Push and Pull in Boxing

Push and pull techniques and principles are abundant in many martial art disciplines. Although not associated with boxing, it's there nonetheless as some boxers have come to realize its usefulness in different situations. Contained in this post are some examples of push and pull in boxing.

David Tua:
“I want to mess with their biomechanics as much as possible. In close I’ll press against my opponent, and get them to resist a bit. Then I’ll nudge them slightly with my shoulder. I use their forward momentum which is the natural body reaction to fighting the pressure, I call it recoil. I catch them moving in on the recoil from the slight shoulder nudge, and toss the ole left hook out there and see what happens.”

Fred Welsh’s Modern Scientific Boxing:
“I often mislead an opponent by placing my left hand on one of his shoulders, or sometimes upon his forehead, and pressing against him. Invariably he resists this pressure as he can against it, perhaps to convince me of his strength. This is just what I want, for not only is he partly off his guard, but when I quickly release the pressure and strike with my right, he plunges with full force into the blow. This little stunt nearly always works.

It is the same with pulling, for if I cannot get my hand on his shoulder or head, sometimes I hook my left wrist in his and start to pull. Immediately he forgets about boxing and commences to pull hard against me, so that while his left arm is locked in pulling against mine, I can usually shoot a right uppercut under it to the face or a cordial and well meant right hook over in to his face.”

Knowledge of this can also be applied to freeing an arm that has been tied up by an opponent (see fig. 1).


Let’s suppose that your opponent has your arm in a clinch and you're trying to free it from their grasp. Push forward against your opponent, giving him a strong quick nudge with your shoulder. Then start pulling your arm in a screw-like motion at the moment that he is off balanced, thereby freeing your arm.

If they do Hold, put your knee under there Bollocks. Then step back and with your front knee Hit his knee with yours on the Ligament He wont Hold again.

cool post

lol basic wrestling. simple grappling is too underlooked in the boxing world and im pretty fucking glad you brought it up. being that it is essentially the anti-boxing art. No crowd wants to see guys in the boxing ring headlocking or in an over under tie up. So naturally trainers wont even THINK to teach their fighters the so called poppycock that is wrestling. Am i right Scrap? Trainer Monkey? I havent been to many gyms but thats my assumption.

but now you brought up the subject. i've got questions. Whats the extent of grappling can you do in the amateurs or pros before the Refs they break you? Say, would they allow hitting with the free arm if one was trapped?

Or is it legal to overhook a guys arm and spin him into a corner and then release the hold and punch him? Like how a wrestler or judoka clinches and starts circling his guy off balance? Or kinda like how a pro wrestler swings the other wrestler into the ropes?

I do alot of this in sparring and noone corrects me. So itd be a big help if you could tell me the legalities Chris. Reason being, i believe its an invaluable tool in the ring. So much, that i feel i could turn it into more of a polished art form than what it is right now. If only i knew how far i could go in a clinch before the ref breaks it. or calls it illegal lol.

as you can probablly tell, im a wrestler turned puncher. And i've noticed how effective the subtle things i've learned in wrestling are against a boxer. Such a thing as simple as hooking their arm above their their elbow and under their tricep to neutralize their arm completely. (The guy clinching in the demonstration picture has it all wrong lol) Or basic things such as using circle steps to spin them off balance (a boxer off balance is a dead one). In a way wrestling and boxing are complete opposites. but they also fit each other rightly. hope you get where im coming from.

Southpawed, you are right in what you say. There are things I wouldnt put on here, done properly are a bit naughty and can be very Harmfull if done. We dont want that, its Bad technique if the Base is good there shouldnt be to many problems. But it gets explained in passing

Chris this stuff combined with 'the turn around' we spoke about on the other thread is a real winner too. You push them back off you (when they are leaning in banging away trying to choke you out on the ropes or in a corner) ..right on the end of one of their blows when its safe to move ,so that your push follows their arm back in to them, They react bodily by leaning further cause they have the mind to keep you pinned to the ropes or in the corner. As they lean more against your push you do the turn around move by circling around their neck with your wrist and stepping around them and helping them into the position you were just in.
Right there you got so many openings if your already set in your stance before they are, you got em comming back out of their first reaction like a head on that you set up right from the start.




Oh; Also pushing one of their missed shots lightly from the outside of their elbow as it goes past your head so it gets a reaction and you land on them up the spaces they have created on their reverse reaction to your little push is a great thing to know and combine sometimes too.

They will always force back against even your lightest of shoves if they are caught extended.
If you train to be able to maintain slight contact (your glove to their arm) as it goes past, light shove, then release on their reaction to it;
(you're in)

As they come back and you adjust legs and your body and you come around square and go up behind where their arm just was, with your free rear arm cause you've come back in square.
You follow their reaction as they turn back into you;Your rear arm is following your body movment and you land it up through the space they have just vacated their lead arm from: that is incomprensable to most fighters that you could do that and be in the slot all ready for them. Then you really jump on them cause their mind is off the normal pattern for that sec or two following.

That whole move is set up by removing your front foot back which removes your head slightly from their path and gliding their jab or stright cross past your head with your opposite arm,helping it go past from the outside of their arm.

Gee its quite hard to put what you can show in a few seconds in to words and stay real clear about it!