My workout partner/mentor at Muay Thai has been telling me the same thing every Saturday for the last few years: My timing is off. either I throw my strikes too early or too late. By the time I throw my strike, the guy has already moved. He's concluded that there is no way to teach how to correct this. He just notices the problem and there seems to be nothing we can do about it. He says my technique and conditioning are good, but it's just this one thing that's been holding me back from getting better all these years. Is there some drill or something I can do that specifically works on timing, besides sparring? I spar for a good 5-8 rounds 3-4 days a week. So I don't think sparring is the problem. I need something else outside of sparring to help.
I think any hand eye improvement technique might be worth a try. Google might have a ton of them. Also I think study people. Watch people spar and fight and you can get a bit of insite into predicting an opponents next move and act accordingly. People tend to be creatures of habit. Also certain groups or clubs tend to throw the same combos so maybe you can get some data to predict the next move. Dont know for sure on this but it seems worth a shot.
Skipping rope and do tricks while doing it. Also change the speed while doing it. Speed bag... again, change the tempo and pattern of your hands. DOUBE END BAG for sure! there's a million ways to play with this tool. You can work defense and countering on it as well. If you aren't hitting your opponents on time, I bet you'll have a hard time with the double end bag... but this device will help you a ton with timing! It forces you to focus and maneuver. For some reason MT people usually don't have these in the gym... it's definately a boxing thing, but those are the tools for developing timing. You can browse youtube to get an idea of different ways of using these too. Good luck!
Do sparring drills. I had this problem and drills helped it a lot. Say every time you spar and the guy throws X and you try to throw Y back and miss? Or hit with no power? Or land awkwardly? Ok well then do drills where your partner always throws X, then you immediately come back with Y. Then your coach watches and tells you what you're doing wrong.
