Tile exercise for Boxing:

[Sinister]

I've not asked a person if they have tiles in their house, and the answer been "no." So basically, this exercise can be done anywhere and everywhere that tiles exist (preferably the 10-12 inch floor tiles):



Now what you can't see is he's looking in a mirror. I'm sitting a little off to the side from his view of his feet so he can still see them. In the beginning it's easy to see he dips WAY too far forward, head coming exactly over the lead foot. That's not horrible, but it's not optimal, either. When he begins to use the hip alone and significantly less knee, it looks good.

Also note that this kid has a problem with internal rotation. It's very difficult for him to point his knees away from each other. So I'm working with him a lot on this. But how this movement translates to punching:



And:



Because straight punches require internal rotation, his right hand and right uppercut look very good. But before he learned how to do the tile exercise he'd always lean so hard to his left he'd be beyond his foot, and easily knocked off-balance. Now his head barely moves, and he can push his weight towards the front foot by using his hips. The stronger he gets with the exercises I've given him, the more definitive that will become. On the jab, he's making an effort to push those knees apart, to better load the rear hip for the right hand (and his right hand is already stupidly hard, this makes it worse). When paired with the basic movement provided by the tile exercise, you can see his head moves when he punches, but he's not leaning and his weight loads from foot to foot (he's trying to do the toe-taps, but not good at it yet so you can only subtly hear the weight shifts). What that translates to is offense and defense at the same time. Another thing to note is how level his shoulder stay. Because of the slight knee bends, drops in elevation, two things happen: 1) He drops out of the opponent's direct line of sight, 2) his shoulders raise on their own to protect his face without him needing to lift the shoulder WITHIN the joint. In other words he's not going to be in any danger of hyper-extension, or future rotator cuff problems.

Here's the updated video of corrections to be made. Sorry for the lack of volume, make sure those speakers are turned up!

 

[Thatactionbrah]

This is amazing drill. I've been practicing it on my own because my coach doesn't really teach stuff like this.

Sinister, the way you teach slightly moving the head when punching is a pretty cool idea.

I didn't understand why the guy in the video was moving his head like that on the jab, but thanks for the explanation in this video

https://youtu.be/-UO4cweoeiU?t=3m22s

Man I wish I could fly out to Vegas to train under you. You seem like a no nonsense coach who has a gold mine of boxing technique knowledge.

 

[barnowl]

At first I did not see how the drill was helping the jab as it looked like he was shifting to much on to the front toe and over rocking backwards. After looking at it again I can see the hip shift you were building. Is the "cat stanceish" form on his jab a side effect of working on his external knee rotation?

 

[Sinister]

Wish? Make it happen!

 

[Sinister]

It's not a side-effect, it's a slight exaggeration he has to make to get the feel of how his knees should move. Once he gets that down, he won't need the cat step so much, although plenty of elder fighters used the cat step quite a bit because it flows nicely into a cross and allows for a "rolling" of the feet into the punch, which is an advanced technique.

I should note that the tile exercise is a little backwards. When he pulls back, that's the jab, when he shifts to his left, that's the motion for the cross. And he definitely was over-rotating at first, hence my corrections. Once his flexor and stabilizer muscles got a little loose, the motions became smaller and more correct.

 

[Thatactionbrah]

I'm working on it currently. This is the only time in my life I'll be able to train 2 months free without having to worry about work or anything. I'd like to take advantage of it and get the best boxing training possible to start off boxing on the right foot

 

[Lifer]

Cool. Gonna try this out tonight.

 

[barnowl]

This is amazing drill. I've been practicing it on my own because my coach doesn't really teach stuff like this.

Sinister, the way you teach slightly moving the head when punching is a pretty cool idea.

I didn't understand why the guy in the video was moving his head like that on the jab, but thanks for the explanation in this video

https://youtu.be/-UO4cweoeiU?t=3m22s

Man I wish I could fly out to Vegas to train under you. You seem like a no nonsense coach who has a gold mine of boxing technique knowledge.

Your not kidding. It has become a staple for me teaching the college boxing club. Cleans up the jab and cross range, motion and body mechanics better than anything else I have seen. You can even see which of the kids actually practice it on there own when they are in the ring.

Sinster, have you got something like this for hooks and uppers? *shamelessly stealing from the best*

 

[SummerStriker]

The guy who is shadowboxing, the way he is squatting each time he throws a punch - is that what people mean when they say, "sitting into a punch?"

 

[Sinister]

All of the punches can be thrown mechanically and correctly within this drill. The different videos throughout the thread show so.

 

[Sinister]

Yup.

 

[Was Exiled]

Wish? Make it happen!

Something I've really want to do, any ideas what Arni did for acommodation there?

 

[SummerStriker]

Yup.

Thanks. I wondered for a while what you guys were talking about. I figured it would pop up obviously soon enough.

My first Kempo instructor taught us to do that years ago.

 

[Sinister]

Arni came with Dadi and 6 other Vikings, they all stayed together at an extended-stay place. The way things are now, though, I can usually hook people up with a place to stay for cheaper, and nicer accommodations.

 

[Discipulus]

That's excellent, thanks for posting.

How do you recommend you incorporate this drill? As in, should I do this for time, a couple of rounds, and then shadowbox, maybe taping to see if it makes a difference?

I've been doing this with my students in swim lessons recently, and it works well in that context. You do the drill which exaggerates the proper motion, and then you free swim, and your coach (me) looks for improvement. Seems like a similar structure might be good for boxing?

 

[Sinister]

That's excellent, thanks for posting.

How do you recommend you incorporate this drill? As in, should I do this for time, a couple of rounds, and then shadowbox, maybe taping to see if it makes a difference?

I've been doing this with my students in swim lessons recently, and it works well in that context. You do the drill which exaggerates the proper motion, and then you free swim, and your coach (me) looks for improvement. Seems like a similar structure might be good for boxing?

A round or two should be fine. I usually go from something like this right to shadowboxing, that would be the "free swim."

 

[Discipulus]

Awesome. Thanks again for posting this. Very helpful indeed for my persistent leaning problem.

 

[Sinister]

Wanna see what this looks like in a Professional context? Nacho Beristain is heralded for his forging of guys like Finito Lopez, and Juan Manuel Marquez. Both of whom I felt their ONLY flaw is their tendency to bait by being front-foot heavy, and relative ineffectiveness going forward as opposed to backwards, but that's a harsh criticism being as even when going forward, only guys like Chris John and Floyd Mayweather Jr. could beat Marquez (Pac beat him, but NOT by making him lead).

Watch how Marquez uses these same subtle hip movements to lull his opponent into a false sense of security:



And then BLAMMO.

It's all about positioning kids.

 

[SAAMAG]

The hip movement is a (seemingly) taller version of something I do to teach the positioning for the 2-3 / 3-2.

Can you elaborate though, on the last vid--how do you feel the opponent was "lulled into a false sense of security"?

Because I generally look at how the hips/shoulders align relative to my centerline to determine the potential danger I'm in, I'm trying to make sense of how the opponent was "tricked".

Could it be that that the opponent was so used to guys shifting TOO MUCH for the straight right that made him think with Marquez's hips being bladed he'd be in no danger coming straight in (when in reality the short torque the hip allowed Marq' to drive power right from where he stood?)

 

[Sinister]

Jaja! You answered your own question.

It's VERY subtle, because a few moments before that Marquez went for the right and didn't get it. He also used the hip-movements JUST defensively. The opponent became content to attack, figuring all he had to do was find out where JMM was, if you watch, he completely negated his own positioning and was front-foot heavy himself. The really great Mexican technicians knew how to use that slight forward bend as bait. Erik Morales built most of his career on THAT move. The thing about Marquez is when he does this, his weight is ON the back foot. So when he throws a short right-hand from that slight pull-back position, BLAMMO.

 

[SAAMAG]

Just wanted to make sure the thinking was right. For me, being that its an open stance configuration...I'd be looking more on where hit hips and shoulders would be, and make sure I'm not on that line on my entry. Either that, or kick the guy in the balls first before coming in with punches.

 

[Sinister]

That'd be the smart way to fight Marquez. He's such an interesting fighter that way. He and Finito shared the same problem. They go onto that front foot, they get in trouble. But both of them are guys who are much better with external rotation than internal, and yet both managed to have very good right hands. It occurred to me that it was the distance their heads traveled. However, they were SO efficient at fighting as an overall package that it was such a minute detail in the grand scheme of things. Both of them had been dropped in their careers when on the front foot due to leaning in too far.

However, MOST of their opponents made the same mistake. Going towards them. Once they rocked back even just a little, they were wizards at beating the piss out of you while barely getting touched in return.

Proof:

This is when Lopez was dropped and arguably beaten by Bufalo Alvarez:



Now note in the HL video how much he leaned when he went forward, vs how easily things were when the opponent came to him, or just stood there and let him get position:

 

[NeverMind]

Now I see why B-Hop has been able to land that right hand so consistently, even on younger and faster guys. It's kind of ironic to see how much Marquez can drift over that lead foot at times, considering that a big part of his game is making guys pay for doing that. I've kind of realised now that I have been doing head movement with punches all wrong and I've been leaning too much to get my head out of the way, as opposed to allowing my head to move as a function of properly transferring weight between hips on the punch. Mind blowing stuff really. Goes to show that boxing really is a whole lot more detailed and exact than what it is perceived to be nowadays.

 

[Discipulus]

Now I see why B-Hop has been able to land that right hand so consistently, even on younger and faster guys. It's kind of ironic to see how much Marquez can drift over that lead foot at times, considering that a big part of his game is making guys pay for doing that. I've kind of realised now that I have been doing head movement with punches all wrong and I've been leaning too much to get my head out of the way, as opposed to allowing my head to move as a function of properly transferring weight between hips on the punch. Mind blowing stuff really. Goes to show that boxing really is a whole lot more detailed and exact than what it is perceived to be nowadays.

Nice post. Real revelations are few and far between. Cherish this moment!

 

[NeverMind]

Also Sinister, do you have any other shining examples of effective front-foot baiting?

 

[Sinister]

Two words:

Erik Morales.

 

[TheStrikingGuy]

Love it Sinister.