Beginner boxing
Forty-five minutes: skipping, shadow boxing, bags and pads. Ten to fourteen people on the floor with two coaches.
It takes longer to learn to stand than to hit.
You skip, you shadow box, you hit a bag and you go to work. Forty-five minutes at 6am or 6pm, and the first one is free.
He is on the pads a lot. A text always lands.
| Mon | 6am | 6pm |
|---|---|---|
| Tue | 6am | 6pm |
| Wed | 6am | 6pm |
| Thu | 6am | 6pm |
| Fri | 6am | 6pm |
Everyone here walked in for the first time once.
Plenty of people who want to learn to box never do it, because a gym like this looks from the footpath like somewhere you already have to belong.
Turn up in whatever you own, at whatever fitness you have. Nobody spars on their first day, or on their fiftieth unless they ask. Come at 6am or at 6pm and see whether you want to come back.
| Ring | 1 |
|---|---|
| Bags | 8 |
| In a class | 10–14 |
| Coaches on the floor | 2 |
Your first forty-five minutes
- Ring or text Marco with the day you want. He will tell you what to bring, which is a water bottle.
- Turn up ten minutes early. Wraps and gloves are here to borrow until you buy your own.
- Forty-five minutes on the floor. You get the stance and the first two punches, and nobody hits you.
- Pay on the way out, or do not. No contract, no joining fee.
Classes, pads and sparring
Pads with Marco
Half an hour on the pads, one to one, booked around a class. Ask for it when the stance stops feeling stupid.
Sparring, when Marco says so
Controlled rounds and headgear — six months in at the earliest, and plenty of people never spar at all.
Marco, and two people who kept coming
Marco Reyes boxed as an amateur out of this town, well enough to be useful and not well enough to be precious about it. He takes every beginner class himself, morning and evening.
Southpaw is the room behind the panel beater on Keira Street, and it smells like it. The ring takes half of it and the bags most of the rest, and you can hear rain on the roller door.
I walked past this place for two years before I texted. Now I am here twice a week and I have never been fitter.
Aimee started in March.
I was forty-one and unfit and nobody made anything of it. I got put on a bag and left alone.
Dan is in his third year.
Marco Reyes Coach and owner. Twelve years on this floor.
First one is free. Ring Marco tonight.
Tell him which day suits and whether 6am or 6pm is easier. He is on the floor twice a day, so give him a couple of hours.
Or send a text; it gets read after the 6pm.