Looking for critique on my training

[remy]

Thanks for the advice guys.

I just got back from the gym and I employed a few of the things you've said. You were right - I was arm-throwing my punches. I made a conscious effort to really rotate my hips, and it made a difference to my punching power. I'm going to incorporate medicine balls and resistance bands to give my hips a workout, and I'll keep practicing on the heavy bag.

There was one guy in my gym who had loads of power, especially for someone so small. His punches make a nice crisp popping sound when they hit the bag, like a loud BAM! I watched what he was doing, and I noticed a few things:

1.) He pushes off his back foot with a lot more force than I do
2.) He rotates his hips into his punches like you advised
3.) His stance is really wide

Now, I'm not totally sure whether he's just bashing the bag as hard as he can to get a good cardio workout, but he *is* generating a lot of power. I don't want to completely copy him though, because I'm afraid of a few things.

First of all, with a stance that wide I think it might affect mobility around the ring. Maybe it would be good when in-fighting, but it doesn't seem ideal when you're at range, am I correct?

The next thing is, the lunge that he takes does generate a lot of power and he gets good forward movement, but I'm a little worried about commiting that much to a punch - especially a jab.

The third thing is that I'm worried about telegraphing the jab with so much movement. A big step and a big hip rotation would make it pretty obvious, right?

What do you guys think?


EDIT: I should probably mention that I'm not looking for heaps and heaps of power, it's just that my punches are incredibly weak. It's a little embarassing, but I'm determined to keep working on it to figure it out. The thing that really draws me to boxing is that it's such a technical sport, like a brutal chess game. I like the science and artistry of it and I'd like to one day be a sharp technical boxer, not so much a slugger. Having said that though, I still want to aim for good solid punches.

[greynotsoold]

A very wide stance makes it very hard to move and it isn't good for infighting, either, if by that you mean throwing punches from close range. If you are looking to throw sharp punches that travel 6" or 8"...well, you can't do it with your feet far apart because your weight won't get turned through. Watch the Chavez/Rosario fight: Rosario kept his feet wide and thus needed more room to punch, and Chavez, with a proper stance, was not only able to move in and out, but he punched the hell out of Rosario with short hooks and uppercuts.
Dempsey stepped in real hard with his straight left- it wouldn't be fitting to call it a jab- and, when you are looking to get inside, stepping in with the jab (by pushing off the back foot) is a good way to do it. Remember to bring your back foot in with you. The jab only needs a short turn of the shoulders and a very slight turn of the hips, unless you are very squared up, in which case the jab will be slow and the right hand will be another jab.
Many years ago, at this gym where I would take my fighter, there were two guys that everybody would stand and watch hit the heavybag. One guy was short and went 230, the other guy was tall, maybe 200, and they'd whack at that bag. Make all kinds of noise, spin in place, but not move much. My kid was 14, 115 pounds, and he'd pratically knock that thing off the swivel with his jab. He punched real good, good balance, and turned his hips.

[remy]

While walking to the gym today, I bumped into that guy that I mentioned who hits with a lot of power. We said hi and had a chat, and I mentioned how I was impressed with his power and asked him for some tips. He gave me the following:

1. Shifting your weight is important depending on which punch you want to throw.
2. When taking a step, don't make it a gentle step but plant the foot into the ground. So it's kinda like pushing off the back foot and landing on the lead foot with a bit of force, which can then get transferred through to the punch.
3. Turn the hips half a second before turning the shoulders. This gives your momentum a bit more of a 'snap'.

Afterwards I hurried to the gym and got my skipping done, wrapped up and headed to the bags. I tried out all the stuff that he told me, and it really helped! Tip #3 helped the most, and now my punches are starting to sound a lot better. They make that popping noise now when I hit the bag.

A few things I noticed that I need to improve on:

1. Sometimes I forget to turn my fist in. When I do, the punch is sharper and when I don't I sometimes hurt my wrist.
2. If I step forward with my punch and I don't bring my back foot up like you told me to - I lose balance.

I feel like tonight I made some real improvements, so I'm going to keep working on it to ingrain it into muscle memory...and then work on it some more Skipping has also improved a lot, when I started I could barely finish a round but now I can do 3. My goal is to get 5 rounds comfortably, and then after that I'll start mixing in sprints into my skipping rounds.

~Remy

[greynotsoold]

He gave you good advice. A punch starts at the floor and goes in sequnce: you pivot your foot, you turn your hips, your shoulders turn, that drives the blow.