Leaning into a punch is a lot differently than moving your weight with it. If you're pushing off of your rear foot with a lead punch, pivoting your hip slightly with it, and/or stepping forward with it, that's quite a big difference than a simple arm punch.
Old TCMA saying said, - In training, your body "push" your arm. - In combat, your body "chase" your arm. The reason is simple, in training, the speed is not a factor. In combat, the speed is everything. When you use your body to "chase" your arm, during the initial contact, your opponent may not be able to feel your power until your whole body weight has arrived behind your fist. Of course if you miss your punch, your body should stop chasing your own punch.
That's not how I use it. Range is governed by and large by the front foot. It is the feet that move you in and out of range, not the arms. I use the feeler jab to obtain a feel of the opponents reaction, not how far away he is. The next mistake as I see it is saying the up jab comes from the hip. Not unless you are Naseem Hamed it doesn't. The up jab is used to get inside the opponents defence. Slip the Jab gives a great demonstration of this is the slip line drill, which can be seen in the members workout thread. His hands remain up by his face at all times. If you throw it from the hip and the fist turns too early the punch becomes an uppercut. The skill of the up jab is to throw it as a normal jab, which is what the opponent defends against. The punch is turned upwards at the end forcing the elbow to move inside the line of the punch, foiling the defence of the opponent. There is a range finder, which I call the blinding jab, a great precursor to a right cross. I would throw it nice and high to block the view of the opponent. This punch should almost have an annoying effect to the opponent. Some old school boxers can even be seen moving the hand around and in front of the opponents face to increase the annoyance factor.
Lots of good stuff folks! I'm primarily working this in a self defence setting rather than a sparring setting; I want to help my students develop a powerful left as well as a strong right. There are obvious crossovers though. More than that, I think it's something that many of us struggle with, so it's well worth exploring! Mitch
If anyone wants a good book covering this subject and many more I can recommend TVP Comprehensive Boxing Concepts by Tommy Thompson. http://www.martialboxing.com/index.php?PageID=7 Each punch and technique is covered with beginner, intermediate and advanced training drill. I've taught many a lesson based around stuff in this book.
Articles and Videos on Jabbing (and punching in general): The Ultimate Boxing Jab Guide The 5 Types of Jabs How to Throw a Straight Punch How to Punch Harder How to Punch Faster How to Throw a Snapping Punch Why Lifting Weights Won't Increase Punching Power I prefer to throw my jabs as demonstrated in the first video, but despite the slight differences in the execution of the punch in both videos, the basic mechanics of the punch are the same: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmpqqsmiP70"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmpqqsmiP70[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH0rO2RFBPw"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH0rO2RFBPw[/ame]
Thanks for the video. Both are okay. I always have things I don't like in videos. The first one looked good, but with that footwork and alignment, seems that a vertical fist punch would be better than horizontal. Second video, the demonstrator was rising up (floating) when he punched. Ah just my pet peeves.
Thanks Hapuka! You always provide great links! I am gonna spend my morning tomorrow studying this stuff
Yes, theres a couple of things (in the second video) but in whole they both demonstrate the importance of the fundamentals and are good examples of the jab. In the second video, the young David Lemieux, (the individual demonstrating the jab) currently has a professional Boxing track record of 25-2-0. His trainer at the time, Russ Anber is a Boxing analyst on The Sports Network for In This Corner. He is also a commentator for Boxing in Olympics and the Common Wealth Games. His current fighter, Ali Mansour, has a professional record of 8-0-0. In the second video @4:37 Russ corrects Davids form (him dropping his punching hand when returning) and explains what David did and why you shouldn't do it. Davids punching form is very good (hes got all the proper fundamentals), though his stance is little bit too square on and long in length for my personal preference. But thats personal preference.
Condescending coming from someone who has never heard of a straight left. Do you mean a slip? Stepping? Circling? Either direction?
yeah i know what a straight left is. Manny Pacquiao and Sergio Martinez have the best straight lefts in the business. But this thread is not about the straight left. Just so you know, slipping involves upper body movement. I was talking about footwork. Stepping side to side. Circling is not side to side, a circle goes around.
For starters, if your slip is entirely an upper body affair, you've got a crap slip. There's footwork to it just like any punch. I think you're being a bit selective to ignore the straight left when talking about a power jab. There's a lot of overlap. Is a lead punch only a jab when it's done in isolation from other types of punches? As for circling, you know this is in relation to your opponent, right? Circling out on an advancing opponent may well be stepping straight to the side. In fact that's just about the only time you're going to get much benefit to stepping perpendicular to your opponent. Otherwise you're just taking yourself out of your range. From the way you talk it's looking like you've gotten either some very brief or very shallow boxing in and decided you know how it's done. Frankly one could infer that from your idea that one must lean in order to generate power with a jab.
You don't know the difference between a jab and a straight punch? And going side to side is not about taking yourself out your range its getting out of your opponents. Lets say a car is coming at you, what do you do? get out of the way. How? You don't just go straight back because it will catch you. You go off to one side or the other.