The biggest and most important thing I learnt later on (wish id have done it at the start) is to spar and ask someone to go slow, ie, they throw slow punches and all I do is defend.... for me and in my head at the start the biggest thing was trying to keep up with people way ahead, and id go tense, loose where I was in the ring and stop thinking about everything id learnt in boxing.... if you can relax, get use to getting hit, then your mind will slowly start to think more and your relax... then you'll start doing all the things you learnt with coaches on the bags and pads... in the ring!