Boxing Challenge

February’s challenge was for us to get into the boxing ring and John Ennis of St Michaels Boxing Club, Inchicore was more than happy to put us through our paces! 

As soon as we arrived John got straight to warming us up with jumping jacks, burpees, sprints, & agility runs. Once the blood was pumping he got us straight into the ring! Ummm scary….?

NO! Actually it felt awesome and we were both super pumped up and raring to go, John took us through some more drills and then settled us ready to learn to throw our first punch! John explained to us that there is actually much more to punching correctly than just lashing out, the punch actually starts at your legs and hip and the weight behind your hip leading to your arm is what will give you the power you require! We were taught how to stand correctly to stay balanced – wide stance at an angle with knees slightly bent – you should feel balanced and able to move with ease. Once we found our comfortable stance we learnt how to move – leading leg steps forward and trailing one steps behind – never moving to much out our your wide leg stance (so as to maintain balance) GOLD STAR for us here – we both had awesome co-ordination and nailed this first time – BOOM!

We then went on to learn how to hold our fists up  – protecting our faces, chin down, elbows in, fists up and protecting eye and nose area. We then learnt the jab and the punch – jab with your non leading fist (for us the left) and then KNOCK OUT with your leading fist – POW! John had us practice this using his hands as targets and believe me it is hard work – the sweating had begun!!!

Next up John wrapped our hands and got the gloves out! Things got serious!! Using the same stance and punch techniques John had us punching sets of 4/6/8/10 and running round the ring after him – whilst maintaing our correct footwork. In between sets of this we were told to hit the deck and maintain the plank position or do sit ups for 60 seconds. Boxing is hardcore!!!! Both of us worked hard and John put us through our paces, finally he took us down to the bags for some punching technique practice and a cool down.

The technique level and fitness required for boxing is insane and the therapeutic effect of smashing some pads is second to none! We both left the Club feeling absolutely awesome!
We absolutely LOVED this boxing session and will definately be going back for more – John and his club were so good to us and didn’t once ‘go easy’ on us which was exactly what we wanted!