Cheating Yourself In The Ring

A bit belated but I've only recently watched the undercard fight from Toney/Peter- Aiken and Guerrerro (did I spell that correctly?). I have a few thoughts on what I saw in that fight...Willie Pep may be 75 and suffering from Alzheimer's but he should make a comeback, and if Sandy Saddler is still alive seeing that "fight" for a world title probably killed him. Suffice it to say I wasn't impressed and here is why.
Both of them were nothing but arm punchers- G's low blows being the exception- and neither of them made a deliberate attempt to avoid a punch in the entire fight. There are two factors that contributed to both of these shortcomings:
1) The fight was mostly up close, yet they both had their feet miles apart. Look, to hit hard you MUST transfer your body weight from one foot to the other, and that must be done ahead of your fist coming through. If the person your are punching is 12" away and your feet are 36" apart, there is no possible way that you are hitting him forcefully, with snap and concussive force on your blow. At best you are pushing him pretty hard and the only way to hurt somebody with a push is if he falls down and lands on something sharp and/or pointy. Keep your feet under your shoulders and you'll be much better off.
2) Don't square up, especially up close. That makes you a target, especially for uppercuts. Turn that left shoulder inside and it will, in essence, take his right hand out of the equation. Also you'll punch better. That "square up to hit harder with either hand" is a myth invented by D'Amato to cover the fact that he, at the base of it, knew little about boxing as a science. By turning the left shoulder in you give yourself a full body twist on the right and, as a result, a full body turn back with the left hook. Squaring up offers, at best, a half turn from either side.
Those are my theories.

Really great posting Grey!

Now I know what my trainers means with putting myself out of order when i clinch! I do the same thing. I like being up close and fight instead of keeping distance. When i got someone against the ropes, i can give blows for a long time (stamina is fine). But....Not only do they not impress my sparringpartner, but also my punches get really bad. My trainer says i have a pretty good technique, but up close, as he calls it, I "smash and cleave" instead of giving correct punches. Any kind of them. I saw myself on tape and it looks horrible. My trainer said it was (partly) due to my way of standing (besides the fact that I just fail to punch correctly ^-^). Now I think I understand what might be the problem for me.

Tomorrow i'll have my last sparring session before the bout this saterday. I hope i remember when i clinch, to mind my footposition. I let you know if it did the trick!

Thanks! (also on behave of my trainer, i'm sure 8) ;D)

the squaring up thing, it's also really easy to get pushed off balance. Also, I like to switch my footing from time to time to generate leverage as I need it. But I never stay absolutely square.

excellent point grey.It's very true you lose all your power when your feet are too wide

Well, i tried it yesterday, and it worked like a charm. The first time i got up close, it went wrong again. A side-effect of wide feet is that i lean forward. With my feet more together, i stood more firmly, had more overview and yes, was able to hit better. My technique stayed better as well!

Great Grey! :bow: :bow: :bow:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Von Milash

the squaring up thing, it's also really easy to get pushed off balance. Also, I like to switch my footing from time to time to generate leverage as I need it. But I never stay absolutely square.

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I like that thinking, switching/moving;
because you can still go through the square stance position but you are only doing it when it counts and thats when you have two hands against someone elses one hand.
You can only get to that position on the outside and fastest way there is the switch as you go under or as you go around a lead arm and then you can get off two hands around that one hand for just a moment and with the power of weight transferance as your feet go through.

Willie Pep used to go up the outside with two arms in his day on a switch,not many do that nowadays though.Most people switch for no reason whatso ever and wonder why it doesnt work out 50% of the time.