Bobbing and Overhands (diary entry)

28.10.15 This is the fourth lesson in my client’s second course on Western Boxing for Cross Training in the Martial Arts. After revising the straight punching concepts taught in the previous three lessons, we moved onto the overhand right. This punch is a form of looping cross, which gained recognition when Rocky Marciano used it as his knockout punch, “Suzie Q”. Long thought to be just a sloppy swing of the same ilk as the haymaker, the punch has found a lot of favour in the MMA community and the superman punch is an aerial development of it. We trained the technique in combination with a jab, to set an opponent up. It was executed forwards and at an angle. The overhand punch is a powerful strike that requires strong upward and forward momentum. Like the anchor punch, it can also be used after drawing an opponent forward. However, unlike the anchor punch, it is often used aggressively rather than defensively. Looking at the way the overhand right can be delivered after a fighter suddenly drops out of vision to deliver the punch offline; we began work on bobbing and weaving. This brought in hooking and uppercuts. First we worked on hooks from a tight position. It is important to note that many novices bob too low. Muay Thai and MMA don’t look favourably on this action, as it leaves the fighter open to knee strikes and guillotines. It is also worth noting that even in western boxing a fighter is prohibited from ducking lower than waist height. Once we got the movement tight and fluid I introduced the uppercut/hook combination from the same hand. The lesson finished with some conditioning exercises to reinforce the techniques covered. This included pulling downwards on a resistance band to work the last movement in an overhand punch and basketball throws with a medicine ball to work the first movement in the same punch. Then we looked at some explosive exercises, such as the kettlebell swing both as a single and double handed version as well as with a resistance band and a spike.