Many of the greatest fighters and hardest hitters were great knee benders. Mike Tyson had a unique ability to get low. Jack Dempsey thought knee bending was so important he used to shadow box in a cage with a low ceiling. A bent knee is kind of like a loaded gun ready to go off, whereas a locked out knee is unloaded.
Each punch has a leg that does the work and a leg that can get in the way. For instance on a cross the rear leg does the work, the famous drop step keeps the front leg from working against you. If a punch’s opposing leg is locked out or planted hard on the floor, it’s working against you.
Training Knee Bending
A year ago I had tried the Dempsey cage drill for a while but didn’t get anywhere with it. I ended up in a ridiculously low crouch and got some leg strength but no improvement in my boxing mechanics.
This time I started watching film of the great “knee benders” and studied myself in the mirror comparing the differences. They’re bending their knees just a little more than I, I just needed to drop down a few inches. This explains why my past attempt at the Dempsey cage drill failed, I was going for unrealistic levels of knee bending.
To isolate all of my issues I studied myself moving around, throwing combos, throwing punches with different weight distributions, punching off head movement, etc. I spotted all the times I fully extend my knees and began the incremental process of correcting each mistake.
Some Results
My lead knee was easiest to fix. Immediately I noticed a dramatic power jump in my left hook just from dropping down a few inches.
Bending the lead knee also added a big explosive burst when pushing off to step backwards. I’m happy about that as it will allow me to better use my defensive footwork to create space for counters.
So even before correcting the rear knee already I’m super happy with the results. To be continued…
Many of the greatest fighters and hardest hitters were great knee benders. Mike Tyson had a unique ability to get low. Jack Dempsey thought knee bending was so important he used to shadow box in a cage with a low ceiling. A bent knee is kind of like a loaded gun ready to go off, whereas a locked out knee is unloaded.
Each punch has a leg that does the work and a leg that can get in the way. For instance on a cross the rear leg does the work, the famous drop step keeps the front leg from working against you. If a punch’s opposing leg is locked out or planted hard on the floor, it’s working against you.
Training Knee Bending
A year ago I had tried the Dempsey cage drill for a while but didn’t get anywhere with it. I ended up in a ridiculously low crouch and got some leg strength but no improvement in my boxing mechanics.
This time I started watching film of the great “knee benders” and studied myself in the mirror comparing the differences. They’re bending their knees just a little more than I, I just needed to drop down a few inches. This explains why my past attempt at the Dempsey cage drill failed, I was going for unrealistic levels of knee bending.
To isolate all of my issues I studied myself moving around, throwing combos, throwing punches with different weight distributions, punching off head movement, etc. I spotted all the times I fully extend my knees and began the incremental process of correcting each mistake.
Some Results
My lead knee was easiest to fix. Immediately I noticed a dramatic power jump in my left hook just from dropping down a few inches.
Bending the lead knee also added a big explosive burst when pushing off to step backwards. I’m happy about that as it will allow me to better use my defensive footwork to create space for counters.
So even before correcting the rear knee already I’m super happy with the results. To be continued…
