I try to remember to breathe out on each strike. I dont always manage it though; my instructor has mentioned that I hold my breath sometimes. So I wouldn't be surprised if I was holding my breath sometimes; I know I shouldn't be.
Yeah, thought so! Deffo be mindful of that! Honestly it's not the best practice in terms of leaving your jaw hanging loose but shouting a la Thai style on each shot can help get that 'warrior breath' thing going on. Short term fix.
We really should respond to questions with video more often. Being able to show versus just tell someone is so much better. Kudos simon
Thanks for the video reply Simon. I have one question from your video--when I've sparred, I find that I sometimes get my gloves hit back into my eyeball when I was holding my hands lower. Generally it happens when someone throws a punch that I want to block, but I didn't move fast enough to actually anchor the gloves to my head, and they get shoved back into my head by the punch, generally right on my eyeball. With a higher guard I don't get the gloves popped back into my eye. How do I avoid that when holding a lower guard position like you showed?
Basically if you imagine the energy you put into receiving punches when holding the pads, well that's the same energy you should have when blocking, or catching punches with gloves on. Picture a hot potato on a BBQ. If I ask you to grab it you'd do it quickly and with a forward pressure/energy. That's the way to catch or block punches. This 5 year old video explains it.
I can't watch the video at the moment (no sound), but will later tonight. So when catching a jab, I do use a bit of forward force, small movement. The popping my gloves back into my eye is when I go to cover up, where I bring the gloves into contact with my head and absorb blows on them. When starting from a lower guard position, I can't bring them into the cover up position before the punch arrives (I'm not quick enough to do it consistently). When I fail to do it quickly enough, the punch hits my gloves before they are in contact with my head and pops them back into my eye (usually).
The truth is that it will just take time. The longer you've sparred for the more easily you will anticipate strikes because your distance management and angles will be better. You'll also improve you reading of tells and keeping your head or your body moving. Just sparring and maybe grab a partner and drill covering various strikes loose, relaxed and with footwork. Keep your movements small when partying and covering. Reaching will get you hooked and if you have to move your hand too far to cover it takes longer. Personally I think there is too much reaching and arm blocking in Simon's old vid.
I warmed up with 3 minutes of jump-rope, then did 4 rounds of bag work. I tried a different place for the camera in each; I kind of like having different angles, I will likely continue to do that. I have foam matting down now, instead of a bare concrete floor. Round 1 I tried to just do straight punches & get off the line (at first just foot movement, then adding head movement). I was also trying to keep my guard lower. (It did creep back up to high guard a few times...) I'm not keeping my chin tucked. I'm holding my breath on basically all the strikes. I feel like I'm good and consistent with my breathing in class; I'm not trying to think about so many things when I'm striking pads. Also, I should stop worrying about the time left and just work til the bell. The i-pad I use for the timer is usually sleeping by then anyway, so I don't even see the time left. Round 2 Apologies for the watermark, I slipped on the mat a few times and partway through the round had to bleep a bit out. The concrete was a bit better grip-wise. I still wasn't breathing with my strikes, except for one combo towards the end where I was thinking about it. Round 3 Happier with my rear kick heights here than I was last time. (I went for a few leg kicks, but mostly head/upper torso level.) I hear myself breathing with more strikes this round. I stopped moving my head as much when getting off the line. Round 4 My kicks are going down low again. I'm letting my guard drop on both sides while throwing punches.
Next time I think I'm going to work on: - Breathing out with every strike. - Not letting my guard drop on the other side when striking. Other things I want to work on soon: - More practice moving around the bag - Punch technique--throwing vertically like LandonS suggested & snapping into position at the last second; I'm already used to staying loose & then tightening at the last second, but have been turning my fist horizontal at the start of the punch.
For your breathing, try forcefully exhaling on every strike with a 'sshhhhing' sound or a shout 'haaaaa' it'll help. I uploaded my own bagwork clip in my log if you haven't already seen it. I can't pretend it's a flawless example of how it should look but you'll hear me breath out on every strike if you want an example.
Today I did some shadowboxing & bagwork. I did some stretching & yoga for the low back & hips first, as mine are still a bit tweaked. I did 2 5-minute rounds of shadowboxing to warm up. I'm pretty new to it and I'm sure there is a lot I need to work on. I'm not sure what to focus on first though. I didn't time my rest between shadowboxing rounds (wasn't too long, my guess is ~1:30-2:30), but did time my rest between bag rounds (3 minutes bag, 2 minutes rest, repeat). I had planned to do 4 or 5 bag rounds, and ended up doing 6. In the bagwork rounds I was really focusing on only a few things: - Breathing out with every strike. This was my main focus. I think I did pretty well. - Not dropping my guard on the other side when throwing strikes. I think I did ok here; I did drop it some, though. I think I need to work on bringing my hand back all the way during combos--I am leaving it out there sometimes. I do see that I am telegraphing the start of a combo when I drop my hand a bit... I was conscious of it during a few of the rounds and tried to not do that, but I was still doing it some through the final round. I don't think I do it so much on the right side, but the camera wasn't looking from that angle so I can't be sure. I'll try to remember to get different angles next time.
Breathing is waaaaaay better! You look looser too and more fluid. Showing loads of improvement IMO. Good job.