Thread: The Safe Left Hook

with the left hook you take a risk almost every time. you see your opponent can slide a nifty right hand on you as you throw it and in that very motion slip your left hook completely. most often the left hook is thrown as a counter to the jab after a slip to the left. that slip to the left is *always* trouble. you are never safe when you square up like that. for one you put your face in the line of your opponent's right and, not only that, but also your solar plexus. and so to use that slip -- > left hook you must realize the inherent risk involved that may knock you and your ego into the 3rd row.

the way around this is to remove the risk of that right hand which dangles over you whenever you attempt the above mentioned move like the sword of damocles. heres how to do it:

the move you wish to throw is the slip jab--> left hook

when your opponent throws a jab at you, you are faced with 3 main options.

1. slip the jab to my left and throw a left hook

2. slip the jab to my right and come back with a right hand

3. counter the jab with my own jab


for reasons i shall come to later, to set up the left hook you must opt for the third choice: the counter jab.


now that you are throwing a counter jab youre opponent has 3 main options to choose from. he can:

a. slip the counter jab to the right and throw a right hand

b. slip the counter jab left and throw a left hook

or...

c. put his parry hand/right hand in front of his face to simply block your counterjab


to be sure every one of those possible choices that your opponent may choose from has their own unique consequences that you may exploit but in practice (at least from my experience) he will very rarley opt to choose anything but the simple block with his right hand.

the main idea for even doing all of this is that you want to make him predict that you are going to throw a counterjab in resp to his jab which automatically forces him to place his right glove in front of his face before you throw anything as a result. so by showing him only counterjabs i set him to think as a default: "hey, this here bum just wants to throw that counterjab, well i better do something about that so it wont hit me"

now that i have him thinking that a fixed non-changing event is about to happen to him when he throws his intial jab he will by default before anything even happens, designate that right hand to be placed on the front of the face for blocking. so this by way of mutual exclusivity means that he isnt going to throw a right hand he is only gonna block with it.


now that ive transformed his right hand from a possible counterpunch into a simple block the stage is set for me to finally slip his initial jab and pop that left hook free without worry.

i learned this move from watching ezzard charles

hmmmm.......

yo thats brilliant, thanks
but i'm too short to counter jab
any suggestions there?

Orthodox

Jab, step in with the right, left hook, pivot on left foot.

Make sure you keep the right hand high. Don't over stretch.