Boxing Footwork Basics

When it comes to learning how to box, the first basic you should be learning and master it is your footwork. Shocking isn’t it but let me explain to you in this post why is it so. Take a consideration that boxing is not all about the jabs, hook, uppercut and other fancy move but it is about how you well you can move around the ring without getting a lot of hit. Wouldn’t it be better if you can practice boxing footwork basics on your own before your next boxing class ?

Remember this all the greatest boxers are great dancers, ALI, Sugar Ray Leonard, Lomachenko.

FACT: Lomachenko dad made him go to dancing class when he was a young boy. Watch any of their match, they can move as well as they can box.

Footwork is main and first skill that a coach will teach you on your first boxing lesson. Your feet needs to be able to glide smoothly across the floor without losing balance while you throw your jabs. This is where your rhythm and coordination plays a huge part of footwork.

Don’t you worry if you can’t bust a move or ever dance in your whole life, like anything else, practice boxing footwork basic skills, repeat it and you will get there.

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JUMP ROPE RHYTHM

Here is simple way to find rhythm and coordination, the jump rope rhythm without the rope. For anyone who has never jump rope or always can’t seem to get pass more than 5 jump without tripping over the rope, this is the best way to practice.

• Both feet
• One feet off the ground
• Alternate one foot forward and back
• Side to Side
  Use timer for all above or you can do it in blocks of 5 per jump. It doesn’t have to be high, be on the ball of your foot and land soft. I say do it anytime between your work this makes you practice more instead of just trying to schedule practice time. I have another post about jump rope if you want to learn more in details.

LADDER DRILLS

Another way to practice is using agility ladder. You might have seen it in fitness center or even football practice. It’s a great tool to actually speed up your footwork basics drills other than jump rope. There is a lot of different examples of how to do this. I found one that I like and easy to follow.

Again, keep it simple. You can pick any other 5 drills and practice it over and over again. Remember to pick the ones that is slightly challenging instead of always do the same routine.

 

 

 “Agility is simply ability to move quickly and easily”

DANCE CLASS

I know what you are thinking now about dancing class but listen to what I have to say first even if you never once thought of going for dance class! Since Covid19, you might one of those who watch Tik Tok and have seen a lot of dancers, if not just click on a favorite song that has some form of dancing. I usually look into 90s pop music, boyband, they have simple movement. This will get you going.

Once lockdown is almost over, it will be great if you can go for a short dance class. This will help you from being stiff, make your footwork more smooth which will help you tremendously when you are trying to move for boxing. It is all about rhythm and coordination.

I bet there are times when you were throwing punches that you know that is sloppy when the hand and feet coordination is not working well together.

VIDEO YOURSELF

The best way to get better at any skill is to get feedback from someone who is already a boxing coach or to video yourself and compare it to with any on of those YouTube videos that great coaches put up. This is one of my small mistakes when I first started boxing.

Tips on taking video of yourself for feedback:

• Place your phone or camera where your whole body can be seen ( head to toe )

• Move within the space where you can be seen from your camera view

• Don’t forget to press “start” after you do these 2 aboveThese 3 simple steps has helped me to get 1% better with my footwork and I always make sure I do it consistently. It helped me to move so much better after few months of consistency. If you are a beginner and simply want to learn boxing, I wrote about a post about it here. This is how I started with no complicated moves, tricks and fancy mitt work. Boxing should be fun and a great stress relief for anyone how just getting started.