Forty-five minutes that feel like games and build like boxing — loud, safe, and no contact to the head, full stop.
Youth Fundamentals
- Boxing
- Youth 12–16
- 45 min
- Works for 8–20 juniors, 2 coaches once you pass 12
- 2 coaches
- Effort 3/5
- Boxing gym floor
- youth
- fundamentals
- games
- pads
- no contact
Kit: Wraps and junior gloves for all, one pair of focus pads per pair, cones and spot markers, timer with a loud beep. House rule stated every single week: gloves touch pads and pads only — no contact to any person, and never to the head, in any drill, ever.
Stuck in the Stance Tag
Setup: Cone off a square about 12 by 12 steps. Two taggers in bibs or holding a glove. Say the week's house rule before anything moves: gloves touch pads only, nobody touches anybody's head, tonight and every night.
How it works: Tag, boxing edition: tagged players freeze in their best boxing stance, guard up — and are freed when a teammate mirrors their stance opposite them for three seconds. Swap taggers every ninety seconds. Sneak the teaching in through the freezes: wander the square fixing frozen stances like statues in a museum. Finish with thirty seconds of everyone bouncing in stance on the spot, hands up, big finish on the beep.
Rounds: 3 × 90s, new taggers each round
What to say
- “Frozen means best stance, not any stance — chin down, hands up, feet apart, even while you giggle.”
- “Escape on the balls of your feet — boxers dodge, they do not gallop.”
- “Rescue your teammates — the game is won by the group, and so is boxing.”
Easier
Bigger square, one tagger, walking pace.
Harder
Shrink the square each round; taggers must move in step-drags only.
Technique — Stance, Steps and the Jab
Setup: Spot markers in a grid, juniors spread so every one of them can see you at the front. Coach two takes the back rows. Short bursts of teaching, lots of doing — attention is a currency at this age and you spend it in small coins.
How it works: Build the stance in sixty seconds — feet apart, knees soft, hands up, chin down — then straight into doing: the compass game, step-dragging on your calls with fakes that cost five bounces. Two minutes, then freeze. Teach the jab in the air in three sentences, then drill it in game form: ten jabs on your count where the last one must freeze at full stretch for your inspection walk. Repeat the cycle — steps, jabs, freeze-checks — twice more, faster each lap. Every skill lives inside a game; nothing at this age survives as a lecture.
The technique, step by step
- Stand tall, then step one foot back — feet apart like standing on train tracks, not a tightrope.
- Melt the knees — bouncy, not stiff.
- Hands up to eyebrow and cheek, elbows tucked in like wings folded.
- Jab: lead hand shoots straight out, turns over, snaps straight back.
- After every jab: hands home, chin down, coin still there.
Common mistakes
- Winding the arm back before the jab like a cartoon — the punch starts from the guard or it starts again.
- Looking at the floor when concentrating — eyes on the coach, chin stays down anyway.
What to say
- “Chin down like you are holding a coin under it — keep the coin all class.”
- “Jab like posting a letter and snapping your hand back before the box closes.”
- “Feet apart even when excited — excitement is when stances disappear.”
- “Freeze-checks are your moment to shine — hold it strong and let me find nothing to fix.”
Easier
Slow everything to walking pace; jabs on the count only, no freezes.
Harder
Add the 1-2 for the older or returning juniors in the back rows — coach two runs their counts.
Pad Pairs — Target Practice
Setup: Pairs matched by size, one gloved, one holding pads. Teach the holders first and praise holding all block — at this age the holder learns as much as the puncher. Both coaches on the floor, half the pairs each. Repeat the rule as gloves go on: punches touch pads only.
How it works: Four rounds of ninety seconds, swap roles each round. Rounds 1–2: jabs only — holder shows the pad at their own shoulder height, puncher steps in, jabs, steps out. Rounds 3–4: the holder becomes a moving target — two steps left or right between calls, and the puncher must travel with step-drags before firing. Score clean jabs out loud in the last thirty seconds of each round; the pair with the best holding gets named too, every round, with equal ceremony.
Common mistakes
- Holders waving pads at faces for fun — one calm reset of the rule, pads at shoulder height, and play on.
- Punchers chasing power to impress a friend — score snap, not noise, and the room recalibrates itself.
Rounds: 4 × 90s, swap roles each round, 30s rest
What to say
- “Holders hold still and strong at shoulder height — you are the coach of this pair right now.”
- “Step in, jab, step out — boxing is visiting, not moving in.”
- “Snap back fast enough to catch a fly on the way home.”
- “The pad is the only thing in the gym a glove ever touches.”
Easier
Puncher stands still all four rounds; holder never moves.
Harder
Rounds 3–4 add the 1-2 to the pad for pairs who are ready — coach's call, pair by pair.
Relay Rounds
Setup: Teams of four or five in lanes, a cone line down each lane, one pad-holding coach or trusted senior junior at the end of each.
How it works: The lap: step-drag down the lane, slip at each cone on the way (heads dodge cones, cones never dodge heads), five clean jabs on the pad at the end, and bounce-steps back to high-five the next runner. First team to finish sitting in a line of perfect stances wins the round. Three rounds; shuffle the teams between rounds so nobody counts wins for long. Loud is good here — this is the block they will tell their parents about.
Rounds: 3 relay rounds, teams reshuffled between rounds
What to say
- “Fast feet still follow the rules — step-drag down the lane, no sprinting out of stance.”
- “Slips are small — duck a raindrop, not a ceiling.”
- “Five clean jabs beat five fast ones — the pad decides, and the pad cannot be fooled.”
Easier
No slips — just travel and jabs; walk the return leg.
Harder
The last runner of each team does the lane backwards — retreat steps all the way down.
Circle Down
Setup: Gloves off, big circle sitting on the floor, coaches in the circle too.
How it works: Slow the engines: ten big breaths together, in through the nose, out long. Stretch in the circle — arms across, arms overhead, legs out and reach for toes, neck slow side to side — fifteen seconds each, you counting down out loud. Then the closing ritual, same every week: one question, a few answers, gloves-up salute, done.
What to say
- “Breathe out longer than in — that is the off switch, and it works before tests and big days too.”
- “Stretch like you mean it even when your friend is being funny — thirty seconds of serious is not much to ask.”
- “Same salute every week — rituals are what make a club a club.”
Ask the class: Ask the circle: what is the one rule of this gym? Wait for the chorus — gloves touch pads only. Then ask what got better tonight, take three hands, and send them home loud and proud.
MatPlans curriculum team
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