Body Shot & Different Guards (diary entry)

27.09.18

  The seventh hour of my client’s basic course in Western Boxing for Martial Arts Cross Training looked more on developing individual style, making combination work more fluid and introduced more body shots.   We began with mirror footwork, which is a useful warm-up exercise. It builds reaction timing and develops a good understanding of distancing, attack and defence. Not only did I check cornering, moving out of corners and finding angles but also adjusting levels. This latter point is also important for ducking, bobbing and weaving, and to execute body shots.   From here I introduced him to popular different styles of fighting. We began with the classic basic boxing guard, the high guard for aggressive footwork and Muay Thai, the low guard for counter-punching, the Philly Shell and the Peek-a-Boo.   Going onto the focus mitts, we went through the punching combinations and layered in slipping, ducking, bobbing and weaving, and parrying. I noted improvements in general footwork and stance. The technical section was then finished with an introduction to the liver and spleen punches. We finished with a round of light sparring.   This article provides a good overview of boxing guards and their related styles with useful comparisons. The author, like me, believes that the Peek-a-Boo guard serves a good guard for beginners.   This is a good video on the liver shot from where I obtained the featured picture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrmWG4AfTr0