Nerdcore Boxing

After taking a break from training I notice bad habits forming in my punch structure. Here are some boxing drills I’ve been doing to tighten things up:

1. Shadow Boxing Without A Mirror - When shadow boxing in front of a mirror your attention is on your reflection. Without the mirror you’re attention is on the view ahead, and the gaps in punch/guard structure suddenly stick out. You’ll see wide punches, hands drop on the punch retraction, etc. Try it out!

2. The Don’t Reach Drill – “Reaching” is when you step forward to punch, but throw too early.  See, if you’re standing in range you’ll rapidly fire the punch, but when thowing out-of-range you invariably start off the punch slowly, telegraphing it while your opponent still has options. When you first start sparring this is probably why you can’t land a jab against your more expereinced opponents.

This drill is boring but effective. Stand out of range of the heavy bag. Step forward to punch. Don’t start throwing until you can reach the target, then rapidly fire and retract. Repeat often.

Note: I’m not stating that there is never a reason to extend a punch out of range. Probing your opponent or feinting are valid reasons to break this rule.

3. Shadow Box With Gloves & Head Gear – The first time I tried this in a mirror I noticed that the headgear interfered with my hand placement. The headgear stuck out a little and as a result I held my rear hand 2 inches lower! After doing this drill I definitely got hit less.

Speed over power is one of the best boxing tips my trainers ever gave me. Everybody wants the spectacular knockout, but the guy who’s trying to just land big punches often comes up empty.

I myself used to spend lots of time banging on banging the bag, focusing on power punches. But I noticed that when sparring against good boxers I couldn’t land power punches routinely.

I remember one day while on the heavybag I heard a trainer that was watching me say, “he doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing.” The trainer proceeded to lecture me and I was very smart to listen. He said I should be focusing on lots of fast punches and keeping my feet under me (i.e. maintain balance and pushing off the ground with each punch).

Following this critique I started watching boxers in the gym and my eyes opened! All the beginners were concentrating on focused power punches, the experienced boxers were usually putting together rapid punches while maintaining good balance. I went to YouTube and watched training videos of pro boxers I admire — they too trained just as my trainer had advised.

Two weeks after I made this adjustment to my training I went from a fairly one dimensional boxer to a guy that could land my full arsenal of punches and put together 4, 5 and 6 punch combos. Where as before I rarely landed power punches (I was too slow to the punch), from that point forward I landed them frequently.

I consider this one of the more important boxing tips my trainers ever gave me.

This is one of the more important boxing tips regarding the heavy bag. Beginners almost always do this incorrectly.

First, 3 practical points on punching and getting punched:

1. In a good round of boxing you’ll probably only land 30% of your punches. So get used to missing.
2. Even if you land, “answering back” or hitting back, is so ingrained in boxers that you should always expect a punch to come right after yours.
3. Your defenses are strongest when your arms are retracted, your hands up and elbows in, i.e. when you are in your boxing stance.

What does this all mean? It means that after extending a punch you need to retract it as fast as you threw it. When it’s extended, you’re open. Rapidly returning to your stance between each punch is important.

Now when you hit the heavy bag, the punch has landed on initial impact. The initial impact causes the bag to rapidly sink inward and go “whap!” This generally does not cause the bag to swing. What most often causes it to swing is continuing to carry your fist and weight forward, or “pushing the bag” after the impact. This is wrong.

I’m not saying the bag should never ever swing, but if it swings a lot, then you’re pushing it.

While you’re busy “pushing the bag” you should have been rapidly retracting your punch. Getting into this habit makes you slow, leaves you open and teaches you to excessively extend your balance. Keep your punches crisp.

Stay tuned for more boxing tips!

Performing “tricks” when jumping rope is probably overrated when it comes to actually learning to box. But it’s good for passing the time and has some training benefits, though usually it’s just to show off your mastery of the jump rope.

Checkout this video. Mayweather has taken it to a whole other level. I don’t think Sugar Ray ever looked this good jumping rope.

I’m a big fan of these variations to traditional shadowboxing. Try them out, I hope you like them.

Wear Sparring Gloves

Have you ever felt frustrated that your seemingly well drilled punches, footwork and balance went to crap when sparring? Join the club. There are probably a lot of reasons for this. One reason could be the sparring gloves affecting your balance.

Try wearing sparring gloves during shadowboxing. You might suddenly notice that the weight of sparring gloves is just enough to throw off your balance, structure and punch “snappiness.” This is especially true when you miss. Keep drilling until you get your balance back.

Wear Headgear Too

Does the tight defensive structure you worked on suddenly open up?

Try shadow boxing with headgear. Headgear sticks out and makes it awkward to rest your glove on your face. This can really throw off your defenses. Drill until you get over this.

Shadowbox Blind & Naked

Not really naked, but without gloves and a mirror. When your watch yourself in the mirror you’ll notice the punches flying at the mirror and have your attention on a number of areas.

When you go blind and naked, you’re looking through your guard at nothing. You’ll feel wide open as if there are huge holes in your defenses. It creates a natural urge to pull your elbows in tight and keep your hands up. Try a few rounds this way.

Jack Dempsey would do rounds in a 5 foot cage, forcing him to box in a deep crouch. This drill builds leg strength and endurance and adds explosion to you punches.

I’m going to start doing rounds on the heavy bag in a deep crouch each weekend. I started last Saturday for a round. I’m curious to see how adding this to my weekly regiment improves my boxing.

If you read my post the other day, you should know I discovered that I don’t “open up” my hips enough (or spread my legs) when I move to the left.

I got to experiment on the bag with this tonight. Opening up did wonders for my left hook and my mobility to the left. Without opening up my hips my knee points somewhat awkwardly inward, this causes some unwanted side effects:

1. I lose some of the movement from shifting my weight over my left leg and some of the leg induced explosion that I could be putting behind my left hook. This lack of leg action causes me to overcompensate by cocking or allowing my left hook to trail my shoulder when I rotate my body.

2. I feel more comfortable throwing combos then pushing off my left leg to either lean off or step off to the right. This is a big breakthrough because I tend to circle mostly to my left in sparring, which can be good for aggressive attacking, but somewhat poor for defensive boxing.