Anyone have any good tips on how to get low on offense or defense? I find bending low takes up too much energy form the legs to use the tactic on a sustained round to round basis. Thoughts?
Widen your feet. You will see alot of guys will apparantly nice power have their feet really far apart (see: Mikkel Kessler; Kostya Tszyu). It allows you to be lower to the ground, so your naturally sitting on every punch aswell as making it a bit easier to slip. The problem with it - it can be hard to move your feet well when theyre so far apart.
Watch Tyson videos. In his case he was already short though he didn't have to go down quite as far. I'm pretty short myself so I like to practice his moves. Get low, a lot of head movement, and work your way inside, then just blast them. Unless your a cardio machine your not going to be able to do that round after round so make your shots count much like he did.
Agreed. Arching your back down will help a bit too. Still, it seems getting low of offense or defense might best be left for the shorter boxers.
It's not that hard. You just have to train your legs for it and get used to having them in a bent position. I wouldn't recommend arching your back forward, because in my eyes, that leaves you open for an uppercut, it's like you're leaning into it.
Anything that involves leaning the torso foward or sideways without bending the knees is opening yourself to a nasty uppercut, however it is such an unorthodox move to do so that you can get away with it once in a while. Anything more he will see a pattern and will eat you up with a nasty uppercut. Point is, you can do it once in a while, but be careful, study if he likes to uppercut and make it count. As for how to do it, Tyson, Gamboa and RJJ video's can help.
Remember, they're instinctively throwing at head level, or where they imagine your head is. So, you only need to dip just enough to let the punch slide over your shoulder and past your ear. Yes, this involves slipping to the side also. A perfect slip is when the punch skims your ear. You dipped just enough without wasting any energy and you slipped just enough to still maintain good balance, and thus to be able to counter with authority. And yes, you need to get those legs really strong if you want to do it correctly. But no need to go way low. And remember, it's never just one slip. It's always at least two slips at a time or a slip and a counter.
