Quote Originally Posted by Von Milash View Post
Interesting scrap. But what about guys with bad knees?

As far as the towel thing goes, good little ex. A bar of soap in a sock is even better.

But IMO, this is what shadow boxing and its incorporation of mental imagery should (help) accomplish. Trouble is, most guys just go through offensive motions of shadow boxing. they spend very little time doing exercises aimed at developing the muscle memory needed for good upper body (defensive) movement.

In fact, IMO, shadow boxing, when done properly and using all of your faculties, is better for defense than offense. It seems more guys just like to watch themselves in the mirror at how pretty their movement is, when in fact it is accomplishing very little.

just my opinion.

on that note, one thing I love to do is lean on the ropes and do random upper body movement movement and the accompanying defensive mental imagery. you can also throw nice straight punches of the ropes with either hand while visualizing your opponent throw punches back.

Your body doesn't know that the imaginary guy in front of you whose punches you're slipping and blocking isn't real.
Good post Von, right on.

I see the same thing at my gym all the time.When it's shadow boxing time, a lot of guys I see are just going through the motions, throwing punches with very little thought about defense or footwork. Thankfully my main sparring partner is a LOT better than that.

Recently I've been trying to work on my defense more so I won't become dependent on relying on my footwork. This comes down to what you're talking about, shadow boxing with an opponent in mind. So everytime that I throw a punch, I practice my defense according to what my imaginary opponent does. It's just like playing checkers/chess with yourself.

It's a big part of boxing as far as I'm concerned. I think that's Scraps idea would be helpful as well. If you can develop a feel for the movement and trigger your body to do it right, boxing will come a lot easier.