"Facing" question

shs101

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Really been thinking about facing opponents correctly as Sinister mentions on here and having looked through the old notorious thread I couldn't find too much on the upper half of "facing". I read a lot that you should face them with your foot,knee,hip AND shoulder / hand but just can't think of a visual for it. Wouldn't that mean you'd have to keep your elbow glued and/or on your ribs (not have it flare at all) to have your elbow in line with their centerline? Am I over thinking this? How important is it to have from foot to arm in one trajectory.....I can think of a lot of fighters who seem a lot better at keeping their lower bodies correctly aimed but certainly not their upper bodies. Thoughts?

Sinister, if you see this I would love to hear what you would have to say.
 
Well, you ARE over-thinking it. That said, typically you do want the elbows resting against your torso. Which means they'd be touching the torso, or "glued" as you put it. No flare. That's what's encouraged in the beginning. I always stress to new students that their lead hand is HOLDING a weapon, and depending on where you point it, the opponent feels more or less of a threat. Aim it at their center, they consider it an obstacle. Aim it anywhere else, they don't as much. The lead shoulder should be behind it, and the chin behind that, if you're looking at a virtual line that goes towards the rear hand (it cannot go exactly straight or you'd be totally sideways). But if someone came right at you they should have to get past your lead arm and shoulder before being able to touch your face.

But that's if you're static. Once you understand WHY these rules are important, you can begin flirting with altering them and flirting with danger to tempt the opponent. I will say this though, from what I see in modern boxing most people fuck up the lower body much much more than the upper-body. One foot is always almost laughably out of position, which limits defensive AND offensive ability.
 
Well, you ARE over-thinking it. That said, typically you do want the elbows resting against your torso. Which means they'd be touching the torso, or "glued" as you put it. No flare. That's what's encouraged in the beginning. I always stress to new students that their lead hand is HOLDING a weapon, and depending on where you point it, the opponent feels more or less of a threat. Aim it at their center, they consider it an obstacle. Aim it anywhere else, they don't as much. The lead shoulder should be behind it, and the chin behind that, if you're looking at a virtual line that goes towards the rear hand (it cannot go exactly straight or you'd be totally sideways). But if someone came right at you they should have to get past your lead arm and shoulder before being able to touch your face.

But that's if you're static. Once you understand WHY these rules are important, you can begin flirting with altering them and flirting with danger to tempt the opponent. I will say this though, from what I see in modern boxing most people fuck up the lower body much much more than the upper-body. One foot is always almost laughably out of position, which limits defensive AND offensive ability.

Thanks for the reply. How important is the rear foot when it comes to threatening their center line compared to your lead foot? I'm a southpaw and I think I read in one of the threads you can threaten them with your rear foot as well? Don't know how this is possible but I wanted to make sure I know before I put it to use. Stuff like this isn't taught in 99 percent of gyms.
 
Really been thinking about facing opponents correctly as Sinister mentions on here and having looked through the old notorious thread I couldn't find too much on the upper half of "facing". I read a lot that you should face them with your foot,knee,hip AND shoulder / hand but just can't think of a visual for it. Wouldn't that mean you'd have to keep your elbow glued and/or on your ribs (not have it flare at all) to have your elbow in line with their centerline? Am I over thinking this? How important is it to have from foot to arm in one trajectory.....I can think of a lot of fighters who seem a lot better at keeping their lower bodies correctly aimed but certainly not their upper bodies. Thoughts?

Sinister, if you see this I would love to hear what you would have to say.

Assuming this is for boxing and not Muay Thai...also assuming you haven't been around and came back to Sherdog lately.
 
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