Thread: The jab -- technically perfecting it (Help please)

Are there technical details that can improve the jab significantly past what is commonly taught to beginners?

I wish to technically perfect my jab. It seems such a simple thing but most seem to agree it is the most important of all punches and my coach is adamant about "making him fear your jab".

Ok, so feel free to correct me or even think I am silly for going to this level of detail:

[I am 57, not ever going to be a competition boxer but I want to do this right. I am fairly strong, 5'10/198, 2 months into regular boxing training, 2-6 times per week, with a background in Systema which means hitting hard through hitting correctly and using good posture/form.]

It makes sense that technical perfection is important for a boxer IN ADDITION to building up the muscles and nervous system (control) since at any particular weight class there is an upper limit on how much muscle you can carry. Everyone can work to improve strength, but optimizing technique requires little extra burden to use what strength we have most efficiently and effectively.

What I (think that I) know about a jab:

1. Comes straight out with arm as relaxed as possible
2. Hand turns to horizontal at end as contact is made
3. Snaps back to guard immediately

What I suspect might be true:

1. Coach was correcting me on starting to turn my hand too soon (not just at the end) and I got to thinking about "How specifically to turn the hand?" and noticed there are two ways: 1) At the forearm using the radius to twist the wrist over, or 2) at the SHOULDER to twist the entire arm rotating the (point of the) elbow to horizontal.
   I think the latter -- turn the whole arm -- is correct and that this is easier to time and easier to allow the arm to go out relaxed.
   The elbow is almost fully extended when the elbow starts to go straight and you just this to signal the hand twist at the end.
   This also means that the alignment of hand (bones) with radius and ulna should be better than having them twisted around each other.
2. Turning the whole arm seems to make my arm about 1/2 - 1 inch longer so this means that I get to hit a little deeper but also that the muscle power used to turn the arm is actually driving the hand forward if I save it for right at the end like this -- using additional muscles to extend the hand as contact is made means more power to the punch -- and these seem to be the rear delt head and rotators which are otherwise not getting to do much of value in a straight punch.
3. Rotating the whole arm (from the shoulder) like this seems to be more naturally combined with a slight extension of the shoulder using the pectoralis and with a slight twist of the waist to get more extension -- and again, this gets more muscles into the punch and these are big muscles so they have a lot of power to add.
   Notice that this can be done without the arm rotation too but it feels more natural (to me) with that type of rotation AND it seems this LATE rotation makes a good physiological signal for timing the shoulder extension and the slight twist. These two movements are going to be pretty small so it is important to save them for the moment of impact to add max power.
4. With the point of the elbow pointed outward the fastest way to retract the arm seems to be:
   Allow the hand to rebound slightly (just an inch or two) using the biceps to get a very small bend at the elbow and then drop/PULL that elbow down HARD -- the hand can be ignored at this point as the (almost violent) downward pull with lats and pects will yank the hand back like mouse trap springing while keeping the arm mostly relaxed.
   Again, using big muscles AND GRAVITY to get something done should be both faster and less tiring.
5. [Not very confident about this one] A small (less than an inch) gravity drop on the front knee while keeping the torso vertical (no leaning) will let the front hip twist slightly forward thus putting a little hip and weight into the jab.
   [Also, I haven't practiced this one enough to even have an opinion yet.]

Am I on to something here or just fooling myself?

I wanted to ask these questions over the week-end when I worked through this, but decided to wait until I went to the gym and tried it.

My first impression is that it makes a difference. Both the method of turning the arm, the way it allows the shoulder and body into the jab, and (most surprisingly) the speed and easy of getting the hand back to guard almost without effort.

I am going to concentrate on perfecting this sequence for the next couple of weeks, but really would like to hear any additional improvements, alternatives, or why this is not a good idea if I am headed down a bad path...

[Coach is on vacation...so I will also ask him when he returns.]

BTW if any of this is valuable, some of this applies to the straight right as well, but right now I am focused on getting everything out of my jab that is feasible.

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HerbM