Footwork Drills

[Sang]

• skipping

• rope drills like in football where you lay down 20 ropes on the ground 10 inches apart and run through them in a set pattern as fast as you can.

• crazy monkey footwork drill where you place a glove down on the foor and shadow around it like an opponent.

• concentrate on using perfect footwork in padwork and during sparring, don't get lazy between combinations. Habits you form during padwork translate directly to sparring and fighting.

[Odacon]

Two very simple drill we use are
1: facing your partner, one is in "control" for 30 sec, moves side to side trying to lose the other guy, switching control each round.

2: with a partner both with feet in fighting stance but hands low, each try and slap the lead leg of your partner, each person trying to hit without being hit themselves. Do two or three 30 sec rounds then on the next round spin for 10/25 sec before the next round, going straight into the round from spinning.

[GHemmer]

One thing i learned off one of my muay thai instructors Jeff Jimmo who is a very credited and good instructour out of North Carolina by the way, is too shut your eyes at random points throughout your footwork drills and while your shadow boxing. You can lie to yourself if your off balance, but your equilibrium will not.

[MMAMickey]

your eyes are an intrinsic part of your balance and imperative for judging distance, of course shutting them while shadow boxing will **** you up, but making more conservative movements isnt necessarily the answer.

if you can put your body behind a punch from where you are standing then you are on balance. if you hit something and go backwards/sideways across the ring you are not.

[Ammar]

A good simple one is to move around the mat with another person as if you are sparring, and dont throw strikes. take turns being the one going in and out, then have one person go in, then out, like after a combo.

You should have footwork like this in no time:


YouTube- Anderson Silva dança Michael Jackson

Heh, I've heard it being said that good dancing <=> Good footwork.

Maybe that's why I've always had difficulties with footwork, 'cause I'm such a horrible dancer :/

[tideliar]

• skipping

• rope drills like in football where you lay down 20 ropes on the ground 10 inches apart and run through them in a set pattern as fast as you can.

• crazy monkey footwork drill where you place a glove down on the foor and shadow around it like an opponent.

• concentrate on using perfect footwork in padwork and during sparring, don't get lazy between combinations. Habits you form during padwork translate directly to sparring and fighting.

Number 3 nails it too. Practice getting this right even when you're just drilling. This is something we work on and something I bully into the n00bs. Every drill needs good form. if you're tired, the sacrifice speed and power but keep your technique. Condition in conditioning drills, perfect form otherwise.

A favourite of mine (previously mentioned), is to let a padded partner "attack you" and you may only react defensively and by trying to GTF out of the way. It is surprising how often guys start to turtle up, or let themselves get trapped in corner if they can't punch back.