Getting the head movement while punching down is all about repping the proper mechanics.
Watch this video on Tyson’s (and Cus D’Amato’s) punching. Notice how Tyson’s head and body weight shifts as he unloads his punches. Note also that (at least in his prime) Tyson seldom got countered squarely as well. That elusivity was largely the product of his head movement both while throwing his punches and pretty much any time he was “in the pocket”; it also served to keep his opponents mentally and physically off balance as they never knew if or where a punch was coming.
In short, if you are not practicing shifting your body weight (and head) while striking, you aren’t correctly practicing your strikes.
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6/9/17
Did a bro chest workout with an old mate who I used to lift with straight after boxing on Saturday. Bench press, pec deck, incline press etc, still had doms on Monday haha.
Monday
Laps rnd gym+shadowboxing and dynamic stretches
6x2 Sparring: open spar but focusing on defense, couple of rnds only using hand defenses, couple rnds only using head movement then couple rnds w/ both. All w/ lighter lads so fairly chilled.
Tuesday
~5min run+1x2 shadowboxing and dynamic stretches
3x2 Sparring: With same lad as Saturday, coaches said they’re going to be putting me an him in together a lot now. Being honest, I spent the whole day shitting myself about sparring him just because he’s 10kg heavier an comes in throwing massive hooks but he only caught me properly with one hard hook and one hard right hand and even then it wasn’t as bad as I’d built it up in my head.
Also I landed a beautiful right hook to the body which he mentioned after the spar, @Sentoguy I used a double jab to ‘blind’ him then slipped to the right putting my weight on the right leg and unloaded. Thank you very much for the advice, very helpful, I’m sparring him again Thursday so I’ll try out your other suggestions.
1x15 Partner Pads: various drills
3x2 Bag Drills
Wednesday
Nice easy tech session, which I needed with all the sparring I’ve done an will do this week.
Laps round gym+3x2 shadow and dynamic stretches
3x2 Footwork/Movement Drill w/bodyweights in between rnds
1x30 Partner Pads: all focused on defense
2x2 Bag Drills
Bodyweight circuit to finish
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11/9/17
Thursday
Was the worst day I’ve had in a very long time so went into sparring with a fucked up head and I got beaten up nicely. Coach even said at the end of one of the rnds, ‘If that was a bout you would have been stopped again.’ Needless to say in my fragile mental state I took the whole thing pretty hard.
Boxing - 6:30pm
Laps rnd gym+shadowboxing and some short shuttle sprints to warm up
4x2 Sparring: I know what I need to work on and my coach knows so that’s all that matters, I’m not going to run through how and why I got beat up, I just did.
Did some other general fitness bagwork etc, can’t say I remember it all.
Friday
Boxing Session - 4:00pm
Laps rnd gym+4x2 Shadow
2x2 Ropes
2x2 Pads
2x2 Ropes
2x2 Pads
2x2 Ropes
2x2 Pads
30secs between rnds, was brutal, with a fast pace on the pads when me coach wasn’t helping me.
3x2 Bags: burnout drills
Monday
Boxing Session - 5:30pm
Laps rnd gym+3x2 Shadow and some dynamic stretches
10x2 Bags: some standard rnds w/5or10sec punch outs and some other fitness drills
Bodyweight circuit x3 each time the rnd was a little shorter
Was just a basic session but it felt great, like I really gave 100%. Wanted to start adding two a days back in last week but ended up sparring 4 times in 6 days and boxing 5 days straight so that wasn’t going to happen even if I had wanted to. Head wasn’t in the right place either.
Feeling much better now, can’t wait to beat someone up. Depending on how I feel tomorrow I’ll do some intervals and a strength session.
12/9/17
Roadwork - 11:05am
3x2 Intervals: 20secs fast as I could maintain then 10sec jog
Was much harder than I expected but I think it’ll be beneficial.
Strength Session - 3:45pm
Incline DB Press/Neutral Grip Pull Ups
3x5: 22.5kg db’s
3x5: easier than I thought
BB Row/Single Arm DB Press
3x5: 50kg
3x5: 10kg
Hyperextensions
3x15
Coach told me I’m sparring Wednesday+Thursday and gave me a specific thing he wanted to see from me. I’m excited for it
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13/9/17
Boxing Session - 5:30pm
Laps rnd gym+3x2 shadow and some plyos
8x1 Sparring: 3 of us, kept swapping so did 1min with both lads, no rest between them, then out for 1min then back in. Felt good, went in with a much more positive attitude and felt like I controlled most of the rnds. Still got stuff to work on obviously but it showed me how important the mental side is.
4x2 Partner Pads: working on a solid guard
1x5 Bag Drills
Bodyweight circuit.
Also coach told me the lad I sparred the other week (who beat me up), came in with a massive black eye I gave him which was a nice confidence boost.
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19/9/17
Thursday
Boxing Session - 6:30pm
Didn’t get to spar Thursday as my coach didn’t realise another gym was coming so my services as sparring partner weren’t needed.
Still got a good session, worked specifically on movement after throwing shots and a 2nd phase for about 30mins on partner pads and did some general conditioning on bags, bodyweight etc
Friday
2x2 Ropes
4x2 Shadow
3x2 Sparring: Round robin style, 1min w/1 lad, 1min w/another lad then rest for a min while other two spar then back in. Coach said it was a big improvement on last time which was strange because I didn’t feel as though I did as well, although I was consciously making an effort to move my feet in with my punches which is what my coach always shouts at me to do.
2x2 Bags
1x5 Shadow
Monday
Boxing Session - 5:30pm
Laps rnd gym
1x15 Sprint Drills: total of 8 sprints
3x2 Pads
5x2 Bag Drills
Bodyweight circuit
Tuesday
Roadwork - 5:50pm
3x2 Intervals: 20secs fast as could maintain, 10secs slow jog
Easier this week, will add another round next time.
Been trying to do some 2 a days but I’ve been sparring a lot more and I don’t always get told when it’s happening so I’ve been cautious of training earlier in the day if I could be sparring later. Definitely going to get one 2 a day in this week.
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20/9/17
Boxing Session - 5:30pm
Laps rnd gym
3x1 Shadow w/ 3x1 Footwork Drills
3x2 Tech Sparring: One person was attacking other was defending, was only light to keep warm as we were waiting for another gym to come and spar.
3x2 Sparring: With a lad who’d had 5 fights and was 69kg (I was 70kg after training). Did well in 1st took centre ring and landed some good shots through his guard. 2nd rnd he did better although I landed some nice body shots and 3rd was pretty even although I felt I got the harder shots in.
Coach said to me before training, ‘Do you want to fight Tuesday? Doesn’t matter, you’re fighting Tuesday’. So I’ve got a bout next Tuesday at 70kg (I think?) but thats all I know.
That’s really cool mate. Your coach obviously has faith in you and from your posts, you are starting to hit your stride quite comfortably. Keep a level head and enjoy the experience!
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Thanks man, appreciate it. Nice to know this log isn’t just me talking to myself haha. Saw you’re applying to be an army officer, lots of respect for that. I actually applied for a scholarship to be an army officer but it wasn’t for me, going to hopefully join the paracute regiment when I’m out of college. Stay safe mate.
21/9/17
Conditioning Session - 5:15pm
1x2 Rope+dynamic warm up
10secs 100% sprint 15secs rest x6
3x30m @100% waited till I was nearly recovered then went again
100 Burpees in 4:40 in 5sets of 20
JT Van V said in a recent video if he can do 100 burpees (5x20) in 5mins then he knows he’s fit so I’m very happy with that especially considering my pre-workout nutrition was a glass of orange juice.
1x2 Shadow
22/9/17
Boxing Session - 4:55pm
2x2 Rope w/10 press ups 10 squats after both rnds
2x2 Shadow
3x2 Bags
3x2 Double End Bag
1x1 Rope+1x1 Shadow
Quick session, quality over quantity.
Nice to hear that “blinding Jab” helped you. The Jab is the most common punch thrown in boxing (accounts for roughly 60% of all punches thrown), but mixing up the targeting, speed, usage, and even power can make it an even more useful and effective tool.
Good luck in your fight.
24/9/17
Saturday
~5min run
3x2 Shadow w/dynamic stretches between rnds
6x2 Partner Pads
3x2 Ropes
3x2 Bags
3x2 Partner Pads: conditioning drills
3x2 Circuit w/~150m run after each rnd: 6stations x 20secs+run, took great pride in being able to throw the medicine ball further than anyone else
Coach text me to say I’ve got to be 68kg for Tuesday. I was 70kg bang on Friday evening and now at 3:20pm on Sunday I’m 68.7kg so it’s all good.
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Was actually boxing Wednesday not Tuesday so had an extra day to rest and make weight. I weighed in at 68.5kg. I was very happy with how the little weight cut went.
I went the full 3 rounds so that’s an improvement but I lost the decision.
Got a video of rounds 2+3 and watched it back today and I just didn’t throw anywhere near enough. I’ll put it up later. On the night I realised he kept hitting me with the wide left hooks because my guard was dropping and I wasn’t stepping in with my shots enough.
All my coaches were really happy with how much I’d improved and I felt very fit even though I didn’t throw many punches. Also didn’t go to the body like I’d planned but hey, back to the gym tomorrow and start working on fixing my mistakes.
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Was this due to fatigue, wanting to save yourself for later rounds or just not hitting you rhythm?
They are 3 x 3minute rounds?
It’s 3x2 for the amateurs until you get to the competitions then sometimes there’s 3min rnds or just more 2min rounds.
I didn’t throw enough because I was thinking too much. I was waiting for the perfect opportunity when I should just have been throwing because I could wait 12rnds for the perfect moment to punch and it would never come if that makes sense.
Definitely know where you are coming from. It’s more of a case of ‘create your own perfect opportunity’ rather than wait for your opponent to give you one. I can imagine it’s a lot easier said than done in a fight situation vs a sparring situation though.
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Wanting to counterfight is a common thing for beginners when they get in the ring (either that or going 100% “pressure”/offensive). Just understand that waiting for your opponent to throw first, then trying to counter punch them requires a lot of skill and unless you are naturally very fast/your opponent is very slow it’s usually not a great strategy.
Action is almost always faster than reaction and whoever goes first gets to say when and where the “race” starts. If you do like to counter fight, at least try to “make” your opponent throw their punch (rather than “letting” them) and then counter them.
For instance, a lot of people will throw a Right Cross over your Jab if you throw it regularly. If you establish that they like to do so, then fake the Jab and “draw” their counter, then counter their Right Cross attempt. Or if they throw a Jab back when you Jab them (some guys will just try to “obstruct/catch” your Jab with their Jab/lead hand), fake the Jab and when they reach out to obstruct, throw your right hand over (or under) their lead arm.
Good luck, congrats on learning from your fights and working hard to implement those lessons!
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Thanks Sento, appreciate it, I feinted with the jab a bit but I came back out too far after so I couldn’t get in with a counter. Will work on that, as well as being more offensive.
Edit: I’m in the blue corner.
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Shit man there was a left hook from you in the 2nd round that looked like you pulled out of too early.
Your opponent moved well. I fuckin hate it in boxing when they keeping ducking their head down and exposing just the back of their head. Mayweather did it against McGregor a heap and got illegal hammer fists dealt to him.
In any other fighting situation, doing that would give the opposition an awesome opportunity to end the fight, but in boxing I don’t believe you have many options.
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