Bobbing and weaving

[chino0503]

LMAO on that Sarah Marshal quote, that said, your posts in this thread are spot on! good advice.....



Great clip, thanks for that.......

In addition, I am sick of hearing how bob n weave is not effective or dangerous in MMA, i say bullshit...... it is very effective if done correctly, nice and tight with a solid base, head up, chin tucked, shoulders square...... it is actually a very underutilized tool in MMA and could be extremely effective.

I think there is a common mis understanding that guys who haven't spent time learning true "boxing", bob n weave, tuck n roll, swing underneath, step n slip (peak a boo) are not all the same technique.... they all are quite different and all have separate applications, yet they seem to be understood as 1 general technique..... ya should do a thread to clarify this, since it is a subject of much confusion on this forum.



Nonsense, why do you say that? Hell..... at least it would get a guy moving his head, a technique that seems unapparent in many MMA fighters. It may not be applicable in all situations, but that can be said for a myriad of techniques...... the peak a boo would be very useful for a boxer wrestler type mma fighter, depending on the opponent....... not every MMA fighter throws Cro Cop high kicks or monster leg kicks......

thats because people think boxing is just throwing and taking. yeah.. the concepts are right in your face and pretty much simple. but out of all the martial arts in the world, boxing is the hardest to master.

plenty of top mma fighters are quoted for saying that boxing is the hardest to get good at.

this is why you dont see many fighters look good. and when someone does... everyone creams over it.

 

[PWR1982]

I hate this shit about something being hardest to master or whatever. Everything's the same hard to "master" - I don't even know why the word is used, like at what point have you mastered boxing? It all matters on how good you are compared to the rest...

 

[chino0503]

I hate this shit about something being hardest to master or whatever. Everything's the same hard to "master" - I don't even know why the word is used, like at what point have you mastered boxing? It all matters on how good you are compared to the rest...

its evident on how there's so many few good boxers in mma.

 

[ssullivan80]

I hate this shit about something being hardest to master or whatever. Everything's the same hard to "master" - I don't even know why the word is used, like at what point have you mastered boxing? It all matters on how good you are compared to the rest...

agreed...... again, i dont think you can really ever "master" any combative sport or martial art, there is always room for improvement. That said, you can learn to become proficient and gradually become better at executing the fundamentals and basic techniques, even to the point where you become an expert practitioner........ but "mastering" the art of being a fighter is like "mastering" golf, it cant be done because the sport is always greater than the practitioner...... you cant beat the game of golf and you cant beat the art of fighting in the ring, as history tells over and over........ techniques are constantly being improved and the athletes continually get bigger, faster, stronger and more capable as the sport evolves.

That said, i do agree with Chino below that learning and becoming proficient at all the techniques that make up the fundamentals of boxing are considerably tougher than most other combative styles............ but again, that difficulty is probably more about the individual practitioner than the individual style they are learning. Wrestlers translate much quicker into boxing than do guys who come from MT or TKD backgrounds, but wrestlers transition into MT or TKD much slower than a boxer does......at least from my experience.

 

[kyred]

its evident on how there's so many few good boxers in mma.

I respectfully disagree. I think it's just that, as your signature implies, a below average boxer is all that's currently needed in MMA, so current fighters don't really concentrate on it that much. Now, you can argue that below average boxing is all that's needed because boxing is hard to master, but then it just becomes a chicken and egg problem. I would lean towards the former, where everyone's just trying to be good at everything that the typical mma fighter doesn't really have the time to master everything.

You could probably argue the same for the BJJ/grappler guys. Some MMA fighters are high level grapplers but because getting punched in the face/to the body takes alot away from grappling technicalities, people don't really need super crazy submission skills in an MMA match as much as they would in ADCC for instance.

 

[ssullivan80]

its evident on how there's so many few good boxers in mma.

Until James Toney steps in the cage, i agree! That said, there a couple guys i have seen that are pretty sharp boxers....... Junior Dos Santos, Vitor Belfort, Anderson Silva, BJ, Spencer Fisher, etc..... Not by any stretch am i comparing them to the top tier of boxers out there, but nonetheless they are good boxers, James Toney will be the only great boxer in MMA...... Actually, Ray Mercer was a great boxer as well, just severely past his prime....... Still sat Big Tim on his ass!

 

[World Syndicate]

just shows how much of a science boxing is

 

[NHB7]

I use to totally suck at bobbing and weaving. I'm 6'1" 195 but when I really use to box I was like 165 so I always just pulled my head straight back which is bad form, but because I was so tall and lanky I got away with it. Anyway, the way I got really good at Bobbing and Weaving is by boxing taller guys who teach you really quickly not to pull your head straight back.

My take on Bobbing and weaving is that your head should be moving anytime you are even close to being in the range of your opponents strikes, especially if you are moving forward. i'm not saying bouncing around like a metronome, just a little side to side movement and your striking should include a fair amount of changing levels. If you, and I'm sure some are suggesting it but I would say they are wrong (no offense), but if you are simply waiting to bob and weave reflexively when you see the strike you are going to get caught a lot. Really really really fast guys with reflexes get away with that, but the rest of us need to be moving our heads a lot. As my boxing coach put it, the best defense (other than offense) to another person's attack isn't to block it, its to not be there when it happens. It is surprisingly hard to hit a moving head, so just keep it moving. I make it sound easier than it is however, because it really is something that has to flow pretty naturally with the rest of your movement otherwise it is a lot of wasted energy and that is a flow you just have to create with your style.

When I teach others boxing I usually start by putting my hands behind my back and doing what looks basically like a dance. They usually giggle when I ask them to do that dance with me but when they are done I explain that they just had their first lesson at the right way to move their hips when they are throwing a punch, changing levels, moving out at angles and bobbing and weaving. I think thats important because everyone thinks boxing is about how to punch, but that is only part of it. Its like a lot of friends that have asked me to teach them BJJ, but it usually really boils down to them just wanting to learn submissions which are pointless to teach if they don't even know how to set up positions to get to a point to pull of submissions.

Anyway, boxing is great and I hope you continue to enjoy it.

 

[NHB7]

Until James Toney steps in the cage, i agree! That said, there a couple guys i have seen that are pretty sharp boxers....... Junior Dos Santos, Vitor Belfort, Anderson Silva, BJ, Spencer Fisher, etc..... Not by any stretch am i comparing them to the top tier of boxers out there, but nonetheless they are good boxers, James Toney will be the only great boxer in MMA...... Actually, Ray Mercer was a great boxer as well, just severely past his prime....... Still sat Big Tim on his ass!

Sotiropolous and Marcus Davis both have pretty decent head movement. Actually, I only first noticed that of Sotiropolous after his last fight and it makes me think he has a lot more potential than I even realized.

 

[Smw]

Good head movement is a combination of good breathing technique while on defense, keeping your eyes on your opponents shoulders to read him and short movements to remain balanced.

If you are calm under fire you are quicker, and you burn less energy.