How to fix the three most common mistakes with the lead hook.
Hi, my name's Glenn Holmes on the co-owner of the Box n' Burn Academy,
which is the world's number one boxing fitness certification course.
I'm also the founding trainer here at Boxing Burn in Los Angeles.
All right. So the number one common mistake that I
find with the lead hook, especially with beginners and people still
practicing the technique on hook, is a really awkward punch.
But the key is to lift the elbow.
A common mistake is keeping that elbow took so people will throw the hook like
this and the elbow becomes stuck right here.
Now, a few things that are problematic
with this is when that punch lands is pretty much just a hand punch.
There's no real, like power or support behind it.
And a lot of people are still getting used to this point, still complain of like
wrist being tweaked or off or like sprained or whatever.
And the reason being this is because there's nothing behind that fist.
So if you are making contact or impact
with a heavy bag or a mitt or a head or whatever, there's nothing behind it.
As soon as we lift the elbow into this
position around shoulder height, all of a sudden this shoulder and all
the muscle groups in that shoulder and the back as well are supporting the fist.
So we're more solid of a contact.
Now, not only is that safer, but it's also going to allow for more power.
Right? So every time I'm coaching this hook,
I always kind of keep my eye on that elbow with a beginner.
I tend to have them throw the hook after
the 1-2, because it allows them to get in a good position.
So if we throw the 1-2 hook, 1-2 hook what
I'm looking at when I catch that hook is to see that elbow position.
I just want to see it in line with the shoulder right here.
And I want to see all the way up here.
But I just want to make sure it's not tucked like this.
And nine times out of ten,
I can feel if the elbow is not in the right position without really
seeing it just by the sound and feel the punch.
So if we do the 1-2 hook and keep
the elbow tucked in and we do that, we use that.
We have that mistake. Right.
You can hear that it's soft, right. It's not solid.
And if we lift the elbow and tighten that fist up
straight away, you can hear that on camera.
I'm sure that impact and the power behind the punch. Now 1-2 hook.
Good. Nice.
So common mistake number one is the elbow staying too tucked.
And some people tend to lift it too high
thinking they have to get it right, but they don't.
The perfect position for that.
The elbow on that hook is right there at shoulder height.
And I guarantee you,
if you concentrate on that position, your hook is going to be way more solid.
So common mistake number one elbow being tucked in the way we fix that is just
making sure it's at shoulder height every time we catch that punch.
The second most common mistake you see
with the lead hook is people might be rotating great.
They might be trying to shoulder the hip for even shifting the weight back,
the arms in the perfect position, fist landing.
But one thing that I see quite a lot of is the foot.
The lead foot gets stuck.
So if you saw the hook right there, the foot's not doing the work right.
So you're getting about
60-70 percent of the full effect of the punch right there and it's stuck.
So what we need to concentrate on to fix this is just screwing that foot
into the ground and just making sure the heel comes up.
And a common mistake with that as well as as soon as you drill that,
some people might overdo it and get the foot right up onto the toll like that,
where then everything becomes neutrally and loose.
Right. This needs to be solid.
So the heel needs to come up.
You need to pivot the foot, but hold it right. Now
this still needs to be solid, right?
That's the base for the punch. Right.
If that's loose neutrally,
then she's off balance and there's nothing solid about the points.
There's no power behind it. Right.
So we're going to take the 1-2 hook again on its way to freeze on the hook
and just kind of think about screwing the foot into the floor.
That's the key, is really grip with the ball and foot
and screw it into the ground when you throw the shot.
1-2 hook. Good
That's perfect right there.
Everything's nice and solid and the foot is screwed into the ground.
1-2 hook. Good.
What the purpose of that is if she doesn't
turn the foot so it's stuck, she can kind of have turned a little bit,
but it stop in the full rotation of the hip and the shift of the weight
to the back foot, especially if you doing it fast.
It's hard to do that fast without your feet going as well.
As soon as the foot goes with the shoulder
and the hip and the fist if all rocks in one, then boom,
everything's time together and you've got the whole body weight behind the punch.
And that's the key to get in maximum power.
And from a fitness standpoint, that's how you're going to get the most
benefit out of throwing this punches using the full body.
Right. So that's what we're trying to do here.
So 1-2 hook and I want my peripheral vision when I'm catching this.
I'm just going to kind of keep a close eye on that on that lead foot to make sure
it's turning with the point 1-2 hook.
Good. I just kind of look down as I catch the punch.
1-2 hook. Yep.
Good again. Good.
Now, don't turn the foot. This time
I'm going to catch it as I'm going to catch it with my vision and correct it.
Right. So 1-2 hook.
Good, see. All right.
This time turn the foot. 1-2 hook.
Screw that foot into the floor. Yeah.
Good. And a good cue for that is to tell them
to screw the foot into the ground rather than telling them to lift anything.
We don't want to be lifting anything. That's a bad cue.
If we say lift the heel, you'll see people trying to do this a little bit.
It kind of lifts the body.
Yeah, the heel is lift in.
But if we think if we tell them to screw
into the ground, boom, that's how we're going to get that solid rotation
in the foot and that pivot effect that we
want. So common mistake number two, the foot not doing the work that it should
to get the maximum power and effect effectivity of the punch.
Right. And that's how we can correct that one.
All right. Before we get to number three,
probably the most common mistake that we see with that lead hook.
I just want to remind you to subscribe
to the channel, like the video, share the video,
if you have any questions about the hook or anything, boxing, fitness, mittwork,
all that good stuff, leave them in the comments below.
Any video requests as well.
Leave them in the comments.
I'll get right back to you.
OK, so number three,
the most common mistake that I see with the hook is not landing the fist
in the correct position and turning the punch into a slap.
So that's going to kind of look like this.
We catch in the inside of the glove right here.
And almost like finding the fingertips
and the palm, which is not what we want at all.
There's not going to be any power in that.
It's also an illegal punch that you can
get one for an amateur boxing and professional boxing.
So, yeah, just trying to avoid that slap
mechanics' the shoulder, the hip might all be great.
You might see a boxer fully rotating,
but just watch out for that and you can hear it's kind of a sloppy sound.
It's not a deep, heavy sound.
As soon as we get the knuckles on the punch, boom, a totally different sound.
So that's how we can correct that.
If you feel like, oh, they look great,
but you hear that sound, you can feel it is a coach,
whether the knuckles have landed perfectly in the middle.
And so that's how we can correct that.
Now, in terms of the perfect position to cure that, what we want to try and end
for is the top part of every single punch in boxing should be looking to land those
two front knuckles right in the center of the pad.
Right. That's as accurate as we can get is
the two-foot knuckles right in the middle of the pad.
So for the hook now, there's two ways to do that with the hook.
It requires wrist rotation, right?
So from the face, the punch comes from the face.
Every time you can land the two-foot knuckles over like that where it's nice and flat
and push with the knuckle to landing on the pad like I just showed you.
Right. You see that?
Or you can also throw that punch
with the thumb up too. Both are perfectly good versions of the lead hook.
But the
same thing that's happening is
the knuckles are landing each time, whether it's thumbs up or thumbs down,
the knuckles are landing flat right in the middle of the pad or the heavy bag or the head.
Right.
So that's what we're trying to look for with this. So we just want to avoid
that slap with the inside of the fist.
OK, so 1-2 hook and I want you to concentrate on landing
your two knuckles right in the middle.
That's the cue I'm going to give to try and correct that slap. 1-2 hook.
Good.
Now it's up to the boxer if they feel more comfortable with the thumb up top or if they want
to turn it over for a little bit more power, a little bit more intensity,
they can this time to turn it over and turn them from into.
1-2 hook. Yeah.
Good. 1-2 hook good.
Perfect you feel the difference in the power too.
Right.
So there's, there's the way that we can cure that slap is just making sure
that your boxer is rotating the fist into the punch.
And again that final position can be filmed down or thumbs up.
As long as those two-foot knuckles are landing solid.
We've got a good lead hook and we're avoiding that slap.
So that's number three.
Probably the most common mistake we see with the hook, it gets sloppy.
So try and avoid that as well.
The other bad thing about the slap is it's a lot of flexion in the wrist, too.
So really high risk for injury as well.
As soon as that fist on it, the fist tie, everything solid,
way less risk for injury, higher power, everything that we want in boxing.
So there's your three most common mistakes with the lead hook and how to fix them.