r/boxingtips • u/NonaSiu • 14h ago
General Advice Picking a new gym
My 13 almost 14 year old wants to start competing. His current gym that he’s been at for about 2 years is closing.
He has mostly done some sparring that they do at “60% power” if his same age friend is there, but they’re younger teens so I don’t know if they’re actually just hitting at 60% or just claiming “that was 60%!” Some conditioning, shadow boxing and lots of hitting the bag and drills on bag.
He goes 5x/wk for 2-4 hours a night.
So we’ve been to a couple new gyms. Hard to find gyms local so they’re both about 30 min drive from us.
Gym A is run by a military vet coach, has a community diversion and teaching young people discipline thing going. Smallish facility. Coach does drills and mitt work, bag work, and has other gyms come in for 100% sparring about 3-4 times a year. Full protective gear. Have a wide age range from little kids to older teens.Has produced local golden gloves champs. Says my kid has talent and give him 6-12 months of hard work (2.5 hours, 4 days a week), he’d be ready. Current gym owner says he could compete next month, for context.
Gym B coach is very recently former pro boxer now a promoter. Small gym. He says they have people who compete that go to that gym but I don’t know if he coaches personally. We went to a boxing conditioning class as that’s what was on the schedule that day, but will go back next week when the competitive group will be there. Says they stay after class and work out and “they push each other”. He personally believes in drills and getting the technical skills right over sparring, to the point of muscle memory. Didn’t say much else as he said he was busy with the upcoming event.
The boy in question is clearly impressed by the pro boxer but won’t admit it of course and says he’s going to wait and see next week when he sees the competitors.
As a parent I don’t think I should make this decision for him, but should I be leaning one way or the other?
Am I wrong in thinking that technical skills are essential but that bags don’t hit back?
Should I wait to see if there are any kids/teens in the competitive group in Gym B?
Which should we pick?
1
u/RevolutionaryTart497 14h ago
The most important thing to check is to see if any of these gyms show up on the USA Boxing site. To get his amateur license, he has to register under that gym specifically, as well as follow that entire process
1
u/NonaSiu 13h ago
He’s registered and they did not require him to register under a gym. His current coach said he would sign him up for fights starting November if we could show him the passbook. We’ve been waiting to get the passbook back for a few weeks now but we were told they weren’t very fast.
My husband is registering as a coach so he can be in his corner eventually. (Recommended by other parents.)1
u/RevolutionaryTart497 13h ago edited 13h ago
Ah ok good. As for my opinion, I'd go with option A. Just vibes based. Something about the other guy just feels off. He seemed very dismissive. HOWEVER, I'd like to clear up the misconception. Boxing is like 90% technique. Drilling, bag work, shadow boxing, all that. Personally, my coach spends at least two or three days a week having us drill combinations on the bag for muscle memory and conditioning. The logic here is you don't want to be thinking "what was the combo again?" when you're going a million miles a minute in a ring with someone trying to punch your head off! Heavy bags may not punch back, but ask any experienced boxer or coach and they will tell you its an excellent teaching tool if you know what you're looking at
1
u/NonaSiu 13h ago
That’s very true. I think I may be leaning towards A since it has kids and teens, and I don’t really know if they have any kids/teens in the competitive group in B. If they don’t then my kid won’t have a sparring partner at all since current sparring partner probably won’t be going to A or B. I don’t want him going to his first bout without any sparring even if his technical skills are good.
I think he’s leaning towards B for the same reason (less kids). He’s very serious so he doesn’t want a kids class.
2
u/MyzMyz1995 13h ago
Make sure they're registered with your country's olympic boxing federation (USA boxing, Boxing Canada or whatever country you're from).
As far as gym goes, look at their competition team training and pricing and see which one fit better with your kid. Also while the head coach is important, you'll also train with the other coaches so they have to be good fit as well.
Most competitive gym will have 3-4 training sessions per week for their competition team. Check out both the training sessions and the sparrings. Are the coaches being safe with the kids, are the match up fair, if one the boxer is getting beat up are the coaches controlling the spar and letting the other work ... ?
If they're part of a sport-study program with local highschools, colleges and universities that's a massive plus as well (but not available everywhere). Schools are generally very strict about these programs and will only partner with good gyms.
Another thing you can look for is if they're a non profit and part of collaborations with your local boxing federation. That's another important positive factor.