After a few months of going to the boxing gym, I feel like I’m slowly improving. My footwork is getting better and I’m able to jolt the heavy bag a little when I punch it. The key to power punching seems to be good technique, not muscle strength.
Interesting points:
2 years (age 40)
5 years (age 45)
Boxing is harder than I thought. The movements are not coming naturally, I’m heavy on my feet, I’m unable to even throw a jab properly, and I’m exhausted after each workout. At the boxing gym I see skinny high school kids shadowboxing skilfully and hitting the heavy bag with surprising force. I don’t know how long they’ve been training but I wish I had started at their age.
This seems to be a difficult early phase in my training. I will just keep trying my best without expecting too much in the beginning. Like any skill worth acquiring, boxing will take a few years to become decent in and maybe a decade or more to master.
Maybe I should take some time to become familiar with the basics of boxing before I start judo. That will be another discipline where I face a difficult and humbling beginning.
Things i need to practice outside of the boxing gym:
Muscle and strength sometimes give you enough respect to avoid conflicts, but sometimes they are not enough for self-defense. Most guys probably don’t even lift weights properly. However, your opponent might be bigger and stronger than you, be good at some combat sport, have a weapon, or be attacking in a group. It’s not enough to have muscle and strength, squatting X kg and power cleaning X kg, you need to know how to USE it in a fight. You need to be able to do the basic strikes, defenses, footwork, takedowns, falls, and groundwork. If you lack time, you can lift weights 3 times a week, and train martial arts on the days you aren’t lifting.
