the jab

[Yuzo]

I didn't really want to get deep on this, but if we need to, let's pick this apart.
You must retain weight on the back foot as you jab, or you will not be able to throw a right hand with any force or conviction.

yes i talked about this a few posts ago.

the thinking goes: no weight transfer when you push off the back leg to jab --> weight transfer onto your front leg when you throw the right hand --> weight transfer from your front leg back to your back leg when you throw the hook. thus completes a cycle, as each punch contributes into the next punch, and returns to its starting point: the back leg.

that is the thinking, and so the question is, would there be any reason to not keep weight on that back leg when you jab. well, i think i have been found out, and i should spill the beans now because the object of this thread was to talk about two jabs. they are two jabs that i think are very important. they are the jab circling to your left, and the jab step back. and they both require a weight transfer.

If you throw your weight forward every time you jab you will not be able to follow up with anything and you will also have over committed, placing yourself under threat of any basic jab counter.

do you like baseball? lets talk a little baseball. a long time ago there was a thing called the deadball era. teams played small ball. hitters would dink and dunk the baseball all around the infield, using hit and run plays and stolen bases, not power hitting, to score runs. home run baker was the home run king, but never hit more than 12 home runs in one season. that all changed with babe ruth. by 1920, babe ruth was hitting, an utterly unprecedented, one home run for every 9.5 at bats. heres his swing.



back foot stays weighted, as the hands stay back, and the front foot strides forward - a one legged motion. weight transfers from the back foot onto the front foot at front foot strike, releasing the back foot, rotating the hips, and pulling the hands not far behind them into an uppercut swing path and follow through - a one legged motion.

that is the swing that changed the game of baseball. a thing true, is true forever. and you can still see that swing, and those mechanics, today, and always.



you will know there is a weight transfer because you will see the back foot come up or skim along the ground at front foot strike, demonstrating that a weight transfer, from the back leg to front leg, has happened. i like baseball, but the point of showing you this, was to show you what a weight transfer actually looks like. weight transfers are one legged motions, where one leg is anchored by weight, as the other leg is made free by the removal of that weight. we can see these same mechanics in boxing, and when we jab circling to our left.



compare the anchoring of the front foot and the freeing of the back foot in both the swing and the jab; standing on one leg each time weight is given from one leg to the other. they are the same not because they are baseball or boxing mechanics. they are human body mechanics and they exist super to us. your characterization of a weight transfer as sloppy or throwing weight around is incorrect.

Furthermore, there is no sidestep in the selected movement.
The technique illustrated is a jab & pivot taught very commonly in amateur boxing; however, this one is actually done poorly.

(i) Mayweather crosses his legs, temporarily compromising his balance.
(ii) His lead leg is not placed outside of his opponents range, so even as he turn he is still in the target area.
(iii) He does not finish in the fundamental position and has to lift his lead leg and resent before he can move or attack.

that jab thrown by floyd mayweather, is the same jab that was thrown by ray robinson, and jersey joe walcott, and muhammad ali, and all the rest belonging to that group. to say that jab is wrong, is to say they are all wrong. to your point that the jab will cross your legs, angelo dundee was doing commentary for the first pernell whitaker vs jose luis ramirez fight, and he says, in only the way angelo dundee can say things, that whitaker is crossing his legs, that he doesnt like it, and that its going to get him knocked out. the irony there is that he trained muhammad ali, who like whitaker, and like many great fighters, crossed his legs. whitaker would go on to clearly win that fight in the eyes of most observers, but not to all, with the judges giving the fight to ramirez by split decision. maybe the judges thought, like maybe you think, that since he was crossing his legs the whole fight, that it was somehow working against him. the point i am driving at is that, crossing your legs may not be the boxing sin that some say it is, and possibly, something the trainers say to kids to scare them into fighting the way they want them to fight, instead of the way the kid really wants to fight, which i believe to be their right. you lean into their instincts - not away from them. to your other points, i think the thing youre missing there is that what you are ultimately trying to do with that jab, is turn yourself into a moving target and not a stationary target. you are leaving out the critical part that its harder to hit a moving target than it is to hit a target that is standing still.

There are two seperate techniques in play.
1. Locche flicks a range finding jab.
2. He uses a very simple step away, pushing off the front foot, the jab has no contribution to the reverse momentum.

when you push off the front foot, the back foot must be free to move. if it cant it will act as a brake. the jab has no contribution to the reverse momentum - that comes from pushing off the front foot - but there can be no reverse momentum, and no pushing off the front foot, if the jab is not thrown with a weight transfer so that weight will end up on the front foot to free up the back foot.

I am not familiar with Joe Montana.

The 50:50 weight distribution is optimal for movement - that's just bio-mechanics.
the 60:40 weight distribution will retain weight on the rear hip and elevate the front shoulder to maximise the defense attributed of the fundamental position.

If Niccolino Locche was one of the greatest defensive fighters ever then why is his style not taught to novice boxers?
It is because he was an exception to the rule. Much like Roy Jones whose speed and reflexes made him singular.
A boxer can be taught position, movement and technique.
Athleticism, reflexes and natural ability cannot be taught.

i think the thing that made niccolino locche renowned as a great defensive fighter is that he had this way of leaning in and giving you the target he wanted you to hit. he shortens your punches, so that when you try to hit him, all your punches are closer than they should be. in baseball they call that jamming the hitter. the pitcher throws the baseball at your hands so that the hitter cant hit it with the sweet spot on the bat head. well, he did that i think, and when he leaned in and he gave you that false target up close, he had all this space to pull away into that he knew your punches would not venture. thats why he looked so acrobatic when he made guys miss and why i think a lot of people think he is one of the best defensive fighters ever. it looked good. but what they are looking at is the effect - not the principle that lets it exist. i think the fighters that lean in like that, and its not just niccolino locche, understand and exploit the same principle.



you know, if you ever watch a mongoose fight a cobra, they do the same thing. they give the cobra a false target, and they pull it away just like that. its actually pretty neat.