- Joined
- May 27, 2017
- Messages
- 4,576
- Reaction score
- 1
Hey all
My 9 year old had his first sparring session today. I had him up to a decent standard at home, but figured it was time to put him in with some kids his own age at a local boxing gym.
He completely shit himself getting in a ring for the first time, took a few punches and even got knocked down (and bounced right back up and went at it again).
All of his training went out of the window (as expected for first time sparring), but he was mostly nervous because of people watching him in the gym, and nervous of being on the elevated ring in the middle of the gym. Said he wasn't worried about sparring the 2 other kids at all, was just people watching. He was scared even to shadow box up there let alone spar. He got stuck in regardless though which was good.
Anyone got any tips for helping the kid's nerves? I was going to start making him shadow box in the ring and take him on the pads in that ring to get him familiar with the surroundings. I've attached a video of him from my garage this morning- he looked NOTHING like this in sparring. I had him deliberately standing static in bag video for a harder work round. He's a great kid but has no real aggression, so Ive been trying to get some in him!
My 9 year old had his first sparring session today. I had him up to a decent standard at home, but figured it was time to put him in with some kids his own age at a local boxing gym.
He completely shit himself getting in a ring for the first time, took a few punches and even got knocked down (and bounced right back up and went at it again).
All of his training went out of the window (as expected for first time sparring), but he was mostly nervous because of people watching him in the gym, and nervous of being on the elevated ring in the middle of the gym. Said he wasn't worried about sparring the 2 other kids at all, was just people watching. He was scared even to shadow box up there let alone spar. He got stuck in regardless though which was good.
Anyone got any tips for helping the kid's nerves? I was going to start making him shadow box in the ring and take him on the pads in that ring to get him familiar with the surroundings. I've attached a video of him from my garage this morning- he looked NOTHING like this in sparring. I had him deliberately standing static in bag video for a harder work round. He's a great kid but has no real aggression, so Ive been trying to get some in him!