The Problem with blocking punches... -greynotsoold

The Problem with blocking punches...

greynotsoold:
I'm sure by now that most everybody here has seen the recent beating administered to Jeff Lacy....by Calzaghe (had to check the spelling). I'd never seen Calzaghe fight before that fight and he came out with a perfect fight plan, based off the fact that Lacy takes his own sweet time to set up and throw a punch. But the other equally important basis of the strategy seemed to be that Lacy has no idea whatsoever of how to defend himself or how to deal with incoming punches. Over and over he'd get hit as he tried to swing some "bomb" and he'd have to start again.
Whatdid him in was his habit- and this is so common, I'll bet almost all of you do it too- of reacting to a series of punches by leaning forward, wt on the front leg and shoulders square, elbows in gloves infront of and upside his head. The variation is to keep the hands/arms the same but to lay on the ropes toes on a line. People, that is bad strategy as it is tantamount to asking for an a**-kicking.
You cannot punch back fromeither of those positions; your opponent is free to fire away, then step away and catch a breath while you uncover to look for him, then to begin punching again. That happened to Lacy round after round and he ate hard punches from every angle.
The key to defense begins with the left hip and shoulder forward as this takes many right hand punches outof the equation, especially in close, which is where you'll want to be to stem an attack like that of Calzaghe that night. You do not bend forward at the waist unless you want to eat uppercuts, and being able to stick in an hard counter is the surest way to slow the stream of punches.


cring:
when I sparred I got in a bad blocking habit, I'm trying to get out of it now.


greynotsoold:
If you keep your elbows in to begin with, your chin down and use your right (or rear) hand defensively you should be ok. The right hand is to handle incoming jabs, the left hook, and the hook to the body. All with out moving it from where it should be- which is also where you want it to punch. Turning in when you block a punch- for example, to block a hook tothe body your kep the rt elbow in tight and turn your body slightly to the left by shifting the wt to you left leg- lessens the force(you don't take it clean) and lets you punch back. In the example given the motion is initially the same as it would be to throw a right uppercut, or you are left in position to shift the wt back to your right leg and to counter with a hook.
That wasn't as clear as I'd have liked but do you see the difference between this and what Lacy was doing in the Calzaghe fight?


Scrap:
You cannot punch with your hands above your shoulders, fact!


GripReaper:
good advice, i remember when i first started my problem with defence was pulling my head back away from my gloves when i parried which ofcourse left my whole boat wide open and the parry went useless.


Canvasback:
All good points. My defense was really bad, I was always reaching out from my body to block or parry punches and was always getting tagged. Now, I work with a partner and let him throw punches while I mostly work defense. It's seemed to help a lot.


greynotsoold:
Working totally on defense is a start but may I suggest something?
When he is throwning punches and you are working on defense, always counter with your left hand. You will benefit because it is a necessity to always counter off of your defensive successes and it will benefit your sparring partner because it will teach him to be alert to the repercussipons of his actions.


Andre:
Yeah its not a free flowing punch from there ; you can do it; but it involves an interuption of your own free movment.
(im all for the interuption of my opponents free movments not my own).


You can read it like the way it was here: http://web.archive.org/web/200703310...-t29648.0.html