Boxing Inside and Outside (diary entry)

19.03.18   I have embedded several highly recommended training and learning videos I currently follow on YouTube to compliment certain points and concepts outlined in this particular diary entry.   Tonight’s lesson brought my client up to the eight and a half hour point of his second course on Western Boxing for Martial Arts Cross Training. We have been primarily focused on developing better mobility and integrating it into different tactics. I haven’t especially focused on one strategy, but looked at various concepts for inside and outside fighters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooMjhFToGQw We warmed up using the mirror footwork drills. This includes matching an opponent’s movements and then cornering or moving out of corners. To review upper body movement and its full integration with techniques and footwork, I went through a building-up training process. This began by having the fighter isolate slips, bobbing and finally ducking around and under an outstretched static jabbing arm. These movements were then combined with a set number of repetitions before the fighter was permitted to freestyle the movement. This was done just with head movement, then with a guard in place, then whilst punching, then against a moving jab and finally with the fighter mirroring the coach’s footwork. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BHaOqDPeRs   I then went back to clinch and we looked at fighting out of the clinch. We focused on getting on the inside and using upper cuts, liver and spleen shots, and hooks. Joe Frazier’s use of bobbing with the guard was also referenced. This was then tested in a round of sparring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgYatqhkQk0   The final part of the lesson focused on fighting from outside, going back to the defensive footwork tactics I introduced in the previous lesson. Referencing “Sugar Ray” Robinson, “Sugar Ray” Leonard and Muhammad Ali, used the backward jab into an angling off foot movement and then focused on the straight hook and the uppercut jab. We looked at coordinating the angling off action with the straight hook. The uppercut jab was introduced as an opening punching. I also used it in conjunction with a rear hook, which my client expressly asked me to work on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGdVMyI3uck   The lesson finished with three more rounds of sparring. The first one pitted long range tactics against clinch (outside vs inside fighter) and the second round reversed the roles. The last round was simple freestyle boxing with a mind to integrate the lessons of the course.