Switching your feet to cut of the ring more effectively.

[Maravilla2012]

I should probably post this in the 'ask the trainer' board but as I don't ever frequent that side of town (as I don't box, and this is more of a theoretical question rather than for personal advice) I figured I'd test the waters here first.

From time to time, I will bring up the subject of switching stances as a means to add more facets to your style of fighting. I almost find it remarkable that it isn't done more frequently in boxing. I find it similar to being annoyed that some professional footballers that can only kick with one foot.

There was this guy at the gym I train ay and when we started training he was shadow boxing in the southpaw stance. My coach saw him and asked him why he was doing that and he said " I lost a couple fights and I wanted to change it up " my coach told him to never do that again and to go back to orthodox. My coach was a southpaw himself. I have no idea why hut trainers dont seem to be keen to their fighters switching I'm guessing they wouldn't be used to seeing the punches coming from the different angles and all plus they wouldn't be as fluid as they would in their natural stance.

[Abelardus]

I should probably post this in the 'ask the trainer' board but as I don't ever frequent that side of town (as I don't box, and this is more of a theoretical question rather than for personal advice) I figured I'd test the waters here first.

From time to time, I will bring up the subject of switching stances as a means to add more facets to your style of fighting. I almost find it remarkable that it isn't done more frequently in boxing. I find it similar to being annoyed that some professional footballers that can only kick with one foot.

There was this guy at the gym I train ay and when we started training he was shadow boxing in the southpaw stance. My coach saw him and asked him why he was doing that and he said " I lost a couple fights and I wanted to change it up " my coach told him to never do that again and to go back to orthodox. My coach was a southpaw himself. I have no idea why hut trainers dont seem to be keen to their fighters switching I'm guessing they wouldn't be used to seeing the punches coming from the different angles and all plus they wouldn't be as fluid as they would in their natural stance.

That is exactly why^^. You train so long in one stance that you become so natural to it. That if you switch you literally have to do everything the complete opposite then you normally would but won't and more then likely get caught. A good way to look at it is if some one fighting in the orthodox stance only faught orthodox fighters. Then let's say after over 100 fights (including sparring and training etc.) and a southpaw came in to fight him he will probably lose the fight because he is so use to punches coming at him the complete opposite then what they are now. This is the main reason floyd Sr. doesn't like jr. Fighting southpaws and why southpaws give him the difficulties they do.

[Ron Swanson]

I should probably post this in the 'ask the trainer' board but as I don't ever frequent that side of town (as I don't box, and this is more of a theoretical question rather than for personal advice) I figured I'd test the waters here first.

From time to time, I will bring up the subject of switching stances as a means to add more facets to your style of fighting. I almost find it remarkable that it isn't done more frequently in boxing. I find it similar to being annoyed that some professional footballers that can only kick with one foot.

There was this guy at the gym I train ay and when we started training he was shadow boxing in the southpaw stance. My coach saw him and asked him why he was doing that and he said " I lost a couple fights and I wanted to change it up " my coach told him to never do that again and to go back to orthodox. My coach was a southpaw himself. I have no idea why hut trainers dont seem to be keen to their fighters switching I'm guessing they wouldn't be used to seeing the punches coming from the different angles and all plus they wouldn't be as fluid as they would in their natural stance.

That is exactly why^^. You train so long in one stance that you become so natural to it. That if you switch you literally have to do everything the complete opposite then you normally would but won't and more then likely get caught. A good way to look at it is if some one fighting in the orthodox stance only faught orthodox fighters. Then let's say after over 100 fights (including sparring and training etc.) and a southpaw came in to fight him he will probably lose the fight because he is so use to punches coming at him the complete opposite then what they are now. This is the main reason floyd Sr. doesn't like jr. Fighting southpaws and why southpaws give him the difficulties they do.

Southpaws give him trouble because the shoulder roll doesn't defend a straight left. So he fights southpaws with a high guard. But southpaws give everyone trouble because like you said punches come from directions you aren't used to. Take Pacman for instance, he fights southpaws far less than Floyd and he is one himself. Because nobody wants to fight a southpaw if they don't have to.

[Ron Swanson]

Boxing is completely predictable situationally. A person is said to have great reflexes if they dodge punches well when in truth they have great spacial awareness. They know what's coming before it comes by stance, style and space. Everything you've trained so long to understand suddenly changes when you switch from orthodox to southpaw or vise versa. Spacially you might expect a jab and never see the hook. Everything in life once committed to muscle memory is done by the subconscious, it's simply far more efficient and effective than the conscious functions of the brain. most everything you do in the ring is subconscious after all the training. When you switch you are then operating under the inefficient conscious functions, you have to think about where to put your feet, think about what to look for, think about where you want to be etcetera. It slows your function down and frankly people just aren't as good at things done the opposite way. People are so hard wired that a lefty and a righty look in opposite directions when they make something up. If just thinking has directional properties of course the complex function of boxing will to an even greater extent.

That said I'm a fan of guys that switch from my youth watching Hagler, still the best I've seen fighting either way.