When I slip on my boxing gloves before each boxing training session, the lyrics “I’m gonna knock you out, Mama said knock you out” from LL Cool J’s song “Mama Said Knock You Out” plays in my head over and over again. This got me thinking about the self-defense advice my mother gave me as a child. Truth be told, my mother never really warned me about anything other than “stranger danger” but that was the norm back then because it was a safer time, right? I believe that those same flawed lessons are presently being taught by most mothers (and fathers) in uncertain and dangerous times, which is why I have chosen to write about boxing as a viable form of self-defense for girls (and boys). After all, self-defense does not warrant a single solution. Personal protection is like an onion in that it has layers and warrants escalating solutions from mental to physical and possibly lethal.
After watching dozens of boxers at Club Sar in beautiful downtown Scottsdale, Arizona for many years since childhood, I finally decided to give boxing a whirl as a self-defense experiment. My cousin just happens to be Seth Abraham, the architect of HBO’s boxing program, so I already have a family history in the ring and assumed I’d be a natural. If I could learn to knock someone out and duck a punch successfully, then I would have a couple of shiny new tools in my self-defense toolkit for immediate use. I was pumped to get on the bag!
The first time I put on my pink Everlast twelve ounce boxing gloves for my first ever boxing lesson I was extremely nervous about looking like a giant ass. I had been lifting weights since college and had always kept my body in good shape, especially as a self-defense instructor, but boxing is a whole different creature. How could I throw away thirty five years of proper ballet stature to scrunch my body down into a small, fisted pile on my chest? Well, let’s just say that it took me an hour and a half of a private lesson with the Head Honcho at Club Sar, Tom Harrison (he’s wearing grey in the video), to get my stance almost correct…and I totally looked like a giant ass! The fundamentals of boxing were extremely difficult to adopt but Tom was amazing and really made boxing much more understandable for me. I’m hooked now.
Even though my boxing start was rough, the training was still very empowering and invigorating. Here’s my first boxing diary entry (click here to read all boxing diary entries):
NOTE: In order to write my article on boxing as an option for self defense and self protection, I decided to learn how to box at a boxing gym by trained professionals to make an educated determination. I also thought it would be beneficial if I kept a diary to keep my thoughts and my research in an accessible location for all to read...so here it is!
BOXING FOR DEFENSE DIARY - DAY 1 (TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2011)
Even though I identify Tuesday, February 8th as my first day of boxing training for my article, I took a boxing cardio class on Monday, February 7th to get myself into a boxing mindset prior to throwing the powerful punches. The boxing cardio class kicked my ass from a cardio standpoint but left me wanting more and more technique instruction to throw a "perfect" punch.
Tuesday, I took the boxing class and was the only female until the mid-point where another novice female joined us. The class was an hour and a half long with a good amount of cardio in the form of push-ups, sit-ups and mountain climbers, which were brutal. When I asked the trainer what the most important part of boxing was he responded with, “cardio conditioning to gain an endurance advantage over the opponent”, which makes sense with all the cardio we did over the past couple of days. UGH!
The most beneficial part of my day on Tuesday was when the gym manager and expert boxing trainer, Tom, took me aside to watch me throw a few punches. He worked with me on my stance (wide but not too wide, weight centered, hands in front of my face with thumbs towards my face, etc) and also taught me the importance of punching with my body and through my opponent rather than just punching with my arm. The stance felt pretty awkward, especially since I take ballet and my teacher would kill me if she saw them correcting my perfect ballet posture, but I understood where he was going with it if you are in a fight rather than swan lake.
Truth be told, I am excited to get back to hitting the Bob Bag (the male dummy punching bag they call Bob apparently) and also to practice my shadowboxing to perfect my stance and technique.
Feeling like a Mack truck hit me multiple times today, I took today (Wednesday) off to get some well deserved rest because after 1.5 hours of boxing cardio class, 1 hour of ballet, and 1 hour of jazz on Monday coupled with 1.5 hours of boxing class and legs weight lifting routine on Tuesday...I am exhausted!
My enthusiasm about the boxing diary died down after a few entries but not my enthusiasm for boxing. Work was busy for me but I was able to take out some of my stress and hostility on the Bob Bag, which I love because he always made me feel great afterwards. I was also able to understand why and how to strike someone versus just throwing a punch, which is critical in a boxing match of any variety. The key lesson that I learned very early on was that it takes a lot of cardiovascular conditioning in order to sustain punching for a full three minute round. A one minute round would wear me out on the bags. I was using muscles in my back and shoulders that I didn’t even know that I had and my yoga mat was a must the morning after. It always comes back to core conditioning with every self-defense discipline, even martial arts, so having a strong core and cardio conditioning is vital.
KEY LESSONS
Tom and I spoke a lot about boxing as a viable option for self-defense during our boxing training sessions. He said that he was concerned about women (and girls) relying solely on boxing as a form of self defense because the conditioning and boxing expertise of the attacker is unkown, which we agreed could get a less experienced woman (or man) in trouble. He did, however, say that a strong woman like me may just be able to take a man down with a punch, so it was ultimately benficial to continue my boxing training for both confidence and protection purposes (it was fun too). We both agreed that boxing training offers a confidence boost to anyone, especially young girls, and teaches how to defend as well as to strike. Boxing gives a girl or woman the confidence to stand up to anyone as well as the benefits of cardiovascular fitness. Furthermore, there is an empowerment that comes with being able to protect yourself physically and to avoid being struck by another. It is extremely empowering to strike the bag and feel the powerful force behind your punch.
Boxing, like piano or soccer, only works if a person puts their heart and dedication into it, which makes it a lesson more about perseverence and mental strength than physical ability. The importance of having a good, patient boxing instructor that understands the motivation should definitely not be overlooked. Just imagine if young girls and boys living in domestic violence households could learn boxing through an after school self-defense program. A program like that might just be the catalyst to put a crack in the perpetual cycle of violence and abuse through empowerment and confidence building of our youth.
If the heart and the dedication are firmly in place, anyone can learn how to protect themselves with boxing and to gauge the level of a competitor to determine how to take the threat down, but there needs to be an understanding of the limitations too. Those are the lessons that I learned by way of boxing, the lessons of empowerment and confidence building with a side of physical protection and defense. Check out a boxing video of Billy Siegle, a member at Club Sar, after only 13 months of boxing at Club Sar (Billy is in black).
Club SAR's association with USA/Boxing, the national governing body of the sport of amateur boxing, has been a long and productive one. SAR-trained athletes have won numerous state, regional, and national boxing championships and as a team, Club SAR has captured many Arizona State boxing titles. Club Sar offers free classes with the purchase of a membership, including boxing and kickboxing, that costs no more than $100 for Scottsdale residents and a tiny bit more for non-residents. They plan to offer one-on-one boxing, weight lifting, and martial arts training soon for those like me who prefer a private lesson first.
It is the confidence and knowledge that we instill in the girls (and boys) that will form the leaders of the future and it is never too late to give the eternal gift of self-defense.
Click here to learn more about Club Sar, click here to contact Tom Harrison at Club Sar for boxing training details, click here to get a few boxing basics from ExpertBoxing.com, or click here to contact Shieldher. Be Safe!
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