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Many of you have heard myself an other posters speak about positioning, but I've gotten the distinct impression that the notion is still pretty vague for many people. Being in "good" positions can mean numerous things that all depend on what exactly is going on right at a specific moment during a fight, and/or during an exchange. That being said, positioning is the key to both defense AND offense. Positioning refers to how close or far you are, how close or far you seem, what elevation you're at, what elevation your opponent thinks you're at, the angle you are going to take, the angle your opponent thinks you're going to take, basically where your body is relative to the places your body should be (yes, hands included). Now, historically one of the MASTERS of positioning during his career and as a trainer, was Georgie Benton. Let's take a look at some of his own tactics and corner advice for purposes of this thread:
In the beginning you can see how much control Georgie had in the ring. The establishment of control gave him poise, and with that poise he out-boxed many people (even in fights that went down as losses via decision). But then at the 3:55 mark you see the words and right after you hear them from him to Whitaker: "Settle down, the guy is just swingin' at you. All you gotta do is duck the punches, catch the punches. But try to duck the punches, don't catch too many...he's just swingin' at you. You can stand there and let him swing."
What? WHY would a trainer say that? Moreover, why would a trainer who BUILT this fighter say that? Stand there and let the guy swing sounds like the opposite of what you hear in Gyms today. He also told Whitaker to slow down and take his time instead of screaming at him to WORK!! Whitaker was a special talent, for sure, but so are many boxers. And Georgie's instructions weren't much different than things he did himself as demonstrated in the video. But that's because Georgie understood positioning (and control of distance, demonstrated by his words on jab placement):
Being on the Benton/Futch lineage these are things I heard a lot of from McCallum during my time with him. "Jab at his chest"..."break your waist" (which was Mike's way of saying to use the hips for head-movement). But it took a really long time to fully understand and eventually teach. But these principals are what make boxing what it is and fully can be. An Art that isn't entirely dependent upon athleticism. Depending SOLELY on an athlete's physicality and not keeping the technique at least comparable can lead to disaster. So a blend of both should be done. Many of you are familiar with my use of partner drills. But they're not for offense or defense, they're for positioning. The fighters use the punches to learn how far their opponent IS, and how far they need to be, if they're doing them correctly:
The drills have specific formats. Like catching the jab, then catching the hook before firing back. But if you look close at the above video you'll catch a couple of the students attempting the same evasive maneuvers but without using their hands to touch any of the punches. This teaches them to stand their ground and still be difficult to hit. When I have them add punches to the circle drill, it's similar (the circle drill I actually work before ones like the above drill):
So now that you have an idea what positioning is and are seeing it being used on a very basic level. Check out this sparring session and keep a couple of things in mind. Bleu was VERY out-of-shape, due to life circumstances he's not been in the gym consistently as of late. Jonathan was preparing for his fight here, Bleu was helping him out. But Bleu is a smart fighter when he wants to be, and has experience now. He's also undersized against Loco by about 25lbs. But his skill with positioning allowed him to do this:
A lot is going on there, but from the get-go Bleu was able to use his experience and intelligence to take control against the bigger fighter. Minimizing how much he got hit and discouraging Loco, also intelligently placing his counters so it seemed there was a BIG difference in who was the boss. He also did something with distance, if you notice. As time went on he started going AT Loco more, when Loco is used to being the one coming forward. This put him on his heels a bit and gave Bleu the initiative, so he controlled the pace. When and where the engagements happened. THAT is ring generalship BTW. Towards the end he was very tired, and still looked good and wasn't taking punishment. He was smart enough to start closing the distance himself when Loco didn't expect him to, the old: "Well fuck it, if it's gonna happen anyway I might as well do it myself so he don't think he's doing it to me."
But we tend to think of this in-terms of defensive fighters, or at least counter-punchers. You aggressive guys are probably thinking: "Does this work going in as well?" The answer is of course. Giving your opponent a moving target, and knowing how to hit off of those movements is NEVER a bad idea. That's how Loco himself won the fight he was preparing for and walked through the much-hyped opponent, which you can review here.
But to see it in a Professional setting, this was a recent excellent fight where a veteran got his groove back. Check out how aggressive (and shorter) Monty Meza-Clay constantly goes at his opponent without taking A LOT of damage...at least until he started to fatigue:
If for some reason that video is blocked in your Country, it's the main event of this card.
*Cont'd
In the beginning you can see how much control Georgie had in the ring. The establishment of control gave him poise, and with that poise he out-boxed many people (even in fights that went down as losses via decision). But then at the 3:55 mark you see the words and right after you hear them from him to Whitaker: "Settle down, the guy is just swingin' at you. All you gotta do is duck the punches, catch the punches. But try to duck the punches, don't catch too many...he's just swingin' at you. You can stand there and let him swing."
What? WHY would a trainer say that? Moreover, why would a trainer who BUILT this fighter say that? Stand there and let the guy swing sounds like the opposite of what you hear in Gyms today. He also told Whitaker to slow down and take his time instead of screaming at him to WORK!! Whitaker was a special talent, for sure, but so are many boxers. And Georgie's instructions weren't much different than things he did himself as demonstrated in the video. But that's because Georgie understood positioning (and control of distance, demonstrated by his words on jab placement):
Being on the Benton/Futch lineage these are things I heard a lot of from McCallum during my time with him. "Jab at his chest"..."break your waist" (which was Mike's way of saying to use the hips for head-movement). But it took a really long time to fully understand and eventually teach. But these principals are what make boxing what it is and fully can be. An Art that isn't entirely dependent upon athleticism. Depending SOLELY on an athlete's physicality and not keeping the technique at least comparable can lead to disaster. So a blend of both should be done. Many of you are familiar with my use of partner drills. But they're not for offense or defense, they're for positioning. The fighters use the punches to learn how far their opponent IS, and how far they need to be, if they're doing them correctly:
The drills have specific formats. Like catching the jab, then catching the hook before firing back. But if you look close at the above video you'll catch a couple of the students attempting the same evasive maneuvers but without using their hands to touch any of the punches. This teaches them to stand their ground and still be difficult to hit. When I have them add punches to the circle drill, it's similar (the circle drill I actually work before ones like the above drill):
So now that you have an idea what positioning is and are seeing it being used on a very basic level. Check out this sparring session and keep a couple of things in mind. Bleu was VERY out-of-shape, due to life circumstances he's not been in the gym consistently as of late. Jonathan was preparing for his fight here, Bleu was helping him out. But Bleu is a smart fighter when he wants to be, and has experience now. He's also undersized against Loco by about 25lbs. But his skill with positioning allowed him to do this:
A lot is going on there, but from the get-go Bleu was able to use his experience and intelligence to take control against the bigger fighter. Minimizing how much he got hit and discouraging Loco, also intelligently placing his counters so it seemed there was a BIG difference in who was the boss. He also did something with distance, if you notice. As time went on he started going AT Loco more, when Loco is used to being the one coming forward. This put him on his heels a bit and gave Bleu the initiative, so he controlled the pace. When and where the engagements happened. THAT is ring generalship BTW. Towards the end he was very tired, and still looked good and wasn't taking punishment. He was smart enough to start closing the distance himself when Loco didn't expect him to, the old: "Well fuck it, if it's gonna happen anyway I might as well do it myself so he don't think he's doing it to me."
But we tend to think of this in-terms of defensive fighters, or at least counter-punchers. You aggressive guys are probably thinking: "Does this work going in as well?" The answer is of course. Giving your opponent a moving target, and knowing how to hit off of those movements is NEVER a bad idea. That's how Loco himself won the fight he was preparing for and walked through the much-hyped opponent, which you can review here.
But to see it in a Professional setting, this was a recent excellent fight where a veteran got his groove back. Check out how aggressive (and shorter) Monty Meza-Clay constantly goes at his opponent without taking A LOT of damage...at least until he started to fatigue:
If for some reason that video is blocked in your Country, it's the main event of this card.
*Cont'd
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