Does anyone know if boxers like Joe Louis, SRR, or others in that period or earlier did any kind of drills or exercises for head movement? Was there any kind of equipment they used for this like the bob and weave rope?
Good question but i dont know any. Wen i was training my oldest i used to tie a glove on the end of a broomstick and have him move his head around that befor we started with the gloves on
The tradition exercise to develop head movement is where you get in a ring with a boxer who's trying to punch you in the head.
The best drill is using the mirror. That way you can see everything. Including --- foot placement, weight change, head position, balance, while bobbing, weaving and slipping punches.
I've been curious about when the more subtle forms of head movement became such an emphasis in boxing. Slipping punches by moving as little as possible but also moving ones head to different slots when advancing toward an opponent and after punching, etc.
The mirror is essential, but using a swinging bag for rhythm or a rope for precision helps. Also, you can use the swinging bag with a mirror, which is great.
Me too. Every time I think I have it figured out, I end up proving myself wrong. I used to think there was a lot less head movement in the 30's. But the high quality footage that's surfaced in recent years clearly shows guys like Schmeling and Sharkey using solid head movement to say the least. https://streamable.com/2vj4 https://streamable.com/qw13 On the other side of the coin, you don't hear much emphasis about head movement when reading about old boxing training. At least I haven't.
Could be that by maintaining a good stance with the head off centre as a starting point that head movement just flowed naturally off that. Seems to me that the modern boxing stance is much more square on, so a more deliberate exaggerated movement is required to get out of harm's way. And even then modern boxers are likely to get caught more often. Head movement in old school boxers is in fact more of a hip movement from what I can see. Mind you, what do I know? Still very much a newb in boxing
The slip bag has been around at least from the late teens....there is footage of Carpentier using it....I don't know of the rope across the ring when that was used...certainly not in crowded gyms when others are shadow boxing....head movement may have been more prevalent in the twenties and thirties actually....good question posed...I wonder when the term combination punching came into being coined
