the jab

[Yuzo]

the right way to teach the jab is to push off the back foot and slide the front foot. heres emmanuel steward showing how to throw the jab.



but when you add a weight transfer to the jab, you free up the back foot, giving the jab a couple of useful effects.



by freeing up the back foot you can jab and circle left. the idea is to side step the opponent's punches and keep him locked in a perpetual state of turning to try to return you back in front of him.



by freeing up the back foot you can jab and step back. it has the same action as the jab emmanuel steward was showing, only in reverse: you push off on the front foot and slide the back foot. when you press down on your front foot on the end of your jab - a weight transfer - you are always ready to push off on it and step back from a counter, should you need to. throw enough jabs, and you will.

what both these jabs have in common is that the front foot will need to be anchored down and the back foot will need to be free to move. one more thing they have common is that they will keep you from getting hit back. fighters who will not learn these jabs will tend to become stationary - and hit more.

Traditionally the boxers fundamental position saw them with 60% of their weight on the rear leg, 40% on the fore.
Modern boxers have adopted a more balanced stance more suited to mobility, almost certainly benefiting from modern footwear.
In either era, boxers were not trained to carry their weight on their front leg, as this would see them 'leaning-into' the opponent's attack.

joe montana said he used to throw with a 90/10 weight distribution on each leg; meaning 90% weight on the back leg and 10% weight on the front leg. can you imagine getting hit by a guy throwing a right hand at you with a 90/10 weight distribution? well anyway, i don't agree that a balanced stance, lets say 50/50 on each leg, is any better than a 60/40 stance or for that matter that a 60/40 or 40/60 stance is wrong. watch niccolino locche fight. he stood up on his front leg just like an egret. how is it that one of the greatest defensive fighters ever could stand on his front leg and lean into the opponent's attack and get hit less?