Boxing, Never to young

The first ever recorded boxing match is in ancient Greece and it is known to have appeared in Greek Olympics as a sport, it wasn't unique in Greece as ancient Egypyt also conducted bouts for entertainment with many paintings depicting youth in a stadium or with a crowd watching.

It was around the rise of the Roman Empire where boxing phased out and was replaced with battles utilising weapons, no doubt a more extreme combat sport resulting in death or severe injury. It wasn't until the 16th century that England re-emerged to sport. It's also when the word Boxing became used to describe the sport.

The first recorded boxing match in England took place on 6 January 1681 between a butler and a butcher for a prize.
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I've been a big boxing fan all my life and as a youth engaged in boxing training with the hopes of actually getting into the ring. I had a few friends who actually went onto amateur boxing and win a few titles. Unfortunately I couldn't rally the $800 annually to compete and meet the requirements. $800 was a significant amount of money 20 years ago so I fell out. Something I've held onto for many years as a "What if". I've always put in a lot of time and effort in my training and developed the power but couldn't cross the line. So I got into running, it was easier to get sponsorship as I was fast due to dropping weight.

I still hit the bag today, it's a great way to focus energy and burn weight not to mention stress release. Nothing like bearing the shit out of a bag when you're feeling down. When you land a great punch and the room shakes boom.

Interesting enough lil miss has been right down with the boxing and training often spending each night training with me in the shed. Quite often she would come in and have a bit of a play and just knock about, lift a few light weights. She's gotten stronger and I've had to literally configure some of my equipment for her to use. I wouldn't recommend it to all parents as she's still 4 and can't control emotions. A year of training has developed her enough that when she strikes it hurts or that when you need to snatch something off her because it's dangerous she's quick enough to dodge you or engage in a tug of war that you will struggle with.

But I'm pretty proud of her, I hope she doesn't grow up to hurt people but that will come with teaching her. But knowing she will have the ability to defend herself if need be is pretty reassuring. Especially at a young age when kids are molding who they are as people it will be significantly harder for her to grow if she is bullied at school.

We all know that moment, when you're getting picked on and everyone joins in but the moment you stand up for yourself the tides switch and you're no longer being bullied. I just hope she doesn't become the bully. She's a great person though, very kind and caring so I should be OK.

At the moment I'm just teaching her some basic low level skills and will stick to it over a few months. How to block and protect your face and deliver a strike. Gloves up, foot back cover the face and just monitor the situation. Deflect and if unable to stop the immediate threat strike. Hopefully with enough power to either frighten or daze your opponent and then they won't engage.

A boxing pose is quite intimidating though to begin with, I often found in the last that striking the pose and preparing to strike was enough to deter a would be harasser. The pose is strong enough to portray you know what your doing and your in a defensive position so you've already made it hard for your attacker to strike you.

You watch and what ever is coming your able to block, if your attacker doesn't know how to fight and they strike and you deflect they're in serious trouble. As your deflection pushes them off side and provides you with a clean shot to a core body part that is about to bring them a world of pain.

If they don't know how to fight, they're going down. If they do know how to fight your not fighting yet because they've assumed the pose and now your dancing in preparation for a dodge. But very rarely does it get to this stage. In my experience standing to attention automatically deflects people. They know it will hurt and you know what you're doing so don't try. Occasionally you get a few that try to see if you're faking it. Then they hurt.

Lil Miss's blocks and stance is going good but her swings still need a bit of work, she's gotten used to the draw back to deliver more power in her punch and the back step is on point! The power in the punch you throw actually comes from your legs and hips rather than your arms. It's a transition of kinetic energy as you move through the motion.

Taking the right back step and getting your body aligned and in motion will deliver a crippling blow with minimal effort. Enough to rock your opponents brain and sending them to sleep.

She needs a bit more work on her hook, her swing isn't remaining straight and as she swings gets this over hooking fling. Rather a throw of the fist then a controlled strike. Not aligning your fist and connecting with your knuckles will cause you alot of pain as your wrist will take the impact. If you can't strike properly yet it's better to use an open palm and hit with your palm or deliver a slap.

This can be alot more effective at disorientating your opponent. If you open palm slap someone across the chin with about 10 PSI of pressure along their jaw line or brachial nerve their going to sleep instantly.

This is referring to as a brachial stun, learned when husbands would come home from a night out at the pub and their wives would move into slap them. Their husbands would turn their heads to not be hit in the face exposing their necks and jaws.

The wife would land a low slap and down the husband goes (this is a wifes tale not sure if historically accurate but funny nonetheless)

Do we have any boxers in the group or martial artists? Do you have any tips or tricks in training to help build skills and develop coordination?

I'd like to hear your thoughts