Dominate The Competition

6 Effective Beginner Boxing Drills You NEED To Be Doing

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Written By: Brenton Barker
Last Updated: August 23, 2023

Are you ready to step into the ring and become a boxing champion? It's time to master the essential steps to success! From nailing your footwork and movement to keeping a balanced and healthy diet and engaging in a rigorous strength and conditioning program, there's a lot to learn.

But don't worry; we've got you covered.

This expert boxing workout guide offers a detailed overview of the best boxing drills for beginners, including warm-up and cool-down exercises, as well as more advanced drills.

With our help, you'll be on your way to becoming a skilled and successful boxer in no time. So let's jump in and explore the exciting world of boxing!

Key Takeaways

  • Before diving into intense boxing drills and workouts, it's crucial to focus on building a solid foundation of fitness. This ensures that you're ready to take on the challenges ahead and can perform at your best.
  • Properly warming up and cooling down is vital for your boxing performance. Skipping these routines can lead to upper-body injury and impede recovery. Pay attention to them to optimize performance and prevent injury.
  • In boxing, nutrition is just as important as training. Neglecting it can hinder your progress and success. Prioritize your diet with care and commitment.
  • Mix up your boxing workout routine to improve your skills and overall fitness. Don't stick to just a few exercises - a variety of workouts will give you a more well-rounded training routine and better performance.

The 6 Best Beginner Drills For Boxers

Looking to up your boxing game? Incorporating these boxing footwork drills into your routine can do just that.

Focus on footwork, punch combinations, and conditioning, these drills will have you moving like a pro before you know it.

Remember to take 30 seconds to rest between drills and keep at it - with practice and dedication, you'll see real results in no time with this at home boxing workout.

1. Boxers Shuffle

  • To get started, you need to stand with proper form and your legs shoulder-width apart. This will help you stay balanced and stable as you move around the ring.
  • Once you're in position, shift your weight back and forth between your front and back feet. This will make it easier for you to move quickly and react to your opponent's moves.
  • As you get more comfortable, you can try standing on the balls of your feet and bouncing a little. This will help you be even more agile and in control.
  • You can also move forward and backward a little to make it harder for your opponent to hit you.

By performing these fundamental boxing movements, you'll be well on your way to fighting shape. This exercise helps with staying on balance, keeping yourself in a bladed position and staying on the balls of your feet.

All which are important to building superior footwork.

2. Fundamental Footwork Drill

  • To start boxing correctly, you need to stand with a proper boxing stance. This means standing with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, and weight evenly distributed. Once you're in position, you can move around the ring by taking a series of small steps.
  • Start by taking a 2-inch step with your lead foot. Follow this immediately with a small 2-inch step with your rear foot to maintain your balance. Repeat this movement as needed, always leading with your front foot.
  • Similarly, take a 2-inch step with your rear foot when moving backward. Follow this immediately with a small 2-inch step with your lead foot to stay balanced. Always lead with the foot closest to the direction you want to go.

Following these steps, you can glide around the ring while maintaining balance.

This is essential for boxers of all levels, particularly beginners, as it helps you avoid getting hit and sets you up for powerful punches and combinations.

Practice your footwork regularly, and you'll become a skilled and agile boxer.

3. Step and Jab Combination (1’s)

To throw a good punch in boxing, it's important to have the right stance.

  • Start by putting your lead foot forward about 2 inches. Then, when your foot hits the ground, throw your punch accurately at your target.
  • To strengthen your punch, push off your rear leg and shift your weight onto your front leg.
  • After you hit your target, quickly bring your punching hand back to protect yourself and take a step forward with your back foot. This helps you stay balanced and keep your position right.

Remember, it takes practice to get good at this, but it's important to learn if you want to be successful in boxing.

4. Push Steps and Punch Combinations (Forward & Backwards)

Getting into your boxer's stance is the first step in throwing a proper punch.

  • As you step forward with your lead foot, simultaneously punch with your lead hand, ensuring that your punch lands as your foot hits the ground.
  • To generate power, push off the ball of your back foot and shift your weight forward onto your lead foot.
  • After your punch lands, bring your punching hand back to guard and step forward with your back foot while throwing a cross punch simultaneously.

You can follow the same process for a step forward and punch or a step backward and punch, but in this case, lead with your back foot instead.

5. Lateral Shuffle

If you want to adopt a proper boxer's stance, here are the following steps for an orthodox stance.

Remember, if you have a southpaw stance, then the opposite would be true.

  • Begin by moving your front foot three inches to the left, then take a small step with your back foot in the same direction when moving sideways towards your lead leg side (left).
  • Take a small step with your back foot to the side, about the length of three fingers, then take a small step with your other foot in the same direction.

Make sure your feet are evenly spaced apart when you're in your boxing stance. This will help you maintain your position whether you're moving forward, backward, or sideways.

6. Double Lateral Shuffle

  • When you're getting into a boxer's stance, it's really important to get your feet in the right position.
  • If you want to do the Lateral Step and Jab, start by taking a step to the side with your front foot (the left one) - just a small step of about 2 inches. When you step, you should also throw a punch toward your target, think jab cross lead hook.
  • After you throw the punch, it's really important to bring your hand back to your guard position. And at the same time, you should take a step to the side with your back foot (also towards your left). This will help you keep your balance and be ready to throw more punches if you need to.
  • If you're doing a Lateral 1, 2, it's a little different. After you step to the side with your front foot and throw the punch, you should come back to your balanced stance and then throw a Cross.
  • You can also do this move towards your right side if you want.

Boxing Beginners Warm Up

When designing any boxing workout for beginners, it's critical to warm up adequately before you rip into the bag, or even do any shadow boxing.

This helps to minimize the chance of sustaining injuries and enhances the effectiveness of your boxing workout routine.

Benefits of Warming up

  • Rigorous physical activity
  • Improve blood circulation
  • Increase oxygen supply
  • Enhance your reaction time,
  • And develop your force

Warm Up Should Include

  • Dynamic stretches
  • Skipping or Jumping rope
  • Running
  • Resistance training
  • Shadowboxing,
  • Exercises that involve specific boxing techniques.

Moreover, warming up can significantly alleviate tension and anxiety before boxing workouts and competitions, and it should be regarded as a ritual to help you get into the right mindset for fighting.

I personally always do skipping, or shadow boxing as a warm up. They both get the blood pumping through the body, workout your shoulders, legs and cardio and can just get you in the mood to workout.

Boxing Beginners Cool Down

I’d like to emphasize that cooling down after exercise is just as important as the workout itself.

This is because it plays a pivotal role in aiding the body's recovery process and restoring it to a pre-workout state.

Benefits of Cooling Down

  • Lets the heart rate drop to your Resting Heart Rate (RHR)
  • Breathing gradually returns to normal
  • Dissipates waste products
  • Reduces soreness
  • Quickens the recovery process

One of the best cool-down routines for boxing workouts involves gentle exercises, stretching, and replenishing the body with proper nutrition.

It's recommended to stretch all the major muscles for at least 30 seconds, while longer stretches of up to 60 seconds for sore muscles are highly encouraged.

You must also ensure that your body receives adequate amounts of water, minerals, and carbohydrates after the workout to facilitate muscle building.

By adopting proper warm-up and cool-down techniques, the likelihood of sustaining injuries during boxing movements can be significantly reduced.

Stretching For Beginner Boxers

Stretching is crucial for boxers to maintain healthy, strong, and flexible muscles and joints.

Neglecting stretching can lead to tight and shortened muscles, increasing the risk of injury and pain.

Injured muscles are also weak and unable to support joints, leading to long-term health problems

Dynamic Stretching

Dynamic stretching is popular for a good reason. It improves range of motion, loosens muscles, and warms them up for sports.

Lack of stretching can cause hyperextensions, muscle pulls, and tears.

Dynamic stretching reduces these risks and improves athletic performance while preventing long-term injuries.

Static Stretching

Static stretching involves holding a stretch for a set amount of time, usually no more than 30 seconds. It can help to loosen tight muscles and improve blood flow, providing nutrients to the muscle and aiding in recovery.

Benefits of Stretching

  • Reduced soreness and stiffness
  • Prevent serious injury
  • Increased flexibility
  • Increased range of motion (ROM)
  • Helps mitigate arthritis

While the optimal duration of a stretch is debated among researchers, some recommend shorter times of 20-30 seconds, while others suggest 60 seconds or longer.

Regardless, stretching should not be neglected.

Rest and Recovery For Beginner Boxers

Have you ever heard the saying "listen to your body"?

Basically, it means that when it comes to taking a break, your body knows best.

If you wake up feeling really worn out and not just a little bit tired, it's a sign that you might need to take a day or two off to rest.

Health Benefits of Rest and Recovery

  • Facilitates muscle recovery
  • Supports the body to adapt
  • Prevents overtraining
  • Encourages athletes to relax

It's not just physical healing that comes from taking a break and giving yourself some time to recover.

Boxers, in particular, can benefit from this time to refresh their mentality and return feeling more prepared and rejuvenated.

Overall, taking time to rest and recover can positively affect your body and mind.

Frequently Asked Questions

How should a beginner boxer train?

A beginner boxer should train by doing the following:

  1. Boxing technique: 5 times a week
  2. Conditioning: 5 times a week
  3. Strength training: 2 - 3 times a week

Conditioning is always the hardest part to build, but is usually the most important. When you have a “gas tank” to rely on during your spars, then everything else becomes much easier.

You’ll be able to focus on your technique better, be able to perform all of your boxing combinations more fluently and most importantly defend yourself at all times.

How many hours should a beginner boxer train?

Beginner boxers should train a minimum of 45 minutes a day, 5 times a week. The recommended time to train is 2 - 4 hours a day, 5 times a week.

The more you train, the better. You’ll progress faster training with the recommended time, and should be able to line up a fight around the 6 - 8 month mark.

I had my first fight at 8 months, having trained about 1 - 2 hours, 6 times a week.

The best way to know whether you’re ready or not is to to talk to your coach and inform him of your aspirations to fight, and your overall confidence level in your skills.

Do not worry about rushing into it - the longer you train and prepare yourself, the better chance you'll have of a triumphant debut.

Keep up the hard work, and stay focused on your goals!

How do you practice boxing drills?

The best way to practice your boxing drills goes as follows:

  • Visualization: Visualize your opponent. This applies to any boxing-specific drill or workout you do. Shadow boxing is perfect for this. Hitting the heavy bag works in practicing distance management and accuracy.
  • Train with intensity: There’s an old saying which goes “train like you fight, and fight like you train.” This is especially true with Boxing, as the work you put in the gym will translate to your sparring, and eventually your fight.
  • Focus on perfecting technique: Lastly, your technique is everything. Perfecting your technique will make your movements more efficient, take up less cardio, and will add to your power. Not to mention will drastically reduce risk of injuries. Technique is everything.

These tips can help transform your boxing drills and ensure that you are progressing.

The Bottom Line

If you're new to the boxing scene, it's important to take things slow and focus on getting into shape before jumping into any rigorous training.

Trust us, rushing into your first match unprepared can lead to some serious injuries and setbacks.

Plus, it's crucial to keep your diet in check and ensure you're fueling your body with the proper nutrients before and after each workout.

And don't forget to take breaks and give your body the rest it needs to rest and recover.

Skipping any of these important steps can set you back and cause unwanted consequences.

Good luck!

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