Boxing is more accessible than ever. With multiple gyms in every major city, and private boxing coaches on every corner, it’s best to have some idea of what your goal is when picking a trainer. There are coaches, and then there are mitt holders.

A coach will take people on an individual basis, and together find what moves, styles, techniques, game plans etc are going to work for the person. There are so many different styles in this sport, that there is no one way to box. Ali, Tyson, Mayweather, Leonard, Pacquiao etc. All these guys box differently, and all have gained legendary status with their own styles and techniques. They each found what worked for them. “Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own”. -Bruce Lee

A mitt holder is somebody who regardless of their students age, height, weight, gender, athleticism, personality etc will train them the same. They usually have one way they like all their students to throw punches, practice footwork around the ring, defensively move their head, and so on. Usually, it’s because they were taught this specific way by their trainer, and never took the time to find out if there was something better out there. While there’s nothing wrong with this, if you train a long lanky guy to fight in close, and a short stocky guy to fight in close, and they both fight each other in close, the shorter stocky guy will generally have a big advantage, and vice versa if you train both of them to fight on the outside and use their length and reach, the shorter stockier guy will be at a massive disadvantage to the longer lankier guy with the natural frame advantages. Therefore, it’s so important to take every student on an individual basis, practice different techniques and styles, see what they can do and what works, and put all these things together into the individual.

Doing this can be scary, because it’s an unknown journey and most people will look to the coach as a supreme authoritative being whose omnipotence has everything figured out from day one and it’s just not the way it works. Be wary if your coach teaches every student the same exact movements and sequences. Of course, certain combos and footwork can be replicated by nearly everyone, but the way they throw the punches and move their feet should be a unique movement to the student. Not every guy has to bob and weave or duck for 75% of their defense. Perhaps they prefer leaning back, but you won’t know this if your coach teaches everybody that every single aspect of the game has a right or wrong.

When starting out, you don’t have to find the best coach or mitt holder, as most will teach the “fundamentals”, but if you’re really enjoying the sport and your adventure, and are thinking about branching out, you may want to take a good hard look at your coach. You should also understand what you’re getting into. Do you really want to learn how to box, or do you just want to have fun, get a good workout in, and maybe learn how to throw a punch? If you want to learn how to really box, you must box. That’s it. Hitting mitts is great in the beginning to learn foundational pieces, and later to keep you sharp, but mitts never became a standard for training until the late 70’s and early 80’s. You’d be hard pressed to find footage of Muhammad Ali, aka “The Greatest” doing mitt work. He would box to get better at boxing, and spar lightly and often with smaller faster opponents to practice specific sequences and movements. Now you don’t need to spar for the first many months if you aren’t comfortable, but your coach should have you doing specific games, and choreographed routines and drills, to practice head movement, and hitting an actual person (which is much different than an oven mitt). Okay, maybe I have a bit of bias towards mitt work, but it’s become synonymous with boxing, like jump rope and the speedball, both which don’t make you better at boxing in any way as their two movements you’ll never do in a boxing ring.

The issue with staying with a mitt holder too long, is that often when you move to a coach, that coach, if their good, will find better ways for you to do similar moves you’ve already been taught. It’s an unlearning, which is a hassle for both parties. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve trained somebody who has trained with some mitt holder for an entire year or two prior only for us to find that they weren’t using their attributes, reach, explosiveness, athleticism etc to their full capabilities almost immediately. We then must spend a few weeks learning more proficient ways to execute our offense and defense and they almost always tell me it’s working better for them, and we do this in a matter of weeks. We did in weeks, what mitt holders do in years. They are the equivalent to shooting free throws, and then saying you know how to play basketball. Going to the batting cages and saying you know how to play baseball. Doing a 1-2-3 and a few bobs and weaves, doesn’t mean you know how to box. You must punch and get punched at to learn the sport. Herein lies another problem I see, where the only time this tends to happen is in sparring, and it’s quite hard to learn in sparring (especially if the intensity is high), because it turns into a fight, and not an area to practice whatever you’re currently working on. Therefore, I always work people up slowly, and do routines, and choreographed sequences for offence and defense, but in a controlled environment where the intensity is low, but it’s still as realistic as you can get without full sparring or fighting. Ideally, you shouldn’t go directly from mitts to sparring. It’s too much of a jump, and most people aren’t ready, nor do they possess the control or skill as a beginner. You should have been punched at for many sessions, by someone with a glove, before you hop in for your first spar. You should have punched at an actual person’s face, who moves around, before you hop in for your first spar.

I’ve seen people paying upwards to $200 an hour to hit mitts by somebody’s pool, thinking they are learning boxing, only to completely fall apart in a ring under a spar. Not only that, but even being able to do anything real that wasn’t hitting a mitt in some perfect sequence of which their mitt holder choreographed that wasn’t at all realistic in an actual boxing match. We are in an age where any guy who watches a few videos on YouTube, takes a few amateur fights, thinks he can go out and teach another individual. They learn the most basic things, often things that look cool for social media, but are the farthest things from true boxing. That’s all fine if the person just wants to get a workout, but you must know your intentions at each part of your journey. Maybe you just want a workout, but eventually want to spar or really learn the sport (as you cannot truly understand boxing from mitt work alone). Make sure your coach is able to progress you to the next stage of your journey. If not, maybe it’s time to look around for someone who can… This is something dear to my heart, and feels like a scam, and I couldn’t imagine doing it to anyone. I always recommend my students to try other gyms or trainers at my own gym to get a different experience, not only because I’m confident in my training, but also because if there’s somebody out there that can take them to a higher level than I can, I truly want them to work together.

Lastly, not having a ring to box in is a huge disadvantage if you ever decide to box/spar someone in a ring. You can’t train to use the ropes, corners, angles etc on the mitts alone in the park and there are so many ways to benefit from these spots. It’s like shooting hoops in front of your garage vs playing on an actual full size basketball court. It’s similar, but only to the amount that it is. Remember, you can hold mitts in the park and still be a coach, and conversely, just because you are in a gym setting in the ring with a trainer, that doesn’t mean you’re working with a coach. Be wary of the mitt holders.