Coach tells me there's no such thing as a "right cross"...what say you?

[dusk883]

Also says every punch should "go down the barrel", center mass extended from the attacker. This reminds me of my karate days, same thing was preached. When shadowboxing, he's saying every punch ends up at the same place.

He's got credentials, Team USA, Olympic coach, retired All Army fighter, All Army coach. All Military. 178 Amateur fights, I believe. Now retired, his small boxing team is the only amateur civilian gym to beat the All Army team ...twice in a year. The LHW #1 ranked amateur is his guy, Chris Dowd I think his name is. He says the same stuff (being coach's latest prodigy, I'd expect that of course).

He credits one thing for his success more than anything else, I noticed. The fact that his fighters only "shoot down the barrel" while fighting "east coast" , "pop pop pop get out". Not to say that he doesn't teach hooks, etc. In fact, he calls himself a counterpunching hooker. But when training it all ends at the same place, "down the barrel". Back to the "right cross"... he points out that if you're, say, orthodox and you jab jab... the "right cross" is a "right straight". "If you 'cross' the right straight, you have garbage and awkward... fight down the barrel"

Or is this semantics?

[curly]

Mostly semantics. Cross is techinacaly the term used when your punch crosses the opponents jab.

[Mike_S]

I always thought it was called a right cross simply because you are punching across your body, not saying it isn't as straight as a jab.

[stormy]

curly explains it best

[dusk883]

Makes sense, he does say there's an "overhand right" such as after a bob/weave. I'll take it as a semantics thing.

[Pugsley]

Ask him if there's such a thing as a left cross, that ought to annoy him.

[twoohands]

we call it a straight right aswell, but there is a right cross, its when you step back and throw the right hand.

For amateurs its good to throw all your punches down the barrel because straight punches score in the amateurs. But you need to mix your punches up, if you always throw your punches down the middle your opponent will pick up on it..

[gatto]

Ask him if there's such a thing as a left cross, that ought to annoy him.
:lol::lol:

[TheStraightLeft]

Yes I agree with everyone who said it's all semantics.

But perhaps the 'cross' is most obvious when you're doing pad work and the coach holds up both pads one on each side of his face and you do a 1-2, jab on one side, then a 'cross' on the other pad. That's when it really looks and feels like a cross, but in reality you wouldn't do a 1-2 that way unless that's how the opponent's head actually moves and you're following it with a slow 1-2.