Footwork drills.

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Just interested to hear how people drill their stance and footwork. Do you specifically work on it for a few rounds e.g moving around in a square or around the bag while maintaining your stance, or do you just include it in your sparring or bag work?
 
For boxing what we usually do to drill getting out of bad positions is to have one guy on the ropes and the other guy in front of him. The guy in front of him is to keep punching the guy on the ropes and try to cut the ring off as much as possible to keep him from getting out. The guy on the ropes can't throw any punches and must dodge block and try to maneuver his way out using defensive techniques and footwork

EDIT
once the guy escapes the the ropes and makes it to the center of the ring the two guys reverse their roles. Do this like 5 times in a row
 
Both (not a boxer).

Drill it in isolation. How you want to move offensively and defensively, just the footwork.

Then drill it with hands - offensive and defensive. That means shadow boxing, bag work, etc.

Then drill it with a live opponent.

Personally, I drill it all the time. Just walking around the house I try to stay true to the principles. That means if I have to turn a corner, I turn it with proper footwork. If I forget something, I turn around with proper footwork. I'm always shuffling, stepping and spinning through my house and on the street (when the wife isn't around to be embarrassed). I probably look crazy to strangers but I've gotten smarter and more subtle so they don't notice as much :).

The weirdest thing I do is practicing evading people in stores. Like if we're both in the same aisle, I'll use defensive movements to let them pass. little things like that.
 
panamaican said:
Personally, I drill it all the time. Just walking around the house I try to stay true to the principles. That means if I have to turn a corner, I turn it with proper footwork. If I forget something, I turn around with proper footwork. I'm always shuffling, stepping and spinning through my house and on the street (when the wife isn't around to be embarrassed). I probably look crazy to strangers but I've gotten smarter and more subtle so they don't notice as much :).

The weirdest thing I do is practicing evading people in stores. Like if we're both in the same aisle, I'll use defensive movements to let them pass. little things like that.
Click to expand...

Glad I'm not the only one who does this haha. I don't really do it in public or anything, but when I think no one is around in my house I start pivoting around corners and walking imaginary opponents down in my hallways.

One kind of weird thing I like to do when I'm cooking is set up a chair angled so that the 2 front legs are in the same position as the 2 legs of an opponent would be in. Then I just practice moving to inside and outside angles on the chair. I'll do it a couple times just moving, then a couple times with strikes, then with feints, then I'll throw strikes when I take the angle and angle on the way out and get creative.

But anyway, I like to drill footwork as a warm up then make sure to emphasize it at various points during a workout while including it with my strikes. For example, if I'm gonna hit the heavy bag primarily for my footwork then I'll start by just moving in my stance around the bag both ways. Then I'll push the bag and let it swing and move with it. Then I'll start hitting it as I move with it and adjusting to the new directions. So I might hit it with a combination, follow it as it moves away and hit it again, then pivot either way as it swings back towards me to get an angle and hit it more. My favorite is to sidestep and pivot to my right as the bag swings at me, then smash a right kick into the bag as it swings back like an opponent turning.

If I'm hitting pads, I often do it specifically to drill footwork. I'll pick a combination that I want to develop the footwork of and have my partner react like a real opponent. For example, maybe I want to get good at using a left hook with a left sidestep to get an inside angle to fire my cross from. I'll have the pad guy first let me throw the combination a few times without doing anything. Then I'll have him start moving to my left (his right) and I'll throw the combination to cut him off and land. Once I feel comfortable with that, I'll have him move in multiple directions until he moves to my left and I step to cut him off while using that combination again.

Then there are situational footwork drills with partners. One good example is the pivoting off the ropes mentioned by 3pac above. Another drill would be to have a guy come forward at you constantly with straight punches while you have to keep sidestepping and turning him in both directions. Or you could drill walking someone into a corner using only your jab. There are tons of options and a lot of them are pretty fun.

Footwork is part of everything you do in standup fighting and drilling it separately can never hurt.
 
a guy said:
Glad I'm not the only one who does this haha. I don't really do it in public or anything, but when I think no one is around in my house I start pivoting around corners and walking imaginary opponents down in my hallways.

One kind of weird thing I like to do when I'm cooking is set up a chair angled so that the 2 front legs are in the same position as the 2 legs of an opponent would be in. Then I just practice moving to inside and outside angles on the chair. I'll do it a couple times just moving, then a couple times with strikes, then with feints, then I'll throw strikes when I take the angle and angle on the way out and get creative.

But anyway, I like to drill footwork as a warm up then make sure to emphasize it at various points during a workout while including it with my strikes. For example, if I'm gonna hit the heavy bag primarily for my footwork then I'll start by just moving in my stance around the bag both ways. Then I'll push the bag and let it swing and move with it. Then I'll start hitting it as I move with it and adjusting to the new directions. So I might hit it with a combination, follow it as it moves away and hit it again, then pivot either way as it swings back towards me to get an angle and hit it more. My favorite is to sidestep and pivot to my right as the bag swings at me, then smash a right kick into the bag as it swings back like an opponent turning.

If I'm hitting pads, I often do it specifically to drill footwork. I'll pick a combination that I want to develop the footwork of and have my partner react like a real opponent. For example, maybe I want to get good at using a left hook with a left sidestep to get an inside angle to fire my cross from. I'll have the pad guy first let me throw the combination a few times without doing anything. Then I'll have him start moving to my left (his right) and I'll throw the combination to cut him off and land. Once I feel comfortable with that, I'll have him move in multiple directions until he moves to my left and I step to cut him off while using that combination again.

Then there are situational footwork drills with partners. One good example is the pivoting off the ropes mentioned by 3pac above. Another drill would be to have a guy come forward at you constantly with straight punches while you have to keep sidestepping and turning him in both directions. Or you could drill walking someone into a corner using only your jab. There are tons of options and a lot of them are pretty fun.

Footwork is part of everything you do in standup fighting and drilling it separately can never hurt.
Click to expand...

Do you compete?
 
a guy said:
Glad I'm not the only one who does this haha. I don't really do it in public or anything, but when I think no one is around in my house I start pivoting around corners and walking imaginary opponents down in my hallways.

One kind of weird thing I like to do when I'm cooking is set up a chair angled so that the 2 front legs are in the same position as the 2 legs of an opponent would be in. Then I just practice moving to inside and outside angles on the chair. I'll do it a couple times just moving, then a couple times with strikes, then with feints, then I'll throw strikes when I take the angle and angle on the way out and get creative.

But anyway, I like to drill footwork as a warm up then make sure to emphasize it at various points during a workout while including it with my strikes. For example, if I'm gonna hit the heavy bag primarily for my footwork then I'll start by just moving in my stance around the bag both ways. Then I'll push the bag and let it swing and move with it. Then I'll start hitting it as I move with it and adjusting to the new directions. So I might hit it with a combination, follow it as it moves away and hit it again, then pivot either way as it swings back towards me to get an angle and hit it more. My favorite is to sidestep and pivot to my right as the bag swings at me, then smash a right kick into the bag as it swings back like an opponent turning.

If I'm hitting pads, I often do it specifically to drill footwork. I'll pick a combination that I want to develop the footwork of and have my partner react like a real opponent. For example, maybe I want to get good at using a left hook with a left sidestep to get an inside angle to fire my cross from. I'll have the pad guy first let me throw the combination a few times without doing anything. Then I'll have him start moving to my left (his right) and I'll throw the combination to cut him off and land. Once I feel comfortable with that, I'll have him move in multiple directions until he moves to my left and I step to cut him off while using that combination again.

Then there are situational footwork drills with partners. One good example is the pivoting off the ropes mentioned by 3pac above. Another drill would be to have a guy come forward at you constantly with straight punches while you have to keep sidestepping and turning him in both directions. Or you could drill walking someone into a corner using only your jab. There are tons of options and a lot of them are pretty fun.

Footwork is part of everything you do in standup fighting and drilling it separately can never hurt.
Click to expand...

Weirdo.

I just dance.

 
There is no point in combat sports where you should not be practicing footwork.
 
I do it all the time. When I skip, during parts of my run, when I shadow box, when I'm on the heavy, double-end and speed bags. When I'm doing partner drills, when I'm sparring, when I'm simply working combinations.
I feel that it's the most important part of boxing/striking in general.
 
It's a really good way to move forward and backward without compromising your position relative to the opponent. If you watch Conor McGregor's fights on Youtube, he's fond of doing the backward hop-step at an angle, and he'll throw a straight left as he moves away and off-line. It's very slick.

This is also the best way to throw a leaping hook. The weight transfer is built into the step.
 
Discipulus said:
It's a really good way to move forward and backward without compromising your position relative to the opponent. If you watch Conor McGregor's fights on Youtube, he's fond of doing the backward hop-step at an angle, and he'll throw a straight left as he moves away and off-line. It's very slick.

This is also the best way to throw a leaping hook. The weight transfer is built into the step.
Click to expand...

Still waiting for you to write a little about him in my thread about footwork :icon_chee

Also, I've seen that hop step video pop up several times and I really wish I started working on it the first time I saw it. It's awesome.
 
BRCLRY said:
What movements are being exaggerated in the video?
Click to expand...

The weight transfer. Before the forward hop-step the weight goes to the front foot, and before the backward one it goes to the rear foot.
 
If you want a good hard bag workout whilst practicing evasive footwork then try this. Normally when you hit the heavy bag it swings away. Move into its space so the bag will always be falling into you. You have to hit hard and fast just to keep the bag up at an angle and off you. But you will have to break between combos. Pivot out/weave out/step through as the bag swings past then step back in behind the bag and do again. Interpserce with hooks to change the angle of the bag relative to you. This will work on the strength of your stance and your ability to change your angle to accomodate attacks from different angles. Note that this is a high intensity exercise. You will have to maintain fighting intensity to keep that bag off you.
 


My personal method isn't exactly like his, but this will give you the gist of common footworks for some muay thai and some boxing.



Freddie Roach's take.



And then a host of great footwork boxers....
 
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Not to necro this thread but I started working on very basic footwork with my 3 year old this week. He can do it if I count the steps but no concentration. His lack of discipline makes me question his dedication to his craft.

@Sinister - where do you find the patience, lol?
 
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