My sparring video (boxing)

**AMF** · Posted On: 12/06/2006 2:48pm

the stats:

me;
6'3
240 lbs
haven't sparred in just boxing in about four months. have been working on closing to a clinch, striking from there and take downs/reversals

him
6'
260
hasn't sparred in boxing in about 2 years.
ameteur record of 1 win by KO 3 losses by points.

We did two six minute rounds alternating between offense and defense two minutes each and head to head for two minutes.

the last round was 3 minutes 1 minute trading off offense and defense and head to head.

This was light contact, about 50% and medium speed.

Alright tear it up, all inputs welcome you bastards.

http://s146.photobucket.com/albums/r279/AMF321/?sc=3

**MM4Guy** · Posted On: 12/06/2006 3:13pm

I'm only critiquing the guy in the brown who I assume to be you (taller), from an average boxers point of view.

Your weight was on your front foot, I recently transitioned from MT to Boxing last year so this is what I had the hardest problem with and thats what I noticed you were doing.

Need to work on finding a comfortable range to let loose those bombs. I'm not sure if you were smothering your punches because you were going light, but in the first 5 seconds your jabs kept getting shorter and shorter.

You need to work on your body punches, as emphasized by 25 seconds and 41 seconds especially. You also need work on your hooks, I don't know how powerful they'd be even at 100% power with form like that. I think turning your hips would help fix that problem.

At around 1:30 you definitely need to work on your boxing defense, that wouldn't work against a good boxer.

The biggest problem I saw was footwork there were plenty of times on defense/offense where your footwork got really jumbled up. The person in the tan constantly crossed their feet, which is a huge mistake in anything (Boxing, MT, MMA).

You also need to keep your other hand up when you are jabbing, and use your jabbing shoulder to protect the side of your face from overhand rights.

That was from the first video.

The second video at around 2:50 you put your hands down and moved your head back, big mistake.

Take my advice for what it's worth, I'm a fighter not an instructor, and the things that I corrected were the things that I noticed because I would of taken advantage of them in a fight, or things that were obvious.

**AMF** · Posted On: 12/06/2006 4:20pm

much grass bro.( I am the guy in the brown shirt. )

appreciate the comments.

**MM4Guy** · Posted On: 12/06/2006 4:47pm

Originally Posted by AMF

much grass bro.( I am the guy in the brown shirt. )

appreciate the comments.

NP. I think you should first work on fixing your stance and moving fluidly in that stance. For example, even when I'm jabbing all my weights still on my back foot except for the brief 1/2 second my weights on my front foot as my punch extends.

**Torakaka** · Posted On: 12/06/2006 4:55pm

Ok some suggestions:

1. even when going especially light, try not to let yourself arm punch. This is going to develop bad habits over time, especially since you seem to be at a pretty early stage in your training from what I can tell.

2. Try to always have some snap to your punches. Again, you seem to be allowing "going light" to effect your technique to too great a degree. You want to be relaxed and light, but keep all your movements short and quick.

3. Your stance is very square. Is your coach training you in the peekaboo style of boxing? If not, I'd recommend dropping your stance back into more of a boxer T to give yourself a longer jab and a harder cross, especially since you're pretty tall.

4. When working on defense as a taller person, don't work so much on ducking and rolling. You want to work more on evasive footwork first and foremost. There's no sense in trying to have defense like Tyson when you're not 5' 10".

5. Never ever ever cover up and put your head down. This will get you KO'd. Keep your back straight and your eyes forward. Left uppercut, right overhand and you're done.

6. If you're going to duck and roll, don't bend at the waste. Keep your back straight and your head up or you're gonna get punched in the back of the head, and that will really mess you up. In boxing it's not exactly legal, but if you put your head down, it's bound to happen.

7. I can't stress enough... if you're a tall fighter, fight like one! Straighten up and move around. Work the jab big time for offense and slipping and footwork for defense.

There's probably more I wanted to say, but I've kinda lost track of my thoughts.

**AMF** · Posted On: 12/06/2006 5:24pm

Thanks again.

We were trying to go light so as not to be too messed up going back to work. (this was at lunch time BTW)

2. Try to always have some snap to your punches. Again, you seem to be allowing "going light" to effect your technique to too great a degree. You want to be relaxed and light, but keep all your movements short and quick.

3. Your stance is very square. Is your coach training you in the peekaboo style of boxing? If not, I'd recommend dropping your stance back into more of a boxer T to give yourself a longer jab and a harder cross, especially since you're pretty tall.

Can you explain more on the short and quick?

Yes my stance is square and I tend to switch off righ to left. Can you elaborate on the T? I have always squared like this and thus far noone has corrected it.

5. Never ever ever cover up and put your head down. This will get you KO'd. Keep your back straight and your eyes forward. Left uppercut, right overhand and you're done.

6. If you're going to duck and roll, don't bend at the waste. Keep your back straight and your head up or you're gonna get punched in the back of the head, and that will really mess you up. In boxing it's not exactly legal, but if you put your head down, it's bound to happen.

7. I can't stress enough... if you're a tall fighter, fight like one! Straighten up and move around. Work the jab big time for offense and slipping and footwork for defense.

You're right about straightening up, and not bending at the waist. Any pointers on breaking the habit of doing that?

Like I said before, appreciate the comments. I'm gonna be out for awhile to go pick up my kids for weekly visitation. I'll check back in on this later.

**tabris** · Posted On: 12/06/2006 6:22pm

Originally Posted by AMF

You're right about straightening up, and not bending at the waist. Any pointers on breaking the habit of doing that?

Like I said before, appreciate the comments. I'm gonna be out for awhile to go pick up my kids for weekly visitation. I'll check back in on this later.

I am not Kid but a good way to break the habit of bending at the waist is doing squats with emphasis on form. Then do some duck, roll and hook mitt drills when you get the squatting movement down.

**Torakaka** · Posted On: 12/06/2006 8:52pm

Originally Posted by AMF

Can you explain more on the short and quick?

Basically what you want to do when you punch, no matter how hard or soft you want to hit someone, is keep your arm totally relaxed and pop it out and retract it like a rubber band. The better you are at snapping your punches, the more control you'll have of them and the harder you'll be able to hit with them. One thing you can do to see if you're snapping your punches, or pushing with them, is punch a suspended bag (preferably less than 100lbs). If it swings, you're pushing it, if it pops up and folds in the spot you hit it, you're snapping.

Originally Posted by AMF

Yes my stance is square and I tend to switch off righ to left. Can you elaborate on the T? I have always squared like this and thus far noone has corrected it.

Basically with the boxers T, your feet should be about shoulder width apart, take a natural step back with what should be your rear foot. Point your shoulder forward, towards your target with your right hand up by your cheek and your left hand out in front.

Originally Posted by AMF

5. Never ever ever cover up and put your head down. This will get you KO'd. Keep your back straight and your eyes forward. Left uppercut, right overhand and you're done.

6. If you're going to duck and roll, don't bend at the waste. Keep your back straight and your head up or you're gonna get punched in the back of the head, and that will really mess you up. In boxing it's not exactly legal, but if you put your head down, it's bound to happen.

7. I can't stress enough... if you're a tall fighter, fight like one! Straighten up and move around. Work the jab big time for offense and slipping and footwork for defense.

You're right about straightening up, and not bending at the waist. Any pointers on breaking the habit of doing that?

In addition to the squats that someone mentioned, putting more weight on your rear foot than your front foot will help with this quite a bit, in addition to adding to your mobility. Always try to be conscious of your posture, not just when ducking, but also when throwing punches. For the longest time I had an issue with leaning over whenever I'd throw punches, and it really screwed me up.

Hope that was helpful.

**AMF** · Posted On: 12/07/2006 11:04am

Yup that helps alot.

Thanks Kid.

We're going to be doing this on a monthly basis, so I have plenty to work on between now and the next time.

I'll be posting that vid as well.

Anyone else?

**Happycrow** · Posted On: 12/07/2006 11:32am

Man, I wish *I* had somebody to box with in-between classes. But most of us teacher types don't want anything to do with it, unfortunately, no matter how hard you try to show them the beauty of the game.

I'm mixed on the square-vs-T. I'm a kicker, so if I'm allowed to use my feet, I love it when my opponent's in the T (but nota bene, up-top, you suffer for it). But if you want to stay more square, you're going to need to really work on your counterpunching versus just crowding for a clinch, b/c a guy with a good stiff jab will be able to continuously pop you and slide right on out.

Kid already beat me to most of what needed to be said. Suffice it to say that I agree with all of it, ESPECIALLY the part about arm punching and pushing rather than hitting. That's the A-#1 mistake I see self-taught guys doing.

Specifically, concerning being light on your feet, AMF, you're on your heels, a LOT. Both of you are. I don't know about wrestlers, b/c it's been ages since I did that, but it's a big no-no in boxing, because it sinks your weight, and makes it nearly imposible to roll with a punch. Blue shorts can get away with that as a croucher. You're too big to do that.

When you punch, you let your guard go all over the place. The guy in the blue trunks gave you a REALLY easy couple of rounds there, rather than counterpunching. Now, the camera makes it look more obvious than it is in real life (the couple of times I've seen myself on film I wanted to throw up), but since you're arm punching and not rolling your shoulder, he had tons of opportunities to cross those jabs.

Also, Kid's #5 is actually a penalty called "dangerous boxing" and will get you thrown right out of the amateur ring. When you duck like that (and I'm guilty of it too, b/c I don't guard my breadbasket well enough and it gets frogged... but at 50% power, that's not an issue), you're exposing the back of your neck to an accidental elbow. People have died in the ring that way, and you need to make sure your guy with the camera is SERIOUSLY ragging your ass on it. Safety first.