The all things technical thread.

I believe power is down to technique. Hours and hours of learning to punch properly until it becomes second nature.

There's a good drill that really helped me develop a sweet right hand.

Basically you stand facing a heavy bag, then twist your hips so that your upper body is facing at a 90 degree angle to the bag. Let's say you twist so that you're facing to the right. Your legs don't really move much, they just pivot slightly so that your left foot is still pointing towards the bag while your right is at a 45 degree angle.

From there you bend your knees, keeping most of your weight on the left leg. As you drive up through the legs your hips twist towards the bag, as do the shoulders following slightly behind the hips. You deliver an elbow strike and as you do this whole move you're also transferring your weight from the left leg to the right. There's a lot going on at once but once mastered, it's a treat. After that, you punch instead of doing the elbow strike, then also reduce the angle so you're twisting less, but still putting your whole body into the move.


Another thing is this. My boxing coach used to get very annoyed with me because I would keep my fist open and loose until the very last moment before impact. He constantly had to tell me to keep my fist very tightly clenched from the beginning of the punch. This reduced my power a lot. I'd learned from doing martial arts that keeping the fist, as well as the rest of the body loose until the last moment can give the punch more power. Just before impact the fist closes and the rest of the body also tightens up. You're staying loose throughout the punch but turning into a statue at the moment before impact, instead of being stiff throughout.

The danger is that you don't close your fist in time, or not hard enough and could injure your hand, but if done right it gives a different kind of feeling to the punch. Not a battering ram kind of power, but like hitting someone with a chain that has a metal ball attached to it. Sometimes you get that "nasty" kind of power where shockwaves go through your arms and you know you've landed a peach. I might be talking nonsense here, but Tommy Hearns strikes me as having that sort of power. Not battering ram, but explosive and nasty.


Another great excercise that can help with punch power is the Barbell twist. I'm not a fan of boxers doing pointless bodybyuilding excercises, but this is a case where weights can come in very handy since you're developing the obliques which will be used in the punching movement.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54a37b2IFVk[/ame]

 

Off topic - eg not power....

If someone could do a set of gifs of all the different punches they can think of that would be pretty helpful

 

Regarding speed I think there is a difference between being fast & being quick.

Being fast is mostly genetic, having good reflexes & twitch fibres, being naturally athletic.

Being quick, being able to make decisions fast & react correctly can be taught to some extent.

For example Dirrell is fast & Ward is quick.

 

IMO speed is hard to improve for a single shot. You can improve combination speed by repeating the combo again and again until it is second nature and the thought process involved is shortened. Reaction speed is very important and it is trainable but pure speed is limited by weight and genetics in terms of muscle fibres. By the time you develop fully as an adult the composition of muscle fibres you have is fairly set. You can recruit more of a specific type by training a movement at the right intensity but you can't drastically change the percentages you've been dealt. For example a quick explosive guy like usain bolt is never gonna be a world class endurance athlete he's always gonna be quick over the short distance. While a distance runner isn't going to win any sprints.
Thinking about it, what I've just written doesn't really apply to a lot of boxers. For example PAC is fast, explosive and has class stamina. That might be down to how hard he trains though. George foreman, incredible power but pretty slow. :huh

 

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http://gifninja.com/animated-gifs/639664/d/ca10b49d (how do I embed)
IMMENSE thread BTW

 

Click on the "Insert Image" button in the toolbar above text box, paste the URL and click OK. Image should load in text box straight away.

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I remember watching that fight, jumped out of my seat when I saw it.

Tried replicating the move and stubbed my toe on the ****ing coffee table.

Hated the flash little ******* for the rest of the night.

 

Wasn't Joe like 50 (45) as an amateur pre-Blackburn anyway though?

 

Now that's what I like to see in a thread about proper boxing technique. Every young student of the game should study this.

 

Here's a few left hooks

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Jab

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Uppercuts

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