any ideas on how to make boxing for kids more fun?

[Relentless]

i help my coaches train beginners every tuesdays and thursdays, some of the older boys are ok with training hard but then you have the wannabe teens who come in just to call themselves boxers and the kids who complain about it being boring, any ideas on how to make training more fun?

[amy]

My philosophy is to make it extra boring. Make them stand in front of the mirror and jab for two weeks. Weeds out the annoying wanna be's.

If they really want to box and they love the sport, then you shouldn't have to 'make it more fun'. Ideally, they would be eager to learn and the basics would be fun enough for them to stick with it.

[Relentless]

My philosophy is to make it extra boring. Make them stand in front of the mirror and jab for two weeks. Weeds out the annoying wanna be's.

If they really want to box and they love the sport, then you shouldn't have to 'make it more fun'. Ideally, they would be eager to learn and the basics would be fun enough for them to stick with it.

the 'wannabes' are also very keen to spar.

[amy]

Of course they are. It's always the first thing they ask. I find it incredibly irritating.

[Nwil]

don't make it fun, that's the whole point.

[Smith]

If they don't find the actual shadow boxing and hard training fun/motivating, really shoudln't be in there and its best for them to get to....

[tri-pod]

if they ever complain just give them alot of pushups and if they keep on complaining make them run and do pushups the whole practice

[Relentless]

i think i asked the wrong question, basically i want to add more variety, right now what we make them do is 3 rounds of everyhing (bag, shadow, rope etc) followed by ground work and some pads, i want to do something different but we only have an hour.

[Smith]

Make soem sort of competition out of it with them. Not sure how you could implement it, but it will motivate some to really give it everything, everyone likes competing, the shit ones will be determined to up their game, and by offering a small prize/accumalted points for something, or some shit to the winner, it keeps people interested.

Maybe?

[amy]

if they ever complain just give them alot of pushups and if they keep on complaining make them run and do pushups the whole practice

:lol: Kolya did that to this little wigger punk whiner at our gym one night and the next day his mom called the coach and complained. :rofl

[Kolya]

I'm gonna make it miserable for all those little bastards at the gym tonight.

[Jennifer Love Hewitt]

I disagree with some of the posters here. I like to try and make sure that people are having fun. Some people just awant the exercise, or a fun activity. No need to train every one as if they are trying to become the champ.

I like to let begginers spar, but here's the catch.
They only spar with me. That way no one gets hurt, and they get to throw punches at someone. I don't do it for a long time, just sort of as a little reward after the main lessons.
Sometimes I'll sit there and cover up, or somethimes I'll make myself really hard to catch. You have to try and guage people's interest, and whether or not they are having fun.

[amy]

I'm gonna make it miserable for all those little bastards at the gym tonight.

Says who? I ain't doing shit you tell me to do. :shake

[amy]

I disagree with some of the posters here. I like to try and make sure that people are having fun. Some people just awant the exercise, or a fun activity. No need to train every one as if they are trying to become the champ.

I like to let begginers spar, but here's the catch.
They only spar with me. That way no one gets hurt, and they get to throw punches at someone. I don't do it for a long time, just sort of as a little reward after the main lessons.
Sometimes I'll sit there and cover up, or somethimes I'll make myself really hard to catch. You have to try and guage people's interest, and whether or not they are having fun.

Good points.

[Kolya]

Says who? I ain't doing shit you tell me to do. :shake

Well you're not one of those little bastards, are you?

[Koa]

Might have the ability to just chase people away in Britain.. Do that in the U.S. and you might need to close down your gym. Everyone is getting into other sports. Tough guy sports can be anything from ice hockey to American Football. I can guarantee, more athletes with huge potential end up on the football field in the U.S. than in the boxing gym.

[amy]

Well you're not one of those little bastards, are you?

No. Thank god.

[tri-pod]

i think i asked the wrong question, basically i want to add more variety, right now what we make them do is 3 rounds of everyhing (bag, shadow, rope etc) followed by ground work and some pads, i want to do something different but we only have an hour.


oh that makes more sense. heres an idea make them break off into teams and do compititions like sprints and races or who can throw the most punches on the bag in three minutes and things like that then keep points for the team that wins, and the team that wins gets to decide how many pushups the other team should do

[AK-47]

oh that makes more sense. heres an idea make them break off into teams and do compititions like sprints and races or who can throw the most punches on the bag in three minutes and things like that then keep points for the team that wins, and the team that wins gets to decide how many pushups the other team should do

Yeh kids like that type of stuff. Competitions

[joekirkbycobra]

the 'wannabes' are also very keen to spar.

make the wannabe's spar someone good someone they'll take a arse whuppin off and see if they keep coming and with the bored kids have them play games like shoulder tig an foot tig to gain sharpness theres also one were you put a clothes peg on ther shirt and thhe need to snatch it

[Zhaakal]

I would put them in once with a guy whose got some experience and give them a little ass whoopin so they would get their feet on the ground and realise how shit they are and then maybe they will start takeing things seriously if they wan't to achive something in this sport.

[Rakim]

I'm not sure I should be commenting to be honest but going out of your way to make stuff boring seems to be the worst thing you could do as a coach/trainer. A lot of kids need encouragement and have short attention spans, I don't really see the advantage of intentionally trying to bore the shit out of them. There are ways of helping people learn and have fun at the same time.

[Doomas]

Treat them like dogs, you cant teach them new tricks if you dont make it fun for them:good . theres also diferent tipe of kids, some may advance and learn better if theyr encouraged (usualy more shy and silent ones) and some needs to be pushed harder and show whos boss around (usualy more agressive ones).

[Jazzo]

Trying to make battle "more fun" is abhorrent to me!

I treat everything in life as a battle, and the little runts should be honoured that you teach them in the ways of your art :bbb

[gallagher430]

I disagree with everyone saying to make it boring and weed the "posers" out. Some of those kids could be good someday if you keep their interest long enough for them to take advantage of being in the gym and learning.

As for something to do. Maybe put kids into teams, then at the end of every month, two weeks, or whatever length of time, make a small sparring tournament so they can see how their skills progressed and see where they are compared to everyone else. Doing this might also encourage kids on the same team to help each other out with whatever problems they might be having. Being taught by peers is always more fun than a coach or someone you can't relate to. Teaching is also the best way for anyone to learn...

[aj_boxing]

im not trying to sound too harsh on the kids and shit but i can remember when i started training and sure some of it was boring as shit but i just thought about how good its going to be when it all pays off, fuck making it fun if they want fun go play ping pong. you can play soccer, you can play tennis but you cant play boxing.

[amy]

im not trying to sound too harsh on the kids and shit but i can remember when i started training and sure some of it was boring as shit but i just thought about how good its going to be when it all pays off, fuck making it fun if they want fun go play ping pong. you can play soccer, you can play tennis but you cant play boxing.

I agree. It's one thing if you are there just to get in shape an all. We have one or two of those people at our gym. But if you are there to compete, I don't care if you want it to be fun. Go be bored somewhere else, I got shit I need to work on.

Little kids are different, we don't have anyone under 13 in our gym. The teenage boys are the worst. They all think they are hot snot and want to spar the first day. But they can't keep up with the conditioning drills and can't throw a job properly to save their life. They need to get the hell out of my way. :twisted:

My coach does a good job of mixing up the workouts so they are different every day and he tries not to kill the newbies by making it too hard. But still 90% of the people quit within a month. I think if you really like boxing and you are really concentrating on the drills, it's actually hard to get bored, even just shadow boxing. But yeah, if you are half-assing it and spacing out you're going to get bored no matter what you are doing.

[joekirkbycobra]

i absolutely love the training dare i say it more than fighting