Why did the old timers have their hands so low?

To protect the body and to facilitate the parry.

 

What promted the change was the glove sizes.

The very small gloves used by the pioneers meant that creating a "shield" with your modern technical guard wasn't an option. As the gloves got bigger, it became more viable (though some fighters still prefer the low, loose guard). Additioanlly, the smaller gloves made bodyshots more lethal. Whatever the debate about headshots, fist to rib is just a non-debate. It became possible to leave the body exposed in preference of protecting the head as gloves got bigger.

 

Boxing skills were perfectly developed. If Joe Gans had worn the modern guard more he would have been stopped more. He would have been using retro-grade skills for his era. Skills that would have cost him.

 

Parrying with high hands is horrible.

You can't block your body with your elbows any more than you can cover your head with the old-school gloves.

Or, your quite right and inspite of the fact that these men were boxing for a living they didn't work out that using the high guard was better than using the low guard for 50 years. But I know which way i'm leaning.

 

I have to say, "I'm beggining to think you haven't boxed/sparred" is fast becoming my least favourite phrase around here.

A straight shot to the head, a "guard-peircing" shot is basically impossible to stop by moving the fist across, certainly with any consistantly and it leaves you WIDE open to feints. Even if you position the glove in exactly the right spot it doesn't "take off" the entire shot, although it certrainly doesn't do any harm. Allowing for "round the corner" shots, the target area for such a punch is huge, and where a serious speed difference exists even modern gloves using the modern guard can be split.

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Keeping in mind the size of the old gloves and the position of the guard, it seems natural enough that these men would find a different way to solve the problem. The solution was a combination of evasive manueveres and parrying, still utilised by the most athletic of boxers (although it's different). "Dynamic parrying" isn't something you can do with gloves in a near stationary position. Yeah, man, in fact i'm beggining to wonder if you've ever boxed if you think that literal parrying is possible from a stationary guard.

As the gloves got bigger a natural change occured.

OR

As the gloves got bigger there was a co-incidental shift towards a style that would have been better all along. This is not impossible. However, the existance of Arturo Gatti has absolutley no impact on this argument.


None of these terms are meant to be taken entirely literally and a lot of them are my own.

 

So now you've got a static guard for body and face from which you are going to parry dynamically?

Any footage?

 

You can also see footage of men wearing the higher guard, elbows tucked in and all, from before Dempsey and Louis, though they favour the lower guard:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax3gG2CbzdA[/ame]

My answer was directed at reasoning behind the boxers that didn't use the higher guard, the boys the opening poster was asking about.