The ESB Fitzsimmons Project

As an odd sidenote, Rickson Gracie's stance, heel-to-toe footwork, and lunging left lead are also vaguely reminiscent of Fitzsimmons' style. (He's an MMA guy, not a boxer). He was a rather poor striker, but it's weird just the same.

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Excellent. I'm looking forward to it. :good

 

Bump.

 

Interesting. :think

From my own (admittedly brief so far) experiments, the back-foot-flat-on-floor-front-foot-raised-on-toe arrangement makes it a bit more difficult to back up effectively, but makes forward movement, sidestepping, and foot placement for counterpunching a lot easier.

One note on the "shift", which is the last picture in the series. (It's the one where Fitzsimmons switches to southpaw and nails the body and head with left-hand shovel hooks): the movement, as far as I can tell, is preceded by either a right hand "swing" or a straight right in which you drag the right foot forward as you punch, thereby switching from orthodox to southpaw. With your right foot on the outside of his left foot, you then dig into the body with the left (back) hand.

Unfortunately, he doesn't mention the right-hand setup for the "shift", so I had to do a little experimentation and some online research before I figured it out.

 

Yep, the spring back works very well in those circumstances, with the front foot already halfway raised to begin with. It's funny--I'd actually practiced it a few times as he'd described it, but I hadn't realized that it was the main method of moving backwards. Good call. :good

Yep, I think he intended the earlier "incorrect" step to illustrate why you shouldn't normally step that way. Switch hitting seems to have been a temporary thing as part of a right hand-left hookercut body-left hookercut head combination (or left-right-left-left if you preface it with a jab).

 

Yeah, the "A man wants to start a fight with me, so I pull the jacket over his arms and he is at my mercy" stuff is pretty funny.

I reread all of the text dealing with throwing the right hand. I think that he means this:

* When you throw the straight right hand, advance the right foot slightly. Not past the left foot, just forward a couple inches. Then bring it back. I've noticed that this gives you a lot of leverage.

* When you intend to do the switch-hit combination (straight right, left hook, left hook), throw the right and then step with the right foot past the left, so that you're standing in a southpaw stance. Then throw the hooks with the left (now rear) hand.

* When you throw the right hook, move the right (back) foot forward until your feet are side-by-side. Then either continue moving forward into a southpaw stance or move back into a normal stance. This one is kinda weird the first couple of times you try it, but it seems to work nicely when you get the hang of it.


....I may be mistaken in some of these interpretations. If you notice anything that should be changed (either because of the text or because it seems a little awkward), I'd welcome your ideas. :good

 

It's interesting to literally step into Fitzsimmons' shoes and figure out how he moved.

Warning: philosophical babbling ahead.

There's something fascinating in going through the steps of a dry, dusty boxing manual and suddenly realizing why a particular movement makes sense. You can never read an old novel or watch an old movie without consciously realizing that it's something that was made a long time ago. It's almost impossible to put yourself in the same frame of mind as the original audience. But with old fighting manuals, you're on the same level as the first people to ever read it. It makes just as much sense now as it ever did. It allows you to realize that historical people were real flesh-and-blood beings better than almost any experience I know.

 

Fitz Fu? Jufitzu?

 

Bump.

Thoughts, anyone? Any information you think might be useful? Does anyone have any other Fitzsimmons footage? Or even pictures of him demonstrating techniques?