Boxing Training Plan for Beginners

If you’re a beginner and are considering diving into the world of boxing, it can be overwhelming. A proper boxing training plan can help you feel more confident starting your boxing journey. Discover the foundations of boxing training that helps you introduce yourself to the sport.

Basic Boxing Skills

Before adopting any boxing training plan as a beginner, you should understand the basic boxing skills you should focus on. These foundational skills lay the groundwork for your progress and help to ensure a solid foundation is in place. Here are the 5 basic boxing skills every beginner should know:

1. Stance: Your stance is the cornerstone of boxing. A good stance provides balanced foundation, enabling you to move quickly and defend against punches. Beginners should adopt a stance that feels comfortable and allows them to move around, ensuring flexibility and ability to both attack and defend.

2. Footwork: A boxer’s footwork is the most important skills for movement around the ring. Practice moving forwards, backwards and laterally.

3. Jab: The jab is a straight punch thrown with your lead hand and is one of the most versatile tools of boxing. Mastering the jab allows you to control the distance between yourself and your opponent and set up smart punch combinations. Practice your jab, returning your hand back into guarding position.

4. Cross: The cross is a powerful punch generated from the back foot through your hips and comes from the rear hand. Focus on maintaining proper form, rotating your hips and shoulders to unleash this powerful punch.

5. Hook Punch: To execute an effective hook punch, start in a proper fighting stance with hands up, shift your weight to the lead foot, pivot outward, rotate hips and shoulders, keep your elbow at 90 degrees, make a tight fist, punch in a horizontal arc aiming with the first two knuckles, follow through slightly, return to guard position quickly, avoid over-rotation, keep your guard up, and practice with shadow boxing, heavy bags, and focus mitts to perfect form, power, and timing.

6. Uppercut: To execute an effective uppercut, start in a proper fighting stance with hands up, bend knees slightly, shift your weight to the rear foot, drop your rear shoulder, rotate your hips and shoulders upward, keep your elbow bent, make a tight fist, punch in an upward arc aiming with the first two knuckles, follow through slightly, return to guard position quickly, avoid over-extension, keep your guard up, and practice with shadow boxing, heavy bags, and focus mitts to perfect form, power, and timing.

7. Defence: Effective defence is as crucial, if not more than powerful offense. Work on your reaction time, learn how to move your head to avoid punches.

Your Training Plan As A Beginner

Warm-Up (10 minutes):

• Jump rope: Use the jump rope for your warm-up. Jump rope is one of the most loved tools in the boxing community and has served many boxing legends well. Get jumping for 3 minutes.

• Light Jog: Get on a treadmill for a light jog to get your heart rate up. Adopt a light pace and aim for 5 minutes.

• Static Stretching: Incorporate a static stretch, focusing on stretching your shoulders, back, legs and hips.

Footwork (10 minutes):

• Footwork drill/Ladder drills: Move forwards and backwards, incorporate turns and pivots, helping you get more comfortable with movement. Aim to do this drill for 5 minutes.

• Plyometric boxers: Incorporate box jumps – while not solely related to footwork improvement, it can help with explosive power in your legs as well as agility in your footwork. Aim for 3 sets of 10 jumps over a period of 5 minutes.

Bag Work (10 minutes):

• Jab and Cross Punch Combinations: Throw a jab followed by a cross punch, making a powerful combination. Focus on technique and maintaining a good stance.

• Jab, Cross and Hook Punch Combinations: To make things slightly more difficult and interesting, add a hook after the jab-cross combination. Focus on hip rotation for the hook, ensuring good form.

Strength and Conditioning (25 minutes):

• Bodyweight Exercises: Incorporate push ups, sit ups, squats and burpees. Aim for 2-3 sets of 10 reps for each exercise, with 1 minute rest in between each exercise.

• Free Weighting boxing routine (15 minutes): For an effective cardio punching routine with free weights.

  • Start with 1 minute of dynamic stretching and 2 minutes of light shadow boxing.

  • Perform 1 minute each of fast-paced straight punches, hooks, and uppercuts with light weights.

  • Followed by 1-minute combinations of Jab-Cross-Hook, Jab-Cross-Uppercut, and Jab-Hook-Uppercut, each with 30 seconds rest or active rest in between.

  • Finish with 2 minutes of freestyle punching with weights, then cool down with 1 minute of light shadow boxing.

Cool Down/Light Shadow-Boxing (10 minutes):

• Light Shadow Boxing: Adopt a moderate to slow pace, focusing on punch technique and bringing your arms back to the starting position.

• Dynamic Stretching: Perform a dynamic stretch, ensuring you stretch your arms, legs and torso to cool down your muscles up. Good stretching exercises can also prevent potential injuries. Stretching for at least 2 minutes is recommended.

What’s Next?

Consistency! Keep practising, gradually increasing the difficulty of your training plan. Check out our list of some of the best boxing exercises. Whenever adopting a new training plan or unfamiliar exercises, it’s important to discuss them with a medical professional or your coach. If you are looking for a personalised boxing training plan, consider working with a personal trainer, who can help you create a bespoke plan to take your training to the next level!