Côté Coach · Boxing

Coaching boxing, from the youngest to seniors

A free knowledge base built on documents from World Boxing, the FFBoxe, Swiss Boxing and J+S/BASPO, the DBV and ÖBV, USA Boxing and England Boxing — plus Boxing Canada's coach education. Boxing has no single governing authority: where the federations disagree — on the age contact opens, on headgear, on weight categories — both positions are printed side by side, each named.

Pick an age group

Priorities change completely from one band to the next — and the contact gate is not the same age in every federation.

Do

Everything is pad, bag, shadow and footwork — safe at any age. A straight punch lands on the partner's gloved PALM, never the body or head (Boxing Canada progression).
Touch games and light sensitisation: the FFBoxe Boxe Éducative Assaut is « touch only, no power », open from age 6; Swiss J+S runs Box-Fitness and Light-Contact from ages 5–8.
Where a competition format exists at all, it is full-contact WITH HEADGEAR and tight age-matching only: USA Boxing Pee-Wee (from 8, matched 8–9) and the Belgian Aspirant (from 8, headgear, technical-only results).

Avoid

Full-contact sparring and knockouts. FFBoxe opens combat (BA) only from Minime (~12): « Poussins and Benjamins are excluded from combat ».
Head strikes before age 8: Swiss J+S bans them entirely under 8 — soft body-and-shoulder contact only.
Believing in one « starting age »: World Boxing, the IBA and the ÖBV have no category under 11–13; FFBoxe touch from 6, USA / Belgium / DBV from 8, Swiss / ÖBV competition from 11. There is no single minimum age.

Do

This is the band to build clean straight punches BEFORE circulars — the corpus's convergent teaching order: the lead straight first, then the hook and uppercut.
Where full contact opens, it is always headgear plus a protective stop regime: DBV Schüler U13 from age 10 (2/3-count stop); ÖBV Schüler U13 (11–12) « any clear effective hit → immediate stop, no count » (the strictest); Swiss U13 (11–12) full contact with headgear but immediate-stop-no-count.
Keep your own federation's gate in view: FFBoxe opens combat only at Minime (~12); Switzerland reserves hard head blows for age 13.

Avoid

Treating « u13 » as one contact rule. FFBoxe keeps 9–11 touch-only (BEA); Belgium (Aspirant), the DBV (from 10), the ÖBV (from 11) and the USA (from 8) allow gated full contact. The gate is per federation.
Hard head blows before 13 under Swiss J+S — the SwissBoxing ladder: « Olympic / amateur boxing from 13; hard blows allowed ». Below that, light head contact only, with a cheekbone-protecting headguard.
Ignoring annual bout caps for minors where they exist: the DBV caps U13 at 12 bouts a year.

Do

Full contact with headgear is the norm across every body at 13–16 (World Boxing U15 / U17, FFBoxe Cadet / Junior, DBV Kadetten / Junioren, USA Intermediate / Junior). Rounds are always three; length grows with age.
Introduce defence-then-counter shadow work and controlled opposition (assaut) — the FFBoxe Gant Orange repertoire, closed by a 2–3-punch indirect counter. Status: « indirect counter-attacker », never attacking cold.
Respect the matchmaking gap: Switzerland and the DBV mix youth classes only within a 24-month age gap, applying the younger class's protection rules.

Avoid

Assuming bare-headed boxing. At 13–16 headgear is mandatory everywhere; the elite bare-head rule (World Boxing / IBA men) does not reach this band.
Skipping the medical gate: the ÖBV forbids any sparring before the medical certificate arrives, and requires a Vorboxen (assessed sparring in front of the regional coach and a doctor) plus written parental consent before a Kampfpass is issued.
Matching across a wide experience gap: the FFBoxe code bars a boxer with fewer than 5 bouts from meeting one with 10 or more, regardless of age.

Do

Separate the 17-year-old from the elite: every federation still classes 17 as youth (Junior 2, U19, Youth) — headgear-mandatory, not the bare-headed elite. A « senior » session must not apply elite rules (bare head, 3×3′) to a 17-year-old.
Model headgear as (body × age × sex): World Boxing, Swiss Boxing, the ÖBV, Belgium and England Boxing keep headgear for elite women; the IBA removed it (June 2024); USA Boxing requires it for everyone, elite men included.
Elite rounds are 3×3 min, ten-point-must, five judges.

Avoid

Citing one body as « the » rule. Belgium is a World Boxing member yet its CODEX still references IBA rules; the DBV rulebook names no international body at all.
Claiming elite women box bare-headed « everywhere » (only the IBA), or that USA elite men box bare-headed domestically (USA Boxing requires headgear for all divisions).
Importing a pro convention as the amateur rule: 12 rounds, the three-knockdown rule, bare-headed men are professional-body conventions (WBA / WBC / IBF / WBO), not amateur.

Session generator

Age band, duration, theme — and a minuted outline. All 28 drills trace to a federation or national coaching-institute document (FFBoxe, J+S/BASPO, England Boxing, Boxing Canada).

The drills

Filter by theme. Any age or contact gate is written into each drill's coaching points, naming the federation that imposes it.

The guides

Age groups & contact The eight federations side by side: at what age contact, the head and the KO open — and why there is no single age. Building a session Warm-up, two mains, a controlled-opposition round, cool-down — and round length by age. Footwork & distance Range control, the pendulum step and the shadow run — the first skill in boxing. Straights, hooks & uppercuts Straights first, then circulars — the federations' teaching order, punch by punch. Guard & defence Parries, slips and pull-backs, then the indirect counter — defence before attack, never cold. Controlled sparring Touch before power: what each federation allows at what age, and how to frame the opposition. Physical preparation & safety The hand-injury load, headgear and the RHI/CTE debate — the numbers, and what stays unresolved.

These drills are in Paak

The generator above also lives inside the app, on the session itself: pick the age band, the duration and the theme, and Paak builds a four-block minuted outline from this same library of 28 drills — warm-up, two mains and a controlled-opposition round. Edit it, save it to the session — that is free. Printing the session sheet and club-authored drills beyond 5 are in Paak One.

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