Hit me a jab, keep the jab going, keep it in your range jab, jab. Good
Hi, my name's Glenn Holmes.
I'm the co-owner of the Box n'
Burn Academy, the world's number one boxing fitness education course.
I'm also the founding trainer here at Box n' Burn in Los Angeles.
Welcome to my YouTube channel.
This video is all about Realistic Mittwork.
So what does that mean? OK, well, if we think about an actual
fight, what actually happens in a fight our people land in six,
seven punch combinations, no, they're mostly trying to find the jab,
trying to find the power shots, land shots, where there are gaps.
They're moving all the time.
They're trying to they're fending all the time.
So if you just kind of picture a fight scenario, that's what you should be trying
to create if you're trying to do a realistic mittwork session.
So in this video, I'm just going to give
you a couple of things that you can think about and use when you want to keep your
work sessions as realistic and as fight-specific specific as possible.
So first thing I like to think about with realistic mittwork,
the basic defense of just if we were starting off in a fight and it's round
one, we're going to try and establish the jab that's nine times out of ten what
boxers are trying to do as soon as that first bell goes.
So if I'm trying to keep it realistic,
what I want my boxers to do is just kind of keep that jab and away from them
a little bit and just try and parry that jab with the backhand.
So if we think of a realistic fight scenario,
one thing that I like to do and if you think of the first bell's gone,
boxers are trying to establish that range and get the jab going.
So a good one to start off with when you're trying to keep your mittwork realistic.
You just parry in the jab and just creating that kind of natural instinct to just
watch, watch and feel the jab and just let it come and travel.
Right.
And then we can start working on countering it from there.
So as soon as the first bell goes, you'll see a lot of fights that kind
of weigh-in, they kind of fending the jab and trying to establish that jab and range.
So just create that habit of just deflecting that jab with that backhand
and parrying it is a good one to start off with.
So if we're just doing a mittwork session round one, we can move around,
kind of keep it realistic, kind of feel like you're the opponent
for your boxer and he's going to flick that jab out.
Keep it realistic when you throw the jab to, throw it
straight at the face, make sure they can parry it, good.
Doesn't have to be super intense once they feel comfortable with that.
And I can throw a little bit more snappy,
boom, boom, good and make sure she's getting that reflex.
Once she feels comfortable with that, then we can start trying to counter it.
So as soon as she caught that jab, I can just hold that right now.
And she can just counter
with the jab herself too. Sustain a life move around a little bit. As soon as
she parries the jab, just have that mitt ready.
There. And we're just working on deflecting the jab countering the jab.
Catch and counter.
Good moving, moving, think about where you are in the ring as well.
Always keep it realistic from our backs on the ropes like this.
I'm probably going to throw a jab, boom, boom.
And then there.
I'm going to move out and she's going to work on cutting the ring down a little bit.
That's it. Good,
good.
I'm not going to tell her what I'm going to do it.
We're trying to keep this realistic as possible.
So just trying to fend a little bit good.
And again, good.
So there's one technique you can use
usually at the start of the session to try and keep it nice and realistic and just
get those basic foundational movements down the catch
and counter and just deflect parrying the jab and countering with the jab.
So another thing to think about with realistic mittwork is movement.
You see a lot of mittwork that's just in place
right here and no one's doing any movement and it's just on the spot stuff.
So with this one, we're trying to keep it realistic.
It's what I like to do is really make
my boxer moving and always be thinking about keeping those feet alive.
And actually I try and catch them off
balance and out of position with the feet, too.
So a technique for this is I might give her a one to say like a realistic
combination and then I'll just step in like that to make her move and then
I'll step back out, come in, and then I'll just keep fending her with the feet.
So she's alive. And then as soon as I throw them up,
I can just call for a simple combo like a one-two.
So move in. Good.
Now what I'm trying to do here is make
a move, keep those reactions in the feet.
She's always ready and on balance to throw a punch,
thinking about where she is in the ring, moving, good
feet feet feet go, get up, good. Just making a move.
And for a coach, it's really simple.
All you got to do is catch a one-two.
But all I'm really doing
kind of mimicking an opponent sometimes all the time to match walk like this, scared for move
and fend, fend
keep it realistic and then just throw the mitts up out of nowhere.
Right. Don't tell her that you want the punch.
Just let her react.
Good, because we're trying to keep it realistic in a fight scenario
as much as to react with punches. Boom, boom.
Throw the one-two react with the feet,
get back in pressure, pivot out, you know what I mean?
So all those different kinds of movements,
we're not prompting and prompting them or cueing them.
We're just doing them as instinct and reaction.
And I think that's one of the biggest keys
and things you can think of when you're trying to keep your mittwork realistic, it just creates
reactions, whether it's in the feet, whether it's in the hands or the head
movement, whatever it is you're working on, develop reactions.
And that's that's the one thing that I
want to get across with this video is doing
realistic develop reaction. The final point on this,
you want to try and keep your combinations and your punches short and simple as
possible in a fight scenario mentioned at the start of this video,
you rarely see in a fight anyone landing six, seven, eight fancy punches and long
combinations on their opponent most of the time
ones, twos. Sometimes threes.
Right. So if we if we bear that in mind,
when we're catching punches in a realistic mittwork situation, it's just as simple as
maybe a jab and then maybe an uppercut, simple punches.
Keeping honest and defense in between hook.
Good. Just one punch at a time.
Move around a little bit. So they have to be on balance and then
wherever they go and think of what a realistic punch would be.
So if she steps over to her
right, she set that round there.
If I come in close, she might throw an uppercut
boom, good. You know, and then after uppercut might real to set up the
body shots, we're in tight for a second. Boom, boom, yep.
And then right back out to defense again.
You know, hit me a jab. Keep the jab going.
Keep in that range.
Jab, jab, good, cross, good pivot out or keeping honest and defense.
So you see, I'm just given one-twos
at a time, not long combinations, keeping it real simple and making sure she
switched on for anything at all times and keeping that footwork going.
Keeping the defense honest in between all the punches.
But yeah, real simple.
Single punches, twos and threes max.
OK, so yeah there just some tips there for you to keep your mittwork realistic.
A little bit more fight-specific if you've got
boxers who are aspiring to have a fight, that kind of stuff.
Also, I'd love to hear your thoughts on complex combinations and complex mittwork
versus the more realistic fight scenario, the more basic stuff.
Leave them in the comments below.
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