how can i learn to slip punches?

[Dizaster]

The bag tied up with string and swinging was the best for me... I found when your learning to slip and you have someone throwing punches at you, even not very hard, it's easy to tense up a bit and exaggerate the movement/swivel/lean to avoid the punch...

With the swinging bag though, it's much easier to be relaxed at first, and it's almost a revelation when you realize just how little you need to swivle to completely slip the bag...
With a bit of practice, it feels like you're barely traveling an inch while the bag goes whizzing clean past your ear... Which seems impossible as the bag is much wider than an inch.. But if your relaxed and use your whole body together from your feet, it takes barely a twitch to slip a punch...

I didn't learn that though until I actually starting using a ball swinging on string.. When avoiding punches I always tried to add much more into the movement than was needed. Putting myself off balance...


As for technique, for me the best place to start was to just get in your regular stance, and as the ball approaches you, simply swivle left or right on the balls of your feet about maybe 10 - 15 degrees,,, keeping your whole stance completely aligned, and just letting the swivle rotate you. That alone can almost be enough for a punch to slide past your ear..
You can work from there to reduce the amount of movement needed, or add more, or adjust if you are setting up for a counter or come back with a punch swivling the other direction.. With even a tiny swivle on the balls of your feet, it may only need a 10th of an inch movement around your torso/knees to add enough movement to avoid the punch/bag/ball..

As with just about every movement in boxing or sport, you are fastest and most agile when you are relaxed. If you're tensing up all your muscles to slip a punch, your putting way to much into it... That's why I suggest using a bag to slip first to learn how to do the movement relaxed, and constantly monitor the amount of effort needed to actually avoid the punch..