Three Rounds

I am a software engineer, and I spend most of my days thinking about systems. So people are surprised when I tell them that the thing I look forward to most these days is getting up early to go and get punched in the face.

I am only a few months into the sport, so read this as a beginner’s notes, not advice.

Fifty Minutes

It is November 2025. I am standing in front of a heavy bag at a cult.fit centre in Hyderabad, my hometown, with gloves on and no idea what I am doing.

I am here for general fitness, nothing more.

The warm-up ends. The first punches land flat and clumsy. The bag barely moves. By the end of the session my shoulders are heavy, my shirt is soaked, and I am already thinking about the next class.

Each session was 50 minutes, warm-up and cool-down included. That was my first encounter with boxing, and it pulled me in quickly. The more classes I attended, the more I wanted to understand the punches I was throwing and why they worked.

Somewhere in those months, the workout turned into a passion for the sport. I wanted to take it more seriously.

Six A.M.

On 23 May 2026, I started competitive training at the Boxing Hall in Saroornagar Indoor Stadium, Hyderabad, under Coach Gouni Kumar.

It is a few minutes before six. People are arriving in ones and twos. On most mornings there are 20 to 25 of us in the hall, and about six are seniors.

We start with fifteen minutes of jogging. Then fifteen minutes of stretching and warm-up. By 6:30, everyone is ready.

The next two hours are hard in every direction at once: technique, speed, agility, endurance, running, reflexes, strength, explosive power and more. Each day of the week has its own workout, and the cycle repeats the next week. Some mornings we play games and other sports as part of training.

Then come another fifteen minutes of cool-down and core work. I walk out somewhere between 8:45 and 9:00, legs tired, head clear.

There is an evening session too. I mostly go in the morning.

A couple of months in, I can say this honestly: I haven’t seen anything like this sport so far.

The Bell

I spar regularly now, but the first one is the one I remember.

I am standing in the corner of the ring. My hands are wrapped, my gloves are on, and my heart is going faster than it did through the whole warm-up. Three rounds. The first two against a senior. The third against a junior.

The bell goes.

Within seconds I learn what a bag never taught me. A bag does not move, and it does not hit back. I take a good number of hits. Throwing punches turns out to be the easy part. Not getting hit is much harder.

The nerves do not disappear, but they get quieter. I start moving more and thinking less about being watched. People are standing around the ring, calling out, supporting. By the second round I have found some rhythm. By the third, the adrenaline is carrying me.

When it is over, I am breathing hard and still buzzing.

The coach and the other trainees tell me I did well for a first spar. In the same breath, they tell me there is a long way to go, and that the basics come first.

I hold on to both halves of that, and the second half is the one I train with every morning. Hearing it from people who know this sport far better than I do was the most motivating part of the day.

What the Ring Teaches

I expected boxing to make me fitter, and it has. What I did not expect was how it changes the weight of everything else.

After two hours in that hall, most hard things feel lighter. Very little compares to standing across from someone who is trying to hit you while your lungs are burning in the last minute of a round.

The training does this slowly. You are tired, the drill is not over, and you keep going because everyone around you is keeping going. You do that every morning, and one day you notice that not giving up has become a habit rather than a decision.

The ring does it faster. There is nowhere to hide in there. Every time I step out of the ring, I am a little more sure that I can handle difficult things.

That is where the confidence comes from: not from winning anything, but from showing up and finishing the rounds. The intensity of training and the pressure in the ring are building a mindset, and a body, that can cope with anything hard.

Next November

I have a goal now, and I would rather write it down plainly.

I want to compete in the senior state competitions in Telangana in November 2027 & represent the state at Indian nationals if I get an opportunity. I want to fight in the 60 to 65 kg category or the one below 60 kg, depending on where my fitness is by then.

That is a year of mornings away.

Your First Round

If you have been curious about boxing, or about any sport you think you have missed the window for, start.

You are not too late. I walked into a 50-minute bag class for general fitness with no plan of going any further. You do not need to sign up for competitive training on the first day. Begin with something small, like a bag class, and see where it takes you.

The first round is the hardest one to step into. Everything after that is training.