any series of punches is to be considered one block of movement and in this way there are often numerous ways to counter him as he transitions from movement to movement.

however, youre worst problem is randomness -- the natural enemy of the counterpuncher. when he randomizes his punches you sink into confusion as he becomes so unpredictable you cant never plan the proper counter to throw. at the bottom of this is your inability to control the tempo of the bout. to do this you got to understand the concept of coercion and persuasion. all strategy from boxing to machiavellian political thought is based on this principle. you see youre opponent is constantly prioritizing in his mind what he should do, what he should not do, how he should do it, when should he do it, why should he do it; all of which based on the information you show him. to demonstrate this effect you need only to look at the example you gave in your post:

"I find its alot easier when countering single shots i.e. the jab but when the opponent throws two or three punches in quick succession i find myself always trading with them."


by succefully countering his jab as you say you have, you must realize that your opponent takes in this information in the form of, "geez this guy keeps nailing me when i jab, i need to stop doing whatever it is that keeps getitn me hit with that counterpunch, i better stop and try something else"

this is the universal effect of counterpunching i.e coercion. by way of penalizing him for certain punches he throws by use of your counterpunch you are forcing him to opt for a different approach because he is getting penalized for his previous efforts. you must understand he isnt just going to keep on doing what it is that allows you to counter him. this manifested itself in the form of your opponent opting now to throw a "1-2" instead of that single jab you penalized him for earlier. realize that you have forced his hand in this option and that it was you that caused him to do this by way of coercion. i stress this greatly because it is important that you understand this fundamental tenet of boxing if you want to be a real counterpuncher as you say.

ok so now that your opponent is throwing this 1-2 of his and you must find a way around it. as noted at the start of this entry, any series of punches is to be considered a single block of movements. in this case you cannot simply counter the jab as a right hand is now coming along with it. you must find a way to negate the effectiveness of the right hand. to do this you may simply use your counters for the right hand creating for yet another coearcion effect if not knocking him out completely, block it with your shoulder so that it is useless of him to throw it, or circle away from it so that it never lands. the key idea to take from this is that you are telling him "hey, dont you see youre right hand isnt being productive for you?" in which case he must yet again choose something else to do as you are penalizing him for his efforts. when you say that you trade with him as he throws his random shots at you, you are failing to implement the effect of coercion and thusly you fail to control the bout. no matter what he does (throw a 1-2 or any random string of punches) you must be able to establish the effect of coercion, realizing that he only ever does what you let him by way of this principle.


i really do wish i could go in greater detial for you here (i didnt even touch on the effect of persuasion b/k/a the act of drawing punches, or what happens when you meet somebody smart enough to draw/trigger your counterpunches and then use them to counterpunch you) but to do this i would have to exapand this post into what would be a 7 page essay. i hope that you grasp the core idea though.