Shadow Boxing Tips

[Motor City Cobra]

Am going to start doing it for a warmup for my punchbag routine tonight and was wondering if anyone could give me tips?

[cnote111]

Run a search in this forum - There have already been some great shadow boxing threads..

~Good Luck~

[Motor City Cobra]

Where is a search bar for me to put it in?

[frasd]

http://www.saddoboxing.com/boxingfor...dowboxing.html

Here's a good one by a very knowledgable poster.

[Kel]

Stay clear of advice from David Haye

[Chris Nagel]

Thanks frasd.

It can help to have a routine for when you shadowbox. Figure out what you're going to do beforehand. Perhaps you might want to work on your punches, or a particular movement (e.g. parries, blocks, slips, and feints). When going over your technique, it's a good idea to work in front of a mirror so that you see what you're doing, and then you can make corrections when you need to. Don't use the mirror exclusively, or your movements will become chained to it. Use the mirror for reference tool for when you need to see what you're doing.

I also recommend that you give yourself plenty of space to move around, and use it. Practice coordinating your hands and feet so that your punches are integrated into your footwork. Read more about coodinating your hands and feet here: http://www.saddoboxing.com/boxingfor...ands-feet.html If you're a beginner, this should be enough to keep you busy.

When you get a little better, you can include counterpunching into your work. Learn how defend against every punch and the counterpunch that follows. For instance you can catch/slip/parry a jab, and throw your own jab back. There are a good deal of threads dedicated to this sort of thing in the Useful/Important section of the board.

As an important piece of advice, when training for boxing whether you're shadowboxing or hitting the bags, always keep your opponent in mind. Don't you ever forget it. Shadowboxing should never be about putting in a few rounds of mindless busy-work as form of exercise or warming up. Yet there are a lot of people that move around without any sort of plan, go though the motions, stand in one spot, or admiring themselves in the mirror rather than using it.

You should always strive to engage your boxing brain when you're in the gym. You can think in terms of "my opponent is doing x, so I'm going to come back with y". When you have a real person infront of you,
you're going to have to evaluate what's happening, make instant decisions and then come up with a plan. Recommended reading:

I read once that good boxers play checkers, great ones play chess...
You are new to this, ive it time but never let your brain be inactive. Early on all those hands flying around can be a bit unsettling, as every time you get set to do something a glove bounces off your head and when you become aware of an opening it is gone before you can punch at it. When you get a lull you fire punches anywhere, not caring if they land but glad to have a chance to fire back. You can stay out of range and avoid his punches but you can't hit him either, and to go inside means getting hit, etc...
Practice is where it all begins and ends, doing the sae basic moves over and over until they are ingrained in your muscle memory, and at the same time you are training your mind. Start with shadow boxing, in front of a mirror. Imagine a real opponent throwing real punches, avoid them and counter them and do it full on like in the ring, with movement, bobbing weaving, punches slips and parries. You are not only able to see and correct your technical mistakes but you are teaching your boxing brain to evaluate and react to situations: " I want to stay outsidwe on his guy, use my jab, look to walk him into a right. He's looking to rop his right over my jab, if he can, burt he's really wanting to get close and work his left hook." Now you have an objective, an idea of traps along the way, and your opponent's goal and now you need to set to set taps for him, and so on.
This carries over o your bag work. If you just stand there and punch the heavy bag that's how you'll fight. You have to practice moving in and out, footwork, positioning yourself to land a paticular punch or combination, all the whil being aware of his intent o hit you. So you begin be slipping his jab, stepping in with a right under the heart, weave out wit a hook to the belly and straighten up to land a right hook over his left shoulder, and then you can step safley out of range or throw a hook, etc... The key thing is to always have a scenario in mind and to do it like its real.
Sparring as often as is possible is the most vital thing; spar daily, withany and everyone, just spar. At first you'll be dismayed at your inability to land a decent punch and at how often you get hit, but keep parring especially with people better tan you as you can learn by watching and cetainly by being on the defensiv for lengths of time against somebody that can throw combinations. Pretty soon you'll realize that half the hands in the air have nothing to do with you and can be ignored, and you won't have to think "catch this jab or parry it?", "block his hook or duck under?" because it will be second nature to you. It is now that you begin working on landing your punches, as you have no fear of moving into punching range as you can avoid or deflect or block the majority of punches. All the hours of envisioning couterpunches will pay off; you'll have trained your body to parry to the outside of the jab while hooking to the chin, for example.
Now you can really begin to strategize in the ring; hours in the mirror have taught you that a feint this way makes you look open for a right, so you can anticipate his reaction. Your bdy will be instinctively protecting itself and taking counterpunching opportunities, so your mind is free to think and to analyze.

For all my longwindedness, its just time and practice and training your mind like you train your body.

This applies for when you're hitting the bag as well. If you already have a routine for when you hit the bag, you can also practice it while you're shadowboxing. Therefore when you're working the bag, it'll come a lot easier since you've already practiced the movements.

Does this make sense?

[Chris Nagel]

Run a search in this forum - There have already been some great shadow boxing threads..

~Good Luck~

You can find "search" near the top of the forum, just under where it says "Welcome, Motor City Cobra". You can type in ThomasTabin, or greynotsoold under author to find some some top notch advice.