The Only App With Guided Boxing Sparring

Open any boxing app and you’ll train alone. You shadow box, hit the bag, skip rope, and the app counts rounds for one person. Sparring needs a second person, and it has always been left to gyms and coaches. The Shadow Boxing App now covers it too, with guided sparring workouts for two people. We went through the app stores before writing that title. As of October 2026, we haven’t found another boxing app that does it.

What guided sparring is

In guided sparring, every round has a rule. Coaches also call it conditioned or technical sparring. Instead of “just box”, you get told what you’re allowed to do for the next few minutes.

Take the Changing levels theme in the app:

• Round 1: only the jab, to the head or the body.
• Round 2: only combos that go body then head.
• Round 3: freestyle, but every combo must change level.

Each round is a little more open than the last.

The rule keeps the power down, because nobody can load up a big right hand in a jabs-only round. It also gives you both a job, so the round can’t drift into two people circling each other.

A timer tells you when, a guide tells you what

Search for “sparring” in an app store and you’ll mostly find round timers. They ring a bell, and what happens between bells is up to you. The rest are solo apps that call themselves your “sparring partner”, where you still train alone.

Neither kind guides anything. For most pairs without a coach, that means the same open round every time, usually a bit harder than intended.

Guided means the app decides what the round is about and says it out loud. With gloves on, you can’t look at a screen or tap anything, so everything comes through the speaker. You hear the rule before the bell, the swap during the round, and the reminders during the rest.

Our app already worked that way for solo training, with a coach’s voice calling combos. That’s what made adding a second person possible.

How a session runs

Open the workouts list and filter by “With a partner”. Pick a workout and put the phone down. If the workout uses roles, decide who is Boxer A and who is Boxer B. The app announces the guideline and rings the bell.

A note on sound: you’ll probably want a Bluetooth speaker, or a phone with a loud speaker, or you won’t hear the guidelines. Don’t train with AirPods in. They might get damaged.

Here’s an example: outside fighter against inside fighter. In the app, the theme is called Closing the distance. Boxer A boxes from the outside, Boxer B has to get inside.

• Round 1: Boxer A only throws single jabs to the head. Boxer B must close the distance, with only 3s and 4s to the body.
• Round 2: Boxer A throws 1s and 2s to the head. Boxer B must close the distance and can only target the body.
• Round 3: Boxer A stays at long distance with lots of jabs. Boxer B closes the distance and targets the body.

Boxer A learns to keep someone at the end of the jab. Boxer B learns to get past it. The roles swap during the round, so you each work both sides.

Between rounds, the app gives short reminders: keep it light and technical, stay within the guidelines, pause if you’re hurt. They matter most around round four or five, when you’re both tired.

The different formats

Some workouts give both boxers the same rule. Others give each of you a role, like the example above. We covered more of those in Boxer A vs Boxer B sparring exercises.

Dynamic Guided Sparring flips the roles mid-round, whenever the app calls “Swap!”. And there’s a plain Light Sparring workout with almost no guidance, for pairs who already know what they want to work on.

Most guided workouts run 24 to 28 minutes. The progression versions stay on one theme and loosen the rule each round.

Why we built it

Marc, who created the app, spent a first year of boxing in a gym that didn’t spar at all. The first real round, at a new gym, exposed a year of bad habits: dropped hands and a square stance. The full story is in when should you start sparring. Everything is theory until you spar.

Most of the app is still solo training, because most people don’t have a partner every day. But solo drills are preparation for the moment someone stands in front of you. We wanted the app to cover that moment too.

What it won’t do

• It can’t see you. If one of you starts loading up, the app won’t notice. Keeping it light is on the two of you.
• It’s for people who already box. If either of you has never trained, do your first contact rounds in a gym with a coach watching.
• It’s boxing only. There are no rules for kicks or clinch work.
• It doesn’t replace a coach. You get the structure a coach would give you, without the eyes.

Who it’s for

Two people with some boxing experience, gloves, mouthguards, headgear, and enough floor to move around. A garage works. So does the gym floor after class.

If one of you is new to sparring, start with our sparring tips for beginners. If you’re not sure controlled rounds are worth it, read technical sparring vs hard sparring. The full tour, workout by workout, is in the guided sparring announcement.

The app is free to download on iOS and Android. The solo workouts are still there for the days your partner cancels.