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5 Tips for Improving Boxing Footwork

5 TIPS FOR IMPROVING BOXING FOOTWORK

Footwork drills develop fluid movement around the boxing ring, maintaining a position to

attack, evading an opponent’s punches and dictating the pace of the fight. Correct foot

movement assists in maintaining balance and stability when both attacking and defending with

effective speed and power. A boxer needs to move quickly into an opponent’s space, score with

a punch or combination of punches and then move out of range.

  • Basic footwork drills:
  • Advancing (moving forward)
  • Retreating (moving backward)
  • Lateral Movement (moving left and right)
  • Pivoting

Reminders when practicing footwork drills:

  1. Balanced stance – feet approximately shoulder width distance apart with hips at a 45 degree

angle. Bodyweight distribution should be approximately 60% lead foot and 40% rear foot.

Heel of right foot slightly raised off ground for agility and front foot flat when advancing and

retreating.

  1. After each step finish with feet in original stance distance. For example; the Orthodox boxer

push off from rear foot when moving forward or to left so the lead foot moves half a step

and the rear foot comes back to resume the original stance. When moving back or to the

right push off from front foot with rear foot moves half a step then the lead foot moves back

to original stance.

  1. Ensure stance is wide enough to maintain balance. Too narrow will disrupt balance, too wide

will impede movement.

  1. One foot should have contact with ground at all times, take small steps as this will improve

hand and foot speed when punching. Wide steps equate to slower punches.

  1. Never cross your feet when moving around as this will disrupt balance and punch

effectiveness. Imagine there is a line between your feet that that never cross.

 

Bobby Mayne

5 Tips how to improve your boxing combos skills

Being a boxing coach watching many rounds of sparring and bouts, I notice boxers place

emphasis on scoring with single power punches to knockout an opponent. This is fine if an

opponent offers little resistance and is easily hit. But if an opponent had decent ring skills, this

would will fatigue a boxer over several rounds becoming vulnerable to counterattacks, resulting

from being off balance, and out of position eventually losing the bout.

A boxing judge will score a round to the busier boxer with clean effective combination punches,

as this is perceived as dominating the round.

Footwork and balance are important for executing combination punches. Both, at long and

short (close) range:

  • Long range combinations relies on power due to the power generated from the full turn of
  • the hips when delivering the cross and long lead hook transferring bodyweight from one foot
  • to the other.
  • Short (close) range combinations are quick punches delivered close proximity to opponent
  • ‘in the pocket’. Stance is more square on to opponent with knees bent to lower centre of
  • gravity, reducing the effect of an opponent’s punches as bent knees has a shock absorbing
  • effect along with being a smaller compact target as the gloves are tucked into the cheek
  • area and elbows protecting the ribs.
  1. Gloves should be positioned between opponent’s gloves, so punches have less distance to

travel to score. Short range punches are fast and sharp due to the shorter distance to

target. The slight turn of upper body engages the hips for leverage when scoring with

uppercuts and hooks.

  1. Change levels when punching, reducing the chance of being predictable and being caught by

an opponent’s counterpunch. Attack the body, then switch to the head, and then back down

to body.

  1. To improve in the development of combination punching skills, practice focus mitt drills with

your coach or training partner. Start slowly to feel confident with foot positioning and weight

distribution enabling to punch the focus mitts without being off balance.

  1. Training with both the light and heavy punching bags will develop overall boxing skills. The

light punching bag training will focus on improving footwork and positioning for long range

combinations along with effectively closing distance for short range combinations. Heavy

bag training will not only improve technique but also endurance and power when working on

body punches.

  1. Include the floor to ceiling ball (double end bag) as part of your workout to develop and

improve foot positioning, hand to eye coordination, timing and hand speed. This piece of

boxing is realistic as an opponent’s head will move in evasively similar to the movement of a

floor to ceiling ball. If a punch misses the ball follow up immediately with another punch,

instead of pausing and stopping the ball from moving to start again as a sparring partner or

opponent will not offer this luxury.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpLMdTY_EQ0&t=2s

Bobby Mayne

Boxrite: Successful boxing tactics against Southpaw opponent

Here I will be discussing proven tactics used when sparring or competing against a southpaw

boxer. This is a frequent question I get asked at Boxrite. Below are pointers that are not only

applicable for boxing but combat sports in general when against a left handed opponent.

Vital points to remember when facing a southpaw:

  1. Foot positioning – your lead foot should be placed to the outside of opponent’s lead foot.
  2. Circle to your left to not only move away from the dominant cross or rear kick, but also keep

the southpaw opponent slightly off balance. This also positions the southpaw opponent in

direct line for an orthodox cross and rear thigh or head kick.

  1. Southpaws are counter-fighters, meaning they will wait for the opponent to attack first and

score with their own punches when their opponent is closing range. When facing a southpaw

use tactics such as feints (foot, body, punch) to make a southpaw opponent react and

commit with an attack making them vulnerable to a counterattack.

 

To assist developing these skills to become instinctive requires much practice. Firstly with your

coach or training partner undertaking focus mitt drills developing footwork, defence and

effective counterpunching skills against a left handed opponent. Once confident with working

these skills on the mitts, the next step is technical sparring whereby coach instructs set drills

for the boxers to execute. Repetition is the key to making these skills instinctive. Once

competent, the next phase is controlled sparring where boxers spar at 60% pace.

The final phase is open sparring boxers spar at 80-90% pace making this process realistic to

competition intensity. The conventional orthodox boxer should instinctively be able to apply

tactics, defences and counterpunching skills against a southpaw opponent. It is important to

conduct this sparring under the supervision of the coach offering guidance and tips, as well as

critiquing mistakes and bad habits to be rectified.

Daniel Dawson and Austin Trout in their 2014 encounter at Pechanga Resort & Casino, Temecula, California, US / Pic:

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Watch the video below of myself preparing world title contender Daniel Dawson for his fight

against southpaw former WBA World Super Welterweight champion Austin Trout. Notice the

lateral movement to turn opponent making them exposed to the cross.

 

 

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