stance?

I have noticed some people advocate a narrow stance by this i mean a straight line can be drawn from the big toe of the front foot toe to the heel of the back foot,This stance presents a small target to youre opponent and gives you a nice long jab.

On the other hand some people prefer to have a slightly wider stance than this for example freddie roach likes his fighters to have a slightly wider base so as to have better lateral movment/stability and he says that if you are too narrow then it is easier for youre opponent to control you.

I guess at the end of the day it's a stylistic thing and each has their pros and cons.

My question is do you think it's a good idea to practice both ways or is it best to adopt the one youre comfortable with and stick to it?

I am interested to read the answers that the experienced coaches will offer.

It's hard to argue with Freddy Roach - he has more world champion than any other living coach (and only HIS coach Eddie Futch has had more).

I tend to think the natural (wider) stance is better for my own reasons as well. It's natural and doesn't offer as many possibilities for screwing up your balance.

As you say it IS closely related to your fighting style.

Generally I think it a poor idea to "pick a style" before you know all the basics, so this would argue against picking a stance as well.

BUT YOU MUST stand up while learning everything else in boxing so picking a stance is also a necessity.

My opinion (or guess) is that using the natural width stance is best in the beginning and then later experimenting with a narrow stance if that fits your direction of development makes some sense.

BUT I AM certainly no expert on this subject so let's hear what the smart guys say...
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Herb

I think that the stance is dictated from the primery power punch you choose to use. If you want to use powerful right hand, you must be as back as possible and with sholders turned less as possible to give you the maximum weight transfer. And if you want to use the left hook you must be squared to be able to slip to the left in order to land it.

From oder hand the stance dictates the deffencive techniques that you are going to use. If you are squared you can forget the sholder roll and if you are sideways you want be able to use the slip to the left.

I think that the problem(who am i to judge, but anyways) of alot of boxers is that they do not transit from the one stance into the oder and they are stuck with one punch. For example Joe Frazier and Gerry Cooney are staying all the time squared and they used only the left hook and in the oder hand are the guys like Sonny Liston. Dont get me wrong here. He has murderous left hook, but he landed it in combos not like leading punch. In order to be complete boxer one must be able to transit from the one into the oder stance. An example for this was young Mike Tyson. Throughout his carrier he stayed with the square stance, but when he wanted to land the right he transited into the position like some one throwing the right from narrow stance.

At the end it for me its about the defence. I have the telling; you can throw as much punches as you wish, but what counts at the end is how many punches have you eaten... So i choosed for me the narrow stance.

The feet should be where the Head and Neck are comfortable. Which is wide.

Tbh i always thought of the narrow feet in line stance as more an old school style but i could be wrong,would it be fair to say that most fighters thses days are a little wider than this,When i say wide though i don't mean standing square like mike tyson or something perhaps just 4 inches wider than inline.

I normally start of with my feet about hip width apart/natural walking gait or to be precise about 4 inches wider than the front toe back heel inline stance and sometimes i will get narrower if say i'm at long range or backing up with the jab or another one is when jabbing and pivoting to the left.But i will always take a little step over with the left foot to throw the right hand,I can throw the right from the narrow stance but i dosen't feel as comfortable and it has longer distance to travel.Also as i get closer to my oppenent i want to have a more stable base.I wasn't sure whether me alowing myself to get narrow was a mistake and something i should be correcting but having watched a lot of fighters they aslo seem to get wider or narrower as the situation dictates.Which makes sense to me ie: When on the outside be long and make yourself a small target and as you get closer get gradually wider as you begin to let more punches go.

What i found interesting was from reading the book by Edwin L. Haislet he says the when youre front toe and back heel are inline this position may be too narrow therfore to make a wider base move the right foot 3 or 4 inches to the right,Although having said that a lot of other boxing books i have read the classic boxing stance is described as having the front toe and the back heel inline and maintanin this stance at all times and this is what always confuses me :confused:

This is just an idea so try it but don't believe it (unless it works):

Stand with feet exactly under your hips naturally, feet pointed perpendicular to hips but with entire body and feet at 30-45 degrees to the right (power side) of the (imaginary) opponent.

Then pivot your front foot on the heel so the foots point towards opponent; your back foot stays almost stationary (it's going to stay at 30-45 degrees, right?)

(e.g., start facing the corner and turn towards the wall)

Adjust to become comfortable but without moving your feet very far.

You feet should be very close to the perfect distance (for you) while not being full on the target.

Also: Whenever I am messing with my stance explicitly and find that being self-conscious makes it difficult to get my "feet hip width apart" (Things just feel different when you are consciously doing something you normally do unconsciously) I make a SMALL JUMP straight up and land as SMOOTHLY as possible.

Your body will (unconsciously again) get your feet to the right place for balance and stability while landing quietly.

...Unless you are a total klutz :p or very drunk.

I see what youre saying youre stance should be as natural as posible and i think for me this is hip width apart,I think it probably feels so natural becuse this is the way you walk and where youre natural balance is and somethimes if you feel a little bit out of position all it takes is a little bounce or shuffle and you find youre balance point again but it seems like quite a fine line sometimes almost like walking a tight rope.

I do find that there is a tendancy to get a bit narrower when throwing the jab sometimes particularly if it's a really stiff jab and you put a lot into it but i think this is probably due to the natural motion of the punch,I wasn't sure if i should try to fight that motion or not but i have have noticed a lot of professional fighters also do this so i assumed it was ok.

I would say that the vast majority of fighters these days fight from the hip width type stance,Would anyone else agree?

Why is your jab or any punch affecting your stance?

If you step forward into a jab (or other punch) you should generally be closing he back foot up to return to precisely the same stance you had before the jab started.

Twisting your back foot to add to a cross, (right) hook, or uppercut should be reversed as the punch completes, again returning to your best stance.

Quote:

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Why is your jab or any punch affecting your stance?

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It's hard to explain but in some instances ie:throwing a stiff jab,Pivoting to the left and jabbing,Double jab or backing up with the jab i find have a tendancy to become slighlty narrower and have to reset.

I didn't really worry about it too much before as i thought a little bit of movment in the stance was inevitable at times due to the motion of the punch twisting of the hips.

I think it is something you should work on IF it is not leaving you fully mobile and balanced for both follow up shots and subsequent defense.

Generally, we want to best stance always, and if we disturb that stance (e.g., simply by stepping) then we should return to that best stance at the earliest opportunity.

As to backing up: Do you have a problem when someone is pressuring you and you keep backing? If so, that might be partly due to altering you stance as you retreat OR it might be you alter your stance due to problems you have when under pressure (cause and effect might be unclear but it might be a sign of something you can improve.)

Or if you have no problems, it might not matter (for you.)

The key to improving is to first fix our glaring faults (beginner stuff), then find our biggest remaining weaknesses and locate the cause of those. Fix that until we are spending most of our training time fixing REALLY PICKY DETAILS.

What is the real difference between an expert and an intermediate? Probably the relative size of the faults they are each willing to tolerate or are working to fix.

The Japanese have a word for this process: Kai-Zen == continuous (small) improvements

Fight your strengths. Train your weaknesses.

I see what you are saying mate even though perfect form might not always be achievable 100% of the time I must strive to do so as this is how we improve.

In general your stance isnt really the problem, you can box side on you can box someone squared up and each stance have their own advantages at times, what makes the problem is the situations and knowing what to use in which situation, break it down and at each step of the movement ask yourself can you move in all directions fast, controlled and on balance from here if need be? if you cant then there is a problem somewhere and it needs finding/correcting,

herb is spot on with what hes saying often ive had some somtimes annoying training sessions that have lasted 2 hours and have little or no fitness/strength benefits, but these sessions are dedicated to correcting the tiny little imperfections that make the world of difference when you throw the whole thing together. the more figured youve got the biomechanics, the smoother itll all be, often the little things are forgotten but its the little things that count and really make the difference in the overall quality of the end product. and its the even littler things inbetween those little things that make things really interesting :) or atleast for me it is, thats what i love so much about the sweet science, the attention to detail.

Sure it would be easier, less tedious and more fun to just do 6 rounds shadow boxing and 6 on the bag and 3 skipping, but no matter how annoying it may get i think this is what makes the difference between getting 100% from your training sessions and getting 30% from them like most do

Would it be fair to say that if you were only throwing the jab then you might be narrow and if you were throwing a jab,cross you might get a little wider and a for a jab cross left hook even wider still ?

If you could please watch this video,If you look at amir's feet from about 0:42 when he is shaddow boxing in the park.
It demonstrates what i was talking about quite well as he is standing directly in front of the camera and you can see the distance between his feet(width) changing from about inline and then getting much wider as he is throwing different punches/combinations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fYkF...eature=related

Quite a good tune aswell i think ;D