Gray, What about pivoting WITHOUT punching to properly teach rotation, then gradually adding the punches?
In Edwin L. Haislet's book on boxing, that is how he begins. An explanation and diagram of pivoting/turning exercises that do not involve punching. They begin with the feet parallel, evolve into the feet in proper position, then begin to involve the arms.
These are the two things I did to correct my technique as well. I'm pretty good at pivoting into my shots now because of it
Try to be evenly balanced with whatever you're doing, but it is better to have the weight a little bit on the back-foot. It loads up the pivot of the right hand better, and it allows your left foot to pivot more freely into the hook.
Movement comes from the Oral Cavity [The Head], its the Bodys job to follow orders from it, to Transport it, the Head. As a child, we try to walk, thats where we learn our Proprioceptive ability's, no one teaches us to do it, we learn our balance mechanics which includes, walking Gait. We find our own Balance of movement, everyone is slightly different. But everyone works of the Senses, which gives either Touch or Feel, the Body's early warning system. What throws it of balance are the eyes, dont go direct to the CNS, plus they dont directly see the same thing. You have a Dominant Eye. Thats where Balance is affected, because mostly, one side performs while the other supports the action, you get a muscular imbalance. Thats where it starts.
Ive found over the years, the thing to do is Stretch. Mostly where the most muscle mass is, Hips which seats the Coxxy your centre of Gravity,everything comes of it. Simple routines, Shadowbox with eyes shut. Also what you could try, get a small bamboo type Fishing net, bend the wire so its 90 degrees. Put a belt round your waiste, put the wire over your Head. Then put the bamboo behind your back and through the Belt. Oh put a wooley hat on saves the wire rubbing, then cut the surplus Bamboo thats sticking below the Belt off. What you have is a Postulater it works :good
Do punch drills where you only concentrate on the pivot of the foot . Then concentrate on pivoting the hip. If the foot pivot is good, then the hip should rotate without a problem. Now, the timing part. Let the hip pivot first, then let the upper body turn into it. In other words, imagine someone holding your right shoulder back while you pivot the hip, then letting go. This creates a pre-stretch in the stomach's obliques which makes it contract more forcefully when you finally rotate the upper body. Then, finally imagine you have no arm and you are punching only with your shoulder. This helps to keep the arm in place until the very final moment when you just stick the arm out to the target rather than winding up and using all the tiny arm muscles which barely add any power to the, now, telegraphed punch. The final movement will be to lock everything up at the moment of impact. This involves tightening the fist and "stepping" on the punch at the same time. Stepping is when you add a final pre-stretch by dropping your foot into the ground to get a good contraction upon contact which makes the whole body one solid mass which doesn't let any power escape through various loose joints, thus making the point of impact take the full force.
if you try to push of your back toes for a step in straight right this may help to rotate your hips ,,you will then have to pivot the back foot to get the push off to get the maximum power ,, try this a few times to see if its made any difference
Also, a coach gave me this tip too. Think about "turning your heel out" instead of "pivoting". It's a mental cue that might give you more rotation in that hip. It you think just "pivot", and your weight and toes are not proper, you might not get proper rotation.
What scrap is saying is posture, stand upright relaxed hands by your sides with good posture and put 1 foot forward, not too wide, now drop your ass and bend your knees but keep good posture, coxy under head. dont lean. now raise your guard and your heels. elbows should be able to see eachother, look through your brows to protect your eyes and pull chin back slightly rather than dropping it down, you cant hide it from them they know its there and it just makes things worse when you do get hit with a good one. Theres just so many advantages to this its stupid, but it seems that not many coaches can see the logic behind it, i often wonder, are we even thinking about the same sport? Without going into too much Detail but just to name some vital points why it benefits us to box with good posture. There is less target surface area because arms cover body better while hands can still remain high at the same time unlike with bad posture or leaning. Your then through good posture throwing shots truely horizontally rather than slightly upwards, which is proven to increases the potential for a strong explosive movement of your shoulders. Also youve now free'd up your traps a bit from the job of raising your guard, traps can now be looser to help whip out from the spine on both sides of the traps with each shot to start the rotation with the upper body/shoulders. Which will increase in speed and power due to traps not being constantly engaged. Good posture means a physical increase in strength, speed and balance, this is all proven. so overall completely disregarding from the hips downwards, disregarding the speed, strength and reaction benefits to be had with the legs through good posture, disregarding stance and footwork benefits. i think its its safe to say good posture is still a very, very good idea if you have max effort in mind but still remains conditional to a situation as everything does with boxing. I could go on about the benefits of posture for your hips downwards but its easier to say just listen to what scrap says lol, the man knows.
Absolutely... Also, think about dropping the balls of your foot into the ground rather than pushing the whole body. Like you want to put a hole in the canvas. And since the canvas ain't gonna give, all the energy will be transferred to the other point of impact; where the fist meets the jaw.
exactly! Why does a baseball bat hurt so much? Because it's one solid mass with no joints where the energy can escape. You want to turn your whole body into a baseball bat for a split second upon impact. From the balls of your foot sinking into the canvas, to the clenched fist connecting with the jaw, and everything muscle and joint in between. That's one of the secrets of terrific punchers.
I had the same problem. What helped me the most was shadowboxing. Move around in a ring or in your bathroom or whatever as long as you have a little bit of space. Focus on planting your foot on the ground while you are moving back, forward, and laterally and push off of your foot with a pivot. When you do that, focus on using the push from that pivot to drive the rotation of your hips and get your core stomach muscles to follow. After getting that foot pivot in unison with hip rotation, really use your core to give it that extra solidity behind it. Practice throwing your punches in unison with that rotation. In the beginning, you don't even need to throw punches just practice moving and pivoting. It really helps to focus on feeling your body work in that harmonious way. You can feel it so that you know when you are doing it right. It also is good to practice combinations standing in place with each punch beginning with the foot pivot and rotation. With the combinations, focus less on jabs and more on hooks, uppercuts, and throwing your right cross (assuming your orthodox) with each punch setting up the next one by putting you in a position to facilitate that foot pivot and body rotation. it helps to exaggerate that. After really working on this with my shadow boxing, I had a significant gain in power.