Drills on the heavy bag and shadow boxing

[Ilk]

I want to train something specific. I have no clue how to explain it well.

So I renewed my boxing training this week. I will go twice per week. We spar a lot and I have noted before I had problems with being gun shy and had some troubles actually fighting. I received a good advice and I have been working on it.

Anyway today I got a realization that I am gunshy mostly because I have not developed habits on what to do when being attacked. So there are no reflexes, no actual habits on how to react in different situations.

For example today I get attacked and I block a right hook and there is a huge opening in front of me. I trow my left hook and then I stop. I could have launched a serious attack in that situation.

Another problem is that my guard sux in a real fight. On the bag it may look okay ... for awhile, but I get punched a lot on the heat of a fight. I have added today a lot of head movement, slips, ducks, in order to compensate for the bad guard and it worked okay. This actually got me in new situations I have no experience with. Somehow I managed to get in close distance after a duck... and then again I had no clue what to do, although I was seeing I could attack.

I was thinking - man I have to create some habits and drill some punches or combos. So my body learns how to react to these situations. I need to create these habits.

Another problem I ve got is that I am not confident in my attacking. On the heavy bag and the pads my combos look okay, but when sparring I really do not feel like attacking much. I am going forward and not really afraid to get hit, yet I rather stand there and try to counter incomming shots than attack myself.

So I ve got a heavy bag acces and obviously I can shadow box on my own. Any advice what to do to deal with this problem.

 

[Mgmma]

Haha thanks, this is pretty much the post I wanted to make
Following this!

 

[RDL81]

I am in similar boat.....I have been told this is just being new to sparing and you improve with more rounds etc etc

 

[Sano]

I mean you can keep practicing specific moves, and what to do after getting in a certain position and so on, both with your sparring and on the heavybag. Then you can try to play around with it in sparring and work on those things. However, the link between the two is definitely doing more drills with a partner. Very specific drills where you work on your combinations, angles and defense while someone else is infront of you. You simply can't get the right timing and distance down on a bag or doing shadowboxing and trying to translate it directy from that to sparring can be very hard.

If you don't do enough drilling at class, maybe find a partner to stay with afterwards, or pick specific drills from class and do them with your friends if you are working with them. Do it VERY easy at first. Like, pick a small part of a drill, fx. parry jab, throw your own or slip jab, throw your own. Work your way up gradually to include more and more steps and angle changes and so on. When you keep practicing with a partner, do shadowsparring, do drills it will become a lot easier to fundamentally understand the angles and flow of doing it with a person, and transfer much more to sparring. There is no limit to what you can drill, if you need to work more of reaction, then drill more reactionary and defensive.

Sinister has posted a few vids lately with examples of them drilling:



It's just to get an understanding, do it more simple though. Don't rush it and do drills you are not ready for. If you flail around and do poor work, it will just engrain bad motor patterns. It's like building a house, your start with the foundation.

 

[dudeguyman]

I want to train something specific. I have no clue how to explain it well.

So I renewed my boxing training this week. I will go twice per week. We spar a lot and I have noted before I had problems with being gun shy and had some troubles actually fighting. I received a good advice and I have been working on it.

Anyway today I got a realization that I am gunshy mostly because I have not developed habits on what to do when being attacked. So there are no reflexes, no actual habits on how to react in different situations.

For example today I get attacked and I block a right hook and there is a huge opening in front of me. I trow my left hook and then I stop. I could have launched a serious attack in that situation.

Another problem is that my guard sux in a real fight. On the bag it may look okay ... for awhile, but I get punched a lot on the heat of a fight. I have added today a lot of head movement, slips, ducks, in order to compensate for the bad guard and it worked okay. This actually got me in new situations I have no experience with. Somehow I managed to get in close distance after a duck... and then again I had no clue what to do, although I was seeing I could attack.

I was thinking - man I have to create some habits and drill some punches or combos. So my body learns how to react to these situations. I need to create these habits.

Another problem I ve got is that I am not confident in my attacking. On the heavy bag and the pads my combos look okay, but when sparring I really do not feel like attacking much. I am going forward and not really afraid to get hit, yet I rather stand there and try to counter incomming shots than attack myself.

So I ve got a heavy bag acces and obviously I can shadow box on my own. Any advice what to do to deal with this problem.

Drill all of the combos that feel natural to you a ridiculous amount of times. Figure out how to set them up. What do you mean you don't know what to do when being attacked? I would think you know things I don't about that, like with your head movement. I can't do that at all. All I can say is don't give them a chance to breath or think. Keep the pressure on and don't give up any ground. Even if you get punched right in the eyeball keep staring at them.

 

[Ilk]

Drill all of the combos that feel natural to you a ridiculous amount of times. Figure out how to set them up. What do you mean you don't know what to do when being attacked? I would think you know things I don't about that, like with your head movement. I can't do that at all. All I can say is don't give them a chance to breath or think. Keep the pressure on and don't give up any ground. Even if you get punched right in the eyeball keep staring at them.

Well it is not like I am good at head movement. I try to figure out attacks or just do it anyway.

For example - 1-2-slip outside or duck under the 2. Or jab, slip in, left uppercut, duck, left hook. I figured out a guy today that he was using his jab as counter so I just started slipping out his jab. Go for a combo and when I am done or feel vulnerable - slip out. So he stopped countering me.

Going forward is what I want to learn to do. I want to pressure and learn to fight. My goal with boxing is to really learn to fight in case of a self defence situation and for me boxing and pressuring forward is a huge step forward into learning to fight.

 

[Ilk]

I mean you can keep practicing specific moves, and what to do after getting in a certain position and so on, both with your sparring and on the heavybag. Then you can try to play around with it in sparring and work on those things. However, the link between the two is definitely doing more drills with a partner. Very specific drills where you work on your combinations, angles and defense while someone else is infront of you. You simply can't get the right timing and distance down on a bag or doing shadowboxing and trying to translate it directy from that to sparring can be very hard.

If you don't do enough drilling at class, maybe find a partner to stay with afterwards, or pick specific drills from class and do them with your friends if you are working with them. Do it VERY easy at first. Like, pick a small part of a drill, fx. parry jab, throw your own or slip jab, throw your own. Work your way up gradually to include more and more steps and angle changes and so on. When you keep practicing with a partner, do shadowsparring, do drills it will become a lot easier to fundamentally understand the angles and flow of doing it with a person, and transfer much more to sparring. There is no limit to what you can drill, if you need to work more of reaction, then drill more reactionary and defensive.

Sinister has posted a few vids lately with examples of them drilling:



It's just to get an understanding, do it more simple though. Don't rush it and do drills you are not ready for. If you flail around and do poor work, it will just engrain bad motor patterns. It's like building a house, your start with the foundation.

Hey Sano. Perhaps I will ask instead of doing some conditioning stuff to do partner drills in the end of the work out. As our coach listens to us and crafts the workouts towards the wishes of our group.

 

[dudeguyman]

Well it is not like I am good at head movement. I try to figure out attacks or just do it anyway.

For example - 1-2-slip outside or duck under the 2. Or jab, slip in, left uppercut, duck, left hook. I figured out a guy today that he was using his jab as counter so I just started slipping out his jab. Go for a combo and when I am done or feel vulnerable - slip out. So he stopped countering me.

Going forward is what I want to learn to do. I want to pressure and learn to fight. My goal with boxing is to really learn to fight in case of a self defence situation and for me boxing and pressuring forward is a huge step forward into learning to fight.

I guess a boxing gym might shun it, but why not try clinching up sometimes instead of slipping out when your done hitting. Maybe mix the two up? Might be a little more confusing for the other guy.

 

[Reyesnuthugr]

Something is wrong with your posture, foot position, distance, etc and that's why your body/brain feels so hesitant.

If you were to throw at these moments, regardless, your brain/body already can sense that you would get tagged HARD in your awkward stance/angle/orientation that would make it impossible to fight back and unlikely to do damage even if you did land. Your body knows the juice isn't worth the squeeze at those moments. You are probably off balance and too vulnerable at that moment and unable to deliver a decent shot

You need some correction from a technical trainer. Let them correct you as you do it full speed and slow speed. When something feels wrong, it IS wrong. Ask them what is wrong whenever something isn't working or just feels wrong. You should pay them extra to do this in private

 

[eternaldarkness]

Well it is not like I am good at head movement. I try to figure out attacks or just do it anyway.

For example - 1-2-slip outside or duck under the 2. Or jab, slip in, left uppercut, duck, left hook. I figured out a guy today that he was using his jab as counter so I just started slipping out his jab. Go for a combo and when I am done or feel vulnerable - slip out. So he stopped countering me.

Going forward is what I want to learn to do. I want to pressure and learn to fight. My goal with boxing is to really learn to fight in case of a self defence situation and for me boxing and pressuring forward is a huge step forward into learning to fight.

i have found the two best things to help with aggressive boxing, are step slighting in and to the left when you throw the right hand (most importantly keep the left up as you throw the right). also learn to roll under the right hand and come up with the left hook. i ate a lot less right hand counters with i started rolling under the right, the left hook counter has also become one of my hardest punches.

 

[Ilk]

i have found the two best things to help with aggressive boxing, are step slighting in and to the left when you throw the right hand (most importantly keep the left up as you throw the right). also learn to roll under the right hand and come up with the left hook. i ate a lot less right hand counters with i started rolling under the right, the left hook counter has also become one of my hardest punches.

Now that is something to drill. Thanks a lot.

I guess a power 1_2 with roll under the.two and left hook while going up.

 

[Ilk]

Something is wrong with your posture, foot position, distance, etc and that's why your body/brain feels so hesitant.

If you were to throw at these moments, regardless, your brain/body already can sense that you would get tagged HARD in your awkward stance/angle/orientation that would make it impossible to fight back and unlikely to do damage even if you did land. Your body knows the juice isn't worth the squeeze at those moments. You are probably off balance and too vulnerable at that moment and unable to deliver a decent shot

You need some correction from a technical trainer. Let them correct you as you do it full speed and slow speed. When something feels wrong, it IS wrong. Ask them what is wrong whenever something isn't working or just feels wrong. You should pay them extra to do this in private

See there is the problem. When I am on the bag or the pads I most often do the punching with a good technique. My coach used to correct me a lot. Right now he corrects me mostly on the jab and left hook but not as often as before. Anyway point is the.technique is okay. Yet when sparring the.technique goes away.

I will give you an example with the cross. When punching a heavy bag I know my cross is long. I fully extend my right hand while pulling my left shoulder backwards so my right shoulder extends and covers my chin while my left glove covers the other side of.the chin. But when I spar I cant extend my cross that way it is often short and I lack protection.

Same thing when jabbing a SP. The jab is so bad in a.spar that every time I jab I get countered by a hook. Last time I sparred I pre.emptively ducked under or.sliped inside to escape that SP right hook. But in the end I almost dropped jabing him and went on using the left hook as a leading punch.

 

[eternaldarkness]

Now that is something to drill. Thanks a lot.

I guess a power 1_2 with roll under the.two and left hook while going up.

make sure for are keeping your left up as you roll under the right. definitely one of the best and easiest to learn if you don't want to keep walking into right hands. when this is flowing well you can add the step back to your right, block, right hand, left hook.
there are heaps of combos to work on, but the main thing to remember is find the ones that work for you. also don't try to throw too many punches in a single combo. the trick to good combination punching is finding the basic combos that work, and stringing them together.
also you can't beat drills for practicing basic defence. start with just parring the jab, them move to blocking the 1-2 and so forth. even if it's just a quick warm up before you spar, it really helps.

 

[eternaldarkness]

See there is the problem. When I am on the bag or the pads I most often do the punching with a good technique. My coach used to correct me a lot. Right now he corrects me mostly on the jab and left hook but not as often as before. Anyway point is the.technique is okay. Yet when sparring the.technique goes away.

I will give you an example with the cross. When punching a heavy bag I know my cross is long. I fully extend my right hand while pulling my left shoulder backwards so my right shoulder extends and covers my chin while my left glove covers the other side of.the chin. But when I spar I cant extend my cross that way it is often short and I lack protection.

Same thing when jabbing a SP. The jab is so bad in a.spar that every time I jab I get countered by a hook. Last time I sparred I pre.emptively ducked under or.sliped inside to escape that SP right hook. But in the end I almost dropped jabing him and went on using the left hook as a leading punch.

it takes a lot to learn how to use a jab against a south paw. your probably better off faking the jab, parry or blocking his right and firing a right hand, left hook. this is my go to against south paws. you can vary it to a left hook, right hand or throw it to the body then the head and vice versa.

 

[eternaldarkness]

See there is the problem. When I am on the bag or the pads I most often do the punching with a good technique. My coach used to correct me a lot. Right now he corrects me mostly on the jab and left hook but not as often as before. Anyway point is the.technique is okay. Yet when sparring the.technique goes away.

I will give you an example with the cross. When punching a heavy bag I know my cross is long. I fully extend my right hand while pulling my left shoulder backwards so my right shoulder extends and covers my chin while my left glove covers the other side of.the chin. But when I spar I cant extend my cross that way it is often short and I lack protection.

Same thing when jabbing a SP. The jab is so bad in a.spar that every time I jab I get countered by a hook. Last time I sparred I pre.emptively ducked under or.sliped inside to escape that SP right hook. But in the end I almost dropped jabing him and went on using the left hook as a leading punch.

your right hand is probably coming up short because your feet are out of position. i used to have the same problem. i could land a counter right if they were coming at me but it always came up short if i was being aggressive.
this is usually caused by reaching with the right. trying stepping forward and to your right with your right foot before throwing the right hand. you do this at the same time you parry their jab. watch marciano, there is a reason he rarely ever fell short with his right hand even against good boxers.