This is my first post here. Just wondering what are some good boxing gyms around Brooklyn.
So a little bit about myself, I trained judo for 5 years, slacked off for 2 years so I become totally out of shape, and have started boxing for 2 months in Mendez Boxing and I love it. The only problem is I live and work in Brooklyn, and it takes two hours+ of travel to and from Manhattan. So, I'm thinking of exploring options in Brooklyn.
I am aware of Gleason's gym? They do $99/month +trainer fee right? How do you find your trainer? I am currently doing $195/month group session in Mendez, so it's unlimited hours with whichever trainer they assign.
I am aware of Gleason's gym? They do $99/month +trainer fee right? How do you find your trainer? I am currently doing $195/month group session in Mendez, so it's unlimited hours with whichever trainer they assign.
You choose your trainer and pay them for private instruction. Go on the Gleason's web site, the trainers are listed (there's like 30 of them) as well as their general qualification and specific fee. There's some famous trainers there.
You choose your trainer and pay them for private instruction. Go on the Gleason's web site, the trainers are listed (there's like 30 of them) as well as their general qualification and specific fee. There's some famous trainers there.
So I trained in Gleason's, and trained with this trainer who charges $20 per session or $40 per week, $160 per month unlimited. I think this is the cheapest possible? But perhaps I would be getting what I paid? I mean I am a newb, so I am barely qualified to critique, but from my super limited experience I don't feel great with his pad work. Also, this arrangement would add up to $259 per month, so it's more expensive than what I was doing in Mendez.
So I trained in Gleason's, and trained with this trainer who charges $20 per session or $40 per week, $160 per month unlimited. I think this is the cheapest possible? But perhaps I would be getting what I paid? I mean I am a newb, so I am barely qualified to critique, but from my super limited experience I don't feel great with his pad work. Also, this arrangement would add up to $259 per month, so it's more expensive than what I was doing in Mendez.
You can try out different trainers, you don't have to devote yourself to one. Sorry I might have accidentally made it sound like that earlier because I was short on words.
Try different trainers. Try to get a really technical, fun one that works well with you, someone who can really see what you're doing and how to fix it, optimize it. I wouldn't worry too much about pad work, unless he's complimenting the crud out of what you know to be a crappy performance (feels scammy). You don't want a motivator, you should provide that yourself.
Also you don't have to get private training non-stop, just be sure to have your trainer give you specific things to work on and for him to correct you on as you try them, and be ready to ask the right questions, the most important things you need (maybe have them written down) beforehand so you can get those answers instead of just having them eat up your hour fee doing non-specific training. Practice the concepts and specifics you learned from the trainer in your head at home, and by shadowboxing.
A lot of people hire those guys to motivate, like for fatcamp. You want technique and tactics, so have your best questions ready but don't flood them. Ask and then listen. You can write those things down so you don't forget, its your time. Always be asking for ways to improve instead of fishing/waiting for compliments like everyone else. If you do this, you can cut down on private training time (which is just grunt time for them) and still get much much more out of it than everyone else.
Make it fit your budget. It's not like weight lifting or wrestling, for boxing it's not supposed to be so much of a groaning push/grind, unless you're going for fatcamp. Quality of time spent per day over quantity.
The guy who sweats and grunts all day and night in the boxing gym is NOT the one who's good at boxing, he's usually pretty terrible- it works that way for many other sports and things in life but boxing is a different animal.
Boxing works a little (a LOT) different than many other sports. You learn a little each time and add it up. If you learn any part wrong, you've ruined everything. Just make sure you get it as right as you can that day and then STOP. If you go to exhaustion, you will learn to be uncoordinated and ruin the entire batch. Get it as right as you can, then stop. Then rest. Then repeat the next day or session. It will add up quickly. While you do that, iron out the problems you know you have as intelligently as you can, and ask your coach to point out weak links you aren't aware of. Nobody does this, and trainers love it because everyone gets half offended any time they suggest anything, so they keep it to a minimum for everyone else. Ask for breakdowns, pointers. It's your time, it goes at your pace. This isn't football practice, this isn't bootcamp/fatcamp, and it shouldn't be. You're not here to PROVE how tough you are. If you want that you should probably do a different sport/discipline, honestly. I don't think you do, just saying.
Rocky had it all wrong, he said boxing was about toughing your way through getting repeatedly knocked down. That only makes you good at getting hit, that shouldn't be the primary emphasis. Wrong mindset-- You want to be the guy making the other guy strain his way through getting knocked down repeatedly. You don't want to get hit with hard shots to see if you can get back up, it's mostly your nervous system's choice anyway whether you can or not. Don't be a soldier who shows bravery by wading out into the open, getting shot up and walking through the pain, be the one who maneuvers intelligently, smartly/defensively and shoots accurately while in the safest strategic positioning possible, because thats the guy who usually wins.
You can make some giant leaps in effectiveness by merely sharpening up your technique, correcting the instinctive bad parts that everyone does wrong. Not easy, but not hard. It's mostly tricky. Study concepts inside and also outside of gym, in your head, in the library, online. Weigh, guess, analyze. Test them a little. Then ask your trainer to help you. It's fun, keep doing that and you will skyrocket ahead of all the other meatheads/tough guy and fitness wannabes, and even other decent guys that have been there a while. Most people are wasting a lot of time and money in there. Just sharpen up your technique, timing, tactics-- ( = finesse.) That will put you ahead.
And by straining I mean muscling everything and pushing. That's where most people go wrong. You want to (must) stay loose* all the time but most people are afraid to do that, so they get slower and clunkier and stiffer as time goes on instead of faster and more efficient. When you exhaust yourself or try to grit through everything, your body relies on coarse movements instead of fine... counter-productive is an understatement. Look at the best guys, they're never "grunts" -- they don't look forced because they don't force things.
*(aka relaxed but relaxed is the wrong word. Loose = relaxed + energized)
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I'm saying all this because it sounds like you're stressed out, worrying about 'no pain no gain' worrying about pads (don't worry about the pads, they're ok sometimes but not the thing that makes good people effective) and putting your toll of sweat and tears in- I could be wrong but it sounds that way. It's a different type of effort. More cerebral, observational + kinetically subtle and counter-intuitive than the coarsely tactile, born-instinctive thing most people want it to be.
Yes you have to be dedicated, but that just means showing up repeatedly with your brain on, most people would rather sweat with their brain off and expect great results from all the time logged in, because it seems easier and softer on the ego that way at first, but man do they pay. You want to be focused and sharp, in control and aware of the little things (like what your opponent is doing), not meatheaded and mentally blunted. Most people start off with the wrong concept of how it is (usually romanticized from movies, their own preconceptions, etc.) and it never gets corrected. You owe me $5000
And by straining I mean muscling everything and pushing. That's where most people go wrong. You want to (must) stay loose* all the time but most people are afraid to do that, so they get slower and clunkier and stiffer as time goes on instead of faster and more efficient. When you exhaust yourself or try to grit through everything, your body relies on coarse movements instead of fine... counter-productive is an understatement. Look at the best guys, they're never "grunts" -- they don't look forced because they don't force things.
*(aka relaxed but relaxed is the wrong word. Loose = relaxed + energized)
---
I'm saying all this because it sounds like you're stressed out, worrying about 'no pain no gain' worrying about pads (don't worry about the pads, they're ok sometimes but not the thing that makes good people effective) and putting your toll of sweat and tears in- I could be wrong but it sounds that way. It's a different type of effort. More cerebral, observational + kinetically subtle and counter-intuitive than the coarsely tactile, born-instinctive thing most people want it to be.
Yes you have to be dedicated, but that just means showing up repeatedly with your brain on, most people would rather sweat with their brain off and expect great results from all the time logged in, because it seems easier and softer on the ego that way at first, but man do they pay. You want to be focused and sharp, in control and aware of the little things (like what your opponent is doing), not meatheaded and mentally blunted. Most people start off with the wrong concept of how it is (usually romanticized from movies, their own preconceptions, etc.) and it never gets corrected. You owe me $5000
Great advice. So boxing is like judo, it's about skills and technique first and foremost. Got it, and will bear in mind!
So financial wise, I want to keep the budget within $200, and I want to train (ideally, never quite worked out ) every other day. Would it be a good idea to hire a trainer let's say once a week and the other times I work on it myself? Still, a trainer $30 per session, 4 sessions per month is $120, plus membership $99 is over $200.
Great advice. So boxing is like judo, it's about skills and technique first and foremost. Got it, and will bear in mind!
So financial wise, I want to keep the budget within $200, and I want to train (ideally, never quite worked out ) every other day. Would it be a good idea to hire a trainer let's say once a week and the other times I work on it myself? Still, a trainer $30 per session, 4 sessions per month is $120, plus membership $99 is over $200.
Yeah that will definitely work if you stay smart and focused with it. It will give you time to think about it a lot inbetween sessions, which will give you more questions and concepts to arrive with when you talk with your trainer. Maybe at first you CAN do more sessions just to acquaint yourself for the first month and then take it down to once a week, I don't know if that is financially feasible but it might be worth it. Either way, you can make it work.
It is a little more expensive because its a historic gym in an expensive location. But time is money and sounds like you're saving a lot of time not having to drive for a block of hours to get there and back. I think driving too long saps/dulls you mentally and physically, so you'll do better at a closer gym, especially a good one with some legendary trainers.
Yeah that will definitely work if you stay smart and focused with it. It will give you time to think about it a lot inbetween sessions, which will give you more questions and concepts to arrive with when you talk with your trainer. Maybe at first you CAN do more sessions just to acquaint yourself for the first month and then take it down to once a week, I don't know if that is financially feasible but it might be worth it. Either way, you can make it work.
It is a little more expensive because its a historic gym in an expensive location. But time is money and sounds like you're saving a lot of time not having to drive for a block of hours to get there and back. I think driving too long saps/dulls you mentally and physically, so you'll do better at a closer gym, especially a good one with some legendary trainers.
True it's saving time, I am estimating that I would be saving around half an hour in a round trip compared to Mendez. Quite often I would miss training because I couldn't slot the time in.
I want to try to sign up for the $99 membership + try a week with two of the unlimited trainer for $40/$80. But then that adds up to $179 for two weeks, which is already nearly the $195 monthly unlimited I had in Mendez...
So I slacked off since the last post (work is priority). But in the last two months I tried a few Muay Thai gyms in Manhattan and ended up finding a boxing gym in Brooklyn: Ardon sweet science gym. The commute is 30-40 minutes door to door, and cost is substantially cheaper than any gym in Manhattan. I've been training there for a few weeks already and really enjoying it. Thanks guys!
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) every other day. Would it be a good idea to hire a trainer let's say once a week and the other times I work on it myself? Still, a trainer $30 per session, 4 sessions per month is $120, plus membership $99 is over $200.
