Balance

[the killer]

Hi there,

Im new to boxing and am just now putting together the footwork with the hand and upper body movement to get my fighting style. one thing that i am having trouble with is my balance. Once i throw a combo or two i find myself losing my balance, i was wondering what i can do to improve this?

Thanks,

louie

[The Student]

my best advice to you, would be to slow it down.

The reason you're falling off balance throwing a combo is most probably a technique fault. If you practice throwing that combo reeeaaal slow over and over again, you'll start to feel at what point you're starting to lose balance.

Once you can throw those combos reall slow flawlessly, start speeding it up. As soon as you feel yourself losing balance, slow it down again and rebuild yourself.

.. thats how you can figure out where you're going wrong, but essentially I believe that if you're falling off balance while throwing a combo, you're doing something technically wrong.

Do you have a boxing coach? how long have you been boxing?

.. if you dont have a coach, get to a gym asap, before you start building bad habits that are hard to shake off once they're ingrained into you. Now the hard part sometimes is finding the right coach.

good luck

[the killer]

Ive been boxing for about 6 months and i do have a trainer that ive been working with. Ive been doing theone slow one fast combo hits on the bag to work on my form, i didnt know that helped with balance too. I guess it just takes time and effort to get this down, just like everything else ive learned so far.

[the killer]

PS. thanks for the reply

[The Student]

Ive been boxing for about 6 months and i do have a trainer that ive been working with. Ive been doing theone slow one fast combo hits on the bag to work on my form, i didnt know that helped with balance too. I guess it just takes time and effort to get this down, just like everything else ive learned so far.

no no, not one slow one fast... keep going slow, until you can feel where you're going wrong. Pay attention to your foot placement and where your weight is at the end of each punch. When you start realizing what you're doing wrong.. fix it, and repeat slowly, once you feel that you're throwing the combos perfectly, slowly start speeding it up.

If you realize that speeding up is causing you to fall off balance again, then slow it down again... and repeat till you can throw that particular combo at a fast speed. But even if you can, revisit doing it in slow motion so you can make sure you're not making any mistakes.

From the help I got from other members, thats how I started fixing up my combos, and continue to use it now..

others may have some other tips.. if you need to simply just work on balance, check out some of Scrap's posts, he's posted some great things you can try.

Other than that, talk to your trainer about it.... He may be able to offer you with the best advice as he can actually see what you're doing wrong, and knows more about you.

[the killer]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, ok...

Ill check the other posts too, that is more of what i was looking for but after thinking on it for a while i think the slowing down sounds like the way to go... for the most part anyway.

Cheers!!

[iceman]

sounds like you got started backwards, this is common...start with feet and posture, if your stance sux, so will balance...and if you don't move feet, you will quickly be leaning or in other words off balance. work footwork, and distance and stance. combos won't do shite if you fall on yer arse as ya throw em.

[The Student]

sounds like you got started backwards, this is common...start with feet and posture, if your stance sux, so will balance...and if you don't move feet, you will quickly be leaning or in other words off balance. work footwork, and distance and stance. combos won't do shite if you fall on yer arse as ya throw em.

great post.. he's absolutely right

[HerbM]

Everything "the Student" gave you already is good advice.

Also, consider your current stance, or the way you move. You must start on balance and finish every step back in perfect balance with a stable stance.

Moving slow as the Student suggestion will make bad movement more evident because speed can hide the rough spots.

Are you keeping you weight more on the back foot as you generally should?

Are you always moving the trailing foot the exact same distance as the first foot to move so that you will be back "in stance"?

Are you taking long steps? Most of the time this is a poor idea.

When you through, are you staying within your natural range or (incorrectly) reaching out too far?

You coach should have you concentrating on stance, movement, and balance until you have that automated. Punching mechanics must then be added so that you don't disturbing that stable platform.

--
HerbM

[WayneFlint]

Everything "the Student" gave you already is good advice.

Also, consider your current stance, or the way you move. You must start on balance and finish every step back in perfect balance with a stable stance.

Moving slow as the Student suggestion will make bad movement more evident because speed can hide the rough spots.

Are you keeping you weight more on the back foot as you generally should?

Are you always moving the trailing foot the exact same distance as the first foot to move so that you will be back "in stance"?

Are you taking long steps? Most of the time this is a poor idea.

When you through, are you staying within your natural range or (incorrectly) reaching out too far?

You coach should have you concentrating on stance, movement, and balance until you have that automated. Punching mechanics must then be added so that you don't disturbing that stable platform.

--
HerbM

Take student, herb and ice's advice on this one and you will save yourself a lot of time, as usual good posts guys.

[the killer]

Alright, so today i did nothing but slow punches on the bag. I had my coach watch me the hole time to let me know when my form was off. i konw that it will take longer than one day for me to get this balance and form thing down but i gotta say, after just one day i can see improvement. at the end of the training, i sparred for one round and i could se the diffenence there too.

Anyway, i just wanted to say thanks again for the advice and i will keep it up and let you guys know how it works out.

[The Student]

Alright, so today i did nothing but slow punches on the bag. I had my coach watch me the hole time to let me know when my form was off. i konw that it will take longer than one day for me to get this balance and form thing down but i gotta say, after just one day i can see improvement. at the end of the training, i sparred for one round and i could se the diffenence there too.

Anyway, i just wanted to say thanks again for the advice and i will keep it up and let you guys know how it works out.

good to hear man.. keep working at it, it all takes time to build.


One more thing, make sure you practice those combos shadow boxing (slowly) as well as the bag... sometimes you dont realize it but the bag almost holds you up, because you're always hitting a definite target. In reality you're opponent is trying to evade you're shots, and you might hit nothing but air at some point in you're combo.

.. you see it all the time, people hitting the bag with all sorts of combos bit if you were to take the bag away, they'd definitely fall over, due to posture, foot placement, weight distribution, etc

So practice them shadow boxing (slow to fast), that way you know you're form and balance is perfect... then you can practice em on bags, mitts/pads, double end bag, sparring partner, etc.

[the killer]

Wow, that makes the most sense of all... ive noticed that i almost lean on the bag when i am punching... ill start shadow boxing with my coach tomorrow. Ill let you know how it goes.
i am late to start posting and reading here but man oh man, this is my new site.
Thanks for the advice and support fellas ill be stopping by daily for the info here.

CHEERS!!!

[WayneFlint]

Wow, that makes the most sense of all... ive noticed that i almost lean on the bag when i am punching... ill start shadow boxing with my coach tomorrow. Ill let you know how it goes.
i am late to start posting and reading here but man oh man, this is my new site.
Thanks for the advice and support fellas ill be stopping by daily for the info here.

CHEERS!!!

Good post student, this is the main reason im not a big fan of heavy bag training it causes bad habits even if your aware of the tendancie to do so nevermind if your not aware of them.

What i do is use the bag like an opponent, many people say it as a rule on the bag but not many practice it as specific as it could be. its very rare you would land the first shot you throw at an opponent so forget trying to hit hard with that first shot just make sure technique is good dont over commit bear in mind the shot has to be sharp otherwise its a sloppy lead that will get exposed, these are the leading shots or feints that will set up the real landing punches, these landing punches are the ones you want to hit hard with really, however after setting them up with a punch and or defencive manouver you can find your balance, foot placement, whatever isnt great to throw the landing shots, so you need a way to work on this.

what i do is throw or feint a jab or right hand and practice slipping or moving off the jab or right in every direction with every variety of defencive manouver to the spot where you will throw the landing punch or combos, working on a bag like this will help you maintain balance throughout every movement and tie the movements together for a more effective fluent set up aswell as help expose minor faults being made in terms of technique in both movement or strikes (this should be done shadow boxing and on the heavybag for reasons thestudent stated earlier) and a more boxing specific/realistic heavy bag session.

I never really just hit a bag anymore unless working on technique on a specific shot say a basic right hand. because this right hand can be different than a right hand that comes from a slip or weave or off a parry and is usually much harder to perform on balance and with good technique, if its that right hand that needs working on then its not the same as just standing and practicing single right hands, instead ill jab, slip or just parry wotever then practice the right hand to master that perticular right hand.

I think ive confused myself with that mess but maybe someone will understand lol

[WayneFlint]

Oops, sorry i meant to quote students last post instead of killers.