A TECHNICAL GUIDE TO BOXING FUNDAMENTALS

The foreword:
 
I thought it best to begin this book with some information about myself, my history and why I felt qualified to put all this information together for you to read and learn from. My name is Matt Goddard, and I am a former professional boxer (my record was 7-0 before medical issues forced my early retirement) with more than 2 decades of experience in the world of boxing. I won an English national title as an amateur, was undefeated as a professional and I have sparred with former World champions, former British and Commonwealth champions and professional and amateur boxers all over the country. I have been coaching with all levels of fighter ever since my career stopped. By that I mean that I work with complete novices from 5-65 years old all the way up to experienced gloved professionals, bare-knuckle world champions, amateur fighters, and white-collar fighters. I have my own boxing gym in Hampshire, UK and, at the time of writing this, I have over 330,000 Instagram followers, over 50,000 TikTok followers and my recently started YouTube channel has cleared 5000 subscribers. I am also a fully licensed British Boxing Board of Control Professional Trainer/Second and have been a qualified Personal Trainer for over a decade. I wanted to write this book because I am so often asked about what skills should be prioritised, what’s “the most important” thing for beginners to learn, how training should be broken down and about the simple, fundamental basics that should be taught in every boxing gym globally.
 
There’s an awful lot of incredibly good boxing trainers out there, but, unfortunately, over recent years boxing coaching has been infiltrated and overtaken by strength & conditioning coaches, boxercise coaches and martial arts coaches (purporting themselves as “boxing” coaches) who are entering our world with minimal boxing experience and a complete lack of understanding regarding foundational technique, training methodology, technical differences between boxing and other martial arts and how to develop somebody with zero experience to a point at which they are competent and confident enough to share the ring with an opponent. There are lots of differences in coaching across the world with different “styles” and preferences in different countries, on different continents, in different cities and even in different gyms – that isn’t in dispute. However, I believe that the true core fundamental values of boxing and the technique required to excel at boxing have been thoroughly diluted by the previously mentioned infiltration and, sadly, we have a long way to go before we are able to return to the glory days of the golden era.
 
That is exactly the reason I felt the need to write this book. Even if it only helps one young fighter to improve their knowledge of the sport of boxing then it will have been worth the effort.
 
I intend to write this book in very simple terminology, keeping jargon and “industry talk” to a minimum. Anything I believe you might need explaining I will either explain as I discuss it or I will include in a glossary at the end of the book for your reference. I will begin with a brief overview of boxing as a sport, its physical requirements, its mental requirements and the importance of having a good team. I will then move into a more technical coaching section, discussing the foundational skills required, their order of priority, some simple training methods and then how to structure your training to maximise the speed of progression. I will close out the book with my top tips for any aspiring boxers, a few additional pieces of information regarding strength & conditioning, nutrition & mental health, and my conclusion.
 
I hope you enjoy reading what I have put together and, as I said, I hope it helps you to learn more about the sport I love.