Hi guys, my thread dissapeared with the crash so I didn't get the chance to read all your replies. I'm interested in what exercises you use to make a slick and fluid upper body movement when boxing. How do you mix bobbing, weaving and so on in to your workout; and are there any special abdominal exercises which anyone has found beneficial, etc etc At the moment I'm much slower and more stiff than I will be, how best to bring about the improvement?
hey dude yea i remember replying to this thread your upperbody movements are coming from all of your body so you gotta work everything! I stretch for about 10 to 15 mins stretching my legs, back arms etc. loosen up a bit. Stretching will be very good as you can extend your punches reach. Try shadow boxing too, work on the speed you deliver your punches. Running is great for your cardio, agility, speed etc. Itll help you to stay on your toes even try just jumping on the spot in your fight position to some music to help keep you going for about 10 minutes. There is a sit up you can do where you lay in the sit up position and lift a dumbell weight from left to right and vise versa to work all of your abdominal muscles across your stomach (im not sure what the name of it is tho :S lol). Also regular sit ups will be good Press ups are great for upper body strength especially your pectorals, if you lift weights you will feel slow and a bit sluggish, try focus on exercise that don't involve much weights.
Make sure when you're doing bag work you incoorporate defensive manouvers, like bobbing and weaving. It becomes more of a second nature then. Also, we do drills that my instructor refers to as "reaction drilling"... basically your partner throws punches at you and you aren't allowed to return fire Just block, duck, weave etc... fun fun fun! You can vary it by standing with your back to a wall to limit your defensive manouvers. Another thing is make sure you're on the balls of your feet a lot, it adds fluidity to your movements (I've found anyway, then again I do Thai boxing, not traditional).
Thanks folks. I'm not sure what you mean here. Could you describe it in a bit more detail please? Yeah, we do a bit of that stuff at KB too. It's great, forces you to react more properly!!(if that's the right english...)
Good body movement, like most things in boxing, comes from a good stance and good footwork. Get some help with your footwork technique if you need it, and change level using your knees rather than your hips. This makes you much more balenced as you're moving your body and means you can counter with powerful shots - you need to be balenced to do this. Padwork incorporating bobbing and weaving helps too - start really simple and keep mixing it up. It takes time to develop but the more you practice.....
Defense drills - have a guy try to punch you for a couple rounds. Hold your hands behind your back so you aren't getting in the habit of holding your hands down, and work on slipping left and right and changing your level to avoid punches. Start with single jabs.
Regarding the sit up exercise i was talking about its where you stay in a sit up position and you pick up a dumbell weight from one side of your body and place it to your other side. So you doing a sit up but in the opposite direction and with a dumbell weight if you get me your turning instead of going back and forward. So pick it up twist your body from your left to your right and touch the floor with the weight then go back to your left and repeat. sounds confusing lol i tried looking for it on the internet but no luck
For exercise specific to defensive upper body movement, I'll stand in basically a martial arts-type horse stance to set my legs in place (that is, to isolate my upper body) and just pendulum side to side from the waist, making every 10th rep a circle down to the other side. Basically, it's just repetition of slipping and ducking, for a few minutes here and there. I'm pretty new to boxing specifically, but this is a big one my coach recommends to me.
Hi Control Freak, Yeah upper body movement can be one of the hardest things to get going on when you come into boxing. It's like anything else... it takes lots of practice. It really helps if you can watch another guy who's got it down pat training. Watch and mimic watch and mimic. This is one aspect of boxing you won't find in boxercize classes or the like... this and footwork go hand in hand and are the core of the sweet science. There are some things you can try on for size. They won't come easy at first but they're well worth checking out: 1) This guys stuff is good. It might come off as a bit ghetto at first... but he knows what he's talking about... check it out: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAfPZ1WN6kY&feature=related"]Boxingforthestreet.com - Bob Your Head - YouTube[/ame] 2) and here's a vid... though lacking in production value... it shows some stuff I see lacking in many gyms... look at the simple movement drills the boxers are doing while slipping the jab - that movement has to become second nature... it's got to be on your head while you stroll down the street while you do the dishes while you go about your business... seriously... it's got to be an instinctive reflex. You only get that by doing it thousands and thousands of times each day. Yes each day. Anything less and you'll never get it into muscle memory. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntppcfoztCk&feature=related"]Boxing Training Defense Technique Drill. - YouTube[/ame] 3) Here's a father and son combo on the Title boxing series which I think are a great place to start for anyone. There's a ton of really good technique to be gleaned from these tapes. hhahaha... Don't turn your head. Don't turn your head. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URhFE89nJ9E&feature=related"]YouTube[/ame] 4) Again much of what he's showing is upper body movement. Look at his fighters base. Solid. He's moving from the waist. He's got base to respond and keep a solid balance from.. but he moves from a break at the waist which is where all the slickness begins. Again... nothing works by itself... great upper body movement with no base or with bad footwork is useless... check out another one here: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhgA0v38GH4&feature=related"]YouTube[/ame] 5) Again more basics... dude... everyone still drills this stuff all day long. Believe me when I say you can't drill it enough. Foundational. Watch this for breakfast.. over a cup of coffee. Then practice it till your feet bleed. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM3sDqN8s9k&feature=related"]YouTube[/ame] 6) Here's another one... again less production value... but watch closely... look at the hvyweight in black here (the guy)... look at his movment... subtle little things about how he rolls his shoulder while stepping with a parry tells you he's clued up. You really can't watch enough tapes of people moving. It should make up a large part of your training regimen. Not all training is done in the ring or the gym... you need to visually acclimate your thinking towards the level movement you want. LOL! Where do I get this shizz from!? you may be saying... but seriously... the most skilled cats I know watch people movement like most people watch the news. That is day in day out. You have to. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB_EpBjak8A&feature=related[/ame] 7) ok here's just more random stuff... most it not by pro boxers but it doesn't matter... there's some good things going on in here: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6VbsXwKQ2Y&feature=related"]Shadow Boxing with Footwork - boxing4free.com - YouTube[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzNBAGChYz8&feature=related"]Boxingforthestreet.com - Footwork - YouTube[/ame] and here's a piece I've always loved. Pure poetry in motion. Based on his feet and knee's I can tell what he's got going on up top without even seeing it. Some work happening here. Some serious work. This is good stuff... enjoy: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tfDnj4Xwy0&feature=related"]Lateral Movement 2 - YouTube[/ame] again more footwork and movement in this next clip but you can see some classic amatuer boxing style going here... guys who grow up in ABA have primarily this style... look at the movement.. fluid and smooth. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biolNte5Tvg&feature=related"]shadow boxing, good foot work - YouTube[/ame] and here's the final for now... Amir Khan... good ABA style... look at the double slips... 1:00 into the vid... sweetness. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSblALBeJrw&NR=1"]YouTube[/ame]
Ah one thing I forgot to mention... get on the floor-2-ceiling bag or double-ended bag and work it. The motto should be touch but not be touched. Unless your checking that bag on with your shoulder as it rebounds toward you... that bag shouldn't touch you. It's a great piece of gear. Check it out: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i9D1PlvsWs"]BOXING - amazing speed double end bag work - YouTube[/ame] This guys vids are always salt of the earth great. Check it out... he understand what he's talking about: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUCstF5LP_E&feature=related"]Double End bag - YouTube[/ame] also a similar bit of gear is the slip-bag or maize-bag... these you can make at home from a handful of corn/beans/pasta/sand and a sock and baggy. Look at the way guys are using it to move around and respond to. Poetry in motion this stuff. Seriously. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDTruT9XL0Q"]YouTube[/ame] Grim drops some science on ya... make a maize bag with his handy little instructional: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdN-B2KweIc&feature=related"]Maze/Slip Bag - YouTube[/ame] and here's a clip of Tyson moving against a slip bag... seriously.. for a guy his size and build to move with that speed and grace is a thing of sheer beauty. His head speed was crazy fast. Listen to Kevin Rooney break it down. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB6L9a3Gybs&feature=related"]YouTube[/ame]
Even more videos. Great. Your doing a great job there Slipthejab. your posts are very educational. I'm picking up quite a few things so thanks for taking the time.
Yeah no worries. I use MAP more like a scratch pad for thinking out loud. Often times when I respond to a post I'm actually just telling the stuff to myself as a reminder of what I need more work on. Even though I train more obsessively and frequently that most people probably do... it's still slack compared to kids boxing in ABA or Golden Gloves style boxing. I guess I can remember when none of this stuff was on YouTube. Before there was a YouTube or the internet. lol. Talk about hard to track down VHS tapes of guys training. Pretty much boxing was seen only in the gyms. It was some serious work back in the day to get info on lots of this stuff. Glad you liked some of it... jeez... with boxing it's just a continual process of learning. I'll probably be 99 years old and still working my upper body movement from my walker.
Ah ok... here's one Sugar Shane going at it on a very small floor-2-ceiling ball... sweet stuff: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IPb_sp4A1s&feature=related"]shane mosley training double end bag - YouTube[/ame] The best part starts at 3:50 into the clip. But even on the pads you can see him working the basic same skills that you saw all the other boxers working. Fluid motion, footwork and head movment. Often breaking at the waist. Look at his double slips. Graceful.
And here's one that just as warning people should watch... this guy is talking rubbish... absolute rubbish. His technique is terrible. Seriously... I don't know where Expert Village go this guy... but he's not up to scratch at all. Man this is BAD. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIwZRU9f-TM"]Boxing Training Tips and Punching Techniques : How to Bob & Weave for Boxing Training - YouTube[/ame] What his body movement. Compare it to the other tapes. He may have read about some boxing or watched a few fights... but it doesn't translate into any of his movements.
Yeah obsessive compulsive is the order of the day. I shoot for twice a day every day except Sunday. But if I really look at that... it's not just the training time that eats time up from the rest of my life... it's the eating and the sleeping and the road work that I try to get in. For me personally obsessive compulsive is the way I function... but as I get older I've realized how to make it work for me... in that training is truly a part of my everyday life. It's not something I do in addition to my life... it's part of the core fabric of every day. Like others watch TV serials or something... I get in the training. If I don't my day has an odd unfinished feel to it.
Hey man thanks a lot for that every1. Slip- You’re a gold mine as ever. Some of those videos are useful for throwing up different things to me, and others are similarly useful for compounding previous knowledge. I’m liking the sound of the gym with Nirvana in the background! Not so much the gym with the white rap rock! In the video where you can just see the boxers feet(in your first post), is the cable attached for added resistance? Do you use any resistance type bands yourself? When he pivots the rear foot, is this always because he’s throwing off punches or would a guy ever do that as a fake? When he moves his front foot back next to the rear foot in ‘cat stance’, what is he doing? Do you always lead movements with the right foot like that ‘ghetto’ guy, or do you always move with the foot closest to the direction you intend to move in? I've never heard of Sugar Shane but he looks lethal on his F2C!! Impressive!! I’ve got one at home but it doesn’t have adjustable straps. Do you know any way I might be able to get some cheap? Thanks again for all the info!!
