What works for you in Sparring/Fighting?

[Chris Nagel]

One little trick iv found (dangerous) but effective is to throw a slow jab whilst moving in, which drops to the waist before it lands, a right hand is released as you see his guard going up, allowing you to pick ur spot and land a straight right usually by the ear or high on the forehead.
The step in will encourage him to raise guard rather than slip.

A basic one for when u need to be defensive minded is jus to use "taps." This means simply tapping the lead glove off the forehead occasionaly so as to ensure the guard is high enough.

Not to criticize you, but why not just just feint while you're coming in? You can still good reaction out of your opponent this way, especially if you landed a few quick jabs while moving in prior to that. A dangerous move could be that you throw your jab out slow to draw a right hand from your opponent that you'd be ready to counter. This in itself could be dangerous because they might go for a counterjab, or go for the other openings.

You could give them a tap on their head to bring their guard up and then go for the opening on their body where ever you see them. It might work too to feint higher than you would normally feint to make them bring their hands up to their forhead to give you many openings to choose from. You can throw a jab if that's what does the trick, or even hook up high.

One thing that I liked when I watched the old time greats like Benny Leonard and Tommy Loughran is that they'd feint with their feet. They would take take a quick step forward often while incorporating a hand feint, and just as their opponent leads they take a step back. Sometimes the opponent would react to the feint by bringing their hands up. then Loughran or Leonard would go after the opening. It's like a mongoose provoking the snake, moving quickly away from it's deadly strike and biting it on the neck. Just like Grey said, "Make them lead, make them miss, and good luck.

There's also another way that you can feint with your feet. This is done by a feint at side-stepping, make them think that you're shifting your attack to the right, and right when they buy it quickly side-step to the left. You then have them in a bad position and can attack to their side. There are many different variations of this that you can practice. I think this is a lot better than the stupid side to side movement that often leads to walking into a right hand.

[RozzySean]

One little trick iv found (dangerous) but effective is to throw a slow jab whilst moving in, which drops to the waist before it lands, a right hand is released as you see his guard going up, allowing you to pick ur spot and land a straight right usually by the ear or high on the forehead.
The step in will encourage him to raise guard rather than slip.

A basic one for when u need to be defensive minded is jus to use "taps." This means simply tapping the lead glove off the forehead occasionaly so as to ensure the guard is high enough.

Not to criticize you, but why not just just feint while you're coming in? You can still good reaction out of your opponent this way, especially if you landed a few quick jabs while moving in prior to that. A dangerous move could be that you throw your jab out slow to draw a right hand from your opponent that you'd be ready to counter. This in itself could be dangerous because they might go for a counterjab, or go for the other openings.

You could give them a tap on their head to bring their guard up and then go for the opening on their body where ever you see them. It might work too to feint higher than you would normally feint to make them bring their hands up to their forhead to give you many openings to choose from. You can throw a jab if that's what does the trick, or even hook up high.

One thing that I liked when I watched the old time greats like Benny Leonard and Tommy Loughran is that they'd feint with their feet. They would take take a quick step forward often while incorporating a hand feint, and just as their opponent leads they take a step back. Sometimes the opponent would react to the feint by bringing their hands up. then Loughran or Leonard would go after the opening. It's like a mongoose provoking the snake, moving quickly away from it's deadly strike and biting it on the neck. Just like Grey said, "Make them lead, make them miss, and good luck.

There's also another way that you can feint with your feet. This is done by a feint at side-stepping, make them think that you're shifting your attack to the right, and right when they buy it quickly side-step to the left. You then have them in a bad position and can attack to their side. There are many different variations of this that you can practice. I think this is a lot better than the stupid side to side movement that often leads to walking into a right hand.

I'm surprised at how many quality fighters don't sell the feints with their leg and/or the hands. To me it seems very obvious and I started doing it without being told to do it. Now I practice feints all the time. When first started sparring, I was getting countered with rights over my jab constantly until I got decent enough at feinting AND slipping the right. I'm no where near fast enough to drop the left AFTER a jab to bait a cross.

[Hulk]

Usually don't visit this part of the forum, but going into my 3rd smoker (3, 2 min rounds, with 16 oz gloves and headgear) I felt the need to get any advice I can.

I'm glad you all have brought up the topic of feints.

I love them.

What works for me is feinting the right hand either by winding it up like I"m gonna throw an overhand right, or just turning my hips and right shouler, and then coming in with a double jab to the head.

Also I like to look at the body, and feint a jab to it, then step in and shoot a stiff single jab to the head.

Also the "stop drop and pop" as my trainer calls it, where you raise your left hand up in front of their face, or even place it on their head, then drop down and fire a straigh right to the solar plexis.

Far as defense goes, covering up seems to work well for me, specially with the 16 oz gloves.
lol

All I can really slip is the jab, then try and jab back or come over the top of their lazy jab with my right hand.