Bob n Weave -- Bend at the hips or knees?

[jahmez]

I've read Dempsey's manual as well and maybe I'm wrong but from what I remember he doesn't say to drop your weight into your shot but to take and drop your weight into the trigger step and then explode with your weight upwards into the final blow. This is great when hitting a heavy bag but I've tried this in sparring and against experienced fighters it just seems too predictable. A move that is similar and works for me sometimes is the kind of jab that you see Charley Burley do a few times in that great video Dadi posted up awhile ago called "Charley Burley: Analysing Genius". Correct if I'm wrong but from what I see he drops his weight over his front leg like the trigger step but instead of exploding upwards immediately and risk getting countered he uses this new position more as a bait. The video says that he strikes when he senses hesitation. You've got to be careful of their right hand of course but if you employ the stance that the video beautifully illustrates you will see that this position is also a perfect way to set up a trap for the shoulder roll counter right hand. Mayweather uses this position as well and it's interesting to note that like Burley he is able to launch and land lunging left hooks without geting countered (though from the video it shows Burley landing angled left uppercuts to the body. I've tried throwing them on the bag for a bit of fun sometimes and found them a real bastard of a move. If you could land them I'm sure you could land a gazelle punch ).

Anyway here's the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81non05aKX4.
Check out the beautiful jab he does at about 4:53 while circling to his left. It's the closest thing I can think of to the Dempsey left jolt that has worked for me in sparring but I can only pull them off after I've circled to my left transferring weight over my left leg with each left step. I think my opponent gets used to this and doesn't expect a punch to be thrown from this position. I'm not a pressure fighter though so you might find it more useful faking a straight right to the body then throwing a left jolt or try the ascending jab in this link. http://www.saddoboxing.com/boxingfor...echniques.html

[HerbM]

Jahmez, I must go watch that video and re-think the entire "jolt" based on your comments, because that is not what I understood.

None of the following is reliable until I go do that further research....

My first impression (unverified) is that I understood Dempsey to mean dropping weight onto that front foot moving forward by simply LIFTING it from the ground with no other weight transfer (i.e., no shift to the rear foot).

Because the center of gravity is forward of the only support (i.e., the rear foot) the body will jolt forward and the hand making contact will (very briefly) become your second point of contact driving that hand harder into the target -- until that foot almost immediately returns to the floor and takes weight as the hand retracts.

It is a critical move to time -- and the foot returning to the ground can ensure that no overcommitment nor balance loss is experienced IF the strike misses.

Caveat-- I haven't done this in combat but believe that I can safely coordinate it -- after only a few dozen rounds or practice over a couple of weeks.

I have done something similar, but yet quite different, as a demonstration of the 1" and 3" punch made famous by Bruce Lee. I learned this some 30 years ago. There are about 8 steps but one of the primary ways that force is generated is placing the leg corresponding to the striking hand forward and then dropping BOTH knees several inches -- just completely relaxing into a "fall". The front knee being forward TURNS the body to the opposite side thus converting gravity/weight into rotation and extension.

It is highly critical to time such moves and they do take practice.

--
Herb

[Jacumba Hooker]

Some people are an exception to the rule. Burley practiced upper body movement with his hands down, feet grounded. He could punch with reasonable power from just about any position and with devastating power from the correct position.

The thing is Burley (probably like Dempsey) was a bit of a freak. Fighters in the gym tried to copy him, but could't pull it off. that's why he was great at what he did and others were just good.

Watching others and trying to learn from them is a good way of finding what works for you, your build, physical and physiological attributes and your psychology or available mind-set.

Burley was Burley. Dempsey was Dempsey and you are you!

[Scrap]

Interestingly the front Heel is the Biomechanical Brake.

[jahmez]

I used to transfer my weight to my lead foot when jabbing until I started getting counter-jabbed. My head would would be closer to my opponent, I couldn't rotate my shoulders as much which meant I lost range and I was getting rocked by jabs. As soon as I started keeping or transfering my weight to my rear foot the opposite happened. It also actually increased my power because I could whip my hip and shoulder into my punches and it allowed me to be set up for my straight right.

As for the Dempsey trigger step the only way I can imagine I could generate weight by simply lifting my lead foot would be if I alreaddy had my weight over it in the first place and that by taking a tiny step I would be "falling" as Dempsey put it. I can only have my weight over my front foot if my hips and shoulders are square so if I were to take the Dempsey falling step and jab without transfering my weight over my rear leg my jab would have nowhere the ammount of range I would like being an outside fighter.

[HerbM]

You don't need all of your weight forward onto the left foot to generate forward force by lifting it.

If you weight is 60-40 to the read as my coach recommends (or 50-50), then your center of gravity if somewhere (slightly) forward of your read foot and when you lift the front foot you will begin to shift forward. If you time this and hit shortly after the lift, you shift transmits through the striking hand.

If the foot rapidly returns to the ground as the hand retracts this doesn't even require a large change in balance.

This is the weigh I understand the step.

I don't know the optimums, but let's say I go from 60-40 on read to 40-60, and I weigh 200 lbs (not quite), that 20% change can be translated into 40 lbs added to the punch. It's probably less since our rear foot is not a single point but had significant surface area, so maybe we are adding 10-20 lbs to the punch.

I don't particularly want to get hit in the head with a 10 lb weight, especially added to the already incoming punch.

There is also the slight speed and range increase which accelerates the punch a bit deeper into the target.

I (think that I) solved the shoulder whip problem by overturning the fist past horizontal for the aiming with the ring finger for the 3-knuckle landing -- this automatically got my forward shoulder around almost parallel to the direction of the punch.

Again, more range (distance from neck to shoulder) and without taking the head closer.

All this also allows for momentary pushing with the rear toe for more force at impact.

On the other hand, I could be full of it.


--
HerbM