foot work question

how important is it to pivot the foot of your respective punch? I have a book that says to pivot your left foot like you're putting out a cigarette when throwing a left hook, and likewise with crosses and other punches. I guess this helps get more body and hip movement behind a punch. I've really been working on this, but i was wondering if this is really the way you throw every punch or if you do this just when you're able to for optimal effectiveness, basically how essential is it? oh, also, do you do this when you jab too. thanks
by the way i train for mma but this is the most helpful forum i've been to. most forums get clogged up with what the pros are doing and crazy shit from people who don't really seem to know what they're doing or talking about. so kudos to you guys

Your left foot is flat on the floor when you throw a right hand; it should not pivot. The weight ends up on the left foot when you throw a right uppercut; no pivoting here either. For the left uppercut,the wt begins on the left foot which,at the end, has the heel lifted a bit. When throwing a left hook the left leg pivots to the right on the let toe. I've been posting apunch by punch breakdown that is much more detailed.

If you want leverage think pushing a car and where the power goes to

not only is it important to pivot but you also want to gain power from your leg by pushing the ball on your foot down when you throw the punch

There may be better ways to describe exactly what im talking about though

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Originally Posted by athlete.not.fighter

how important is it to pivot the foot of your respective punch? I have a book that says to pivot your left foot like you're putting out a cigarette when throwing a left hook, and likewise with crosses and other punches. I guess this helps get more body and hip movement behind a punch. I've really been working on this, but i was wondering if this is really the way you throw every punch or if you do this just when you're able to for optimal effectiveness, basically how essential is it? oh, also, do you do this when you jab too. thanks
by the way i train for mma but this is the most helpful forum i've been to. most forums get clogged up with what the pros are doing and crazy S*** from people who don't really seem to know what they're doing or talking about. so kudos to you guys

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Turning, pivoting, twisting, its all the same. Think of it this way. without the turning for hooks all you're using is arm power. the turning is designed to get you to put your body behind the punch. You hit your opponent with all your weight and this increases your power dramaticaly. If you can learn to effectively throw those punches you will definitely have a heads up on those windmill (arm punches) type of fighters. Good luck!

Punching is not pushing. When you throw a punch- a power punch like a hook or a right hand- the power is generated from the ground up first by shifting the body wt from one leg to the other and keeping the leg straight in ordeer for that side of the body to serve as the 'hinge side'. Not to push my own posts but I put one up a week or so ago entitled 'Hitting' that explains the idea behind leverage etc...

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Originally Posted by greynotsoold

Punching is not pushing. When you throw a punch- a power punch like a hook or a right hand- the power is generated from the ground up first by shifting the body wt from one leg to the other and keeping the leg straight in ordeer for that side of the body to serve as the 'hinge side'. Not to push my own posts but I put one up a week or so ago entitled 'Hitting' that explains the idea behind leverage etc...

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And how do you "shift your weight from one leg to the other"? I would say by pushing the ground down.......like taking a step


not by setting your foot down and expect the weight to follow

Try this: from your boxing stance put all of your wt onto your left leg and lean directly over that (straight) leg. Then turn your hips to the left until the right hip approximates the center line of the body; this is best accomplished by pivoting sharply inwrd on the toe (the ball) of the right foot. The turn of the hip in turn will twist the shoulder, and that would drive out the right fist. The wt is not shifted ffrom a push and the right foot does not push at all- it just twists.
Then try it the other way- get in your stance and put your wweight unto the rt leg; the right heel should be off the floor at start, so you set it flat toe pointed to the side leg straight. The left heel is now off the floor and you pivot sharply on the left toe again inward and this turn thwe hip and shoulder through to center. The key to getting wt into your punch- getting concussive force and not pushing force- is in creating an anchor point or hinged side of thwe body (the side with the straight leg) and then slamming the other side through the center line, like slamming a door. It isn't a push- though many fighters do push their right hnds- but more of a screwing in motion.

I cant help but feel that to perform this twist you must apply pressure to floor this pressure could be described as a small push

thats why i was saying its a little hard to explain this in text I do believe that a could show a person how to throw a proper right hand

Im with Light on this, the front foot should not be flat on the floor theirs to much energy going through it,and not the fist The energy is going theough the floor not the fist.The energy source is the back foot,the front foot is the direction If the weight is on the front you cannot generate power of the back.Plus if you get countered in that position, youve got problems, and its harder to move.The hips wont generate the same power because the knee wont let it.Also the mechanics of the lower back dont work as they should, so the shoulders wont.sorry Greys

I'm wondering if I misread this from the very start? If you are throwing a left hook, from a typical stance, your wt would go to the right leg, and the left foot would pivot inward- exactly like grinding out a cigarette with the toe. That pivot enables you to get the hip and shoulder turned all the way through. When throwing the hook, in order to get wt into the punch you have to shift it to the right foot and torque the left hip and shoulder to the right.
When throwing a right hand, from a basic stance (with the weight @ evenly distributed between left and right legs), the eight has to shift up to the left leg; the power comes from the turning of the hip and shoulder through to the center. That is why you don't put wt on the front foot when you jab- the majority of the power in a jab comes from pushing off with the rear foot, much like a fencing move. When throwing the right, the waist twist is essentially driven by the sharp inward pivot on the right toe.
The back foot provides the force due the fact that without its turning forcefully inward the hip can't turn as far as it should. But at the end of a right hand punch the wt has to be on the left foot- and thus the eternal boxing axiom of "always hook behind the right" as it brings you back to square so to speak.

well thats a lot of good info but i still have a couple of follow up questions, especially you greaynotsooled and lightweight. but for lightweight, did I read on another topic that you said your trainer has you rotate/ twist/ pivot whatever only on the first and last two punches when throwing a combo series of about 7? This touches more closely on something I was asking about. I'm getting comfortable but i still feel like a might be slower throwing proper punches when I pivot, and I was wondering when if at all one might not pivot or pivot less. So could you help me understand why you choose not to pivot during large combos.
Oh and people who don't pivot and throw their body into their punches are called windmill punchers? I've never heard that before ahah. thanks for expanding my vocabulary bigragu:)

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Originally Posted by athlete.not.fighter

well thats a lot of good info but i still have a couple of follow up questions, especially you greaynotsooled and lightweight. but for lightweight, did I read on another topic that you said your trainer has you rotate/ twist/ pivot whatever only on the first and last two punches when throwing a combo series of about 7? This touches more closely on something I was asking about. I'm getting comfortable but i still feel like a might be slower throwing proper punches when I pivot, and I was wondering when if at all one might not pivot or pivot less. So could you help me understand why you choose not to pivot during large combos.
Oh and people who don't pivot and throw their body into their punches are called windmill punchers? I've never heard that before ahah. thanks for expanding my vocabulary bigragu:)

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Windmilling, swinging for the fences, coming from the ankles, all of these are nice little phrases I've picked up over the years. lol

I think if your a right handed fight a lot of your power to throw a left hook does come from the front leg but your weight should be keept back....if that makes sense.

Your chin should NEVER cross over your front knee if so you got problems

The modern style boxing stance- I use that term loosely as I am referring back as far as the late 1890s, minimum- was developed to emphasize right hand power. In any activity that requires power from the right- hammering, throwing- the left footis forward, the right back. The reason you should keep your left hip/shoulder forward in your stance is to create a 'body swing' to generate pop inthe right. The force begins to gather at the floor as the wt comes onto the front leg then the right side of the body slams forward.
The thing about that stance is this; it not only allows for tremendous power fromthe right, with that full body twist, but now you can generate tremendous force with the weak or left hand. That is because at the end of the right the wt is on the left leg. By shifting it back to the right leg then swinging the left hip and shoulder to the right you can throw a hard left hook.The power is not in the left or right legs but in the transfer.
I know I'm going on and on about this but I'mjust not wording it right. Slam a door and kind of ponder the role of the hinged side. Then imagine that when throwing a right the left side of your body has hinges or it can be the right side if you throw a left hook. In either case your fist is the door knob. ;)

Just to be a right prick ;D and mention that somethings (sometimes) can work in reverse too :o
only in some situations of course.
But you can genterate power into a lead hook (the type, landing over the top of an extended jab from the outside), by turning your rear heel in towards the contact point then your front foot screws around just a fraction later ,like a double shift, so as to extend reach still with weight shift power.