Quote Originally Posted by TitoFan View Post
Too many fighters paw with their left jab and pay the consequences. It's even evident in these short video clips. If your jab does nothing but become a useless exercise, you're bound to get caught with a good counter. The good effective jabs are the ones that snap back the opponent's head. At the full extension of the jab, if you freeze the frame, you'll see the jabber's body a bit diagonal, leaning into the jab. The right hand still at home to protect against a hook, but the jab is fully extended and the body is a bit diagonal and leaning into the punch. Many people confuse this with the snapping jab, thrown with speed, but without body commitment. That's ok if you're on the move, but if you really mean to set up the opponent for a straight right hand, the jab should be thrown through the head with a bit of body behind it.
There are fighters who fall into the trap of picking 1 way to use the jab and not veering off that course. The guys with the best jabs used it multiple ways. It's like if you're a pitcher in baseball, you're not going to throw fastball, fastball, fastball, fastball with no variation at all because hitters will be sitting on the fastball and eventually they'll catch up to it no matter if you're throwing it 200 mph! Getting an opponent off balance is a lot easier when you can utilize the jab for multiple purposes. It's easier to crack open a defense when you have a good jab that you can fool around with doing multiple things.....tapping the guard to lull your opponent into thinking he's safe, swiping the guard down, moving the guard around to open up a window for a hook or cross.