Why Can Some of the Best Strikers Get Away With Their Chin in the Air?

well, in my opinion, there are times to cover up, and times to keep up, look at muhammad ali, when he is using footwok to control his range , his head is fairly upright, but when tyson is moving in to deliver a punch, his guard is up tight
 
If you are going to have your chin in the air you better be excellent at these three things: Head movement, moving off at angles, maintaining your striking range while negating your opponents striking range. It also helps to be a lot faster than your opponent and to have good range strikes such as a great jab and front kick.
 
Some people would argue that a tall, lanky style of leaning back will better protect your head from striking.

Boxing, and "hands up chin down" is relying on the gloves. Realistically, with bare hands or MMA gloves a tucked chin and hands up isn't enough. This is why you see more people "answering the phone" and using their entire arm / elbow / forearm to protect their head.

This TMA / European Kickboxing / Thai style would suggest that keeping your head out of range will prevent the strikes in the first place.

Obviously if you are going to wade in and throw an overhand right, hands up chin down. But with a jab hand outstretched, circling, using lots of footwork ... you can see why leaning back might lend to this style.

(FYI I'm not endorsing one style or the other, I use a mix of both and keep my lead hand stretched out with my chin tucked and right hand beside it)
 
It works because both of those fighters have excellent Footwork, like Anderson Silva.

To get inside you really shouldn't be eating punches. Cover their lead hand, or move your head as they jab, and step in.
MushroomWizard said:
Boxing, and "hands up chin down" is relying on the gloves. Realistically, with bare hands or MMA gloves a tucked chin and hands up isn't enough. This is why you see more people "answering the phone" and using their entire arm / elbow / forearm to protect their head.
Click to expand...
Tucked chin is pretty ideal in general because it pre-emptively braces the muscles of your neck to reduce the impact of the blow if you get clipped. I almost never use the gloves to defend but I always dip my chin. Usually chin-tucked = guy focuses on head movement, whereas a more upright fighter focuses on using feet as defense, but I try to combine the two. On the other hand (pun not intended), "hands up" is NEVER enough because gloves really aren't meant to block punches, but rather, protect the hands. Of course it works in situations where you use boxing gloves, etc. but it's a bad habit to get into because it freezes you bolt-upright in front of them and makes it harder to counter, which footwork/head movement doesn't, and in fact makes it easier to do so.

People will say, "if your hands are up a punch that lands will be softened!" and while that is true, if one was moving the head or using the feet correctly, it never would have landed in the first place. Like, why do I need to block a punch that I could've evaded by simply ending my combination with angling footwork (1-2-step out-pivot), etc...?

Basically a lot of fighters just try to get by with illegitimate modes of defense because they aren't taught or trained any better. Stefan Struve is a good example, he only tries to cover up and it never helps because he always gets lit the fuck up even in fights that he wins, and Mark Hunt regularly hooked around his gloves every time he covered.

But, I do like to hold the phone while throwing low kicks and hooks for sure, because it provides the threat of a hand destruction + allows one to cover their chin, temple AND back of the ear while striking.
 
Last edited:
NHB7 said:
If you are going to have your chin in the air you better be excellent at these three things: Head movement, moving off at angles, maintaining your striking range while negating your opponents striking range. It also helps to be a lot faster than your opponent and to have good range strikes such as a great jab and front kick.
Click to expand...

Oh, so you only need the three things that work as real, actual, defense, as opposed to the absolutely retarded, idiotic, idea that having your hands up and chin down is any sort of true defense against strikes, particularly with MMA gloves? Fascinating.
 
Castro Alves said:
Oh, so you only need the three things that work as real, actual, defense, as opposed to the absolutely retarded, idiotic, idea that having your hands up and chin down is any sort of true defense against strikes, particularly with MMA gloves? Fascinating.
Click to expand...
You would be surprised how common this rhetoric actually is amongst gyms. Most cornermen on regional shows will do absolutely nothing beyond yell "HANDS UP!" after the slightest provocation, as if blocking strikes is in any way more viable than actually....... evading them. It's really quite concerning.

Myself, I like to keep the rear hand high for parries or hand-fighting.. I usually jab from the waist though lol.
 
I always wondered this myself. I thought maybe their just willing to take the punch and dont care. Chuck had me for a while till rampage and evans came around
 
Naww man all you have to do is to tuck your chin and put your arms up. If you do that nobody can knock you out.
 
JustinvR said:
Naww man all you have to do is to tuck your chin and put your arms up. If you do that nobody can knock you out.
Click to expand...
Yep! My frontkick defense improved exponentially after I started posting my forearms to my temples. Watched some Overeem tape to study the technique, you know.
 
Dude it's called head movement, you know? The shit almost every half decent striker uses to an extent. You wouldn't eat shots coming in if you know how to move your head. You strike but have no indication about head movement, nice.
 
SlicerDM said:
You wouldn't eat shots coming in if you know how to move your head. You strike but have no indication about head movement, nice.
Click to expand...
Tell that to Cain Velasquez, who gets caught on the way in during pretty much every fight, and was even almost knocked out by a counter left hook at the very beginning of the first round of his third fight with JDS.

AliveJoyousKoala.gif
 
Post Crisis said:
Sure, but if his chIn was down, his temple would have been protected behind his arm.
Click to expand...

Not really. Your head would have to be facing the floor for that to be possible. which is as bad as if not worse than keeping your chin up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,236,975
Messages
55,458,307
Members
174,787
Latest member
Freddie556

Share this page

Back
Top