Jab Mechanics

[curlyface]

I've been training Muay Thai for 3 years. As most people who train MT are aware, there are a million different ways to every technique and every person who teaches it will teach it differently. It's fine for me in every strike except the jab as I just can't get my jab where I want it. I have a few issues:

1. Some of the time, it seems my shot lands oddly on the pad and my wrist bends downwards. Doesn't happen on the heavy bag but maybe it's because of the size of the bag vs the size of the pad (allowing for more room for error?). Maybe it's the pad holder? I'm going to say this is my mistake over pad holders.

2. I have been taught two different ways to jab: "The boxers jab" where your weight is on your lead foot. I hear this is bad for MT because weight on the lead foot can make it easier to get you off balance and harder to follow up with strikes. Second way is weight on the back foot when you strike. I seem to have trouble with this method as it's hard to jab moving forward this way and it feels off, like you're striking forward but moving backwards? (imagine throwing jab while pushing back off the lead foot).

3. No matter which technique (#2) I go with my balance doesn't feel right. I've got this down with almost every strike except the jab.

Can someone experienced please help correct my jab? I will try to get a video at some point but until then some advice would be great. I want my jab to feel balanced and quick yet heavy. Right now it feels very awkward..

 

[j123]

I've been training Muay Thai for 3 years. As most people who train MT are aware, there are a million different ways to every technique and every person who teaches it will teach it differently. It's fine for me in every strike except the jab as I just can't get my jab where I want it. I have a few issues:

1. Some of the time, it seems my shot lands oddly on the pad and my wrist bends downwards. Doesn't happen on the heavy bag but maybe it's because of the size of the bag vs the size of the pad (allowing for more room for error?). Maybe it's the pad holder? I'm going to say this is my mistake over pad holders.

2. I have been taught two different ways to jab: "The boxers jab" where your weight is on your lead foot. I hear this is bad for MT because weight on the lead foot can make it easier to get you off balance and harder to follow up with strikes. Second way is weight on the back foot when you strike. I seem to have trouble with this method as it's hard to jab moving forward this way and it feels off, like you're striking forward but moving backwards? (imagine throwing jab while pushing back off the lead foot).

3. No matter which technique (#2) I go with my balance doesn't feel right. I've got this down with almost every strike except the jab.

Can someone experienced please help correct my jab? I will try to get a video at some point but until then some advice would be great. I want my jab to feel balanced and quick yet heavy. Right now it feels very awkward..

Sounds like your weight is too foward if its affecting your balance. Aim to never have your head go past your lead foot. When you go forward on the step, make sure your back leg pulls in after to keep the same stance. If you jab then your back leg doesn't move, you're now in a lunged stance, and if you're narrow you've basically tight roped yourself.

If your wrist is doing that fun stuff on the pads and not the bag, its prob your padholder, they might be jamming it too close to meet your strike or holding it too high.

 

[spacetime]

My guess is that your balance is off due to wrong distancing. Experiment around and you will see a difference. Most guys make the mistake of standing too far back. Simple errors like this can throw your techniques off.

 

[Silver tongue samurai]

Shadow box until its second nature. Then start to combine it with the teep

 

[MaxMMA]

Spend some time on the bag throwing nothing but jabs. I usually dedicate 1 round of every bag session to nothing but the jab. Spend about half the round working my touch/speed and the other half working my jab power. I also like the suggestion of the poster above, sometimes ill spend 1 whole shadow boxing round doing nothing but working my jab and the various angles you can work with it.

 

[Borass]

A jab with the body weight on the front foot is incorrect unless it s a feint to a lead hook or uppercut. You can t have power with your jab without weight on the back foot at the impact ( no matter the sport, mma, muay thai, boxing or whatever ). Try to push a wall in a fighting stance with your lead hand. You will notice you will use your back leg, your front leg is even useless for this...

For the jab, try to jab doing a tiny step with the front foot, anchoring the ball of your back foot to learn the proper mechanic.

Some fighters use the “bas rutten” lead straight punch philosophy. They use the same weight transfer than for the hook ( front to back leg with front rotation of the foot/hip ). It s a very interesting technique but it s not a “jab”

 

[Sano]

A jab with the body weight on the front foot is incorrect unless it s a feint to a lead hook or uppercut. You can t have power with your jab without weight on the back foot at the impact ( no matter the sport, mma, muay thai, boxing or whatever ). Try to push a wall in a fighting stance with your lead hand. You will notice you will use your back leg, your front leg is even useless for this...

For the jab, try to jab doing a tiny step with the front foot, anchoring the ball of your back foot to learn the proper mechanic.

Some fighters use the “bas rutten” lead straight punch philosophy. They use the same weight transfer than for the hook ( front to back leg with front rotation of the foot/hip ). It s a very interesting technique but it s not a “jab”

Pushing against the wall isometricly isn't quite the same. A more applicable analogy would be walking or running. You push off the back foot yes, but at some point you transfer the weight to the front foot. There are more than one way to generate power, using both horizontal and vertical force vectors.

Three guys come to mind immediately when we talk about moving weight forward with the jab. Canelo, Liston and Holmes. Inoue does it sometimes too when he commits to the jab. Consequently, they are/were all hard jabbers.

There are several types of jabs, but a spearing one usually involves forward weight transfer and functions more like a straight lead hand. It does have some defensive drawbacks, but it's a powerful and long variation.

Actually thinking about it, most of the great HW jabbers, like Ali, Klitschko, Lennox, Bowe and the ones previously mentioned had their weight coming forward on the jab. Definitely helps being long though and having the reach advantage.

 

[Borass]

Pushing against the wall isometricly isn't quite the same. A more applicable analogy would be walking or running. You push off the back foot yes, but at some point you transfer the weight to the front foot. There are more than one way to generate power, using both horizontal and vertical force vectors.

I do agree, but at the impact, body weight must be still on the back leg if you are looking for power. If you shift your body weight on the front foot top early, you ll lose power... however a jab is often Used as a set up And not a power punch... i was answering to the question “ how to jab with speed and power “

 

[Perfect form]

I would work on learning when to throw the jab. It doesn't take much speed or power to be effective when we punch someone in the face.

As long as we are balanced in our stance and face our opponent, our technique will be good automatically.

 

[rmongler]

The point of the wall exercise is to create a 'snapshot' of perfect technique at the moment of impact. Of course when you want to hit someone your weight will be coming forward, that's the whole point; you wouldn't be able to push on the wall in the first place if you weren't doing that. What it helps show is that if your weight is on your front foot at the moment of impact, you're doing it wrong.

You can test this right now; stand up and take your stance in front of a door, and lean a jab onto it.

Now, start trying to push through it harder. What happens?

Even when you're not thinking about it, your front foot comes up naturally as you push off the rear foot (and you start feeling the burn in the area between your hip and lower back); it is you getting into a more bio-mechanically optimal form for exerting force onto the object in front of you. The only way you'd get the front foot in on the action at the same time is if you'd start leaning crazily over your feet like you're playing reverse tug-of-war. Otherwise, jabbing while staying front loaded is more or less just an arm punch. There might certainly be possible use-cases where you may do this, but it's not really going to hurt anyone either, though.

Practicing punch form exercises in this manner is a great method for teaching and conditioning the body in the proper movements, and you'll be well on your way to knocking people stiff.

 

[spacetime]

Actually thinking about it, most of the great HW jabbers, like Ali, Klitschko, Lennox, Bowe and the ones previously mentioned had their weight coming forward on the jab. Definitely helps being long though and having the reach advantage.

That's right. It's called a step jab or a power jab, depending on which foot moves forward first. There's a surprising amount of power in both.

https://www.expertboxing.com/boxing-techniques/punch-techniques/5-types-of-jabs