Can anyone recommend any decent footwork drills for someone who's only been boxing a few months? I feel very wooden at the moment and I want the movement to come more natural when doing pads / sparring etc so I think the only way to do this is to keep practising it. Ideally after some drills I can start with plus some more advanced ones that I can do when I get more comfortable with them. Cheers.
First, since you're a beginner, it'd be best to shadow box in front of your trainer to see if he can fix any glaring mistakes and get some pointers. I have no specific ones in mind, but as far as basic drills, start with single steps and build from there. Practice single steps in all directions. Single step forwards, backwards, to the left, to the right, and 45deg in all directions. For these type of drills, some people use boxes drawn on the floor as prompts. Next, you can start incorporating pivots. For example, one step left, followed by a hard left pivot. Or one step to the right, followed by a hard right pivot. So on and so forth. Then do multiple steps and pivots in combinations. Eventually, you want to incorporate punches and defensive manuevers (slips, blocks, parries). Some people do these drills against a stationary target as a reference point, but you can also do these with a swinging heavy bag, or a slip bag. Basically, movements you would do while sparring, hitting mitts, or the heavybag, you want to practice while shadow boxing. Here are videos of El Chacal, Pretty Boy, and Lucia Rijker shadow boxing as an inspiration: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neWFydyh1u8[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB2_kiwcfWg[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM4_3KSw3Y8[/ame] And some other footwork drills: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiY135uGo24[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA_vzW36NNc[/ame]
Movement is a funny Thing ! A guy I train played under 20 Football at a national level. You would think a goalkeeper would have excellent side to side movement but that is not the case.
A couple things that I would suggest that may or may not be on the videos provided. You will want to coordinate your hands and feet. For example, every time you move your lead foot, jab. When the back foot moves, throw that hand. This will reverse itself if you are moving backward; in that case, as the rear foot moves, jab, and, as the front foot moves throw the rear hand. Move right (if you are an orthodox boxer) I would suggest moving your left foot first, especially if you intend to stay in punching range. Slide that foot just slightly to the right then pivot on it. This takes you out of range but allows you to keep punching. Moving right by moving the right foot first is good for escaping but not so much for punching.
ha ha I will be doing on Sunday mate.. worked on what I ****ed up on Wednesday and felt I was far too conscious of footwork so wanted to work on it by watching a few vids tonight and tomorrow to try and make it feel more natural. :good That's a great drill. Can you buy those poles or not? I'm sure I could improvise with a bucket and stick if not. Cheers pal.