BOXING
AM I SOUTHPAW OR REGULAR
Before you begin, it's important to know if your boxing stance is regular (right hand back and left hand in front) or southpaw (left hand back and right hand in front). For the majority of people, you know if you're regular or southpaw really by whether your right-handed or left-handed.
However, that is not the end-all-be-all rule. For some people that are right handed, standing as southpaw is more comfortable and vice versa. This is really applicable to wrestlers and those that skateboard/snowboard/surf regularly. For instance, if you wrestle, your shooting leg may be your right leg so you feel more comfortable with keeping your right foot forward even though you are right handed. Additionally, boarders may also stand goofy (right foot forward), but be right handed.
A great way to figure it out is for you to stand up and to throw some punches. Try moving back and forth without crossing your feet to see which feels most natural/comfortable.
IS BOXING BETTER THAN JIU-JITSU?
This question often comes up and in short...it depends. It depends on what you are doing or your goals. If you are into MMA, then you definitely need both. There are many mixed martial artists that have fantastic Jiu-Jitsu/Grappling, but can't take their opponents to the ground and take a beating to the face. On the other hand, as seen on UFC 1, there are fighters that are great boxers, kickboxers and strikers, but have no clue what to do when taken to the ground.
Besides the obvious of using hands, boxing and JiuJitsu are vastly different for other reasons. One is involves endurance. Jiu-Jitsu white belt rounds are 5 minutes each. So players will go a little slow at first and ramp up energy throughout the round. Boxing is usually three two minutes rounds. So boxers will give a lot more energy early on. If you only do one and move to the other, you'll see how hard it is on your cardio. More analysis of the differences can be found here.
WHAT SHOULD I LOOK FOR IN A BOXING GYM?
First it's important for you to understand your goals. Are you primarily looking to get fit or to actually learn to fight? You might say "both", but if you had to pick one which would you choose? If you're looking to lose weight then you'll want a place that does more cardio boxing in a class setting. These places are great to get a sweat, but not great if you're looking to learn skills. There is usually very little emphasis on technique and form. If you're looking to learn to fight, then you definitely first want a place where you feel comfortable. Where you feel like you don't have to spar unless you want. Here are some other big things to look out for:
ASK IF THERE IS BAG, MITT, OR LIGHT SPARRING
Some places have tons of heavy bags, but heavy bags result in poor form. Hands drop because a bag isn't coming after you. Mitts are better because it forces you to react however you don't have to worry much of getting hit. Light sparring is best because someone can come after you and spikes your adrenaline- it's a lot of fun too.
NO REGULAR SPARRING? GO ELSEWHERE
Sparring is what martial arts is all about. Sparring doesn't mean knocking each other out, but testing your skills against each other to improve and to gain confidence. If a gym does no sparring at all or if no coach watches, then you won't learn.
BYOG: BRING YOUR OWN GEAR
The biggest flag to walk away is if a gym makes you buy their gear. If you can't bring your own, same ounce gloves, mouth guards, wraps, etc, then they are just looking to cross-sell you and don't care about your learning. A good gym cares about your learning over merchandise.
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