I only recommend this once you have a solid foundation and have some experience, even then use it to give your opponent a weird angle and mix it up.. if you stand in front of someone with your hands down sooner or later you're going to get caught
When you stand with your lead hand low, you have to understand there are both pros and cons. The cons: - you MUST respect your opponents jab. You can't afford to lazily block. You are too exposed - you have to keep the fight on the outside. being in close, with one hand down is like having your hand behind your back Most importantly: - you can't get in to the habit of returning your lead hand low. Your "Oh ****" reaction needs to be hands up in a shell. If your "oh ****" reaction is to drop your lead, you may as well knock yourself out.
I disagree (to a point) with this. I guess, in the right hands? Anything works. I agree in the sense that for an inexperienced fighter in close this is true. He will likely hold his elbow too far forward leaving his body open and not put constant pushing tension (shifting the stance to the front foot) on his opponent resulting in it basically being as you said. I disagree in that keeping the lead hand low with the elbow back to protect the ribs/kidney and pushing the opponent to alert you to any attempt to punch works well. It also sets the lead hand up for some mean guard splitting uppercuts and body shots if the fighter posses quality footwork that includes quick inside stance switching. I COMPLETELY agree with your final assessment. The jab should be thrown, returned to high guard, and THEN dropped back into the stance. Especially true for guys who use single sniping jabs. Once a guy knows that only one is coming it is quite common to get an opponent who just fires his jab out there. With the lead hand returning low there is a VERY high possibility of a person eating that jab.
its just a different type of jab, you shouldnt use it if you don know what youre doing though. and it should be returned to the chin after being used like any other punch. also, its good for leading guys in