Fading while walking someone down

[Fran@myboxingcoach]

Hey Herb

Just a quick one. As a coach, I would not teach boxers to bend at the waist when slipping (slipping being what I assume is fading). A slip is the result of a 'thrust' from the legs in order to rotate the hips just enough (as an orthodox a push from the back leg will enable a slip 'inside' an oncoming shot and vice versa for the slip 'outside'. This hip rotation takes the head about a 'fist' width to the side of the oncoming shot. Using the legs and not the waist to provide the rotation should overcome your mobility issues in terms of your back.

In terms of moving forward whilst slipping, you are combining two distinct skills. Not that I particularly like to push my own opinions (honestly!), have a look at this video on moving forward and this video on slipping, maybe they'll help. To put your mind at rest though, your mobility issues re: your back should hold no significance whatsoever in terms of slipping on the offensive, so keep practising in the mirrors aiming for efficiency of movement.

Cheers Herb

Fran

[HerbM]

Thank you so much Fran (and the others) for helping me with this. I watched your videos and learned some useful ideas about movement and defense.

First, my training in moving forward and backward is largely what you are teaching -- especially the push. [Coach has us a bit wider in stance and the front foot straight ahead however.]

FYI -- when you push forward/back, the YouTube/Flash video compression is so 'effective' that it pretty much shows you re-appearing in the new position -- you sort of teleport in the video. That is really a useful boxing skill.

I LIKE what you term slipping for accomplishing the same thing that my coach calls fading, but he is definitely requiring us to bend at the waist -- sideways only, so he does agree with you about not bending forward.

Your method uses mostly hips and knees to move the head and leaves the spine vertical which my Systema teaches me is highly desirable -- good posture/form is a critical fundamental in Systema. We only violate this principle when absolutely necessary and IMMEDIATELY restore our form as quickly as feasible.

I am going to practice what you show in the video -- not to replace what my coach is requiring but as another choice (which I a more likely to actually use if someone is throwing punches to hurt me.]

[Fading might not even be a standard term in boxing -- doing a Google search for this actually results in this thread as the #1 or #2 listing (for descriptions of movement as opposed to the 'fading glory' of boxing.]

So NONE of the following is to disagree with you, but only to state what my coach and my post mean in physical terms so you folks can help me do this better...

Personally, I think of slipping as (any) movement of the targeted body part (i.e., head or body) which causes a punch to miss, especially if the punch makes contact but through rotation or side movement you keep it from making solid contact. But some people might call much of these techniques 'rolling' with the punch.

And my coach uses fading very specifically to mean (only) breaking at the waist so as to move the head (ideally 1 glove width) to the right or left. So he means for us to do a small right or left side bend without hip movement, and to take our gloves (usually in peek-a-boo or ear muff position) with our head.

So by these (perhaps incorrect) definitions, 'fading' MIGHT be particular form of 'slipping', or something slight different.

In Systema and Aikido we are taught to roll, twist, move pivot or otherwise move the target area so that a punch cannot land solidly. My coach is talking only about a dodging by bending sideways when he say, "Fading".

So, I still need to figure out how to do my coach's exercise -- gracefully -- and perhaps how to do your (Coach Fran's) slipping while moving forward.

Frankly I am pretty good at catching, parrying, deflecting, rolling, or just absorbing punches and I am not excited about any method of getting my head out of the way that contorts my form or slows down my movement.

I still need to do the exercise and see what useful skills it develops in me.