How to stop your elbows from flaring....

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Originally Posted by God.in.my.corner

I have a big problem with telegraphing my jab. The problem is that my elbow flares while throwing the left jab. I saw a neat trick mentioned by Scrap about jabbing while standing next to a wall to help straighten it out. That has worked some, but here's my problem:

The lead arm should be vertical to the floor (or so I have been told). My flexibility in my shoulders and chest has always been kind of poor, so my lead arm always drifts to the right, I hold it about at 2 o'clock. When I hold it straight at 12 o'clock, I feel tension in my shoulder. Specifically the outer head of my lead shoulder. It dosent feel natural and my shoulders tire just trying to strain to hold it in this position.

What exercises/stretches can I do to help loosen the arm and make it more natural? I feel this will help keep that jab straight.

Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

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Hey God in my Corner

Bit confused, I think if your lead arm is drifting right then you are southpaw? This doesn't matter to the following advice, I'm just curious really. Whilst this may well be a flexibility issue, I kind of agree with one of the earlier posts regarding a potential technical problem. I always get a little confused when people talk so much of shoulders during the execution of a punch, particularly a jab. I feel that the push from the front leg and the subsequent rotation of the hips around a central axis to point directly at your opponent is what enables a straight jab to be thrown, not what the shoulders are doing. Scrap's earlier advice on the use of a wall is always a goodun. An additional option is to place a piece of tape on a mirror (vertically) and from a static stance ensure that you are getting maximum rotation of the hips around the central axis (the tape being that central axis). It will feel awkward at first but do persist and you will be rewarded.

Cheers

Fran

The thing is with the shoulders and learning to jab how fran is saying is that when you think about it at the point of impact your shoulder is in a totallyt different position than it would be in with zero or just slight hip rotation aswell so is the head held in a different position sort of as it has to turn away from your torso otherwise you wouldnt be looking where your punching, im currently perfecting my jab to the way fran has discribed its taking a lot of hard work and i think its for these reasons because the placement of things change more than is apparent when your first looking at jabbing this way, some boring repetetive sessions but its definently paying off not just for my jab but for a right hand that might follow it aswell. also if your not jabbing like this its likely you have a very weak double or tripple jab which is always a bad thing.

Fran-

I'm orthodox. With my stance, I stand at a good angle and my lead glove is close to chin level. However, my arm itself is not straight and verticle to the ground. The elbow touches the ribs, but the glove drifts right towards my right glove in my guard (at about a 2 o'clock position). My jab is thrown more like a straight left I think. (or used to be).

Wayne-
I am definitly incorporating the shoulder like you said. I do it by moving the right shoulder and hip back to snap it out. The problem is that my right glove moves back to the point where it is not longer in front of my face for protection. I have heard people describe this 'snap' of the back shoulder and hip and a 'Bow and Arrow' effect with the jab like you are an archer of something. Is anybody familiar with this term?????