Holding the pads

[ninjaunicorn]

So one of my friends asked me to help him with some of his mitt work, since he doesn't live close to any gyms.
Now as you can imagine, I'm usually on the other end of the pads, and helping somebody train with them is a completely foreign concept for me. Can anybody give me some tips and/or pointers as to how I can give him the most effective mitt workout?
Thanks in advance.

 

[WALKERmma]

erm hold them strong softly cushion his blows if you get me ? it truely depends on what type of style he does ? boxing .. muay thai for thai you need the correct pads to ensure a good workout basicly make sure you mix it up and try to end every combo with a kick

good luck

 

[Taskforce3Tango]

Tell him to practice on bamboo and oak trees

 

[Connoisseur]

Whenever he throws, you need to slap back a bit; also remember to utilize angles, pads facing down for uppercuts, facing in for hooks, doubled up for kicks. Once you develop a good grove, and the coordination isn't hard for you guys anymore, then you can work on combos; add in blocks, slips, elbows/ knees/ kicks.

But start with punches first, establish the 1, then the 1-2, the 1-2-3, and work variations of that. Once you've got those down, add in uppercuts.

Here's a good vid by Ray Longo (Serra's striking coach):

 

[golvmopp]

In short - always create a flat surface for the striking limb to hit. Angle the pads appropriately during hooks, uppercuts and most importantly kicks. For me personally, to really be able to dig in, I want the padholder to really put his body behind the pads.

Reaching out at half an arm's length with the pads gives off a very unstable and cushioning effect when you hit it with full force, that really makes you uncomfortable to commit to the strikes. This will also cause the pads to end up in a slightly different place every time the "recoil" settles. Keep the pads as close to you, without ever being in danger of socking your yourself, as possble. That way the "pad recovery" will be much quicker and will spring right back into place when hit.
I personally wasn't a fan of people who "met" my punches with the pads - I want to feel just how hard I hit. Meeting the punches gives off a false indicator - although it helps with mitigating their force. It also dicked with my rhythm - people who meet the punches will eventually be off with their prediction, and as such, screw the whole combo.

This holds true to a greater extent when training kicks and knees - I always abhorred people who kept the pads out at a distance. I want to be able to commit fully to a kick, and not be thrown off-balance by someone who gives me way to much "follow".

In short:
1. FLAT MEETING SURFACE.
2. Stay behind the pads! Provice resistance.

 

[Boxer123]

A tip I can offer for holding pads which I focus a lot on is don't just let your partner practice offense, do not neglect the aspect of defense also. While holding the thai pads I will make my parter move with me then throw a combo, then I will counter his combo with say a left roundhouse and make him check it then counter on the pads etc.. throw kicks for them to check, or throw the pads out in a hook to make sure they are watching for punches also.

 

[dat1978]

In short - always create a flat surface for the striking limb to hit. Angle the pads appropriately during hooks, uppercuts and most importantly kicks. For me personally, to really be able to dig in, I want the padholder to really put his body behind the pads.

Reaching out at half an arm's length with the pads gives off a very unstable and cushioning effect when you hit it with full force, that really makes you uncomfortable to commit to the strikes. This will also cause the pads to end up in a slightly different place every time the "recoil" settles. Keep the pads as close to you, without ever being in danger of socking your yourself, as possble. That way the "pad recovery" will be much quicker and will spring right back into place when hit.
I personally wasn't a fan of people who "met" my punches with the pads - I want to feel just how hard I hit. Meeting the punches gives off a false indicator - although it helps with mitigating their force. It also dicked with my rhythm - people who meet the punches will eventually be off with their prediction, and as such, screw the whole combo.

This holds true to a greater extent when training kicks and knees - I always abhorred people who kept the pads out at a distance. I want to be able to commit fully to a kick, and not be thrown off-balance by someone who gives me way to much "follow".

In short:
1. FLAT MEETING SURFACE.
2. Stay behind the pads! Provice resistance.

i cosign everything you say. especially with the punching. i do not agree with people that say you should reach out to meet punches. for one, it messes with the timing. two, it gives the hitter false feedback. three, it can really mess with the distance and extention of the punches. when i hold for punches i keep the pads as close as i can to my body so that the puncher has a better feel for the distance between him and his opponent. i just give slight pressure back as the punch hits the pad just so there is some resistance, but i definitely do not reach out to meet punches.

kicks, basically the same thing. i keep the pads close to my body and make sure that i have my body weight behind it so the kicker has a good feel for what its like to kick somebody. by not holding the pads too far out you let the kicker get a full motion in and you don't stuff their kick.

 

[Handsy]

There's a lot of good advice here, I'd just add (depending on your skill level), it's important to treat mitt-work like real sparring. Throw out strikes for your partner to defend against as well as attack off of. Same goes with the footwork, don't make it completely static, staying in one place, so you can break static/misdirecting footwork, as well as build on timing.

It's funny (not commenting on the TS, just a general observation), but working mitts properly is one of the most overlooked aspects of training.

 

[ninjaunicorn]

Thanks guys, there's a lot of great advice in this thread
hopefully I'll be able to keep up with him though, he's an amateur boxer that's gone 14-2
and he hits like a fucking truck

 

[listrahtes]

I resurrect this thread as I have a hard time going regularly to boxing classes because of work and will now meet with annother more experienced boxer once a week so we practice light sparring and pad work. So before opening a new thread I searched for old ones

As I have never done that before maybe you have some more tipps.

Until now my summary is:

-Treat padwork like sparring. That means control your distance and timing. Keep in mind this is an opponent who wants to punch back.

holding the pads:
- close to the body to simulate head aiming.
-left jab to the padholders left. Right cross to padholders right.
-give resistance but not move into the punch with your arm as this messes with the timing and feedback.
-if not punching, hold the pads down to your legs to give clear indication when to strike.
-always hold the pads with a clear intention of what you want. Not just waving pads in front the others face.
-glove should always face the pad square


the different punches:
uppercuts: hold pad lower in front of body with a slight angle inwards
hook: hold in front of body inward 90°
jab/cross: keep pads close to the head
body hook: inverted position against body with left hand punch against right hand pad

tips:
- touch his guard after combo / punch to keep his hands up
- frome time to time reach out to him straight to give him a sense of distance
- no fast straight countermovement to the head with pads
- including footwork in a) pressing b) retreating c) keeping place while being mobile

Progression:
1) single punches
2) single punches with defense
3) basic combos w/without defense 1-2, 1-1-2, 2-1-2, 1-2-3
4) combo including rolling like 1-2 roll 4 or 1-2-3 roll 3
5) changing all up with having basically a slow sparring fight with punches and combos


Questions:
- have read some prefer single straight strikes always on the rear pad no matter 1 or 2 to simulate that you want to punch behind the lead hand. Any truth to that?
- Any tipps / mistakes I made you might add?

Hope this helps some others.

I recently found Freddy Roachs intructionals on YT and really like his approach.


Here is one video he did regarding that:

 

[fluffball]

Limply droop the pads and hold them at angles that aren't possible to hit.

I once had a guy hold a shield for me to practice low kicks completely squared up to me, like I was going to front kick his knee. I had to turn 90 degrees to him to be able to kick.

 

[shincheckin]

you should pay a gym so you can hold pads for people, wait no scratch that. <45>

pad holding is an art in itself, just start holding them regularly and as time goes by you will improve. Its about the same as improving at training, it just takes time and practice.

 

[j123]

you should pay a gym so you can hold pads for people, wait no scratch that. <45>

pad holding is an art in itself, just start holding them regularly and as time goes by you will improve. Its about the same as improving at training, it just takes time and practice.

It is indeed, and years go by from shitty padholding will haunt you

Fuck, I still remember warming up for my first fight, and I couldn't even hit the pads, it was like I was trained to hit a guy with 4 heads and could only hit the outer left and right ones