A proper boxing gym should have a heavy bag, focus mitts, double-end bag, speed bag, a ring, and at least one coach with verifiable competitive experience. Avoid "boxercise" gyms that only run cardio classes — you will learn no real technique. Read reviews, watch a session, and ask about the coach's record. A trial session is standard.

Hand wraps (180-inch Mexican-style), 16-oz gloves (sparring weight even if you are not yet sparring), boxing boots with a thin pivot-friendly sole, a mouthguard, and jump rope. Total cost: $150-300 depending on glove quality. Do NOT buy used gloves — the padding degrades and the lining harbours bacteria.

Before anything else: orthodox stance (or southpaw if you are left-handed), the jab, and in-and-out footwork. Spend at least four weeks on these three fundamentals. Every elite boxer in history could throw a textbook jab at age 14. Your jab is the foundation of every combination, every counter, every defensive system you will ever build.

After the jab is grooved, add the cross. The 1-2 (jab + cross) is the most-thrown combination in boxing — Joe Louis, Lennox Lewis, Tyson Fury, and Wladimir Klitschko all built careers on it. Practise on the heavy bag and on pads, 5 rounds per session. Focus on the cross rotation: rear-foot heel pivots out, hip drives forward, fist rotates palm-down at the last instant.

Now layer in the lead hook, slips, parries, and the high guard. Hooks are pivot-driven (the lead foot turns inward 90°), not arm-driven. Slipping is a head-and-shoulder movement at the waist — never a full body lean. Practise these in pad sessions with a coach who throws back at you with the off-hand.

After at least 6 months of bag and pad work, ask your coach about light sparring. Wear 16-oz gloves, headgear, and a mouthguard. Aim for technical sparring at 30-50% intensity — the goal is to test your defence and combinations under live conditions, not to win. Hard sparring should be limited to 2-3 weeks before a fight or grading; doing it weekly accelerates brain injury.

Boxing is anaerobic-aerobic. Run 4-5 km easy 3-4 days per week (the daily "roadwork" tradition), add 12 x 30-second sprints once or twice per week, and do 3 sessions per week of compound lifting (squat, deadlift, pull-up, bench, overhead press). Skip rope for 3 rounds at the start of every gym session.

Sleep 8-9 hours per night. Eat 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight. Foam-roll calves, hamstrings, and lats daily. Skip hard sparring 72 hours before AND after a heavy session. Boxers who burn out by 25 trained on intuition; boxers who fight into their 40s recover deliberately.