I use the style of Joe Frazier when I train/box. I keep my chin tucked and use the cross style of blocking. I have a little trouble with footwork and footspeed. I would say the left hook is my butter. What are the styles strengths and weaknesses? How can I get inside more effectively?
(novice opinion) To get inside more effectively you want to be able to time your opponents jab, feints and rhythm to upset it. If you control his jab you are pretty much on the way to beating him. This isn't your main game but keep it in mind if you're taking a lot of shots. Don't always move in straight, you have to be able to attack from multiple angles to keep up the element of surprise and pressure. This means you have to practice being unpredictable. When shadow boxing shoot your combos from a defensive stance always based on the assumption you're being attacked, develop powerful legs for heavy punches and to encourage a lot of slipping, bobbing weaving. Practice moving laterally. Realistically you will mostly be moving forward, from the opponants perspective you are a sitting duck whom he is circulating and looking to strike. Practice cutting off the opponants space to move around. Don't make it easy from him to move around you. Keep your guard up high and when he is cornered launch your attack with hands held high. use lateral movement to keep him cornered. Be patient when picking your heavy hits. The less excited you seem in the ring, the more he will be more pressured to take the fight in the affective range- he will be looking to score off your mistakes this is he boxers game and he'll be having a hard time capitalizing points off your mistakes if you are keeping your generalship clean. This will also save energy. Don't be lazy though, keep up with the foot movements and jabs. Hands high, keep up assumption you want to hurt him just don't be vulnerable through your mistakes and eagerness to land your powerful blows. The advantages of an inside fighter is that you will have better experienced defense and hurting skill. You are most comfortable in boxings affective range where interactions occur and points are exchanged. you are closer to the body and likely to have very good short and powerful shots. use your body shots, boxers dont land them easily and its your strength as an inside fighter. Disadvantages are that no matter how good your defense, you are going to get hit. You better have a tough head and strong heart. There is always someone out there stronger. Unless you're dedicated as hell, your punches probably won't be as straight as a boxers, this sucks outside the inside range(hence the heavy emphasis on defence and spontaneity in your footwork and attack). um hope you can take what you want from that. its pretty scattered.
get in the ring. tie a one rope from one corner to the other and do the same again on the two remaing corners. now shadow box and use the ropes to bob and weave under. this rope drill should make your bobbing and weaving first class in all aspects.
Ive seen people make a pigs ear of it, move the Head without the Feet Balance is lost. To regain you have to go back where you started from
I used to use the cross armed defense. It was fun. Especially the look on guys faces. They don't know what to make of it. The next paragraph is a wikipedia definition that describes the cross arm nicely. Cross-armed – The forearms are placed on top of each other horizontally in front of the face with the glove of one arm being on the top of the elbow of the other arm. This style is greatly varied when the back hand rises vertically. This style is the most effective for reducing head damage. The only head punch that a fighter is susceptible to is a jab to the top of the head. The body is open, but most fighters who use this style bend and lean to protect the body, but while upright and unaltered the body is there to be hit. This position is very difficult to counterpunch from, but virtually eliminates all head damage. Frazier not only did the cross arm. But he also did the philly shell. The link below is the philly shell but the guy who gives the demo calls it cross arm. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXNzF0OGhrM&feature=PlayList&p=4ED5AF35F2528B04&index=24[/ame] Frazier copied his style from an old time fighter called Henry Armgstrong. The goal is to keep relentless pressure and deliver punshing blows. Frazier used short punches almost exclusively in order to punish his opponent. In order to develop your style you must learn how to cut off the ring. Get the guy on the ropes and throw uppercut and hook with both hands. Your opponent will try to stay off the ropes, so, he will use his jab like a broom stick. You will have to learn how to deal with the jab. I tried to throw many jabs of my own and close the distance behind the jab. You should also study Ricky Hatton. Hatton had that ability to man handle and muscle his way in. In the link below scroll down to Method #2. There you see an example of what you need to do http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=132033 The weakness The way people try to beat the cross arm is by going for the ribs on the side. They hit side, then one elbow goes down. Then they go for the other side and the other elbow goes down. The leaves the head open for hooks. The problem with infighting is that if you come up against a power puncher then you are doomed. Charging a power puncher is suicide. See youtube Frazier vs Foreman. Funny story about the cross arm. I used this method. Most guys throw hooks at me when I cross arm. If they go for my head, I raised my elbow and block with the elbow. If they go for the body, I bend my knee to low the elbow. The guy I was sparring, threw a hook to the body. The punch hit square on the elbow. The guy let out a scream and we stopped fighting.
To me, that blocking style looks a little defensive for amateur, I wouldn't recommend employing that as your default block. The pace in the 3x2 minutes is very fast to be mucking around doing that. Floyd got away with it at the olympics but i dont think a mere mortal could.
With that style you are ineffective at fightin on the outside so if you can't get inside you won't be able to beat the guy. Also as you stay ducked low punches coming down tend to do damage. Also the style relies on a rythm and sometimes it can be a bit predictable.
It's actually a good stance to counter, since most fighters don't really run into an "odd" stance like that, they don't quite know where to attack.
