Tight guard, Chin Down defense thread.

I never really liked it since it tires you pretty badly and against a hard puncher you will still feel the impact even if you block.

 

It is an incredibly effective way of fighting but they all tend to have a major flaw - they don't get off. Because they block so many punches they don't let their hands go and this often affects scoring. In the fighters mind they are blocking punches and landing a good solid jab (which they always have - Sturm, Wright, Watson, Clottey etc) or punch in return. In their mind it is 1-0 but in the judges mind it is often 4-1 as the opponent has landed numerous punches on their guard i.e. Vargas on Wright, DLH on Sturm etc

This is the first style I would train any fighter. It's just good solid boxing. I would build off of it i.e. shoulder roll. To start though, it's all about this type of fighting. Chin down, hands up, good jab etc

 

It is a fundamentally sound style which is fairly easy to learn, but it can limit your attacking options somewhat. As mentioned above, it is a good place to start - I use it with beginners who are getting to the stage where they are ready start limited sparring, and once the fighter has gained confidence, I set about adapting the style by first lowering the left hand to chin level and working on movement.

As time goes by, it is advisable to add more defensive strategies such as range, angles, rythmn etc. By adding these components, you give yourself a lot more attacking options whilst still (hopefully) maintaining an effective guard.

 

Keep your elbows in tight to your body. A lot of people put their hands up high but have their elbows out in front of them, which opens their ribs up to shots.

Keep your hands up but your elbows down in close to your body, make sure your chin is tucked down so you can still protect your whole head without having your hands too high.

From the side your arms should look like a V rather than an L

If that makes sense.

 

Move your guard as a whole, or reposition yourself with footwork. Don't open up by moving one arm, it'll turn your defense into swiss cheese. On a left hook /uppercut to the body you could pivot away with the feet or turn your upper body so your guard will be in position to block.

Also make it a habit to counter as quickly as possible, don't let your opponent tee off on you.

 

Effective use of range and angles.

Edit - damn you RDJ - beat me to it. It's one thing to have handspeed, but you're typing speed is ridiculous!!

 

That's a nice way to put it indeed.

I wish my handspeed matched my typing speed

 

That'll be those pesky boxing gloxes

 

Without them I have speed like Roy :twisted:

On topic, as already said do not limit yourself to standing there in your turtle shell. Use angles, lateral movement, move your head even when in full guard, give your opponent something to think about.

 

We use this at our club and its basically a "go to" move if people are coming at you continually with combinations. When your just facing someone using single jabs you don't really need to use it as you can slip or parry those but its definitely useful to have it in the locker when someome starts throwing the kitchen sink at you!

 

its the basics this guard

its simple and effective in defence as aforementioned it limits offensive options

thats why you need to have a strong guard to keep them off of you and to set up your attacks

 

A good defense and blocking ability is an important first step in the learning game.

Over time variety is the key to the "boxing throne room".

 

Flaws to the style are that your body is squared up so much that you lose power in the right hand, you offer more target area because! you are square on. You generally have to punch when the opponent stops punching and the problem there is, if you are too busy playing defence how can you capitalize on anything, that is why an opponent like Paul Williams is a nightmare for someone like Wink, he never stops punching so Wink is always on the defence, it also obscures your vision, so if you fighting a good fighter who knows to how step around you and switch the attack when you cover up, it can make it life difficult for you because you have to reset whilst he is hitting you from another angle. Your opponent also has to be that little bit closer to you to be able to land.



Strengths are...............it makes it difficult for the opponent to land clean punches on you, it makes it look to the judges like nothing is landing cleanly, its an effective way of applying pressure whilst keeping yourself safe because the opponents objective when you apply so much pressure is to demand respect out of you by hitting you hard to tell you to respect the gap and not keep pressing it, but if you have that tight D he cant always get that punch in to gain your respect. Its also effective for touching the opponent and looking busy, even if you are not landing solid you can look busy with the short jolting shots and because of your tight defence it can look to the judges like you are the only! one landing clean shots. It makes the opponent expend energy when applying pressure because if he cant get threw, you are not being hit so you can take more liberties put more pressure on him and force him around the ring expending more energy. You can also stalk the opponent and make them move around the ring expending energy with just the thought of an attack.


What you must remember about the style though is..........you must not lean your head into your gloves and put your all weight on your left leg because that will make you easy to hit, what you must do is keep your weight central, which means dont bring your head over you lead foot(left leg) and dont lean your head into the gloves to give the illusion your holding your gloves up, when in reality you more leaning your head into the gloves than holding them up sufficiently.


Id adivse you to hold your hands up but out infront of you where you can parry the shots away and you can get a better view of the shots coming at you, its also a good idea to slip when shots are coming at you, Marlon Starling had that tight defence but he was also good at slipping punches at the same time, he did use his upperbody to slips shots to, he did not just put the ear muffs on.


James Toney fought an effective style of high hands when he fought Michael Nunn, even though Toney was behind you take a look at how effectively he holds his hands high and rolls/ slips Nunn's shots, its not the usual way Toney fights but against Nunn he had to apply pressure and he needed to do it safely, that was the best way to do it, its also worth pointing out that Nunn was very adept at moving around an opponent and firing from another angle when you put your gloves up to protect yourself, so that might explain why Toney had trouble with him.

If i were you i would study the Nunn vs Toney fight and watch a few Marlon Starling fights in particular because he was excellent at that style.