Hey guys Im back again to get some advice and completly irritate the hell outta some of you haha jk.
Im training my 12 year old brother in boxing, we just started last wednesday and he is pretty small. Im not sure if I should get him into some weight training:s I only have him hitting the speed bag, heavy bag, double ended bag for now. I dont know if I should let him lift at such a young age, but sometimes he asks me to do so. Would it stunt his growth? he is only 5'5 120-130:s at the moment. Thanks

just start him on boxing first. untill he gets good enough to win sparring fights. then beef him up

Work him on the sled or weighted vest. Things that will work his whole body.

Don't bother with weights as he's probably too young to be able to focus on correct form. Get him on whole body strength exercises like climbing ropes/trees, swimming etc.

Don't bother with weights as he's probably too young to be able to focus on correct form. Get him on whole body strength exercises like climbing ropes/trees, swimming etc.

Seconded...........have him do some Matt Furey's stuff and some Ross Enamait....and RUN

Work on skill, cardio and most importantly at such a young age...

NUTRITION

He would probably have a lot of fun if you trained him with the mitts once and a while. You can use the round ones for boxing and the long thick ones for his kicks and knees. I used to get trained like that and it's a blast and helps your accuracy. Also gives you the opportunity to feel what techniques of punches or kicks is powerful or weak.

If he got into wrestling, judo, or BJJ at that age he can be badass (for his size) before he's even grown.

He would probably have a lot of fun if you trained him with the mitts once and a while. You can use the round ones for boxing and the long thick ones for his kicks and knees. I used to get trained like that and it's a blast and helps your accuracy. Also gives you the opportunity to feel what techniques of punches or kicks is powerful or weak.

If he got into wrestling, judo, or BJJ at that age he can be badass (for his size) before he's even grown.

+1

focus mitts are the funnest part of training strikes.

plus they tire the shit out of you if you're pushed right.

and cross training at that age would be perfect.

Nutrition is definitely crucial at his age so pay close attention to that. Otherwise, like the others have said, I'd avoid weight training and work on bodyweight calisthentics (push-ups, pull-ups, bodyweight squats/lunges, dive bombers, dips, ab work, etc). In addition to cardio and boxing, just have him do bodyweight circuits of the exercises above. Have him do all the push-ups he can, followed by all the pull-ups he can and so on with the other exercises. When his conditioning improves, have him rest and do the circuit again. When he gets a baseline level of fitness, you can break it up into sets of 15 or 20 of each exercise in the circuits.

Best,

Avoid the weights. I would also put him in an established gym, unless you REALLY REALLY know what your doing. If he starts now and keeps up with it, he could be a beast.

I would also focus on adapting exercises to incorporate movement through a full range of motion. So many people (myself included) get so stiff from sitting in a chair all day at the office. Practicing deep squats (body weight) and overhead squats with a piece of PVC pipe are really beneficial.

I find doing a good warm up with leg and arm swings also really helps.

The main thing is try not to push too much. Make the training sessions fun, talk to him about what he likes and what he doesn't like, and try to explain the benefits of what he's doing in simple terms. Try to structure things so he realizes when he makes good progress in fitness and/or boxing, and hopefully he will be encouraged to continue.

ok thanks guys, yah I didnt put him into weights yet. Sorry I didnt reply sooner I've been pretty busy I've decided to sign on Nshoes to talk about matt hamill's BS loss this past saturday but thats a different subject.
I told him that weights stunt his growth and used my size for example standing at 5'10 and my older bro is 6'1 and 3rd yongest is 6'2 so I think he got it in his head. Shitty thing now is that he seems to be getting bored already, need some new exercises on punching for him.

focus on nutrition... and I mean really focus on nutrition, if you can teach him at a young age not to crave sugars, sweets, candies, cakes, the works, and to actually enjoy healthy food, he will be in great shape the rest of his life... and at such a young age and still growing he needs a shit load of calories, especially if he is training

I'd recommend possibly talking to a nutritionist on his behalf or if hat's not an option, just do some research and work with him to find a diet that makes him feel 100%

and I say have him do some form of weight training once or twice a week... I do not believe that wieghts will stunt your growth if used correctly at such a young age... at his age he only needs 15-20 minutes of weight training once or twice weekly to see great gains

check out the training myth article that Nomak posted and look towards the bottom for a blurb about wieght training youth

I started lightly lifting weights when I was 13 and it didn't stunt my growth

Sucks that he is getting bored already, just keep mixing it up

^^^^^^^^^^ I just thought I'd add this little diddy too... from the age of 6 to about 13 I was a mile a minute, I ran everywhere, in bad shoes, good shoes, ninjashoes, no shoes, etc... I played every sport I could and I did not touch a wieght till I was 13 and I now have debiliating shin pain that will be with me forever

Just be careful you don't push him too hard when it comes to high impact activities such as running, jumping, etc...

yeah ok cool, Ive just read that lifting stunts your growth if ya start too early or whatever.
I used myself as a example cause when I 1st started my basketball team I was 1 of the tallest players then I got into weights at a early age and then stopped growing taller and I dont think im tall as I should be but I dont care.
Im big where it counts hahaha. thanks for the advice guys, I just need to think of more training ideas to keep him going and not bored.

It's a myth that weight training at a young age stunts your growth. You shouldn't train young athletes incredibly intensely as that could in fact have that effect. But that goes whether you make them run or climb or lift weights too much. If you use weights to get strong NOT to get big, then there won't be a problem.

This is how children play anyway; they climb trees or push around with stones or other things that are heavy for them (some of the time), but they stop when they START to get tired, ie. when it isn't really fun anymore. This makes them stronger but not much bigger and with very little soreness even if they do it every day. There is no mysterious difference between bodyweight resistance and iron resistance.

This is pretty much how I train, and as you can probably tell, I'm a big fan of Pavel Tsatsouline's method (high resistance, only 1-5 reps for many sets with long rest intervals, almost every day). Using this for strength training and KB snatches in an interval format such as the Tabata protocol, I've more than doubled my strength in two years without gaining
any weight. I'm also hardly ever sore.

iv come to learn that if you train a child at a younger age in wrestling... it tends to stay with them longer rather than if you train them in say boxing or kickboxing... the technique tends to become stale.

example:
my cousin who was a CIF wrestling champion trained his son who is now 18 in both boxing and wrestling when he was 8, his balance on the ground is excellent and his stand up is very quick but as he got older, he started to lose his boxing technique, and his foot movment wasnt as crisp as it was when he was younger. Granted he stopped training all together for about a year and a half due to cancer treatment (hes ok now and training again) but the wrestling seemed to stick with him while he seemed to lose all his boxing technique

someone once told me that boxing and kickboxing is hard to keep fresh... and you lose certain aspects if you dont practice them all the time... differing from wrestling where... if you have a solid basic grasp of wrestling.. it will pretty much stick with you.

just a side note.

It's a myth that weight training at a young age stunts your growth. You shouldn't train young athletes incredibly intensely as that could in fact have that effect. But that goes whether you make them run or climb or lift weights too much. If you use weights to get strong NOT to get big, then there won't be a problem.

This is how children play anyway; they climb trees or push around with stones or other things that are heavy for them (some of the time), but they stop when they START to get tired, ie. when it isn't really fun anymore. This makes them stronger but not much bigger and with very little soreness even if they do it every day. There is no mysterious difference between bodyweight resistance and iron resistance.

This is pretty much how I train, and as you can probably tell, I'm a big fan of Pavel Tsatsouline's method (high resistance, only 1-5 reps for many sets with long rest intervals, almost every day). Using this for strength training and KB snatches in an interval format such as the Tabata protocol, I've more than doubled my strength in two years without gaining
any weight. I'm also hardly ever sore.

...did you write this? not trying to be a dick but I feel like I've read it before... if you did write it though, good work...

Yes I wrote it. Obviously, the statements I made are based on what more knowledgeable people have written elsewhere (the observations on how many children play was from a dragondoor article I think) so you may very well have come across some of it before.

Yes I wrote it. Obviously, the statements I made are based on what more knowledgeable people have written elsewhere (the observations on how many children play was from a dragondoor article I think) so you may very well have come across some of it before.

yeah... that is what I recognized... great post though... I just wanted to know if it were your words or if it was just copied and pasted... again, great post, even better that you wrote it yourself

Boxing, Push-ups, Flexibility training and conditioning like running and jogging should be applied on him.

Boxing, Push-ups, Flexibility training and conditioning like running and jogging should be applied on him.

I have him working on boxing, pushups, lots of stretching, working good combos, sprawls, lil bit of weights(not much) kicking, knees, situps, wall sits, and some other conditioning drills, no running yet.

I think the best advice that I can give is this:

Keep it fun.

When I say fun, I just mean that he shouldn't be bored. This often means that you have to use less than optimal training regimens, but if the trainee hasn't got a very high self discipline then you'll just make him quit by doing something effective but boring. This is particularly important at that age (around the onset of puberty where children discover lots of new pleasurable diversions such as the opposite sex). We see this a lot at the club where I'm teaching; there is a large number of promising young fighters that quit when they reach the age of 13-16. Sometimes they then come back when they're around 20.

I think the best advice that I can give is this:

Keep it fun.

When I say fun, I just mean that he shouldn't be bored. This often means that you have to use less than optimal training regimens, but if the trainee hasn't got a very high self discipline then you'll just make him quit by doing something effective but boring. This is particularly important at that age (around the onset of puberty where children discover lots of new pleasurable diversions such as the opposite sex). We see this a lot at the club where I'm teaching; there is a large number of promising young fighters that quit when they reach the age of 13-16. Sometimes they then come back when they're around 20.

yeah that is some good advice and he does get bored sometimes, so everytime he gets bored I show him new things, tell him he is doing good (cause he is) his kicks are pretty solid along with his punching for a kid his age (12) He watches UFC with me and his older brothers and he tells me he wants to do that, but for now what he really likes is the entrance the fighters come out to lol. But yea thanks man, I will keep everything you said in mind.

It won't hurt if you have him start lifting. You'll need to have him concentrate on light weights and proper form. Then as he gets older he can add weight and he should have the form down pact.