Relaxing Shoulders

[southpawwolves]

Hey everyone, back after a couple of well deserved months off over the summer! Hitting the Novices this year so getting back into full fitness slowly but surely. One thing I'm struggling with is my shoulders ( alot of the time my whole body ) Is really stiff and I can't seem to let the shots just flow. My trainer has been getting me doing a lot of stretching during and after training. Is there any tips you guys have that could just help me loosen up a bit. Cheers - southpawwolves

[LordAnon]

Depending on whether on the stiffness level, but if it's just the normal stiffness then you need to stretch/warm up before, stretch in between exercise (if you can) and stretch cool down slowly afterward.

If it doesn't help and it ain't a normal stiffness then I would guess other people will give you better advice.

[Scrap]

Dont know your style, but other than the good advice lord Anon gave you, do you Box with a high gaurd, if you do, change it by dropping the gloves to shoulder height with elbows on chest.

[Andre]

Dont know your style, but other than the good advice lord Anon gave you, do you Box with a high gaurd, if you do, change it by dropping the gloves to shoulder height with elbows on chest.

It is so much freer to punch correctly from that position.
That bullshit about keeping your gloves up by your chin is a habit that will slow down punches.
Ive always been of the mind and the style where my hands interrupt the punch on the way in and launch from below shoulder level. The glove up next to your head stuff is crap in my world unless you are hemmed in and need to protect your temples as you duck under to escape out sideways ,but they sure as hell are not staying up there.

[WayneFlint]

What scrap and andre says about elbows tucked infront tight is important. if this isnt right then everything right after the initial explosion of the shot is more likely to go wrong, so lets see what it could be that may be going wrong with you.

The jab. lets say the idea is your launching your elbow right off your hip with the momentum the feet have created and whipping the shot out and back using your shoulders, turning the punch over for more snap, better extension and further activation of the shoulders (this could be your problem), being careful of wasted movement in the elbow along its path to full extension in the direction of the target and back to guard.

Its hard to give useful advice without seeing you train (totally ignoring the feet and the problems that could lie there also) there could be problems involving your shoulder more in the job of turning over the punch rather than whipping it around, turning over the fist at the end of the punch trying to involve your whole upper body in the turning over of the punch, not just the arms. shoulders, everything assisting in the turning over of the fist.

There could be a few things to think about or sort of invision in your head to speed you up, like thinking of your striking hand as a whip or a snake striking while thinking of the covering hand as your shield.
another idea is to think like you are water, flowing, fluent, flexible but can still crash, i think it works on the principle that to imitate a known 'fermiliar' motion rather than 'lots of rules' can sometimes result in a faster movement and/or be easier and faster on the mind when starting out, atleast until like someone mentioned on a good post recently (think it was grey) that until the mind knows exactly what it is it wants the body to do and can 'invision' its 'task' as a whole with perfect clarity is key, to set out and imitate this 'vision' you have in your head of your style is when the speed will really start coming together.

Sorry, dribbled on a bit there, lol

[southpawwolves]

Thanks for the responses, can anyone post a picture or video of an example of resting my elbows on my chest I can't see to grasp this, it feels awkward To wayne, thanks for the reply, one thing I always tend to do it push my jab rather than just let it go, I don't do it so much on bags/pads, but sparring I always tend to do it. I'm trying to work on invisioning it and how I would like it to go. I'm sure this will help as greys advice has helped me alot. Another thing I maybe should point out is I dislocated my shoulder on my right arm (jabbing arm) last year sparring, so maybe that's stuck in my mind and I am self-consciously scared of letting it loose? I know now and again, well quite rarely, I feel it twitch when I throw a right hook.

[WayneFlint]

I would agree by saying this could be making the problem worse, you will try to limit movement in that shoulder due to the old injury and over time you then lose more and more control because of this, i have a similair problem with my right shoulder so i layd off throwing some rights too much thus lost control over my right side because im gradually limiting what i put into it with my right shoulder rather than gradually trying to put more and more into it, just try getting your shoulders into the punching more, let the shoulders go until you feel pain, dont anticipate it, let the shoulders whip the shot out and back to their best using as full a range of motion as you can, if the injury starts niggling again you know you have to lay off for quite some time maybe.

Regarding hands on the chest what i mean is let you elbows sit just infront of you hips, not by your sides, if your elbows are resting on the outsides of the hips then things will go wrong a lot easier with straight shots. tucked right infront, elbows resting in front of hips, say the target is the chin then ideally if your hips had eyes the elbows want to be blocking the hips view of the target, this is the placement i would suspect would give the best overall shot. if the elbows are not blocking the view of the target then there will be unnecessary movements/contractions going on to keep your punch on track and from flaring out via momentum and dodgey elbow placement. it may only be a bit of wasted movement and energy, but its still there, the greater the momentum of the shot the more wasted energy, keep those elbows tight in