I have been taught to keep the toes of the rear foot facing forewards in the same direction as my front foot. To prove the strength advantage of this my coach will get me to assume both stances and push me from the front. I do believe it allows you to 'push' back more effectively especially when you are under pressure and perhaps at a strength disadvantage.

However I was watching a pro boxing fight last night - Solis vs Ortega where it was stopped in the eighth round - and I noticed both fighters had their rear foot facing waaaay out - at a right angle to the direction their left foot was facing.

Ortega (not sure of the spelling sorry) was beaten obviously and did not fight aggressively while moving backwards possibly because of this. Still I think there must be a reason some fighters competing at a high level fight this way. What would be the advantage? Would they have a large range of hip rotation to get power into their attack perhaps?

Maybe someone out there could enlighten me on the up side of facing the rear foot out? Would it be possible to choose which way you stood with your rear foot to best suit your situation perhaps?

i was told it was sposed to be turned about 45degrees, but it often naturally turns 90 degrees most of the time i think

who told u to face ur back foot forwards like ur front foot? if u do that u become more square and so easier to be hit

Walk about 4 steps last step left foot forward, lift heels of floor turn left shoulder in turn feet with shoulder, simple.

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So having the back foot parallel to the front is another thing particular to my gym that's not commonly practiced elsewhere?

And most people do find the slightly weaker foreward 'pushing power' my coach can demonstrate from having the foot out-turned is a fair trade off for making yourself a narrow target?

This really suprises me because an out-turned rear foot is my coach's pet hate!

stand how YOU feel comfortable. but as scrap said, a leftward orientation is key. again, the degree to which is how YOU feel comfy.

Sharla, how can you circle left whilst standing with both your feet facing forward?

I'm not sure it makes much difference assuming I take my left foot off the ground, pivot to let my foot go out a bit a little as I push sideways with my right, land with my left foot in it's new position and then follow with the right. I can see if my right was pointed in to the left more it'd be hard.

Perhaps I also naturally let it pivot out without meaning to often since my coach often reprimands me for letting that happen. Circling left is not something I guess I practice often as we only have one southpaw in our gym and I don't spar him more than once a month or so.

Do you see it being a lot easier with your right foot pointing out initially rather than pivoting as you are moving?

Its all to do with the Biomechanics of the big toe and Achilles as Ive mentioned before.

sharla, watch fighters like bernard hopkins or floyd mayweather (2 of the best pound for pound fighters in recent memory i should add) and notice how they effortessly can circle left. notice that they arent standig facing foward as your coach instructs. by standing so squared up you movement gets comprimised. If you get the chance to, try and ask him why a fighter like bernard hopkins (who essentially stands sideways) is such an incredible boxer and why he thinks his method of boxing is superior to bernard's. I hope i'm not stirring up trouble by saying this but its best that you gets all that information, and you wont get it by blindly following everything your trainer says. trainers tend to be pretty egotistical when it comes to thing like teching boxing (if you even hint at the possibility that they might be wrong they get all huffy and take it as an insult to their worth as a teacher)

You are right. I do think that boxers who are so successful have to know their stuff. I'm glad I found this forum since it does give me a chance to ask questions which might be taken as being disrespectful in the gym. I appreciate how patient everyone is being in answering them!

As for the knee pain thing I have a dickie knee at the moment so that hits a nerve! Also a young kid in my gym is suffering a bit at the moment. I hope parallel feet are not the cause because while I don't mind forming my own opinions for myself I don't consider myself experienced enough to go against my trainers coaching other people.