Following these five boxing tips will help you advance your boxing skills and make you a better all round fighter.
''To be the best, you have to train the best'' - Fraser Neill
This is not a quick fix to improve your boxing overnight, it takes hard work and dedication. You need to be willing to put many hours of practice in to be the best. If you think you have what it takes then following these top five boxing tips will put you well and truly on your way to boxing stardom. What are you waiting for, lets get started!
“Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.'' - Bo Jackson
5 Boxing Tips
1. Practicing in both boxing stances.
Training in southpaw or orthodox over an extended period of time creates imbalances in your bodies muscular structures. This impedes your bodies ability to maintain its centre of gravity and balance if you are pushed out of the stance position. The turned stance position boxers train and compete in results in some muscle groups working more than others on each side of the body. As a result your body starts to build muscle unequally on opposing muscular structures.
Changing your stance opens up new offensive opportunities and doubles your punching repertoire on your opponent. Changing stance can also help you close the ring down on your opponent; As a orthodox boxer it will be harder to close the ring off to the right of a Southpaw opponent, the reason behind this is that a southpaw boxer would have his front foot (right) obstructing the boxers movement to the right side. As a result changing stance helps you cut the ring off more effectively and could create new offensive opportunities such as trapping a boxer in the corner by switching stance.
Unpredictability is important in boxing, you need to win the battle of the minds. As well as using feints to trick your opponent you can also change stance, this brings new offensive and defensive opportunities such as new punching angles, also helping you take angles on your opponent. Changing stance mid fight can also confuse your opponent and also help you identify if your opponent has any weaknesses boxing against the other stance.
2. Practice footwork drills
Agility ladders are used in many sports and for good reason. They help train a part of the brain called the prefrontal motor cortex which is situated in the frontal lobe of the brain. Training this specific part of the brain will help improve fine movement control and also help increase the speed in which it is executed. A variety of diffrent drills can be done to achieve diffrent goals but one thing is for certain, practising footwork drills will not only improve your desired sport specific skills but your whole athletic performance. Boxers such as Vasyl Lomachenko practice a lot of footwork and in my opinion has the best footwork in boxing. If you want to improve your offensive and defensive skills footwork is a great way to keep out of the way of your opponent or manipulate your opponent into a corner or angling off on your opponent.
3. Strength training Programmes to develop a boxers strength have great importance. Developing the glycolytic fast twitch muscle fibres (type 2B), and the oxidative fast twitch muscle fibres (type 2A) will help improve a boxers speed, strength and power. The type 2B fibres are used in short explosive bursts and fatigue very quickly. Due to the high fatigue rates of the type 2B muscle fibres boxers should also train their oxidative fast twitch muscle fibres (type 2A) which will take over once their type 2B muscle fibres are fatigued. Type 2A muscle fibres recover a lot quicker than type 2B due to the amount of oxygen the muscles take in. However they also produce short bursts of explosive force.
Training exercises
Deadlift - lower back, glutes, and hamstrings, core, doing this exercise can boost testosterone production and can be the catalyst for significant strength increases.
Squat - quads, hip flexors, glutes, hamstrings and core.
Pull ups - lats, pecs, tricep long head, teres major, infraspinatus, teres minor
Sled push/pull - hamstrings, glutes, calf muscles.
Step ups - Glutes, Hamstrings, calf muscles
Training type 2B
1 to 3 reps of an exercise at around 90-95% of your one rep max.
Training type 2A
Sets of exercises for around 6 to 10 repetitions with around 70-80% of your one rep max
4. Boxing specific running programmes
9 Minute Fartlek Run = once a week.
9 minutes fartlek runs are important in boxing as it imitates the changes of intensity in a 9 minute boxing competition. This should be increased to 2-3 times per week if you are getting closer to competition time.
Light Jog (40minutes) = once a week.
light jogging for 40+ minutes will help burn excess body fat. To increase the amount of body fat burning during the light jog you can where extra layers which will make you work harder. You need to make sure you keep your self hydrated if adding extra layers as dehydration is dangerous for boxers. If you need to loose weight leading up to a boxing competition you should increase this to 2-3 a week up to 5 weeks before your competition and stop the week before your competition.
Hill Sprints = once a week
hill sprints are great to and that extra speed and power into your boxing.
9 minute fast jog = once a week
set a timer on your phone and use a running app to record the distance travelled within the 9minutes, set your try increase the distance ran each week.
5. Use your brain
Calculate Timings
Timing is key for successful defences and attacks.
How to calculate timings:
- Assess distance between your hand and your opponent.
- Assess the speed of your hands between this distance
- Assess the your opponents reaction speed
- Make timing calculations based on the above criteria
Reaction Speed
Knowing the speed of your reactions is also important so that you can avoid/defend punches in the correct time. If you find you are getting hit you can increase the distance you are from your opponent (range). This increases the distance of your opponents hand to you, giving you more time to react to the punches thrown.
You should practice reaction speed by doing partner pads. slowly defending punches gradually speeding up as your reaction speed increase. You should practice reaction speed for all types of defences; trunk, foot and hand.
Chess Boxing
Boxing has often been compared to chess. In both the game of chess and sport of boxing you need to be 2-3 moves ahead of your opponent, knowing what move or punch to throw at which particular time to get the desired result. In both boxing and chess you can trick/trap your opponent by using strategies such as feints in boxing or disguised offensive moves in chess.
You should also be aware of your opponents offensive and defensive strategies and make sure you are not walking into a trap.
Knowledge of different moves/punches/counters/combos allows the boxer or chess player to have a greater power and knowledge on how to go about certain situations.
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