Footwork and head movement shadowboxing

There was some mention earlier about tension, but your body doesn't appear all that tense to me. It just looks like when you initiate a movement, it seems as if you're trying really hard to make the movement quick. I'm constantly telling my fighters that it's about timing, not racing. If you're a "racer" it means that in response to anything you see, you're going to try and beat the motion just AFTER you see it. This isn't always bad, but it is very predictable and allows you to be timed. Defensive action is more about rhythm and timing. In this video, Daijon isn't sparring this kid, the kid's a novice. He's just playing defense primarily. But look at his fluidity and how his movements aren't typically rushed. It's even more so nowadays:

 
Looks good man. It does look a little forced yes, and a bit exaggerated, but some of the slips and weaves are pretty damn fast!

I don't think you'd want to elevate your stance, but you do seem a little heavy when moving your feet. Might be you've gained a few kgs. As for how to "relax" more that's hard. I know you want to turn over completely and so forth, but you're loading up a bit on the right hand. Maybe try to add in a few more throwaway punches without comitting as much and change the tempo around on some of them and see if that helps. "Dance" a little more and loosen up the shoulders. Not necessarily while doing this drill, but as an add on. You're at the point not that you don't have to overemphasize every move to get the technique down.

Your dips and weaves are solid man, might just want to take your own advice and practice more lateral movement and smoothing out the footwork in general and see if it pays off. Are you flat footed? I mean in the literal sense. I don't know how much you do of it already, but running (with good technique, this is a hard one if you're flat footed) and skipping more, while adding a few short foot drills/unilateral drills for stability or triple extension exercises (cmj jumps, squat jumps, anything that extends the ankle really) might help you improve the foot arch. At least they can make your feet more stable and firm, preventing you from losing as much power into the ground.

Feet strengthening/footwork/lateral movement, tempo changes, throwaway punches, feeling and being less rigid (not more sloppy) would be my takeaway. That's just my limited opinion though, I refer to the don. Otherwise I feel like @Two had some good advice.
 
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There was some mention earlier about tension, but your body doesn't appear all that tense to me. It just looks like when you initiate a movement, it seems as if you're trying really hard to make the movement quick. I'm constantly telling my fighters that it's about timing, not racing. If you're a "racer" it means that in response to anything you see, you're going to try and beat the motion just AFTER you see it. This isn't always bad, but it is very predictable and allows you to be timed. Defensive action is more about rhythm and timing. In this video, Daijon isn't sparring this kid, the kid's a novice. He's just playing defense primarily. But look at his fluidity and how his movements aren't typically rushed. It's even more so nowadays:


Poetry in motion right there, looks great.
 
Okay, real critique.

I feel that even when you paw out your jab, you could still put more reach into it, right now it looks like its meant as bs, but you should try to do well to sell it more.

When you dash in for a cross, your back leg doesn't look planted, so it might end up being an arm punch. Maybe I'm getting it wrong because its a video and not in person. If it is what I said, then take a fraction of a sec to sit into it so you can get weight on the cross.

I did that alot also a few months back, when I realized I was trying to get speed in to close distance ASAP, I didn't have heat beacause I didn't plant.

Are you practicing in terms of fighting someone alot taller than you? It looks like alot of times on teh jeb, its going upwards while you're not coming off a level change. On that, your chin is coming up.
 
Hey guys, I posted this video in my fundamentals of footwork thread but I don't think a lot of people saw it so I'm gonna make a new thread for critiques. It's just a round of me shadowboxing with a focus on footwork and head movement.



I've been trying to work a lot on these things so I'd appreciate any feedback or tips you have to offer, thanks!


I would say, that your kitchen is a little small to move properly, might have contributed to your stiffness whilst moving at speed, maybe post something in a larger area showing more fluid movement.
 
I would say, that your kitchen is a little small to move properly, might have contributed to your stiffness whilst moving at speed, maybe post something in a larger area showing more fluid movement.
Thinly veiled "you sound poor"
 
Cool - yeah its not bad, just a little rushed. Relax more and enjoy what you are doing.

Thanks man. Btw I appreciate the videos you've been posting, this forum needs more good content like them.
 
There was some mention earlier about tension, but your body doesn't appear all that tense to me. It just looks like when you initiate a movement, it seems as if you're trying really hard to make the movement quick. I'm constantly telling my fighters that it's about timing, not racing. If you're a "racer" it means that in response to anything you see, you're going to try and beat the motion just AFTER you see it. This isn't always bad, but it is very predictable and allows you to be timed. Defensive action is more about rhythm and timing. In this video, Daijon isn't sparring this kid, the kid's a novice. He's just playing defense primarily. But look at his fluidity and how his movements aren't typically rushed. It's even more so nowadays:



Oh...wow I just had a revelation. One of my biggest flaws is impatience and I think that contributes to why I'm "racing". I'm just bad at going slow and I always want to be faster and hit harder than the other guy. You're so right that I often react to things after I see them and just try to be faster, which works until it doesn't.

I think between that, and what Dismas said about enjoying what I do, I've got a new perspective to approach this from. Worry less about how fast I'm doing things, and more about WHEN and WHY I'm doing them.

Thank you for your time and insight.
 
Hey guys, I posted this video in my fundamentals of footwork thread but I don't think a lot of people saw it so I'm gonna make a new thread for critiques. It's just a round of me shadowboxing with a focus on footwork and head movement.



I've been trying to work a lot on these things so I'd appreciate any feedback or tips you have to offer, thanks!

I feel like your back is too straight up,
 
Oh...wow I just had a revelation. One of my biggest flaws is impatience and I think that contributes to why I'm "racing". I'm just bad at going slow and I always want to be faster and hit harder than the other guy. You're so right that I often react to things after I see them and just try to be faster, which works until it doesn't.

I think between that, and what Dismas said about enjoying what I do, I've got a new perspective to approach this from. Worry less about how fast I'm doing things, and more about WHEN and WHY I'm doing them.

Thank you for your time and insight.

Think Yoel Romero. He spends most of his time moving at a leisurely pace with occasional bursts of extreme full speed violence. He'll throw feints, strikes, and even defend at a reduced speed which both saves his gas tank and gets his opponents used to everything happening at a lower speed & rhythm, then when he goes to full speed they're caught napping and get creamed with hard strikes or takedowns.
 
@a guy: Sinister nailed it, it was something I was planning to elaborate on in a further message but I didn't fully pick up on it nor figure out how to communicate it. I noticed your eyes/facial expression were tense, and I think a lot of us were reading your focus and mistaking it for your body language and movement. The initiation of your direction changes and the snappy head movement threw me off. We're seriously privileged to have a guy like Luis on this board, kind of miss the activity of past years. Sorry I didn't have much useful advice, I'd like to get better at being able to asses this stuff.

@Sinister: I'm a bit confused by the element of timing: "If you're a "racer" it means that in response to anything you see, you're going to try and beat the motion just AFTER you see it. This isn't always bad, but it is very predictable and allows you to be timed." In the context of footwork I find this easier to understand practically, if you're circling and pivoting throughout you're always moving position, creating positional advantage, minimizing positional disadvantage that put you in bad spots, and forcing your guy to adjust to you. But as far as head movement is concerned can't you only slip or duck when you see the shot coming? Is it also about incorporating better reads into your game? Like.. I throw a jab and might assume a jab is coming back, so I slip right after. But I think I'm missing something here as that's a pretty basic strategy that is ultimately just as predictable if its the only element of timing. Can you elaborate?
 
Your chin looked a little bit "up" instead of down by default and 'looking through your eyebrows'.


Also seemed like you were trying to use strength/energy and athleticism (kinda like a workout) instead of developing natural finesse, letting the mechanics of anatomy do the work for you (like a good dancer).
 
@a guy
I wont comment on the quality of your movement, I'm not qualified enough for mma or boxing, but I would like to comment on that style in general.

Your style of movement has a number of disadvantage...

-As sinister said, its very predictable. It's fast, but its by the book, It doesn't give you space for instant creativity, and that makes it hard to adapt against a non-conventional fighter. It doesn't let you time to think...

-It's also very flawed/problematic against feints... Every move your opponent make, will make you react, will make him see what's your response would be. So you have do add some weapons to minimize that. It can be combined with a very aggressive style that won't let him throw feints, or time to think about setting traps.
Or you can have a huge inventory of movement against each strike, mixing it up, and wont let him read you...
But you have to understand that just speed reaction/movement must be combine with something else that will minimize it's weakness.

-It's a style that is very difficult to maintain at a high level during the last minutes of the fight, so you better work on that cardio...

And please tell j123 not to mention my name in the same sentence with andymabobs...
 
I dont think you look tense. You look very switched on, and like a naturally decisive guy, but your breathing seems relaxed.

And maybe I'm wrong, but I'd have to believe part of improving your speed is going as fast as you can from time to time. You seem right on the edge between fast and out of control.
 
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Alright guys here's a round taking your feedback into consideration. Instead of going as fast as possible I'm trying to be a little more rhythmic:

 
Looks good man. It does look a little forced yes, and a bit exaggerated, but some of the slips and weaves are pretty damn fast!

I don't think you'd want to elevate your stance, but you do seem a little heavy when moving your feet. Might be you've gained a few kgs. As for how to "relax" more that's hard. I know you want to turn over completely and so forth, but you're loading up a bit on the right hand. Maybe try to add in a few more throwaway punches without comitting as much and change the tempo around on some of them and see if that helps. "Dance" a little more and loosen up the shoulders. Not necessarily while doing this drill, but as an add on. You're at the point not that you don't have to overemphasize every move to get the technique down.

Your dips and weaves are solid man, might just want to take your own advice and practice more lateral movement and smoothing out the footwork in general and see if it pays off. Are you flat footed? I mean in the literal sense. I don't know how much you do of it already, but running (with good technique, this is a hard one if you're flat footed) and skipping more, while adding a few short foot drills/unilateral drills for stability or triple extension exercises (cmj jumps, squat jumps, anything that extends the ankle really) might help you improve the foot arch. At least they can make your feet more stable and firm, preventing you from losing as much power into the ground.

Feet strengthening/footwork/lateral movement, tempo changes, throwaway punches, feeling and being less rigid (not more sloppy) would be my takeaway. That's just my limited opinion though, I refer to the don. Otherwise I feel like @Two had some good advice.

Thanks for the thoughtful feedback man. I appreciate it. I just posted a follow up video to try and make the corrections.

About the feet: mine aren't technically flat but I definitely think I could still benefit from the foot strengthening exercises you described. Thanks for that. I have been doing a little slacklining recently and I feel like it's really helped my balance and ability to feel the ground with my feet, and that's opened my eyes a bit about how important training the feet is.
 
@a guy: Sinister nailed it, it was something I was planning to elaborate on in a further message but I didn't fully pick up on it nor figure out how to communicate it. I noticed your eyes/facial expression were tense, and I think a lot of us were reading your focus and mistaking it for your body language and movement. The initiation of your direction changes and the snappy head movement threw me off. We're seriously privileged to have a guy like Luis on this board, kind of miss the activity of past years. Sorry I didn't have much useful advice, I'd like to get better at being able to asses this stuff.

@Sinister: I'm a bit confused by the element of timing: "If you're a "racer" it means that in response to anything you see, you're going to try and beat the motion just AFTER you see it. This isn't always bad, but it is very predictable and allows you to be timed." In the context of footwork I find this easier to understand practically, if you're circling and pivoting throughout you're always moving position, creating positional advantage, minimizing positional disadvantage that put you in bad spots, and forcing your guy to adjust to you. But as far as head movement is concerned can't you only slip or duck when you see the shot coming? Is it also about incorporating better reads into your game? Like.. I throw a jab and might assume a jab is coming back, so I slip right after. But I think I'm missing something here as that's a pretty basic strategy that is ultimately just as predictable if its the only element of timing. Can you elaborate?

Just answer your question like this, in your own mind:

What is the difference between proactive and reactive? A proactive guy can initiate movement without needing a stimulus (punch, feint, etc.), this giving the opponent a moving target. A reactive person stays STILL until they see something happen, then moves. What good is only being either one? And further still, what good is moving as if you're going to win an award by finishing your movement before the other guy? That's not the object.
 

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