Building a session

The seven boxing themes

Boxing has no single governing authority, and the theme set is not ours: it is read out of how each federation groups its own drills. Tested against those groupings, the verdict is seven themes, convergent — the names are kept in all three languages because no vocabulary is shared.

These seven themes are the vocabulary of a session. Each federation organises them its own way, and the convergence is what gives them credibility:

• FFBoxe — coloured belts (G2C). Two grids. By worksheet type: Renforcement (Renfo), Échelle de Rythme (ECR), Carré Boxe, Shadow Boxing (SHD), Appareil Technique (APT), Oppositions (LCO/ATH), Connaissance (QCM). By competency block: PSYCHOMOTRICITÉ–PHYSIQUE (ECR, Carré, Renfo) and TECHNICO-TACTIQUE (SHD, APT, Opposition). The belts sequence the punches: Gant Blanc = straights, Gant Jaune = circulars, Gant Orange = defences + counter-attack + links.
• SwissBoxing / BASPO. By function: Beinarbeit · Verteidigungsbewegungen · Sensibilisierungsformen · Spielformen · Technik · Auspowern.
• England Boxing. Stance / Guard / Footwork · Punches (straight; bent-arm) · Combination punching · Defences (hand / trunk / foot); then the modalities: punchbags, coaching pads, sparring, shadow-boxing, skipping.
• Boxing Canada (NCCP). Stance → Footwork → Straight punch → Jab (+ defences) → Rear straight (+ defences) → Combinations.

The shape: warm-up, two mains, a round

With no ready-made session published, the shape has to be built. The one the federations converge on — and the one Paak’s generator reproduces — is simple: a warm-up (footwork + light combinations), two mains on the day’s theme, a controlled round, a cool-down. What fills each block, on the other hand, traces to a federation document.

The split into minutes is a coaching choice, not federation doctrine: no federation published this total. What each block holds, however, is traced. Two printed cadences worth knowing: FFBoxe Renforcement runs as 2 × [(4 × 30″ work) + 1′ rest]; England Boxing padwork comes in five types — Set Technique · General · Tactical · Sharpening · Conditioning — on one-minute rounds, 30 s rest.

Straights before circulars

This is the corpus’s firmest point of order, and it changes how the mains are filled: teach the straight punches (the jab first, then the rear straight) BEFORE the circular punches (hooks, then uppercuts). Three independent federations say so.

• FFBoxe. The belt sequence enforces it: Gant Blanc = straights, then Gant Jaune = hooks and uppercuts.
• Boxing Canada. The jab “and the associated defences, should be taught first, and emphasized throughout the initiation stage”; and this warning, verbatim: “the premature discovery of the rear hand’s hitting power is one of the biggest handicaps for a learning boxer”.
• AIBA (the manual of the de-recognised international body — legacy reference, never current governance): “first teach and train in the standing position then with movements without partners”.

The consequence for the session is direct. A “hooks & uppercuts” main offered to the youngest degrades to straight-punch work — exactly the corpus order, and exactly what the generator does at the u9 band. And the uppercut, which SwissBoxing calls “der schwierigste Schlag” (the hardest punch), comes last. For reference, England Boxing’s power-lines: the straight runs a straight line through the target, the hook an arc, the uppercut an upward surge of hip and trunk.

Sensitisation, before any opposition

This is the layer boxing never drops, and the one the naïve plan forgets. Before any opposition game, SwissBoxing requires a sensitisation phase — touch control, in six levels. The rule is printed as it stands:

“Auch bei Fortgeschrittenen sollten vor jedem Boxspiel mind. 2-3 Sensibilisierungsübungen durchgeführt werden (mind. 1 Übung aus den Stufen 1-4 und 1 aus den Stufen 5-6).”
Even with advanced boxers, run 2–3 sensitisation drills before every boxing game — at least one from levels 1–4 and one from levels 5–6.

So the phase is the entry to the round, not an option. Above it sit the opposition formats, always framed:

• FFBoxe — LCO. Defined as “une leçon et non pas un assaut” — a lesson, not a bout: the two boxers work cyclically, each giving the other the chance to express themselves, attention on technical correctness. Pairs are matched by age, weight and size “pour limiter les risques”. Above it, ATH adds tactical instructions.
• England Boxing — the sparring ladder. Technique (partner semi-passive, controlled speed, “vital for the beginner”) → Conditioned (the coach sets the conditions; “typically 75 % of sparring is conditioned”) → Open. Conditioned is the norm, not the exception.
• SwissBoxing — Light-Contact. The leitmotiv: “treffen, ohne sich treffen zu lassen” — hit without being hit. Hard blows are forbidden and penalised.

Round length by age

One fact holds steady across the disagreements: there are always three rounds. Only the length changes with age, and scoring is everywhere the ten-point-must (five judges, three or five nationally).

For bag and pad work, England Boxing publishes the same round lengths as the bout (senior 3 × 3′, schoolboy 3 × 1′30, 1 min between rounds), plus two interval variants: 1 min work / 30 s rest or 30 s / 15 s. That is enough to minute a main without inventing anything.

Sources

FFBoxe — Ateliers and Livrets explicatifs Gant Blanc, Gant Jaune, Gant Orange (G2C “Gants de couleur”); Livret Gant Blanc (LCO / ATH). · SwissBoxing / BASPO — mobilesport.ch, Monatsthema “Light-Contact Boxing” (12/2014), Lehrmittel “Light-Contact Boxing” (Käser), Box-Technik; the games and the sensitisation ladder adopt Cougoulic P. et al. (2003), La boxe éducative : 200 jeux et situations pédagogiques, printed for coaches by the federation. · England Boxing — Level 2 Coaching Handbook (2019). · Boxing Canada — Instruction-Beginners Reference Manual (NCCP, 2024). · AIBA — Coaches Manual (2019), the de-recognised international body, cited as legacy reference only. · USA Boxing — 2026 National Rule Book (Developmental Bouts). Every value — ages, rounds, cadences — traces to these documents; where the federations disagree, both positions are printed side by side. Corpus verified August 2026.