Cuban Boxing Fundamentals

Daskalo Jacob is an amazing coach and one of the best boxing channels on youtube IMO.

I don't know what it is, but something about his drills feels really old school. I love it, I've immediately put it to work.
 
I don't know what it is, but something about his drills feels really old school. I love it, I've immediately put it to work.

yeah dude, theres so much nonsense of people on youtube trying to coach when they really dont know wtf they are talking about. Daskalo knows his stuff for sure.
 
Goddamn, Daskalo's videos are amazing. His hook tutorial is great.

Speaking of:



I see he favours a palm down hook. I particularly like what he says about learning to punch without the glove first - I do very light bare knuckle bag rounds quite often and have found it really helped me to actually learn to form a proper fist and land correctly.
 
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Those side-steps are very very Eastern-Bloc in execution. Cuban versions are just a little different. My versions are also a touch different due to the American lineage. You can spot some of my methods against the Eastern Bloc system from when Joseph sparred Akhmadaliev. In a nutshell we use tighter steps and involve the hips and shoulders more, which allowed Joseph bebtter distance control WHILE trying to get angels. This gave him general control back after the knockdown and the first round where he was trying to box at the opponent's optimal range:

 
Those side-steps are very very Eastern-Bloc in execution. Cuban versions are just a little different. My versions are also a touch different due to the American lineage. You can spot some of my methods against the Eastern Bloc system from when Joseph sparred Akhmadaliev. In a nutshell we use tighter steps and involve the hips and shoulders more, which allowed Joseph bebtter distance control WHILE trying to get angels. This gave him general control back after the knockdown and the first round where he was trying to box at the opponent's optimal range:



The Eastern Bloc method seems a like they're stepping WAY out. It's interesting because as a southpaw I only recently became properly aware of good side steps because I always relied on an outside pivot.

So your style is a bit smaller and and subtler right?

If you're to generalise how does the generic American style compare to the cuban style and your style?

- the British method based on what I can find
 
Speaking of:



I see he favours a palm down hook. I particularly like what he says about learning to punch without the glove first - I do very light bare knuckle bag rounds quite often and have found it really helped me to actually learn to form a proper fist and land correctly.


I have noticed the majority of thais seem to hook palm down. I know Duane Ludwig has his guys throwing palm down as well.
 
The Eastern Bloc method seems a like they're stepping WAY out. It's interesting because as a southpaw I only recently became properly aware of good side steps because I always relied on an outside pivot.

So your style is a bit smaller and and subtler right?

If you're to generalise how does the generic American style compare to the cuban style and your style?

- the British method based on what I can find


Well, the Eastern Bloc fighters are ALWAYS seeking their optimal distance. That's what I noticed about Murodjon in the first round. If Joseph stayed at HIS desired distance, he would have gotten hammered. But watch close, he doesn't function well anywhere else. So you'll hear me tell Joseph "in and around" ...close the distance, turn tight. Murodjon wasn't inept, I mean he was #3 Amateur in the World at the time. So he'd try to counter, which is where the hip and shoulder dips came in and put him totally off-balance.

But right this second the general American style lacks both uniformity and sophistication. We're still under the impression we can out-hustle or out-tough everyone. But the jig is up on that. We can't solely rely on the speed and athleticism of black fighters and the toughness of Mexican-American fighters anymore. We have to take what the consistently medaling Countries do and improve it.
 
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Well, the Eastern Bloc fighters are ALWAYS seeking their optimal distance. That's what I noticed about Murodjon in the first round. If Joseph stayed at HIS desired distance, he would have gotten hammered. But watch close, he doesn't function well anywhere else. So you'll hear me tell Joseph "in and around" ...close the distance, turn tight. Murodjon wasn't inept, I mean he was #3 Amateur in the World at the time. So he'd try to counter, which is where the hip and shoulder dips came in and put him totally off-balance.

But right this second the general American style lacks both uniformity and sophistication. We're still under the impression we can out-hustle or out-tough everyone. But the jig is up on that. We can't solely rely on the speed and athleticism of black fighters and the toughness of Mexican-American fighters anymore. We have to take what the consistently medaling Countries do and improve it.

This is interesting - but I also mispoke, I meant in how americans generally side step vs cubans and eastern bloc guys, because I'm not 100% clear on it - I can see the difference but I can't properly understand it if you get me.

On what you're saying about the lack of uniformity, I feel similarly about British fighters, I feel like the culture of working class britain which produces all of our best boxers, seem to give us power punches and tough aggressive fighters but it's not very often we have a smooth, technical slick fighter. I find something very ugly in how the British boxing style goes.
 
I can only remark about how I teach side-stepping, but I have seen trainers forgive things like crossing of the feet, not facing the opponent's center line, etc. Just for sale of scoring. This is not enough. What I'd like to see is more of this...watch what happens. Coe is an excellent fighter and I don't even know who taught him yet:

 
I can only remark about how I teach side-stepping, but I have seen trainers forgive things like crossing of the feet, not facing the opponent's center line, etc. Just for sale of scoring. This is not enough. What I'd like to see is more of this...watch what happens. Coe is an excellent fighter and I don't even know who taught him yet:



for crossing the feet, I was of course always taught to never do that, however when I went to RJJ gym, he taught me a footwork boxing evasion move, of crossing the feet. Do you know what Im talking about?
 
I don't know the specific move, but Arthur Williams trains fighters at our gym and he's very forgiving of crossing the feet. He was taught by Roy Jones Sr.
 
I don't know the specific move, but Arthur Williams trains fighters at our gym and he's very forgiving of crossing the feet. He was taught by Roy Jones Sr.

its kinda like a ring circling technique, when he first said cross your feet I was like wtf! Now that I have learned it, I think it would be possible to use outside of boxing, as long as your at a safe distance. Tell me what you think of this. worth mentioning those were my first pair of boxing shoes, first time training in them, i got them too big, and I felt clumsy in them. Exchanged them for a smaller pair after that day.

 
I can only remark about how I teach side-stepping, but I have seen trainers forgive things like crossing of the feet, not facing the opponent's center line, etc. Just for sale of scoring. This is not enough. What I'd like to see is more of this...watch what happens. Coe is an excellent fighter and I don't even know who taught him yet:



Video unavailable :(
 
He did, but he was goaded into that game by Coe. He was being out-positioned and got offended about it.

Here's another one:



Whoever trains Coe is doing a great job. Either that or he's one of the most gifted fighters with gauging distance I've ever seen. There's another really good U.S. Amateur coming up, Austin Williams:



Daijon fought Austin over a year ago in Houston and dropped a split decision to him. Austin knocked out the next two guys in the tournament. What sucks is Daijon only trained for that for a week because he didn't think he was going to get to go. I wasn't with him, but I did meet Austin 2 weeks ago at the Roy Jones tournament here and he asked me about Daijon. Austin's trainer was a bit of a prick though, they were supposed to come to our gym to spar but canceled at the absolute last second.
 
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