Sparring a hooker

[donnydarkoIRL]

I'm trying to picture how to do this without still being there to get hit by the hook. care to elaborate?

I'm sure it's obvious to most people on here but my brain is just not working at the moment so maybe you'll have pity on me hitmandonny!

No prob, what I do is nail my lead foot in place in a location that would accomodate an attack, I would then step back and allow his left hook to miss me and then presuming his shoulder drops and his right hand is out of position, come back with a hook and straight of your own.

Alternatively, and I've only started employing this recently, I block the left hook on the upraised elbow and forearm and come back with my hook. Takes timing, but it's highly effective.

[Sharla]

Thanks hitmandonny - I understand now! Very clever!

[RozzySean]

No prob, what I do is nail my lead foot in place in a location that would accomodate an attack, I would then step back and allow his left hook to miss me and then presuming his shoulder drops and his right hand is out of position, come back with a hook and straight of your own.

Alternatively, and I've only started employing this recently, I block the left hook on the upraised elbow and forearm and come back with my hook. Takes timing, but it's highly effective.

Do you pull back from the hook or duck it? As I recall, you are a tall, lanking fighter. On the other hand, I am not and I fight out of a bit of a crouch - ducking hooks or blocking is my usual method. Or do you back out with your feet to make the miss?

[donnydarkoIRL]

Do you pull back from the hook or duck it? As I recall, you are a tall, lanking fighter. On the other hand, I am not and I fight out of a bit of a crouch - ducking hooks or blocking is my usual method. Or do you back out with your feet to make the miss?

I just step back and bring the whole body. The front foot designates where my next attack will be launched from so I let that remain. I draw back my rear foot, carrying my body out of range and then step with the right for a counter, as the left is already set.

I'm tall at 71, but not lanky, pretty much the same build as rjj and G man at Middleweight, tall but not freakishly and wider shoulders than the rest of me LoL

[El Kabong]

If you are short you can use the same methods Mike Tyson and Joe Frazier(albeit Joe wasn't short by anymeans) used.


Mike Tyson bobbed and weaved moving side to side but also up and down...he used his shifting weight to counter with more power than most fighters. That's what I try to do in sparring I try to use my weight behind my counter shots and I try to set that up through head movement and footwork.

Joe Frazier just bobbed up and down...perfect for having the hook sail over your head but it makes you a sucker for the right cross or uppercut.



But yeah stepping back is good but the other fighter can just use a feint and BANG you're flat on your ass. That is why I (as a user of the left hook myself) love to feint the right cross and leap in with a left hook.....the thing about feinting is you HAVE to sell it

[Von Milash]

Lyle I never knew you were a boxer. I thought you were just an avid fan with a strong political take!

[El Kabong]

Lyle I never knew you were a boxer. I thought you were just an avid fan with a strong political take!

....I dabble....my first sparring session was vs Tillman78 oddly enough. He's preparing to go pro...or so he keeps telling me he's going to.

[donnydarkoIRL]

Concentrated on this last night in order to get a good answer.

What I realised is the left hook is the most easily exploitable punch thrown in boxing.
My friend a useful mma guy and boxer threw many left hooks. Each time I made him miss nothing followed. Each time he threw it he was open at another point like theleft side of his body or theright side of his face.

Elbow parries made it easy.

[El Kabong]

If you throw a left hook properly you put yourself in a defensive position on the follow through.

...I was always trained to end my combinations with either the left hook to put myself in a defensive position or the jab to create distance. It could be wrong, there are very few things in boxing that are ALWAYS true.

[donnydarkoIRL]

If you throw a left hook properly you put yourself in a defensive position on the follow through.

...I was always trained to end my combinations with either the left hook to put myself in a defensive position or the jab to create distance. It could be wrong, there are very few things in boxing that are ALWAYS true.

I see what you're proposing here, I can see how that style would fit the American or Irish Style very well.

Where as you end combinations on a jab, I always end with a suite of head movement.

[Von Milash]

If you throw a left hook properly you put yourself in a defensive position on the follow through.

...I was always trained to end my combinations with either the left hook to put myself in a defensive position or the jab to create distance. It could be wrong, there are very few things in boxing that are ALWAYS true.

no, that's a good thing to do...end with a left hook. Ricky hatton likes to end his combos with the jab to create distance.

[Sharla]

If you throw a left hook properly you put yourself in a defensive position on the follow through.

...I was always trained to end my combinations with either the left hook to put myself in a defensive position or the jab to create distance. It could be wrong, there are very few things in boxing that are ALWAYS true.

If you put all your weight into a left hook would it not be extremely difficult to throw a jab immediately afterwards? I can see how throwing say a right cross after the hook and then a jab would work. You would be pivoting back the other way and reseting your balance but unless it's not a powerful hook I can't see the jab being easy to throw without some specific footwork or something to reset.