5 Ways To Make Shadow Boxing Effective

5 Ways to Make Shadowboxing Work

I used to really hate shadow boxing. I trained at a place, a good place, where we would all come in for a class and oftentimes, the coaches would tell everybody to warm-up with shadow boxing. And that was it. No further direction. Just ‘shadow box!’ I looked around and everybody made it look so natural and easy. For me though, it wasn’t. I didn’t know what to do. At that point, I knew how to throw all the punches but the idea of combinations and just freestyling on my own were foreign concepts to me. I wanted it to look effortless and natural but it never did. Or at least, I never felt like it did.

Eventually I figured out how to make it work and it can be a great way to practice at home, on vacation, or whenever you need a quick break. You can even get a decent workout out of it too. Here are 5 things that completely turned it around for me.

1. Write Down Combinations To Practice - This helped me a ton when working out at home. I’d write down 4 or 5 relatively simple, 3-5 punch combinations that I liked and practiced them specifically. I have found most people need direction. Just winging it is not a good way to start out. Then once I felt comfortable with those combos, I created muscle memory so I could throw them in class during a warm-up.
2. Use a Mirror (and watch yourself!) - You might feel a little silly at first, I know I did, but it really helps. Watch what you’re doing and look out for things like are you keeping your hands up, is your lower body moving, etc. Another thing I like about the mirror is that it tells you exactly where to throw each punch. At the person staring back at you! Punch to the face land on your face, punches to the body land on your body. Default training should always be you fighting someone your own height, weight and shape.
3. Throw Proper Punches With Explosion and Snap (when you have the technique down and are properly warmed up, of course) - Light shadow boxing makes sense to me only when you’re just getting started with boxing in general or your workout. But after that, I strongly believe that we should throw punches how they are intended to be thrown. Sure, you don’t want to go too crazy and throw your arm and balance out but you do want some explosion and snap to it. Just ask yourself, ‘if any of these punches landed on someone, would they hurt?’ That’s what makes a punch, a punch, as opposed to just an arm movement. I see plenty of people throw lead hooks only with their arms in shadow boxing as well as those shoe-shiner shoulder-roll uppercuts and to me, that just builds bad habits. Practice how you really fight. You’ll get a better workout and it will also help with balance too. We just did a focus point video talking about leaning into straight punches and shadow boxing at home will help you with this.
4. Practice Defense - When? Before you throw your first punch of the combo and after your last punch. What? Slips, rolls, pulls, blocks, parries. That's a lot of stuff! So how about we just start with the classics - slips and rolls. How do we incorporate them? If your combo starts with a left hand, slip or roll to the left before you throw that left hand. If your combo ends with the right hand, slip or roll to that right side after you throw that right hand. Or vice versa. This will help you begin to understand the weight transfer system that is the very essence of boxing. Check out this old Focus Point video where I discuss this in more depth.
5. Practice Footwork - Like defense, you should practice moving in your fighting stance before throwing a combo and after. It is important though that you are moving properly. Maintaining your fighting stance the entire time, not letting your feet get too close together and never letting them cross! You can also move while punching BUT make sure you have the technique down first. Moving too much without good technique will build bad habits, especially on hooks. Here is another Focus Point video with a specific drill you can practice.