Footwork and head movement shadowboxing

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.

Yea most of the jabs I throw when shadowboxing are BS. I have some problems with my left shoulder so I don't like to extend my jab too much unless I have a target.

I definitely don't have a problem getting weight on my cross, it's probably my most grounded punch. If you listen you'll hear my back foot sort of stomp if I throw it while dashing forward. The only time it's not like that is when I'm throwing a BS cross to set up a roll under and step out to my right.

Nah, my targeting just gets weird when I'm shadowboxing. I don't know why I do that but I'll try to be more conscious of it.

Thanks for the tips man.
 
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.

Yea Romero is amazing at that.

I'm a little better at it normally. This video I was trying to go full speed the entire time, I just uploaded one where I'm going a little slower.
 
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).

I definitely need to work on that. Good point.

Yea I was trying to practice moving at full speed while changing directions as much as possible, without losing balance or getting out of position. So yea, I was definitely trying to move as athletically as possible which definitely takes a lot of energy.
 
@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...

Thanks a lot for the insight man.

I do want to clarify that this isn't how I normally look. This was a drill specifically to keep my head and feet moving at full speed, to practice more dynamic movement. So I wasn't really using my blocks and parries because they weren't the focus of the drill, and I was moving a lot more than normal.

Regardless, I think you make great points about the vulnerabilities in that style. My usual response to feints is to either feint back in return and put on steady pressure, and my coach has had me working on disengaging and stepping around if I'm getting out-feinted--instead of standing right in front of the other guy dancing for him. Still a work in progress. Also to what you said about a big inventory of movements, that's the beauty of MMA. If I slip outside your jab I can hit you with a counter jab, straight right, right uppercut, switch kick/knee, I can step forward into a body lock, I can shoot a knee tap or high crotch, the possibilities are endless. So with that in mind, and taking into consideration how taxing it is to try to be fast all the time, I'm starting to work on being more rhythmic and relying more on distance and timing than on speed.

Thanks again for commenting.
 
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 to me. Really like the way you throw the straight right. I have noticed a slight natural dip in your right shoulder when in a neutral position. It looks like you are stiffer on your front leg but that is obviously could just be due to it being a boxing round. So Its not really a criticism, more an observation. Probably a personal preference thing rather than a technically bad thing.

Always hard to critique shadowboxing due to it being a round on your visualisation of an opponent.

Looks great though. Really sharpe and i dont see you as tense at all.
 
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.

In the new video I just posted I tried to do a better job of moving both proactively and "reactively" (even though I'm only reacting to my imagination). That's something I need to work on because I've caught myself trying to react to every single thing, getting hit, then trying to move proactively, but focusing so much on constant movement that my movement lacks purpose. I need to develop a happy medium.
 
BTW @ssullivan80, I don't know if you're still around here but I'd love your input if you are.

Also, @The MM Analyst, I know you don't comment too much but I was hoping you'd take a look too.

And fuck it, I'll throw out a hail mary to @SAAMAG
 
I think in the back of your mind, you know that strong athletic legs can be a lot of help. Train those to be strong and athletic, while the rest of you (waist up) should train to be smooth and efficient. imo
 
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.

That's what I was going for. Constant movement at full speed. I was trying to test my ability to move quickly in any direction at any time without losing balance. Luis explained very clearly the flaws with relying on that philosophy too much for defense, but I've been trying to get faster with my head movement and footwork.
 
I think in the back of your mind, you know that strong athletic legs can be a lot of help. Train those to be strong and athletic, while the rest of you (waist up) should train to be smooth and efficient. imo

That's what I'm hoping to achieve.
 
Looks good to me. Really like the way you throw the straight right. I have noticed a slight natural dip in your right shoulder when in a neutral position. It looks like you are stiffer on your front leg but that is obviously could just be due to it being a boxing round. So Its not really a criticism, more an observation. Probably a personal preference thing rather than a technically bad thing.

Always hard to critique shadowboxing due to it being a round on your visualisation of an opponent.

Looks great though. Really sharpe and i dont see you as tense at all.

Yea my preferred stance is to keep my weight over my back foot with that back hip slightly engaged most of the time. When I shift weight forward it's usually for a specific reason, then I return to the back foot.

Thank you, I appreciate it!
 
Looks great. I don't have a whole lot to add, but I'll say that I don't see the stiffness other people were talking about, but I do see what Sinister said about trying to be fast. It looks better in your second video, but I think there's still some opportunity to play with the rhythm on your head movement. Some of it seemed to be on a consistent rhythm (like slip right - slip left - pivot out) which isn't a bad thing if you're reacting and that's how your opponent is throwing his punches, but playing with rhythm breaks and delaying some slips could make it harder to pick up a pattern on your proactive head movement.

I like that you have multiple options from each slip you make and don't fall into any one predictable pattern, and I like your pivots and subtle adjustments steps at range. When you start chaining slips, your feet tend to stay in place and it's followed by a big pivot out. It might be a good idea to work on taking subtle adjustment steps to keep your opponent lined up as you move your head (for example, as you're transferring weight from your lead hip to your rear hip, you can turn the rear foot out slightly and adjust the lead foot). Canelo's great at this and any youtube highlight of his has a ton of great examples.

Another thing I see is that you tend to lean a bit when you slip over your rear hip. Your head doesn't go over your foot and I wouldn't say it's a problem really, pretty much every boxer leans at times and often on purpose, but if you like to close distance and counter with a lead hook off the slip, it might be conducive to add some more deep slips where you engage your hip and bend your knee a bit more. The kind of slip I'm talking about is the one you use when you're loading up a body hook. A potential opening I see for a southpaw is to try and feint you into leaning on the lead hip and landing the left, but you do a good job weaving off it to mitigate that.

Wasn't a whole lot I could see, I like your form a lot and you do a great job keeping yourself in position as you more.
 
Looks great. I don't have a whole lot to add, but I'll say that I don't see the stiffness other people were talking about, but I do see what Sinister said about trying to be fast. It looks better in your second video, but I think there's still some opportunity to play with the rhythm on your head movement. Some of it seemed to be on a consistent rhythm (like slip right - slip left - pivot out) which isn't a bad thing if you're reacting and that's how your opponent is throwing his punches, but playing with rhythm breaks and delaying some slips could make it harder to pick up a pattern on your proactive head movement.

I like that you have multiple options from each slip you make and don't fall into any one predictable pattern, and I like your pivots and subtle adjustments steps at range. When you start chaining slips, your feet tend to stay in place and it's followed by a big pivot out. It might be a good idea to work on taking subtle adjustment steps to keep your opponent lined up as you move your head (for example, as you're transferring weight from your lead hip to your rear hip, you can turn the rear foot out slightly and adjust the lead foot). Canelo's great at this and any youtube highlight of his has a ton of great examples.

Another thing I see is that you tend to lean a bit when you slip over your rear hip. Your head doesn't go over your foot and I wouldn't say it's a problem really, pretty much every boxer leans at times and often on purpose, but if you like to close distance and counter with a lead hook off the slip, it might be conducive to add some more deep slips where you engage your hip and bend your knee a bit more. The kind of slip I'm talking about is the one you use when you're loading up a body hook. A potential opening I see for a southpaw is to try and feint you into leaning on the lead hip and landing the left, but you do a good job weaving off it to mitigate that.

Wasn't a whole lot I could see, I like your form a lot and you do a great job keeping yourself in position as you more.

Thanks a lot for the detailed feedback.

You make a great point about changing up the rhythm. That's something I need to work on in general. A lot of the time I'll find myself either idling or going 100%, so I'll have to practice small, half beat movements and play around more with delays and things like throwaway punches. Definitely a lot to improve on in that area.

Another good point. I do get pretty flatfooted when my head is moving a lot. It won't do me much good to get stuck in one place, I'll have to work on that too.

I'm doing that to try to bait a strike so I can either pull or slip deeper and go under it. It's definitely a good idea to get more hip/knee engagement when I'm moving forward though.

Again, thanks for the critique and for the kind words. I really appreciate it.
 
Thanks a lot for the detailed feedback.

You make a great point about changing up the rhythm. That's something I need to work on in general. A lot of the time I'll find myself either idling or going 100%, so I'll have to practice small, half beat movements and play around more with delays and things like throwaway punches. Definitely a lot to improve on in that area.

Another good point. I do get pretty flatfooted when my head is moving a lot. It won't do me much good to get stuck in one place, I'll have to work on that too.

I'm doing that to try to bait a strike so I can either pull or slip deeper and go under it. It's definitely a good idea to get more hip/knee engagement when I'm moving forward though.

Again, thanks for the critique and for the kind words. I really appreciate it.

Also I wouldn't worry too much about getting back in shape because, as we all know, strength doesn't play any role in power generation XD
 
Also I wouldn't worry too much about getting back in shape because, as we all know, strength doesn't play any role in power generation XD

peter-griffin-laugh.gif












Seriously though the only group of athletes who make more excuses to not be strong than martial artists are parkour guys...and man are those guys something else.
 
Thanks a lot for the detailed feedback.

You make a great point about changing up the rhythm. That's something I need to work on in general. A lot of the time I'll find myself either idling or going 100%, so I'll have to practice small, half beat movements and play around more with delays and things like throwaway punches. Definitely a lot to improve on in that area.

Another good point. I do get pretty flatfooted when my head is moving a lot. It won't do me much good to get stuck in one place, I'll have to work on that too.

I'm doing that to try to bait a strike so I can either pull or slip deeper and go under it. It's definitely a good idea to get more hip/knee engagement when I'm moving forward though.

Again, thanks for the critique and for the kind words. I really appreciate it.
FWIW i like your shadowboxing and foot movement.
going full speed though does not mean it has to always be fast, it can also be deliberate movements. For example most vids of Mayweather training his pivots aren't really lightning quick but they are solid deliberate steps. In the ring though his pivots are always very smooth.
Besides that i know you are a smart dude that can go deep on some film study. Have you watched much of Julio Cesar La Cruz?

try this link i don't know if it will work in the USA.


if not youtube Cesar La Cruz vs Camargo
La Cruz does so many things with his footwork to deceive, threaten and attack its ridiculous. Fake pivots, fake steps, etc.. just some food for thought
 
That's what I was going for. Constant movement at full speed. I was trying to test my ability to move quickly in any direction at any time without losing balance. Luis explained very clearly the flaws with relying on that philosophy too much for defense, but I've been trying to get faster with my head movement and footwork.

Smooth is fast I guess. But in the exercise of "How fast can I go?" you can go pretty fast.
 
FWIW i like your shadowboxing and foot movement.
going full speed though does not mean it has to always be fast, it can also be deliberate movements. For example most vids of Mayweather training his pivots aren't really lightning quick but they are solid deliberate steps. In the ring though his pivots are always very smooth.
Besides that i know you are a smart dude that can go deep on some film study. Have you watched much of Julio Cesar La Cruz?

try this link i don't know if it will work in the USA.


if not youtube Cesar La Cruz vs Camargo
La Cruz does so many things with his footwork to deceive, threaten and attack its ridiculous. Fake pivots, fake steps, etc.. just some food for thought


I see what you're saying with being deliberate, that's a good point. Thanks.

I haven't watched any of him actually. I'll take a look in the morning, thanks for the recommendation!

Edit: The link does work btw.
 
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