2012)

thank you for that post gives me some motivation to continuen training. to the other person who said about being hit in the face i know what it feels like. one of the worst was being hit by a hockey puck by a freind at full force. also one last question would the hanging ball and double end bag help prepare me to block punches and duck themalso thanks everyone for answering my questions


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## mook jong man (Jul 19, 2012)

darkboxer898 said:


> thank you for that post gives me some motivation to continuen training. to the other person who said about being hit in the face i know what it feels like. one of the worst was being hit by a hockey puck by a freind at full force. also one last question would the hanging ball and double end bag help prepare me to block punches and duck themalso thanks everyone for answering my questions



When you say double end bag , do you mean the floor to ceiling ball with the elastic cord?
If that's the case then that thing will definitely teach you to keep your hands up in front of your face , they can spring back and break your nose if your not careful.

Don't just work your punches on it , mix in elbow strikes ,forearm strikes and palm strikes.


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## darkboxer898 (Jul 19, 2012)

yeah thats the one


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## Bill Mattocks (Jul 19, 2012)

darkboxer898 said:


> thank you for that post gives me some motivation to continuen training. to the other person who said about being hit in the face i know what it feels like. one of the worst was being hit by a hockey puck by a freind at full force. also one last question would the hanging ball and double end bag help prepare me to block punches and duck themalso thanks everyone for answering my questions



Learning how to block correctly and learning how to slip a punch are essential skills.  I don't use the kind of bags you are describing, so I can't say if they'll help you or not; but I'm going to guess that in general, no.  A classic tool for learning to use the boxer's roll is to set up a clothesline and practice walking from one end to the other, doing the correct roll and counterpunching with an uppercut or cross.  But you really do need someone who is trained to watch you and correct you as you do it; not something dead easy to teach yourself, since you can't see yourself doing it.

Blocks have to be done with good technique or they don't actually stop an incoming strike - they end up crashing back at you.  A good block and a bad block can look the same and even feel the same to the person trying to learn it; but a good block is settled and the power of the strike is either deflected or absorbed through the body and down into the ground; a bad block transfers the power to your body and it hurts.  You block and parry with hands,  arms, shoulders, hips, knees, shins, etc.  I don't know of a bag drill that can teach those.  Avoiding strikes are done by ducking, turning, side-stepping, retreating, weaving, and etc.  The bags you describe might help with a few of those, but I don't think all that much.

I'm not saying the training you are doing is bad - probably much better than no training at all.  Just saying that unfortunately, there's probably a lot you're missing out on.

When I spoke about good untrained street fighters earlier, what I meant was that those people learn the skills above by just doing them - in lots of full on street fights.  Some folks are just able to pick those skills up naturally, and they tend to be good at it over time; people like Kimbo Slice before he got formal training - I understand he was a self-taught street fighter for money.  Lots of natural skills.  That doesn't mean everyone can do it, though.


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## mook jong man (Jul 19, 2012)

Bills right , your equipment at home is only a supplement to your training.
You still need to have someone throwing strikes at you , it is through this type of training that we learn to read the body cues that enable us to predict what type of attack the opponent is going to launch.

Things like the position of the elbow can tell you whether he's going to throw a roundhouse or a straight punch , shoulder movement can tell you which side the attack is coming from or signal weight transference in preparation for a kick.
You can't learn that stuff without a real training partner , a few training partners would be even better , because everybody moves slightly differently.


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## darkboxer898 (Jul 19, 2012)

yeah i knew what you meant theres a guy in my school like that he gets into a fight like every week he knows streetfighting and taught himself boxing. im trying to find a gym but nothing is remotly close enough. actualy i have practised blocking with a real human and i know one block that will work. the double end bag i feel prepared me to block the punches when i worked with my cousin once. ive been in about 5 fights in my life. 4wins 1 loss. i lost beacuse the guy jumped on my hip when i was lying on my side. like you said what im doing is better than nothing.


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