Hi there, I'm Mike Gale's for Everlast Nutrition. If you're new to boxing
then you notice coaches telling their fighters to use angles. That may
leave you wondering, what exactly are they talking about?
Boxing has been called the sweet science. In fact boxes are great at
both geometry and trigonometry. To get your fists a little more educated,
let's go over a beginner's guide to some of the angles of boxing. The first angle
you should know, is the angle at which you face your opponent. If you stand
square facing your opponent, well then that exposes a lot of surface area, that
is directly in the line of fire of your opponent's punches. Right off the
bat, the first angle you should consider is to point your lead shoulder towards the
center of your opponent. Now to do that, most people think that they're just
going to turn themselves sideways. But that's not going to do it. Just standing
sideways with your feet in a straight line, like this will leave you with
terrible balance. Also you will have very little leverage to throw your own punches.
The next angle that you have to know, is to have your rear leg off to the side so
that your feet are diagonally apart, with good weight distribution. Now that your
lead shoulder is pointed towards the center of your opponent and your feet
are angled properly to keep you on balance stick. if you are a beginner then you
might want to keep your hands up. More important than having your hands up, is
that you should angle your shoulders up high enough to protect your chin.
Once you're angled correctly, you're going to notice that your lead arm is closer to
your opponent. That's going to make it easier to land quick jabs. You'll also
notice that your rear hand is further from your opponent. That gives it enough
distance to fully accelerate to land power punches on a target. You'll also
notice that the rear foot is also angled so that the heel remains off the canvas.
That will help you increase your mobility. I'm going to leave a link
in the description below that would teach you all about your proper boxing
stance. Next, let's talk about the angle of the punches. You have the jab
and cross which travel in a straight line towards their target.
You also have your shots where the arm is bent at about 90 degrees. Those
punches travel in an arc like motion to hit their target.
You also have uppercuts that come from underneath at a completely different
angle from the other punches. So you have your jabs, crosses, hooks and uppercuts
that all come at different angles. Yet each one of those individual punches
themselves can be torn in a different angle. Both in the vertical and the
horizontal plane. I know you may be thinking to yourself that a punch is
just a punch. Why does the angle at which is thrown even matter? Let me
give you a simple example. I'm about 6' tall a my opponent here is 5'9.
I'm a little taller than him and I'm going to aim my punches
over the top of his lead arm. The shortest distance between two points is
always a straight line. I have the advantage of height and I have the
angle to deliver those punches safely. Angling my punches over top is a
safer option than bending at the knees and trying to go underneath his lead arm.
That puts my face directly in range of his punches. Conversely, here my
opponent is just about 6'4 and I can't reach to angle my punches over
top of his lead arm. So I'm gonna angle my jab under his jab,
so that I can easily reach his face. Now if I was trying to land a
follow up overhand right or right hook on him, I could try reaching for the shot.
Or even step in to close the distance. That might smother my shot.
I won't have very good leverage. Instead I will use angles. I step towards the
side to switch the angle of the shot. That way I can easily hit into the head
I use the same principle to land a follow up body shot after the jab. Instead of
reaching or stepping in close which could smother my shot, I'm just going to
step over to the side and switch the angle.That will once again give me much
better leverage. I could throw a jab and step in straight with the right hook. Or
I could throw a jab and step over to change the angle for the right hook. It
may not seem like a significant difference but the angle at which I
throw the punches can have a huge impact on whether they're going to land
or not. Here's another example of trying to land a lead hook against the taller opponent.
Most people try to angle the punch around the guard of his rear hand.
His greater height, makes that a little difficult to reach. Here I alter the
angle of the hook so that it goes between his guard. I throw the
hook at that particular angle because it makes landing a shot to his face about six
inches closer. Thus much easier to hit. Finally, if I throw punches at a
certain angle, like angling my jab downwards towards his body, well I leave
my chin vulnerable to counter shots. That angle leaves my face open. A better
option would be switch levels and throw the jab at a straighter angle.
My shoulder is still protecting my chin. Another angle to consider is the angle
of your opponent. If you're fighting an orthodox fighter, who leads with his left
hand, i being an orthodox fighter myself will circle to my right. That way I can
take the direct angle away from his rear hand, which is his power hand. By staying
on an angle just outside of his lead hand, I can stay relatively safe. To
the best of my ability, I most often keep my lead leg angled
outside of his lead leg.
If my opponent is angled in a South Paw stance,
meaning that he leads with his right hand, instead of his left, I will more
often than not circle to the opposite direction. I circle to my left to stay
away from his power hand. In this case is his left hand, that he keeps to
the rear. Once again, I will keep my lead foot angled outside of his lead
foot. I will circle to my left. This may not seem important in the
beginning. But if I stay in an angle where his punches have the most leverage
(which is the Red box in this clip) then it can really hurt me. It's in my best
interest to adjust my angle of attack to where I can hit him with full leverage
but to where his punches will have as little effect as possible.
Another point is that, in close quarters I can alter the angle of my attack, so
that my punches are much more effective at getting through his defensive shell.
Next we're going to quickly take a look at some defensive angles. I'm not
normally quick enough to box like this but for the moment I'm going to keep my
lead hand down. That way you can see that my lead leg and shoulder are angled towards my
opponent. My shoulder is angled to protect my chin. If my opponent starts to
throw a barrage of punches, I'm going to try and move my head out of the angle of
their attack. I don't want to just sit there and let him punch me in the face.
I'll leave a link in the description below on how to slip punches.
Better yet, I'm going to move my feet to pivot and change the angle of my
retreat. You don't want to retreat by going back in a straight line.
Your opponent can move forward a lot faster than you can go backward.
As you retreat it is better to pivot off to an angle. That's going to
force your opponent to reset. During that split second where he does reset, he
may be open the counters. Finally let's take a look at the angles of the ring
itself. Even though it's called a boxing ring it's not a circle.
It is actually a square. A square does have corners. You can use angles
to cut off the ring and trap your opponent into one of those corners.
That will greatly limit his mobility and his path to retreat. I'm also going to
leave a link on how to cut off the ring in the description below.
The ring is an enclosure. It's in your best interest, if you can to control
the center of that ring. By controlling the center, you can use a
simple pivot to alter the angle of your attack. Your opponent will know that you
have the better angle of attack. He's going to feel uncomfortable. He will
want to move by stepping to the side to get outside of your angle of attack.
If you have the center of the ring, one pivot can equate to five steps from your
opponent. I know it doesn't sound like a lot but add up all those extra steps
over the duration of a 12-round fight. Once again you have math working in
your favor. This has been Mike Gales for Everlast Nutrition. If you like
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