Should you bend at the waist or hips when standing in stance?

Bend your knees slightly. Upper body from your hips should be relaxed but don’t bend forward, as a principle your head should not stray beyond your knees in your stance - more you bend forward the closer you are as a target to your opponent. And put slightly more weight on your back foot than front.

Bro you ask a lot of basic questions, do you have a trainer? My advice is go to a reputable gym and find a coach. All of what you ask here is boxing 101. First lesson I ever had my coach spent about one hour just teaching me how to move, don’t think I even threw a punch except for a jab.

 

Ok fair play bro stick at it. There are lots of great coaches on IG and YouTube. I recommended @MattGoddardFitness on another post. Check him out.

Do you have any equipment? If not you can only get so far through shadow boxing but respect bro, I can see you’re dedicated by training without a coach.

 

There’s no optimal way to bend your knees it depends on personal preference and other physical attributes. But just watch some fights on YouTube and you’ll see.

Bending your knees is crucial for power. Think of it as if you’re a spring and coiled and when you release after having your knees bent you can rotate your body into the punch and generate way more power. It’s hard for me to explain in words without demonstrating in person.

It’s also far easier to roll and slip punches with your knees bent in your stance. Practice shadow boxing for two minutes on and half a minute rest and do like five rounds. Start conditioning yourself to keep your knees bent while you shadow box because to begin with it will exhaust you.

 

That’s decent bro. It’s hard without a coach but you can defo utilise YouTube and IG in this age to develop some decent fundamentals. Record yourself as much as you can so you can spot your flaws and correct them.