Stages of Boxing Development: Part 2 - Using the Whole Body

In my last post, I went through what I consider to be the first stage of boxing development from watching thousands of people brand new to the sport. As I mentioned in that post, the actual act of throwing punches was not even discussed! This is because if your feet are not in the best position to punch, defend punches, take steps and even get punched, nothing else you do is going to matter too much. Same is true for managing the distance between you and your target.

Believe it or not, the next stage also relates to our feet! Just as your feet should be in the right position before throwing a punch, your foot is also going to be the very first thing to activate when you are throwing it. This is not natural and very much a surprise to just about every person who starts training. When most of us think of punching, we think of our fists, our arms, our shoulders, maybe even our torso in general but not the feet. However, the feet are indeed where any significant punch should start. Even below the feet, as a matter of fact, because that first step is pushing your feet into the ground. From there, the power starts to work its way up through the kinetic chain - foot through the ankles, through the knees, through the hips, through the core, through the back and shoulders, and finally, comes together into the fist. Like in Part 1, I have got plenty of accompanying older videos where I go over all of this stuff in more detail, including this one:

"Throwing Hands"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyaVH3ik-cM&list=PLN0PPf0o8X6X1Te2zEgHrqy-BtyI-RAg3&index=113

As this is not an intuitive way to think about throwing punches, it is easily the most challenging thing for new boxers to learn. I would say that about 99.9% of them I see stand in one place and their lower half remains perfectly still the entire time they are punching (like reverse Irish dancing). Then half of 0.1% who don't remain still have happy feet and take too many steps all over the place and are never in good position or balance to really effectively use their bodies to throw punches.

The most important thing to work on right is away is how to turn your hips and shift your weight into each punch. This starts in the feet as described earlier and then generate rotation through the legs, hips, core, torso and shoulders. Here are several older videos I made where we talk about different aspects of this critical mechanic:

Shifting Weight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv4hjdOR0Qg&list=PLN0PPf0o8X6X1Te2zEgHrqy-BtyI-RAg3&index=114

Screw Your Foot Into the Ground

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtYTOvnJX-M&list=PLN0PPf0o8X6X1Te2zEgHrqy-BtyI-RAg3&index=102&t=65s

Usually, most people are able to first get down the shifting of weight from their back foot to their front foot first. This is the most natural part. I am punching something in front of me so my weight should shift forward. It's the shifting lower body weight backwards, from the front foot to the back foot, that is easily the most awkward thing for new boxers to get the hang of. Here's another exciting video showing what I am talking about:

Boxing on the Front Foot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAvL656I2lE&list=PLN0PPf0o8X6X1Te2zEgHrqy-BtyI-RAg3&index=157

Having worked with so many different people from all walks of life, I feel very strongly and passionately that the best way to help people learn how to use their lower bodies to throw punches is to exaggerate the lower body mechanics. Go too far with them. It is SO much easier to then tighten things up than to try and build in subtle fundamentals. I have also noticed that while I can tell someone how to use their lower body to throw a punch, it won't really click until their very own body understands it. Exaggerating the mechanic helps with this. They feel how their legs drive uppercuts and or how their hips pull hooks when we use big ranges of motion. Cue video!

Exaggerate Lower Body Mechanics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRNHnSH3JvA&list=PLN0PPf0o8X6X1Te2zEgHrqy-BtyI-RAg3&index=78

While not an exaggeration, we also encourage folks to punch THROUGH the target instead of TO the target on most strikes. Besides increasing their punching power, it also helps them to better understand and use the proper mechanics, mainly rotation. Here's an accompanying video:

Punch THROUGH the Target

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3fbSolb7LY&list=PLN0PPf0o8X6X1Te2zEgHrqy-BtyI-RAg3&index=194

When you able to rotate through your punches properly, not only do you use every muscle in your body, but you also use your mass as a hammer. Doesn't matter if you weigh 100 pounds or 300 pounds, getting every ounce into your punch will make it more powerful as well as more work from an exercise perspective. Got 2 videos for you this time!

Mass x Velocity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZBhV1pLPTY

Dropping Weight Down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDTcyIqedWY&list=PLN0PPf0o8X6X1Te2zEgHrqy-BtyI-RAg3&index=123

As you have probably surmised, the goal here is to get power on those punches. Why? Lots of reasons!! Here is a video I made that gives you some (I missed one about maintaining bone density): 

Why Power?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CLrB6dZ9uc

The important thing to remember is that no matter who you are, no matter how much you weigh, and how much muscle you have, you can ALWAYS throw more powerful punches than you currently do. Many people have trouble believing this but it is 100% true for 100% of the people, barring a serious handicap or injury of course. There are other myths about throwing punches for power besides the ones I covered in the video. While it does make sense that you can concentrate separately on throwing punches for speed and for power, there is very little value in throwing punches super sub-maximally. Sometimes you hear people talk about "touching up" the bag and I think that this not only provides much less of a health benefit, but it can create some bad habits- mainly NOT using the body to properly throw your punches. Did a video about that once too. Wanna see it? Here it is!

"Touching Up" vs. Power Punching

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhGz4PU3-JI&list=PLN0PPf0o8X6X1Te2zEgHrqy-BtyI-RAg3&index=170

Just like you can always throw more powerful punches, you can always improve at any of these stages, regardless of where you are in your boxing development. Sometimes, when we do something 10,000 times, we stop getting better because we start to believe that since we've done it so much, it's as good as it's going to get. Or we just don't think about it in terms of actually getting better. There are some legitimate reasons for this, mainly that improvements get harder to perceive the more you box with relatively good technique. But the big problem is when it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. We stop getting better because we stop thinking that we can get better. As I have mentioned before, the greatest boxers in the world are throwing  jabs right now. The greatest basketball players are taking jump shots, football players are practicing whatever the function of their position, etc., etc. No matter how good you can get, you can always get better. At everything. Even the basics.