The true method of knowledge is experiment -William Blake

I often see most gyms teach all their fighters to fight in a similar fashion. This is the worst strategy, and nothing can be more detrimental than not taking the individual into account. When just starting out, it’s okay to use some basic training tips. As you progress, finding the specific range, hand positioning, footwork, stances, counter punches etc should be tailored to each fighter. This is a tedious process of experimentation, but the only true way to find what will work best for you. You’ll often hear rules that online and closed off coaches will regurgitate like don’t cross your feet, don’t drop your hands, your stance is too wide or too narrow, you shouldn’t lean back, you shouldn’t stance switch etc. The funny thing is, your favorite fighters probably break most of these habits, and are likely at the very top of the game. How is this possible? Because there are no rules, only paradigms that seem to change from gym to gym. What really matters comes down to two questions. Is it working. Do you enjoy it. These are also questions that you should be asking yourself weekly, as your skill changes, so will the answers.

I’d say over ninety percent of the clients I’ve trained that come from other gyms all fight nearly identical. One-sided, flat footed, wide stance, little head movement apart from bobbing and weaving, few feints, horrible counter punching, mostly just looking for big power shots and to push somebody against the ropes and work the body. They can never fight going backwards. This is easiest style to beat in my opinion. It’s very one-dimensional and doesn’t tend to work at the highest level. However, it seems to be a style that most people can do regardless of athleticism, age, size, personality etc, and I believe this is a big reason why it seems to be the standard of boxing training. Also, boxing is an odd sport, in the way that it’s not down in grade school, elementary and high school, or colleges. Meaning, most kids will never have boxed for a round by the time they turn 18. This makes it challenging to establish a true base for training. There are a lot of inexperienced coaches, who just parrot whatever they were taught or see, as opposed to thinking for themselves and trying to contribute something original. This is why if you browse boxing on social media, it’s generally the same thing repackaged by a different account over and over. It also makes it hard to know if what you’re learning is legit, as there are no qualifications or credentials for boxing, as well as it being a less popular and mainstream sport in the US. You can watch professional boxing and judge what works for yourself. You can try what you’re doing in drilling or sparring to see if it works as well.

Sometimes things won’t work because you aren’t at a certain level to either athletically perform the task or sequence, or you just don’t fully understand the movements at this time. That doesn’t mean that what you’re doing is wrong, or even wrong for you, but it might need to be tried later and replaced with something more efficient at the current time. There are levels to this game. I always start teaching people with their hands up guarding their face, but I think for most, this is limiting to their movement and offensive capabilities. However, if they were taught to keep their guard(hands) around nipple level from the beginning, they’d likely lack the defensive prowess and end up taking an unnecessary amount of damage. This is why it’s important to constantly adapt to the circumstance. If something isn’t working, and you’ve given it a reasonable amount of time, try something else for now and possibly try the original concept again later. Forcing things to work, in my experience, seems to be the least effective method to finding what will work in live sparring for the individual most of the time.

Fundamentals. This is term often thrown around in this sport with no actual meaning. Most take it, as a basis of movements that most people consider reasonable expressions for the given circumstances. This includes, footwork, head movement, punches, and combinations. These tend to also be moves that everyone can perform. That doesn’t mean their ideal for each person, but they do give a person a basis to begin to build their individual style. This is important for most people, as they won’t be able to come up with their own take on the fundamentals, so they need a starting ground to work from. The problem arises when their coaches aren’t on their cases about taking these fundamentals and making them uniquely their own by adding their own style.

When it comes to ranges, I see most people throwing lead hooks the same way. Elbow parallel to the shoulder, and with a severe bend in the arm. This type of short hook tends to benefit those who want to fight in close, which tend to be smaller, shorter, or stockier opponents or at times in the fight when you are forced to fight at close ranges. I’ve seen many taller longer boxers use this short hook as their base. This makes no sense, and although they can still be effective with it, they aren’t using their attributes to their advantage. Again, I see taller opponents using bob and weaving as their defensive priorities, which again makes little sense for their build. They often do better with more leaning back, slipping, and stepping back motions.

I cannot stress enough that the individual always needs to be the priority and experimentation is crucial to finding what will work best for them. Wide stance, narrow stance, medium stance, leaning back, slipping, bob and weaving, step back, hop back, counters to the head, counters to the body, stance switching, pivoting, shuffle steps, feints, fakes, moving forward, moving backwards, using angles etc. There are so many possibilities to experiment with, so enough with the cookie cutter training methods. Think for yourself. Experiment for yourself. Always be open minded, and don’t be afraid to try something that might not work out, because that was the only way to truly find out what does.