Me sparring - technique advise please (not filmed in a 2ftx2ft cella)

[Aplin]

I am actually a kickboxer so my boxing is novice at best, please remember this when criticising me :P

Basically the guy I am sparring is a very good boxer and I find it hard to spar him because he has a lot more reach than me and seems to see my shots coming. Obviously we are sparring without headguards, so are not getting as stuck in as we would or throwing as hard as we would if it was a real fight.

I know I lean back to much and I do not throw enough right hands, I am looking for combination and movement advice really. Again... I'm a kickboxer so I expect stick ;)

The first round is K-1 sparring, but the next 4 rounds are boxing. The boxing starts at 2.5 minutes in :)

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[RDJ]

Not bad at all mate. I did see some kickboxing things, resulting in not that much lateral movement (a result of having other things to do with the feet) and tangled up feet a few times. You also drop the left a lot, but as long as it's done in the distance I don't see that as a negative thing perse. Up close you should keep em up and elbows tucked in. Your right hand loops a lot making it easy to spot, and you often change stance while throwing it making it impossible to follow up with a left hook. Also don't drop one hand while throwing the other. The lateral movement thing is important. Both for cutting off the ring, looking for angles and not moving backwards in a straight line.

The guy you were sparring had some nasty bad habits.

[Aplin]

He is a lot more experienced than me, so it might be because he is a bit relaxed. I have only been training about a year and he has been training about 7/8 years, maybe more... lol. Maybe you could name some of these bad habbits? I wish I could land more! :D

Thanks, I was actually gonna PM just you this as I knew you'd be constructive ;) But then I thought it would be unfair to assume you would have a spare 10 minutes to watch the video, etc!

Can you explain what you mean by lateral movement? I probably have it in my brain as something else, it sounds like a boxing term :D

[RDJ]

Just to make sure, which one are you. I assumed the one in black since I thought the other one wasn't the same in the entire video but I just noticed he just took off a shirt. If you are the other one I need to watch again.

Edit- you're the one with the shorter reach I now read. My mistake.

[Aplin]

bahahaha, yes I am the one with the nasty habbits ;) I was gonna say!

Although to be honest, I prefer that because obviously you are going to have a lot more comments for me to work on... Where as what you said above was not so much to go with :D

I always find it better to be told you are terrible and given a list of 50 things to work on than someone saying you are great and given nothing you know? :)

[Aplin]

Kade is actually a boxer of about 9 years compared to me who is a kickboxer of a year, so I think it is a good way to have my weakness' exposed. One thing I know I do is leave my hands down too much, I've never been rocked or KO'ed, so it is a bit of a stupid over confidence thing... I am trying to overcome that >.< I lean back too much and obviously get caught (this can be seen numerous times in this video) and against Kadeth I rarely risk combo's... so advice on getting in range would be good

[RDJ]

Ok for the other guy I think the most important thing is keeping the hands up instead of leaning away from everything. You're not punching with confidence, you lean away while doing it. If you keep your other hand up while punching it gets less risky. He's a bit taller so you need to get close, it's hard to do that when you lean backwards. Slip to the sides, block punches, and keep those hands up. There's more but that's what I would focus on for now, defense. All else is impossible to do as long as you're leaning back with that left hand at your waist.

A lot of what you do wrong IMO is a result of those low hands and leaning back.

[Aplin]

Good advice, thanks man. I think with Kade (guy in black shirt) I am a bit nervous because I know how good he is, you know the old phrase about giving people too much respect? I know that if I throw one punch, he is likely to hit me with 4, which mentally is not a good thing I guess. The left hand thing is something I found works in kickboxing, but I agree, in boxing I get caught a lot because of it and I should cut it out for sure.

I tell you what I will do, we spar every Friday for 5 rounds x 2 minutes boxing and 5 rounds x 3 minutes kickboxing. I will take your advice, keep my hands up the whole 5 rounds and work purely on getting in close by slipping (Pacquiao style!) then I will post a new video up and we can go from there? :D

I really appriciate the advice RDJ! :)

[RDJ]

I think you'll do a lot better.

Ps. it's not advice just an opinion ;)

[Aplin]

Judging by your avatar I was close to taking it as an order and saying "YES SIR!!!" hahaha.

[Vantage_West]

:ldevil METALLLLLLLL!!!!!! :ldevil




:lol:

nice, punches are hella sloppy and leave your head way way too exposed. but as a taekwondo practioner i found that the art of leaning back every angle is a good tactic to do. are you boxing or doing k-1?

[JamesD]

good stuff. just an observation, but maybe try and be on the balls of your feet more, and not so flat footed.

[Aplin]

K-1/Muaythai, so yes we do lean back more to avoid high kicks (we don't block high kicks like they do in kickboxing with our arms because most Thai/K-1 kickers could break your arm with their shin)!!! That's probably where leaning back as much as I do comes from :D

Looking forward to another sparring session now ;)

[xoum]

hands up, snap your jab more, move sideways after youve punched. The guy countered you on almost every punch you threw in the last round because you were leaning into your jab to much and then leaning back in the same direction, to avoid that throw a 1 2 jab straight then pivot sideways off your front foot. When you throw your jab snap it faster by that i mean bring it back as fast as you threw it so your protected from counter punches, also when throwing the jab bring you right hand infront of your jaw to block counter jabbs but dont do that too much or youll get hooked.
Aside from that it was good your stamina looks ok and your ring awarness is good but your hands are very low.

[xoum]

Hey Alpin heres a vid of me in muay thai same as you i come from a boxing back ground so im a bit new to the game....I d appreciate it if you let me know what you think!
Cheers!
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[Aplin]

Which one are you?

[loveforboxing]

pretty cool why no head gears though?

[Aplin]

Thailand mate... I used to live there...

We don't spar with headgear and we spar with 10oz gloves just because we have been to Thailand and were trained that way. (They actually use 8oz, but they don't fit my hands!)

Here is another video... as you can see I don't hae head guard, but opponent does, opinions on this would be cool too, although tbh, I show boat too much :(

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[Aplin]

I think aims for me this next year:

1. Work on keeping my hands up more
2. Work on drills to get used to coming inside more
3. Combinations
4. Not leaning back / being more confident with sparring people

[RDJ]

1 will help you achieve 4, because the reason you are not confident coming in is a shoddy defense. It's not just the hands up, it's defense in general. It will solve a lot of your problems. You will be less predictable, because at this moment you only employ one means of defense (leaning back), and your opponent knows that. You'll lean back for the first jab, and the second will land flush. If people lean back, double up on the jab, it's easy.

The reason he has such an easy time keeping you in the distance is because all he has to do is jab. His arms aren't that long, you don't have to Tyson your way inside. Not leaning outside would be a start, if you slip to the side, duck or even simply block you can stay in range.

Anyway, good luck :good

[xoum]

im the taller one