Boxing off the back foot/front foot

K

KingGhidorah

White Belt
@White
Joined
Nov 27, 2012
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
I always here people talking boxing talking about the above topics. My question is what do they mean? and is there an advantage of one over the other?

any examples of fighters who do either exceptionally well?
 
a guy wrote a good article about the strengths/weaknesses of a few popular stances. According to most people here, though, dipping at the hip and fighting off the back foot is supposedly an impenetrable stance so you won't hear much about it in the way of weaknesses.
 
Its another one of those terms with different meanings/different interpretations.

I think it is literally meaning which foot you fight out of in your stance, or some people refer to it as fighting on the back foot=Moving back and on the front foot= coming forward. While you do need to be on the back foot to move back and the front foot to move forward for a brief amount of time, that interpretation isnt referring to stance at all.
 
Goat Meal said:
a guy wrote a good article about the strengths/weaknesses of a few popular stances. According to most people here, though, dipping at the hip and fighting off the back foot is supposedly an impenetrable stance so you won't hear much about it in the way of weaknesses.
Click to expand...

No one worth reading here says anything that implies any stance is "impenetrable."

That said, it doesn't mean there aren't good and bad beginning positions relative to the fighter themselves, and their respective style.
 
Boxing off the back foot means to have your weight distributed mainly to your rear leg while boxing off the front foot means the opposite. Both stances are good and both have found success on an international level (the most classic example is back footed Mayweather and front footed Pacquiao).

However, don't limit yourself to being one style all the time. No stances are static and its best to try out both and have the ability to switch between both when the situation calls.
 
Sinister said:
No one worth reading here says anything that implies any stance is "impenetrable."

That said, it doesn't mean there aren't good and bad beginning positions relative to the fighter themselves, and their respective style.
Click to expand...

That's always what I took "built-in defense" to mean, which I find to be silly. Left hand up while throwing a right cross is built-in defense, imo. Standing with an almost even distribution of weight over each hip/leg with a natural bend in the back hip taking the head slightly off the center line is just one of many stances in hand-to-hand combat that works, but in my mind there is not anything inherently that lends itself to being a better stance in terms of defense.

Just my two cents.
 
Yes, we know your gripe, and it's cool. You can find silly whatever you like.
 
Hey king I would listen to sinster more then goat despite goat claiming the rear leg heavy doesnt have a built in defense. I learned that it does first hand after losing my first fight in a front foot stance I switched to a rear leg heavy stance and it worked wonders I dont remember getting hurt my 2nd fight. But if I was you id use both for situational application as opposed to a standard static stance.
 
Marbig said:
Boxing off the back foot means to have your weight distributed mainly to your rear leg while boxing off the front foot means the opposite. Both stances are good and both have found success on an international level (the most classic example is back footed Mayweather and front footed Pacquiao).
.
Click to expand...

This isnt true at all, if anything Floyd fights off his front foot MUCH more than Manny. Many does a lot of slips and feints to his front leg, but fights out of a more rear legged stance, Floyd switches up A LOT, I was watching a lot of his fights a few months ago and shocked how much time he spends on his front foot, usually to bait or setup.

maybe your referring to how Manny comes forward a lot while Flody is more willing to back up?

I think a lot of the best boxers can fight off both feet at different times.
 
WillW said:
This isnt true at all, if anything Floyd fights off his front foot MUCH more than Manny. Many does a lot of slips and feints to his front leg, but fights out of a more rear legged stance, Floyd switches up A LOT, I was watching a lot of his fights a few months ago and shocked how much time he spends on his front foot, usually to bait or setup.

maybe your referring to how Manny comes forward a lot while Flody is more willing to back up?

I think a lot of the best boxers can fight off both feet at different times.
Click to expand...

I can't post the full fight here (copyright) but look at highlights of their last fight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp3twHjcZps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsuRh5EyyxA

I am sure both know how to switch and feint from both positions but you can't really doubt who fights from which leg more.
 
I am not talking about moving backwards or forwards. At approximately 0:15 of the pac highlight, you see how his front foot is flat on the floor while his rear heel is up. The opposite is true in whatever whole body shots the Mayweather highlights show.
 
Situations and fighters dictate what's going to work best. I train/work striking with a wrestler who's very front foot heavy. I gave up trying to shift his weight because we were working a few hours a week vs. his 20+ years of wrestling stance and instincts.

His striking is used defensively and to bait someone to overcommit to a punch so he can get in and under to secure the TD.

Once I backed off trying to fix his natural inclinations and started working with them, we've had a lot more success.
 
Pardon me, but isn't front foot vs backfoot is more about movement instead? It seemed to me "backfoot boxer" is often refers to guys that able to box while moving BACKWARD, while "frontfoot boxer" is refers to guys that box while moving FORWARD. Basically it talked about how aggressive/conservative they are. Under that logic, Pac is a front foot boxer (very aggressive) while Mayweather is a back foot boxer (very conservative)
 
I'd have to go with Nuke on this one. Rightly or wrongly, when I say "fighting on the back foot", I mean guys that are moving backwards, countering and circling out rather than actual stance.
 
I think your confusing front or back foot heavy stance, which denotes weight distribution regardless of movement. With the common use of the phrases like 'on the back foot', which assumes a 50-50 weight distribution is the norm at rest and that one can then imply backwards movement as the weight is on the back foot.

Either that or I'm way wrong!
 
diosdedestrucci said:
Hey king I would listen to sinster more then goat despite goat claiming the rear leg heavy doesnt have a built in defense. I learned that it does first hand after losing my first fight in a front foot stance .
Click to expand...

Well Sinister is 0-1 by KO in boxing... Does that then mean backfoot heavy doesn't have built-in defense? By your logic yes.

The problem with "this fighter uses this stance or technique and he wins" is it discounts all the other things, sometimes not easily discernible, that cause the competitor to win or lose and it's also a very simplistic way of analysis.

Another problem is you've chosen the wrong guy to be your guru, but that's beside the point.

:)

I'll exit this sub-forum again so you all can get back to your circle jerk.
 
Last edited:
Stance isn't static its contentious, but I start out back foot heavy .
 
The science is that with your weight favored over the rear hip, and head off line, your head is further away from your opponents weapons. The greater distance gives you more time to see, react and move. It's not really that complicated. Like he said it's a good place to start. Not to mention the front foot being the directional line, and the rear foot the engine. Try moving efficiently in any direction (other than backwards) with front heavy stance. Nothing exists in a vacuum, but I could send you a hundred videos of the superior position when it comes to striking for boxing or MMA. Also, Greg Jackson, Firas Zahabi, and others are great coaches without any competitive experience so to speak. Don't confuse the two. Coaching is coaching, and competing is competing. There are many factors that come into play.
 
Wow... Goat really doing his best to make this forum worse... I thought most people still here since 2005 were a bit more... useful.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,280,633
Messages
58,306,828
Members
175,999
Latest member
joshvegas

Share this page

Back
Top