How to master the art of self-defence

A. Boxing

I. Stance & Footwork

1. Feet a bit wider than shoulder width

If your feet are too wide you might have more balance, but you’ll also lose some power on the dominant hand. Take a look at the stances of a guy like Rocky Marciano versus the stance of a guy like Floyd Mayweather Jr. Marciano was going after the knockout in every fight and had his feet about shoulder width apart, while Mayweather Jr. has a wider stance for balance and movement because of his “score points first and not get hit” mentality.

Also, don’t keep your feet in a straight line; this will take away from your power. Have your feet facing the same direction with your back foot slightly to the side.

2. Make a small target

I say have your back foot slightly out to the side, but don’t go overboard. Notice how you can’t see my whole chest-you want to avoid being square to your opponent, providing as little a target as possible. The less he can see, the less he’s going to be able to hit, which also means keeping your hands up as well.

3. Chin down

You’ll hear it a lot in fights; the announcer will say something like: “He’s throwing punches with his chin in the air,” or, “He got hit right on the button.” So why is this? Well, just above your jaw bone there’s a bony ridge on either side of your head that protects a bunch of nerves. A punch landing on the front of the chin drives the jaw bone into those nerves, causing disorientation and loss of co-ordination that can result in a knockout. So keep your chin down and your hands up.

4. Be in a position to react and throw back

Keep your knees bent with the weight on the balls of your feet. You also want to take small steps; making larger movements with your feet will result in one foot being off the ground for too long. If you’re hit while in the middle of a step, you’ll be off balance and not in the position to slip, or plant and throw a punch back.

5. Elbows in

As much as you want to protect your chin and head, you also want to protect your body and throw straight punches. Keeping your elbows in tight to your body will allow you to get them in a position to block punches to the torso as well as help keep your punches straight.

II. Defence

The first thing that should be understood about defense is that it is more or less done to serve another purpose. You’re not blocking just for the sake of not getting hit, but blocking to get in a position to return an effective punch that will hurt your opponent or lead to a punch that’ll land flush.

There are two methods to do this:

1. You can block or parry the punch.

2. You can slip the punch.

In a sport where the objective is to hurt your opponent more than he hurts you, defense is a pretty important thing, which is why we’ll be covering how to defend yourself from getting hit before we go over punching.

Mix it up

Don’t rely on just blocking or just slipping. Just like on offense, keep your opponent guessing as to what you’re going to do next. If you block five punches in a row, your opponent might think he’s going to at least make some kind of contact and load up; slipping the next punch he throws might get him off balance and out of position, which you’ll take advantage of.

Stay tight

You’ll hear announcers say, “This guy has some tight defense.” This means having your elbows in tight to the midsection, hands high and protecting your chin, which is down and also being protected by your shoulders. There isn’t a lot of open space to land anything.

Be on balance

Again, the point of avoiding a punch is to get yourself in position to throw an effective punch in return. To do this you have to stay on balance, on the balls of your feet and avoid doing huge, out of control movements. Keep your movement (both upper and lower body) small, quick, and under control.

Don’t give anything away

Boxing is like a lot of other sports in this way, but let’s use basketball as an example. If a guy comes down and hits two straight three’s, the next time down the court he might throw up a shot fake to get his opponent in the air so he can either draw a foul or gain a clear path to the basket. Boxing is the same; a guy’s jab might be on point, and he might hit with two or three in a row that land, but then he’ll throw out a faint (a fake) to get his opponent opened up and then come around with a hook.

Read your opponent

If your hands are fast enough to parry his jab, wait for him to throw it before showing the parry (block). If your hands are a lot slower than his, keep your hands up and rely on smaller, more subtle movements to block his punches. If he throws out a faint and you commit, it’s a lot easier to recover if you’re under control than if you aren’t.

Make him miss, by a little bit

You don’t need your opponent to miss you by a foot or two; you just need him to miss you. Actually, you just want him not to hit you flush and direct. If he just grazes the side of your head, great! He didn’t do any damage, and it won’t be counted as a point.

So, just like in blocking and in your footwork, stay under control with small movements.

Eyes on the target

You want to be looking at your opponent’s upper chest. By doing this you’re able to see his hands, shoulders, and head. Some guys throw little hints out before they punch. For example they might raise their left shoulder before throwing a jab, or they may move their dominant shoulder forward before throwing a cross (right shoulder on an orthodox fighter, left on a southpaw).

Even when you’re blocking and slipping, keep your eyes at his upper chest and be ready to throw back. Slip and block in a way that allows you to see your opponent at all times. Boxing’s all about angles, and if your opponent throws punches in bunches, gets you to cover up and lose sight of where he is, he can change his angle and get you out of position, which isn’t good.

It’s always the punch you don’t see coming that knocks you out. Keep that in mind.

III. Punching - Jab & Cross

Why is the jab the most important punch in boxing?

1. Because it’s the most used punch.
2. It sets up your more damaging punches.
3. It’s used to gauge distance and create angles.

Tips

Transferring Weight

Effectively transferring weight is extremely important when throwing a jab. If all of your weight starts on your front foot, there won’t be much power to the punch, and it won’t land effectively. There also won’t be adequate speed on the punch either, and you’ll be too off balance to react to any of your opponent’s counters.

The cross, whether it’s a left or right cross, is one of the most powerful punches in your arsenal. Take a look at Rocky Marciano’s stance as the best example. His weight is almost completely on his back leg.

When it comes time to throw his punch, he transfers that weight to his front leg.

Rocky’s going for absolute power and isn’t too worried about speed. If you’re just starting out, having a more centered stance is recommended until you figure out your strengths, weaknesses, and style of fighting.

Remember, power doesn’t come from your arms, no matter what punch you’re throwing. You need to be able to use your lower body effectively to land with speed and power.

Opening Up Your Opposite Shoulder

If you fight in an orthodox stance this means bringing back the left shoulder when throwing the cross. If you’re a southpaw, this means bringing back your right shoulder when throwing the cross.

Relax

Maybe the most important tip about punching is to just relax. I see it in the gym a lot; we’ll get a newbie in who’s pretty muscular. He’ll think punching is all about using his muscles to push his fist as fast and as hard as possible. But if your muscles are tense when you throw a punch:

1. It’s not going to be fast in a fighting situation. You may show speed on the bag, but not when someone’s hitting you back. You’ll be too tense to react effectively.
2. It won’t be as powerful as it should be.
3. You’re going to run out of gas real quick unless you find a way to relax.

Don’t Admire Your Work

If you land a solid punch, follow it up with another punch, or a few other punches. Don’t just stand there and admire what you have done; that’s one of the best ways to get caught with something damaging.

Either punch or move after you’ve landed something effective.

A Punch Starts from the Ground Up

Power comes from your legs, hips, and core. If you try and “push” a punch and just use your arms, you won’t have the same power and speed as you would if you got your whole body into it.

Loose Hands Until Contact

Don’t spend a whole round clenching your fists as tightly as possible; your hands will fatigue fast, and you’ll be too tense to react quickly and precisely. Keep your hands open while you block, slip, and parry punches, only making a fist when you’re attempting to land something.

IV. Punching - Hook & Uppercut

1. Don’t throw a lead uppercut. That is, don’t throw an uppercut unless it is preceded by another punch.
2. Don’t “show” your hook unless you’re using it to set up another punch. A hook is best thrown when your opponent doesn’t see it coming, mainly following a cross or an uppercut.
3. Throw both punches with bad intentions.

Tips:

Put your body into it

Every punch starts from the ground up, but this is especially true with the hook and the uppercut. Your hips are the most important aspect of each punch as your arm doesn’t extend like it does when you’re throwing a cross or a jab.

Let your hips lead the punch, with your shoulder and arm following.

Ali demonstrates the power of the hook.

Protect yourself when throwing the punch

When guys throw a hook, a lot of the time they throw their chin out there as well, giving their opponent a nice big target. Keep your opposite hand up and your chin down throughout the duration of the punch.

I mentioned that it’s always the punch that isn’t seen or expected that results in a knockout, well, when you’re throwing a punch the last thing you’re expecting is to get hit with a solid one, so keep that in mind.

Punches in bunches

Ideally, throw either punch at the end of a combination or flurry, or at least after throwing another punch.

A good combination to set up an uppercut: throw a jab, cross, hook then finish with a solid uppercut.

To set up a powerful hook: throw it after throwing a cross. You can even throw one off of a jab which is usually unexpected.

Understand your opponent

To land a hard punch in the right spot you don’t want your opponent to be expecting it, but you also don’t want them to be guarding that spot.

If you’re throwing a left hook, you don’t want his right hand up at the side of his head. To get it out of the way, throw a jab, cross or uppercut which will get his mind off the middle of his body, opening up the sides.

If you’re throwing an uppercut, precede it with a hook to get his guard on the side, opening up the middle of his body, making him vulnerable to an uppercut.

Focus on speed and accuracy, not power

You hear it in baseball a lot: “He struck out swinging for the fences.”

Well it’s no different with boxing. Loading up on your punches is like having a “tell” in poker: it gives your opponent a head start to defend or land something of his own.

Focus on speed; power is something that shouldn’t be forced. If it is, you risk premature fatigue, and missing your target.

V. Punching combinations

VIDEO

Tips

Using the jab to measure distance

On the double jab + cross, throw out two fast and powerful jabs as you’re coming closer to your opponent. The jabs will do two things: allow you to measure distance to set up your cross and keep your opponent’s guard busy.

He’ll be concentrating on how to defend the two quick jabs. The cross will come from a different angle and will hit him a lot harder than the jabs. Step in with that lead foot to get more distance on your cross as well.

Make the last punch count

I’ve heard guys say that they throw each and every punch at 100%. And I guess to each their own, but that’s an easy way to fatigue early, especially if some of those punches miss or are blocked.

By throwing a few “lighter” punches out there, you won’t be expending as much energy, and your opponent might also loosen up a bit which will open him up for the punch that you throw at 100%, with bad intensions.

On the jab + cross + hook combination, you can throw a quick jab, hard cross and hard hook, then finish the combo up with a few jabs; it’s entirely up to you. But make sure you’re mixing things up in tempo, speed, and power.

Don’t be repetitive

Don’t have a pattern to what you’re doing. Don’t always throw a double jab then cross; mix it up by throwing 1,2 or 3 jabs and then finishing with a cross. Mix things up when you’re in there sparring.

The easiest way to knock someone out is to know what they’re going to do next. I knocked a guy out because he kept on throwing the same combination: 2 jabs + cross + hook. I parried the two jabs, rolled with the cross, then fired a cross back before he could get the hook in there. I’ve also been hit pretty hard because I was punching with a pattern, not fun!

Don’t have a pattern to what you’re doing, instead……

Work with what he gives you

You shouldn’t just be throwing mindless combinations at your opponent, or even at a heavy bag for that matter.

See what your opponent gives you in the way of openings and exploit them. If he keeps his right hand down and he’s an orthodox fighter, set up a combination that ends in a hook. Get him thinking about other areas of his body, then land a hard punch to his weakest point.

If your opponent keeps his hands really high, go to work on his body. It hurts more getting hit with a solid body punch in the right spot than it does getting hit in the head.