New Shadowboxing Video*
- Thread starter Sano
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You've definitely got some speed. Nice fast and relaxed hands. Good posture in your stance, good chin position and nice rotation. Generally good footwork, except for a few things.
You have a bad habit of either stepping your rear leg too far or moving it before your front foot when you want to move forward.
In that gif you take two different steps that narrow your stance too much. Each of those is a moment of vulnerability where your balance and stability are weakened. It's ok to perform a less exaggerated form of this movement when you're hop stepping, but not to step that way. Keep the distance of your steps with both feet the same. You do a good job keeping your rear foot under you when you step in with the right hand, but if you step it too far under you then you're easy to knock back, even with a quick jab.
Your pivots could use some refinement. You crossed your feet on them occasionally.
Make sure you always move the left foot first when you're pivoting left. That position in the second frame isn't a good one. However, you didn't do this often. The more consistent problem was moving both feet at the same time.
I picked this example because it's easy to see. You adjust the left foot first, which is good, but then you pivot too far and the left foot keeps turning as the right foot spins around. You want your pivots to be more balanced and less committed than that. Adjust the left foot as far as it needs to go, then move the right foot. If you need to pivot further than the original adjustment, do it in two pivots. That way you stay in good position the entire time and can adjust as necessary. Here you can see both footwork mistakes in a subtler form:
I want to see you pivot to the right more. I know you were mostly practicing your ring cutting footwork, but your only consistent movement to the right was walk offs and hops back. When you did pivot right, it had the same problems as your pivots left:
This time the left foot moves first. When you go right, you move the right foot first. Also, I generally think you should practice pivoting that direction more often.
The punches are fast as I said, and you're getting good rotation on them. However, you're missing weight transfer and aren't really digging into the ground or sitting down on any of your shots. I don't know if that's because of the knee injury, but in general you're extremely upright. What's missing is your hips. Even when you worked a little head movement your hips looked stiff and straight. Get them bending as well as rotating and everything will look 10x better. Right now, your head is in the same spot almost the entire time. It should have subtle side to side motion as you punch, and it shouldn't be upright in the center all the time. It especially shouldn't pop up there when you pivot, which happens in the second gif I posted (the choppy one).
Finally, I'd like a little creativity with the combos. It was pretty much all jab to start it off, quick right straight or uppercut, maybe a left hook or left straight to finish. Mix it up. Hook off the jab, double the jab up then throw the combo, work punches off your body jab, throw your jab then slip before attacking, etc. Also, sometimes throw your jab stiff before the combo as well. A lot of the time you were jabbing with your shoulders squared up because you were really just trying to throw a right hand. That can work to throw off the timing, but if you always jab like that before your right hand then it becomes easier to tell when the right hand is coming and when you're just throwing single jabs.
So overall, refine the footwork, get the hips working so that you can get low and improve your mechanics, mix it up with the combinations. Good luck with your recovery and your training!
You have a bad habit of either stepping your rear leg too far or moving it before your front foot when you want to move forward.
In that gif you take two different steps that narrow your stance too much. Each of those is a moment of vulnerability where your balance and stability are weakened. It's ok to perform a less exaggerated form of this movement when you're hop stepping, but not to step that way. Keep the distance of your steps with both feet the same. You do a good job keeping your rear foot under you when you step in with the right hand, but if you step it too far under you then you're easy to knock back, even with a quick jab.
Your pivots could use some refinement. You crossed your feet on them occasionally.
Make sure you always move the left foot first when you're pivoting left. That position in the second frame isn't a good one. However, you didn't do this often. The more consistent problem was moving both feet at the same time.
I picked this example because it's easy to see. You adjust the left foot first, which is good, but then you pivot too far and the left foot keeps turning as the right foot spins around. You want your pivots to be more balanced and less committed than that. Adjust the left foot as far as it needs to go, then move the right foot. If you need to pivot further than the original adjustment, do it in two pivots. That way you stay in good position the entire time and can adjust as necessary. Here you can see both footwork mistakes in a subtler form:
I want to see you pivot to the right more. I know you were mostly practicing your ring cutting footwork, but your only consistent movement to the right was walk offs and hops back. When you did pivot right, it had the same problems as your pivots left:
This time the left foot moves first. When you go right, you move the right foot first. Also, I generally think you should practice pivoting that direction more often.
The punches are fast as I said, and you're getting good rotation on them. However, you're missing weight transfer and aren't really digging into the ground or sitting down on any of your shots. I don't know if that's because of the knee injury, but in general you're extremely upright. What's missing is your hips. Even when you worked a little head movement your hips looked stiff and straight. Get them bending as well as rotating and everything will look 10x better. Right now, your head is in the same spot almost the entire time. It should have subtle side to side motion as you punch, and it shouldn't be upright in the center all the time. It especially shouldn't pop up there when you pivot, which happens in the second gif I posted (the choppy one).
Finally, I'd like a little creativity with the combos. It was pretty much all jab to start it off, quick right straight or uppercut, maybe a left hook or left straight to finish. Mix it up. Hook off the jab, double the jab up then throw the combo, work punches off your body jab, throw your jab then slip before attacking, etc. Also, sometimes throw your jab stiff before the combo as well. A lot of the time you were jabbing with your shoulders squared up because you were really just trying to throw a right hand. That can work to throw off the timing, but if you always jab like that before your right hand then it becomes easier to tell when the right hand is coming and when you're just throwing single jabs.
So overall, refine the footwork, get the hips working so that you can get low and improve your mechanics, mix it up with the combinations. Good luck with your recovery and your training!
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^^
Haha, that is funny seeing myself in gifs like that, really exposes some things. Thanks.
To address a few of your points; You are spot on with the pivoting right thing. I used to feel very uncumfortable moving to my right, don't know if it's because of the injury. I took up boxing after my ACL tear and I can't remember if I had the same problem before that. I guess I am a bit liberal with my pivots in generel, I'm not that good at taking angles.
Regarding the sitting down and drawing from the ground thing, I don't do that much when I shadowbox. I try to focus on being stable, centered and moving a lot. I put a lot more into it on the bag. But still, I definitely need to lower my center of gravity a bit anyways. It's not the knee. It's partly because I am lazy, and partly because I have a little trouble with my right SI joint and hip as a consequence of overcompensating because of the injury. But it's getting much better so no excuses.
I do need to move my head off center more, that is a problem of mine. I find it hard to move my head off the centerline without compromising my positioning. I guess that takes us back to the hips again.
Lastly i'd like to say that the predictability in combinations has a lot to do with the camera. I'm much more comfortable and creative when I'm up in someones face.
I'll work on it and probably post some heavy bag stuff and eventually sparring at some point. Thanks for the feedback my man, I really appreciate the time and effort. It's good stuff and something I can really use.
Haha, that is funny seeing myself in gifs like that, really exposes some things. Thanks.
To address a few of your points; You are spot on with the pivoting right thing. I used to feel very uncumfortable moving to my right, don't know if it's because of the injury. I took up boxing after my ACL tear and I can't remember if I had the same problem before that. I guess I am a bit liberal with my pivots in generel, I'm not that good at taking angles.
Regarding the sitting down and drawing from the ground thing, I don't do that much when I shadowbox. I try to focus on being stable, centered and moving a lot. I put a lot more into it on the bag. But still, I definitely need to lower my center of gravity a bit anyways. It's not the knee. It's partly because I am lazy, and partly because I have a little trouble with my right SI joint and hip as a consequence of overcompensating because of the injury. But it's getting much better so no excuses.
I do need to move my head off center more, that is a problem of mine. I find it hard to move my head off the centerline without compromising my positioning. I guess that takes us back to the hips again.
Lastly i'd like to say that the predictability in combinations has a lot to do with the camera. I'm much more comfortable and creative when I'm up in someones face.
I'll work on it and probably post some heavy bag stuff and eventually sparring at some point. Thanks for the feedback my man, I really appreciate the time and effort. It's good stuff and something I can really use.
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Can't touch what A Guy said. That is worthy of pay.
All I will say is to re-learn how you move because having a bad knee for four years will change how you move. Go back to the beginning and mentally let go of the bad knee. You are fine and just like people have to learn how to walk correctly after surgury, you should go slower and rebuild confidence.
All I will say is to re-learn how you move because having a bad knee for four years will change how you move. Go back to the beginning and mentally let go of the bad knee. You are fine and just like people have to learn how to walk correctly after surgury, you should go slower and rebuild confidence.
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You had some defensive movement after combos, but sometimes it looked like you were going through the motions instead of aggressively avoiding counters. I think you could have more head movement in general and more exaggerated/aggressive pivots, but if you did that in your kitchen the pots and pans might go flying, or you might trip over the rug. I thought it looked good.
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Haha true, and yes I have a hard time imagining my opponent when shadowboxing.
Thanks.
Yea from this video you looked like you like to walk forward and pressure. If that's your style, it's definitely good to be able to go to the right because that's gonna be the most common escape angle people want to move to. So if you can go there first, you can get a step ahead.
Yea most people don't when they shadowbox. I'm a big proponent of at least doing it sometimes in the air, at least to test your balance.
Yup, definitely hips. When you use your hips to move your head off center, you should feel like your positioning improves and becomes more dynamic.
Cool. I look forward to it. And no problem, I'm really glad it was helpful!
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Thanks for the reply and video my friend!
Beautiful combinations from JMM. He never lets up and the way he mixes his shots up is fantastic. You don't see that very often. Funny thing, I have watched a lot of boxers but rarely JMM, Don't know why, he looks like a beast here, especially in his younger/lighter days. Very fluid, accurate and hard to block.
You are spot on with your suggestions. It is exactly the reason why I tend not to put too much weight on either foot and go off center, because as you say, I find I can throw more freely, with more control and with less effort if I don't. However that only goes so far and I will definitely get caught. Although blocking and parrying is a tool in this situation, I am no Chocolatito and will definitely try to incorperate more head movement using my hips. I do try when sparring, but it's been ages since I've sparred after my ACL tear(which I am luckely recovering from at a fast rate).
Thanks for the rest of the tips and good luck with your new gym man! Looking forward to hearing more!
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Thanks Sano! It's always a pleasure discussing nitty-gritty striking details with you. I wish you the best when you spar again. Also, if you would like to check out the latest episode of "The Clinch" podcast Rico and I recorded, please feel free to watch it below. This time, we analyze sparring videos we added to the show and discuss how personality is tied to one's fighting style. As always, feel free to give us your thoughts. Thank you. I look forward to chatting with you next time!-Jimin
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