Category: Drills & Techniques
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Putting Snap in Your Punch
Power is an open secret in boxing, and most fighters hear their coaches talking about “punching through” and “putting your body behind” a solid, powerful shot.
But there is another, sneakier and equally effective method to score punches, intimidate an opponent, and win your game, and that’s in developing a stinging snap in your punch; particularly your jab.
A regular jab can be used for a variety of purposes in the boxing ring. It can measure the distance between you and your opponent or it can open the way for a power shot, among other things. But it can be a devastating shot all on its own if you can make it into a snapping whip of a shot, the kind of punch that comes out of nowhere, hits like an electric shock, and disappears before your opponent can even register its presence.
What gives a punch snap
A snapping punch is created out of speed and minimal contact. It’s a punch that goes out fast and returns fast. You have to turn it over (right at the end of the shot), touch with sting, and bring it back to guard position in rapid-fire succession.
A well-landed shot of any kind has a distinctive sound on the heavy bag or mitts. There’s a particular thwack or pop that gives you the feedback you need to know you’ve scored with precision and pain. But a snapping punch has a higher sound, almost like a dry stick being cracked in two.
The advantages of snap jabs
1. They save your power.
When you’re punching for power alone, you will burn a lot of energy quickly, and you run the risk of gassing out. You can’t launch bomb shots rapidly, either. Nor can you spend the entire fight throwing one knockout punch after another; there’s a dance, a balance to be maintained. Boxing is a conscious mental play of the game pieces, and rather than blindly launching everything you have at once, you have to choose your shots.
2. They’re fast! They buy you valuable time.
A snapping punch has the great advantage of being incredibly fast. When you get one off, you startle your opponent and buy yourself even more time to launch and score again before they recover. It also allows you to throw more shots than you could if you were loading up power hits one after the other.
3. They preserve your guard.
Because your return to guard so much faster, you’re more protected than if you’re leaving yourself open during a push-through or penetrating power hit.
How to throw a snapping punch
You have to have your distance exactly right. Throw some measuring jabs out there, and once you know the range for a snap-touch, fire a couple off. If you’re advancing on the jab, you have to put that into your calculations. Try from your stable stance before tossing in an advance, because advance-jabs tend to be more “punch through” than snapping jabs.
But the biggest secret to throwing a snapping punch is relaxing. It sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s absolutely necessary. Think about a coiled whip. The stiffer the braided leather is, the less bite the tip will have when it makes contact. But if it’s supple and loose, Indiana Jones is going to make you cry.
Got snap?
Leave me a comment and tell me your technique!
Photo credit: Marco Crupi Visual Artist via photopin cc
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X-Ring Boxing Workout (OR, Non-Boxing Training is NOTHING Like Boxing Training)
Since my gym is connected to at-risk students, it’s closed over the holidays. Which simply means I train in a horrible, cheap-ass purple and yellow joint (because it’s $10/month), or in the park. All of which was fine, or so I thought, for the 3 weeks I was doing it.
And believe me, I was NOT slacking out. I have a fight coming up in a few weeks, so I did my hill sprints, my ab work, and so on. I might could be accused of being a little proud of myself.
Then I got back to the boxing gym. Whew.
Since I knew I wasn’t going to be sparring, and I’m not a huge fan of extended heavy bag work, I set up the ring for my favorite shadowboxing exercise, which I call the X-Ring.
It kicked my ass for me, absolutely free of charge.
How to set up the X-ring
If you’ve ever tied up a rope to bob and weave under, you’re gonna like this one. We have a bob-and-weave rope, so I tie that from one corner of the ring to another, and then, since that’s the only rope I can ever find at Second Round, we tie together a couple of old, ratty hand wraps and string those across the other way, creating the “X” formation like you see in the picture above.
The ties sit just below shoulder height for me, which makes this exercise good for someone my height (5’8″ or so), but not as good for someone smaller. So you’ll have to do your X-Ring exercise somewhere else in the gym where you can tie up lower, or out in a park between trees.
Careful, don’t clothesline anyone.
The X-ring workout
Before you actually set up the ring, do a round or two of ring slides. That means you slide in a big circle, calves touching the ropes on each side, hands in high guard. Use small, quick slides, and switch directions regularly. Pivot and advance quickly to the center of the ring, throw a jab, then reverse out and continue your ring slides.
Now do a couple of rounds of regular shadow boxing.
Once you’re warm and ready, tie up the first half of the X. Start at one corner and bob and weave your way to the other corner, throwing a shot or combo now and then. Pivot and return with the same. Don’t be a metronome; mix up your timing. Jabs and power hands go straight ahead; throw hooks over and under the rope. Keep your guard up.
My coach likes to walk the rope with me and smack my ear when I drop my guard. Thanks, coach. (No really, it helps.)(It also stings.)(But my damn guard goes back up.)
Tie up the second line of the X. Now it gets complicated and delicious (and your coach will leave, but will continue to harass you from the ringside). As you shadowbox around the ring, you have to keep bobbing under those ropes. The closer you get to the center of the ring, the tighter your pivots and shots will be. Work the whole ring, and gain a fresh appreciation for boxing-specific training, which will kick your everlovin’ ass.
Here it is in bullet list form, because you love bullet list form.
- 2 rounds ring slides (both directions)
- 2 rounds regular shadow boxing
- 2 rounds bob and weave under single rope
- 2 rounds shadowboxing with the X-ring formation
Then do the rest of your workout, padawan.
Put this on your faves list
Here’s the thing. This exercise is SO much more like actual boxing that most of the rest of the non-sparring work you do, which is what makes it so damn useful. It’s complex, it’s fun, and if you’re a gamer the slightly chaotic pattern and the possibility of getting clotheslined may juice you right the hell up.
And hey, you don’t even have to be an actively sparring boxer to do this one, and it will give you a real feel for what it’s like to work offense AND a little defense in the ring.
And it’s kinda nice that the clotheslines won’t punch you, either.
Your turn, young Jedi
Comment me up. You use this one? Like it/hate it? Got more? Leave ’em below and share the misery!
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Relaxing in the Clinch
If given a choice, I prefer to keep an opponent on the far end of my jab, but like everyone with a lot of height and reach I’m frequently faced with an opponent who wants to bring the fight to me on the inside.
Every boxer should be able to fight on the inside.
I practice it whenever I have a willing sparring partner, because it’s a critical skill. When you’re fighting inside, the game changes. You need short range punch power, better use of small, quick shifts and pivots, and good use of your (and your opponent’s) weight.
The reason it’s hard to fight inside is that all your fight-fear rises to the surface; you can’t dance around and toss shots from the outside, you can’t pause to plan your next combo, and you don’t have the luxury of a breather. The fight has come to you and the clock is ticking: how long can you hold out in an incredibly tense, fast boxing situation?
Inside fighting is like the sprint within the sprint of a boxing round.
One of the secrets of doing well on the inside is to remember that shots on the inside frequently have less power. Most people can’t launch a bomb and land it with so little space. However, if you can get your legs beneath an uppercut and land it under your opponent’s jaw, you’re golden. The head snaps back, you follow it with a nice hook, or else pivot out and nail them from the side with a straight shot and you may just take the fight right then and there.
What usually happens to me during inside fighting is a clinch.
I was in the ring recently with an opponent who is slightly smaller and lighter than I am, and who lives for the inside game. She’s a great opponent to work with, because you know what you’re about to get. It’s like having to swim a long distance underwater: you get as much air as you can before you duck under, because you’re about to work your ass off, and the next oxygen you’re going to get is 3 minutes away when the bell rings.
There are only three ways to stop the inside game: great footwork or speed (evasion), a shocking punch or combo, and a clinch.
When I’m up against a teenager who is in top shape in her sport, I know my speed is not going to top hers. I can try the power, but in the end, I’ll end up in a clinch.
And that’s where we went, over and over again during our session. And I found that I was bleeding energy at an insane rate during every clinch — even more than usual.
And because we repeated the same pattern over and over again, I could see the reason for the power bleed. The shot she was throwing every time before we clinched was a left hook, and although it usually missed my jaw, it was still coming in behind my guard — essentially “threading the needle” into the little triangle of space created by my right arm in guard position. As soon as it came in, we clinched and her glove would be trapped against me. Then I would spend a tremendous amount of energy to pull away, popping her glove out of my guard like pulling a cork out of a bottle.
It wore. Me. Out.
I could see what was happening, but couldn’t muster the brain power to fix it. Until my coach told me, during the bell, what to do.
“Just relax,” he said. “You’re trying to hold your gloves high and tight and it’s working against you. Keep them high, but relax, and when you pull away you won’t lose so much energy popping her glove out of the tangle.”
This is why no boxer can succeed without a great coach.
You really need that third party watching and puzzling out with their brain power, not yours, what’s happening.
“Also,” he added before I headed into the fray once more, “what about a nice little shot on the exit? You’re in close, so dust off your hook and see what happens.”
Magic, that’s what happens.
I know it sounds terribly counter-intuitive, but relaxing in the clinch really does work. And so does that sweet little right hook on the exit.
Creative commons image by maxintosh on Flickr.
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3 Completely Counterintuitive Boxing Secrets
Boxing doesn’t always work like you might think.
Last night I was training at Second Round, my home gym. The afterschool crew was working through their paces with Sinclair, so I did my jump rope rounds, stretching, and shadowboxing alone. Mostly I thought hard about very specific moves I was working on, particularly my (nearly non-existant) left hook.
Over and over again I stopped, moved through the motions, and tried again at speed. Shadow rounds, then heavy bag rounds. It wasn’t coming together. I slipped left, hooked, feh. No power. I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t know what it was.
Then it all changed in a way I never expected.
And I realized there are secrets to advancement in boxing that generally no one ever tells you about. Here’s what I learned…
1. Don’t Expect Training
Don’t expect your training to progress just because you managed to get your ass to the gym. In this game, you have to earn it.
I spent an hour last night in the gym, failing to secure a left hook. I must have stopped 30 times in the course of six 3-minute rounds of shadowboxing, plus multiple rounds on the heavy bag, trying to slowmo my way into that hook. Nothing.
But my trainer, Coach Willie “One Bad Jab” Massey, standing quietly by the ring at the outer edge of the gym, saw what I was doing.
He saw the sweat running in rivers down my neck and shoulders and dripping off my nose. He saw me stop repeatedly to work the one specific combo. He knew I couldn’t find the left hook.
Four rounds into my heavy bag work he came over.
“I see you working really hard to land that hook. Let me show you why you’re not getting it,” he said, in his low-key way.
Gratefully I stepped back from the bag and watched him slowly show me the move, first in his natural southpaw stance, then in the orthodox position. There are many subtleties.
I was keeping my guard glove too high during the slip (couldn’t see my opponent), and not getting my shoulder behind the shot. Not keeping a solid 90 degree angle.
In a regular boxing gym, you go and train on your own most of the time. Nobody is going to hold your hand and tell you every little thing to do. If you decide to slack through, you will be allowed. If you prefer to spend your time jacking around rather than sweating, you can. You’ll get little or no attention, and your form will suck. Practice doesn’t make perfect form. Good coaching plus practice is what solidifies your technique.
A good coach will gravitate to the boxers working hard.
Nobody will give you your training in boxing. You earn it.
2. Miss the Bag
This is what finally clinched the hook in my workout. I watched Coach Massey, then slipped and fired a few. Still no go. I pulled my guard hand down, put my shoulder behind the hook, but it didn’t feel consistent.
Massey stopped me, and held up his hand opposite me, near the heavy bag.
“Stop working the slip as the lead-in,” he told me. “Go ahead and fire your two past the bag to my hand, then throw the left hook.”
“Past the bag?”
“Yeah. That’s gonna put you in just the right position for the hook. You’ll see.”
And I did. The leading right popped smartly into his palm, and I was in perfect hook-loaded position, so I was able to turn that nicely into the bag. Pop-bam, two-hook, sweet as you please.
Working on a heavy bag is nothing like working with a sparring partner, but it’s great for practicing technique. And it’s very counterintuitive, but you can use the spaces around the bag to work as well as the spaces on the bag.
After Massey left, I continued to work that hook by shooting my two past the bag, then throwing the left. And it worked very nicely.
And that brings me to my third boxing secret, which isn’t as counterintuitive as the first two, but follows nicely from those points.
3. Finish the Equation
Like I said before, working the heavy bag is nothing like working in the ring. The bag does’t slip and dodge, duck and pivot, or otherwise respond smartly to your offense. It’s always in range, and it always takes your shots — so you don’t have to maintain your balance, keep your feet moving, or avoid an opponent.
In order to really advance in your boxing training, you need to take what you learn on the mats and at the heavy bag and translate it into working in the ring with a sparring partner.
Even if you just box for fitness, finding a trustworthy partner who will let you work lightly through some rounds in the ring will completely revolutionize your training sessions. You’ll be forced to move more, work harder, and you’ll get an incredible calorie-eating workout.
So finish your boxing equation and get in the ring to try your freshly-minted (or solid bread-and-butter) skills, because everything is different in the ring.
Got counterintuitive training tips and secrets of your own? Share ’em in the comments, and gimme goods to post about next!
Stay strong!
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Two Schools of Padwork in Boxing
I’m a “train for what you are going to do” kind of person.
Yes, I put in road and trail work, stadium stairs, jump rope, and so on, and none of those things are what I actually do when I roll into the boxing ring. They do give my muscles the kind of balance that only comes from cross-training, as well as a foundation of good cardio conditioning.
However.
And this is a big however…
I do most of my non-boxing-specific training in boxing rounds.
For example, here’s one of my current favorite workouts. All the work (except for the mile) is done in three minute rounds with 30 second recovery periods. And even that I sometimes do in three minute bursts, like a fartlek run, with 30 second recoveries.
- Three rounds stairs
- Three rounds hurdles (The hurdles are so intense I actually don’t make it continually through 3 minutes yet)
- Three rounds jump rope
- One mile to finish (are you happy I didn’t say “to recover” like your coach does? Heh.)
The point is to work hard for 3 minute segments and recover in 30 seconds, and then do it again — because that’s what you do in the boxing ring.
So I see these guys doing incredibly lengthy memorized padwork routines and I think, this doesn’t help me. It looks super-shonuff cool, it does! But it doesn’t look like what I end up doing in the ring.
I hear the arguments that it develops fast hands and punches in bunches, but the situation seems so forced. You memorize a sequence and move through it (like a kata in martial arts). But in boxing you aren’t throwing 32 punches in a single offensive. You have to think, watch your opponent, strategize on the fly.
Maybe I’m just jealous. I don’t have those long combos memorized, and they do seem to carry some cool cred in gyms. I wanna be cool, just like other people.
But I’m gonna stick with training that looks and feels like actual boxing. Check out the video below. THIS is what I think padwork should look like.
One of the things I like about this padwork training session is that the trainer is not smacking down the punches; he lets the punches come to him. The two of them move, stay loose, and circle just like you would in a fight. It’s the real thing, not a show.
Well, okay, it IS a show, it’s part of a press conference, obviously, but you get the feeling that they actually train like this on a regular basis. You know, minus all the reporters crowding the ring.
Padwork is one of the things I love best in boxing.
You get one-on-one time with a trainer or peer who is working on your game, your form, your boxing. You don’t have to share a coach with dozens of other fighters when you’re doing padwork, and you don’t have to factor in a sparring opponent. It’s aaaaalll you, baby. Whipped cream with a cherry on top.
I don’t get much padwork, but when I do, I’m intensely grateful for it, particularly when I feel like it’s going to really move my game forward.
Image by icantu on Flickr
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Boxing Lesson: Advance on the Jab
It may be that trainers have been saying this to me for years now, and I’m only just recently able to hear it.
There is so much to be mastered in boxing that sometimes it’s all you can do to cope with the basics. You have to simply survive in the ring for a long time before you stop sucking and start to look like you know a couple of things. It can be incredibly hard to operate calmly when you feel like you are under fire, but I promise you, it does happen! You get one tiny building block, then another and another.
I feel like I am finally at the point where I’m able to hear my trainers tell me to advance on the jab. Jay was saying this well before I was at Second Round, where I’m hearing it now from Coach “One Bad Jab” Massey.
It sounds ridiculously simple, doesn’t it?
For whatever reasons, I’ve either not heard it, or haven’t been able to implement it until recently. It could be that I was simply relying on my fairly good reach, and just never gave my jabs that extra push they needed to punch through, rather than to my target. Using your rear foot to push yourself forward in a short, strong burst on the jab gives you a couple more inches and really sends that jab home with a bang.
This is an offensive jab, whereas many of my jabs are also defensive, thrown to keep someone out of my range or stop my opponent’s advance. That’s all good, but advancing on the jab is another way to intimidate, score, and control in the boxing ring.
Check out one of my favorite fighters, Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton (8-2-1, 1 KO), the WBO super bantamweight world champion who recently defended her title against #1 contender Franchesca “The Chosen One” Alcanter (18-10-1, 9 KO’s).
Julaton’s jab is unstoppable. She won the fight on this perfect shot, a handful of power rights and that sick left hook.
Watch how she advances on nearly every single jab. It’s incredible to see, and it’s made even more powerful with the warp speed at which she moves. The fight begins at the 7 minute mark on the video below, and this video includes the entire 10 rounds. Ana is in the red and black.
By the way, Ana Julaton just became the first female boxer ever to appear on a Topps trading card. Cool, huh? Oh, and since they gave Ana one, they had to give one to Manny Pacquiao, too.
But around my house, we’ll be hoping for a Julaton.
Image by maxtm on Flickr
*Incidentally, the ref in the ring in the photo at the top of this post is one of the coaches at Second Round where I’m boxing now. He is frequently back and forth to NY (and many other places) as a boxing referee. I think he’s been doing it now for more than 40 years. I’m forever coming across him in video and photos.
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13 Round Boxing Workout
This solid boxing workout fits perfectly into an hour with a few minutes to spare. Set your ring timer for 3 minute rounds with a 1 minute rest.
1. Two rounds jump rope (work through your 1 minute rest)
2. One round stretching
3. Two rounds shadow boxing
4. Three rounds heavy bag; punch out (speed punches) last 30 sec of each round
5. One round speed bag
6. Two rounds abdominals work (work through 1 minute rest)
7. Two rounds spin bike (work through 1 minute rest)If you’re putting effort into it, you should be drenched, tired and happy (otherwise you should ask for your money back). Hit the shower and head back to work!
Image by Steve Snodgrass
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Agility Dot Drills
Light, agile, lightning-speed footwork can make the difference in winning and losing in the ring. Great boxers have the ability to win a round on footwork alone, and if you have ever been put in the ring with a newbie and instructed to use defense only, you’ve had to power up your best footwork in order to bring the best workout to your sparring partner.
Agility dot drills can help you increase the speed and balance of your footwork while also increasing your cardio. Try setting up a series for yourself and see how quickly you can run a set of drills. Be patient with yourself as you work; these drills might feel simple going forward, but going backward will really challenge you.The best thing about these drills is that you don’t need any equipment to practice them. Yes, you can shell out cash for agility dots and agility dot mats (I found both online for $50 each — I refuse to even link it, that’s insane), but you don’t need them! Use a piece of chalk or a bit of masking tape to mark your five dots and you’re up and working. You can increase the size and spacing of the layout if you are taller, or as you increase in speed and ability.
Check out the dude in the video below, or scroll on down for a list of drills you can set up and try on your own.
Agility Dot Drills
X Drill. Start with feet split, one foot on dot 1 and one on dot 2. Jump to dot 3 with both feet, then to dots 4 and 5 with feet split. Repeat the steps jumping backward.
X Drill Hopscotch. Start with feet split, one foot on dot 1 and one on dot 2. Jump to dot 3 with ONE foot, then split feet to dots 4 and 5. Repeat jumping backward with same or alternate foot landing in the middle.
X Drill with Turn Around. This is the same as the X Drill or X Drill Hopscotch except that when you get to the top or bottom, you turn your body around to go in the other direction.
Z Drill. Form a Z pattern (4-5-3-1-2) using one leg or both feet together.
M Drill. Form an M pattern (4-5-3-2-1) using one leg or both feet together.
Figure 8 Drill. Form a figure eight (4-5-3-1-2-3-4) down and back, keeping feet together or on one foot only.
Big Arrow, Little Arrow. Keep feet together, start at 1 and jump diagonally to 5, then back to 1. Now jump 1-4-1, 1-3-1, 1-2-1. Start over with the big diagonal jump.
Box Drill. Keep feet together and hop the perimeter of the square (1-4-5-2-1), facing the same direction at all times.
Single-leg Triangle. Hop on your left leg to form a triangle in a counterclockwise direction (2-3-1-2). Make five triangles then switch legs and make five triangles. Repeat the drill moving in a clockwise direction (1-3-2-1).
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New Lessons in Sparring: Controlling the Ring
I like to box from the center of the ring.
I was never that boxer who floats endlessly around the ring, dashing here and there and making the entire fight more of a dance than a boxing round. It’s a thousand times easier to stand in the center and pivot to face those opponents who like to run laps in the ring.
I guess I must have been used to standing in the center with few to challenge me for the privilege, because on Sunday I had a new sparring partner, and I never once wrested control from him. It was a bit of a surprise, and a deeply pleasurable learning experience.
George is a philosopher. As we were warming up and casually discussing use of power in the sparring arena, he sagely pronounced, “The amount of power a boxer should be sparring with should be such that if you make a hit square in the nose, it might bleed but it won’t break.” I loved that.
George is twenty-one years old, 145 pounds and close to my height. I saw some video of him sparring with a newbie and immediately understood several things about him. One, he has a teacher’s heart. Two, he isn’t a giant ego, waiting to show off his stuff on someone who is not as good a boxer as he is. And three, he clearly loves fight sports and wants everyone else to love them too — he has an infectious grin that rarely leaves his face.
As soon as I saw the tapes, I immediately began working to arrange time in the ring with him, and he was most gracious and accommodating.
On Sunday we bumped gloves and settled into our rounds. He let me take the lead, dictate the level of power we would be trading. He smiled and nodded, encouraging me as I worked my combinations. I could see his strong martial arts training in his stance, his way of using his entire body — rather than just his upper body and feet — to box. There was a sense of poise, of balance in him. He wasn’t afraid to lean waaaay back to avoid a punch, something boxers rarely do. He used my own momentum to swing me into positions I hadn’t planned on. And his gloves were blindingly fast.
Four or five rounds in I suddenly realized it: I’d not once controlled the ring. His offense was constant, no rests or pauses, and I was forever on the defensive and near the ropes. But there was something else, too. I stopped us.
“Why am I never able to gain the center?” I asked, pulling my mouthpiece out to talk.
He grinned, pulled his own mouthpiece out and pointed it at me. “You’re always in the center, aren’t you? I’ve seen you spar; I don’t think anyone’s challenged you. I like to keep control of the ring, too. And I haven’t been letting you take it.” We walked through some moves and he showed me how he was constantly staying one step ahead of my pace, cutting me off whenever I tried to get past him. And for some reason I was often inclined to circle left on him rather than right, even though we were both orthodox fighters.
It was in naming that last fact that I realized what the extra “something” was. “You’re squared up!” I cried. “You’re facing me dead on. Boxers never do that!” We always try to keep one shoulder forward, presenting as small a target as possible. His wide, straight-on stance had been triggering my desire to circle left, as I would on a southpaw. On a conscious level, I knew he was orthodox, but on a subconscious level, I had never been certain which way to go.
He laughed. “Not quite,” he corrected. “I’m squared up until we engage, then I shift to throw or defend.” He demonstrated. Full on, then shift to an angle. Then full on again. Quick, economical movements. So that was one of the factors that had kept me off-balance.
Add to that the fact that he never rested. Dude had a full tank of gas and was willing to burn it. I have been in the habit of throwing, resting, throwing. Or even allowing my opponents to throw themselves out so that I could then move in with my own offense. George never quit throwing punches! He was a master of flurries, and there was nothing to do but defend, eat some punches, and throw despite an oncoming combo. It was fascinating to realize it, and hard to break through.
One step ahead. Full-on approach coupled with an angled defense and delivery. Constant offense.
Utter control of the ring.
This is what having a new sparring partner does for you. I was absolutely thrilled to encounter it all.
And I can’t wait to get in the ring with him again.
Image by melanieburger
