Pressure with intent to counter

Silver tongue samurai

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In sparring I find that I pressure my partner using feints, rhythm changes or throw away strikes (pawing jabs, teeps) to read them and set up counters. Any tips on some more ways to pressure with the purpose of countering?
 
best way is to be able to hit hard. it makes people uncomfortable and want to punch just because your in range. bob foster was one of the best at it. one of my favourite tricks is to let a hard right go into their guard early. they will tend to over anticipate the right after that which sets up the right to body which in turn sets up everything else.
 
best way is to be able to hit hard. it makes people uncomfortable and want to punch just because your in range. bob foster was one of the best at it. one of my favourite tricks is to let a hard right go into their guard early. they will tend to over anticipate the right after that which sets up the right to body which in turn sets up everything else.

I believe I have the hitting hard part down. After iv landed a counter or two I can pressure using basically footwork (partner is uncomfortable, moves to reset, I cut cage). Darren Till vs Cowboy reminded me a lot of this type of "pressuring without pressure".

Definitely going to try the right to the body set up. Explosive straight rights with a rhythm change are my bread and butter haha
 
I believe I have the hitting hard part down. After iv landed a counter or two I can pressure using basically footwork (partner is uncomfortable, moves to reset, I cut cage). Darren Till vs Cowboy reminded me a lot of this type of "pressuring without pressure".

Definitely going to try the right to the body set up. Explosive straight rights with a rhythm change are my bread and butter haha
the main thing you have to watch out for when pressure fighting is those counters. i like to test them with a couple of 1-2 to see wear the counter is coming from before i step in to go to the body. once you have the timing on the right you can roll under it and come up with the left hook. it is a truly devastating punch throw properly. once you start teeing off to the body and with the left to the head you go back to the straight 1-2 if you do this properly you can really start to tee off with the straight right and not be to worried about counters to much.
 
I believe I have the hitting hard part down. After iv landed a counter or two I can pressure using basically footwork (partner is uncomfortable, moves to reset, I cut cage). Darren Till vs Cowboy reminded me a lot of this type of "pressuring without pressure".

Definitely going to try the right to the body set up. Explosive straight rights with a rhythm change are my bread and butter haha
the other thing you will find is a lot of inexperienced boxers try to counter from too far out when pressured. this is a pressure fighters dream. you can just walk through their weak reaching counters and counter them with strong punches over the top. don't expect good boxers to do this, you will walk on to an uppercut.
 
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I believe I have the hitting hard part down. After iv landed a counter or two I can pressure using basically footwork (partner is uncomfortable, moves to reset, I cut cage). Darren Till vs Cowboy reminded me a lot of this type of "pressuring without pressure".

Definitely going to try the right to the body set up. Explosive straight rights with a rhythm change are my bread and butter haha
you can always improve on your punching power. keep working at it if you want to be a truly great puncher. watch fighters like hearns, foster, foreman,and louis the amount of pressure they but on fighters just with power alone was ridiculous. especially hearns his reach and power was frightening in his prime. you could visibly see how uncomfortable it made his opponents.
 
Any advice when the rest of the weapons are involved? (kicks, knees, elbows). I go to an mma gym so when we spar we tend to use more or less all the weapons in muay thai including trips sweeps and dumps.

the main thing you have to watch out for when pressure fighting is those counters. i like to test them with a couple of 1-2 to see wear the counter is coming from before i step in to go to the body. once you have the timing on the right you can roll under it and come up with the left hook. it is a truly devastating punch throw properly. once you start teeing off to the body and with the left to the head you go back to the straight 1-2 if you do this properly you can really start to tee off with the straight right and not be to worried about counters to much.

like you mentioned I enjoy hitting the right to the body coming up with a left hook and then finishing with a rear low kick. Boxing was my first love and one thing I picked up and brought to mma is controlling the distance or mirroring your opponent instead of following them to stay in range Hearns was my favourite for this though I tend to enter the pocket more like Tyson than Hearns:confused:
 
Pretty much my style summed up, I do just boxing though. As said above, best thing for the style is to have power that can make the opponent fear you, as well as have defense because if you are using that style and fight someone who has the power to hurt you, your whole style goes out the window without great defense. (On that note, make sure to have a plan B in case the style isn't working out, truly good fighters can adapt to any situation). Nothing makes an opponent more uncomfortable though than walking them down while they cannot land punches. It is morale breaking, especially if you are tagging them back regularly. It is why excellent fighters choose to literally quit against Lomachenko.

Also, another thing about the defense, if you make it obvious you are pressuring with intent to counter, and react to every shot, your counter will be countered and since most likely your momentum is coming forward, you will run into the shot which could spell a lotta trouble with a hard puncher. So be careful.
 
Any advice when the rest of the weapons are involved? (kicks, knees, elbows). I go to an mma gym so when we spar we tend to use more or less all the weapons in muay thai including trips sweeps and dumps.

Just bang, and when they bang right, bang them harder
 
Pretty much my style summed up, I do just boxing though. As said above, best thing for the style is to have power that can make the opponent fear you, as well as have defense because if you are using that style and fight someone who has the power to hurt you, your whole style goes out the window without great defense. (On that note, make sure to have a plan B in case the style isn't working out, truly good fighters can adapt to any situation). Nothing makes an opponent more uncomfortable though than walking them down while they cannot land punches. It is morale breaking, especially if you are tagging them back regularly. It is why excellent fighters choose to literally quit against Lomachenko.

Also, another thing about the defense, if you make it obvious you are pressuring with intent to counter, and react to every shot, your counter will be countered and since most likely your momentum is coming forward, you will run into the shot which could spell a lotta trouble with a hard puncher. So be careful.

Its a very natural style for me and I find it easy to flow from offence to defence in the pocket. Iv been trying to work on fighting on the back foot more because I find it easy to "pressure" my partner into chasing me.That was my way around them realising I was pressuring to counter, I just got them to pressure me.

"when the opponent expand, i contract. When he contracts, i expand. And when there is an opportunity, i do not hit. It hits all by itself." This explains it actually quite well haha
 
You could try to steer them into certain actions. What this means is that you intentionally show your opponent certain opportunities as you come in, when they act like you suspect, you counter off that. For example, pressure as you come in as usual but have your guard high and wide. This will invite straight punches down the middle. When they throw those expected straights down the middle, you have your readied counter ready and primed to go. This will make your defense look much faster than it is and consequently add more pressure when you come into range.
 
You could try to steer them into certain actions. What this means is that you intentionally show your opponent certain opportunities as you come in, when they act like you suspect, you counter off that. For example, pressure as you come in as usual but have your guard high and wide. This will invite straight punches down the middle. When they throw those expected straights down the middle, you have your readied counter ready and primed to go. This will make your defense look much faster than it is and consequently add more pressure when you come into range.

This is my favourite thing to do and play around with Iv invited a jab and slipped outside into a spinning back fist. No one sees it coming! Inviting any strike just to counter perfectly is an unmatched feeling as well haha
 

What are some of your favourite go to counters? Ever done any funky stuff? I once got my partner to pressure me up to the wall, as soon as he thought I was trapped I hopped up and countered his jab with a superman punch off the wall. Been trying to work on my showtime kick for shits and gigs too
 
What are some of your favourite go to counters? Ever done any funky stuff? I once got my partner to pressure me up to the wall, as soon as he thought I was trapped I hopped up and countered his jab with a superman punch off the wall. Been trying to work on my showtime kick for shits and gigs too

I know it is boring but I love parrying their jab whilst throwing mine at the same time (works for crosses too). They get so discouraged when they throw their fastest strike and not only do they not hit you, but they get hit at the same time. They often start trading speed for power shots, which makes it even easier to counter.

I also like threatening to come in low to invite the mid/high kick, just so I can catch it and sweep them. It is surprising just how often these very simple counters work.
 
I know it is boring but I love parrying their jab whilst throwing mine at the same time (works for crosses too). They get so discouraged when they throw their fastest strike and not only do they not hit you, but they get hit at the same time. They often start trading speed for power shots, which makes it even easier to counter.
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Parrying is what I admire so much about Foreman. He parried the jab masterful and negated many opponents to even get a hit in and as soon as they overreached with slower punches he would beat them to the punch with his brutal jab. Excellent strategy especially with a powerful jab.

IdealUnluckyApe.gif
 
Parrying is what I admire so much about Foreman. He parried the jab masterful and negated many opponents to even get a hit in and as soon as they overreached with slower punches he would beat them to the punch with his brutal jab. Excellent strategy especially with a powerful jab.

IdealUnluckyApe.gif

I posted a HL you might enjoy "good lord george foreman was scary" is the thread name
 
you can always improve on your punching power. keep working at it if you want to be a truly great puncher. watch fighters like hearns, foster, foreman,and louis the amount of pressure they but on fighters just with power alone was ridiculous. especially hearns his reach and power was frightening in his prime. you could visibly see how uncomfortable it made his opponents.

Been watching a ton more Bob foster love his feinting and subtle defence. Man definitely had some power. Add in the openings created and counters its no wonder the man had so many kos. Cant believe I never watched him before
 
I do not but I d love to read more.

I recently found a video of a female boxer explaining that if you box going to your right - jabbing and moving to your right in other words, you target the left shoulder of your oponent and wait for their jab to side step and cross or cross and hook.

If you do the.same but to the left you target their right shoulder waiting for their cross to pivot out and left hook or left hook and.cross.

It looked logical and I am going to test it in a spar today.
 
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