So you've started boxing and you're wondering how to add some power to your punches. Do you go to the gym and bulk up the triceps and biceps? Do you do speed drills on the heavy bag to get your arms moving faster? Do you pick up 3lb dumbells and shadowbox?
You could do some of all of the above, but a more effective way to increase your punching power and speed is to master the pivot principle.
What is the Pivot Principle?
The pivot principle is one of the foundations of boxing. No matter how big you are or powerful you think you are, you can only generate so much power and speed from moving your arms by themselves.
To really generate power and speed, it has to come up from the floor through your legs, accelerate through your hips, out your shoulder to the end of your fist. Mastering the flow from your legs to the end of your punch will more drastically improve your punching prowess than anything else you can do.
Imagine A Rod...
In your boxer's stance, imagine a steel rod that goes down through the top of your head, down your spine, out your arse and into the floor effectively anchoring the center of your body from moving side to side or front to back. That rod is your axis and you pivot around that rod. The torque you manage to generate around that pivot point is what is going to give you all your power.
How to Practice the Pivot Principle
The pivot is all in the hips, so you have to train your hips to twist. For beginner boxers, stand on a line, both feet facing forward, knees bent and hands up in guard position. Throw alternating punches straight out to the front, twisting your hips in the same direction as your punch. Allow your leg to turn slightly, but focus on getting a full flex across your hips. Remember the punch isn't done until your chin is tucked into your shoulder.
It is very helpful to do this in front of a mirror where you can see just how much your hips are pivoting. Coordination and timing are the other factors in play here. It will take practice, but you need to be able to launch your punch at the right point in the pivot to maximize the force. Start slow, get the technique right, and then work some speed into the equation.
Pivot Principle Tips
The more flexibility you have in your hip flexors, the easier it is going to be for you to twist around your pivot axis. So, make sure you have hip flexibility exercises in your routine. At one time, a lot of people believed that certain types of crunches (mostly those that have the feet anchored) were cause of stronger hip flexors and without proper maintenance, would tighten your hips making the pivot more difficult and less effective. Turns out there is no evidence supporting that, so don't worry about what kind of abwork you do.
Once you have the basic pivot down, really visualize in your mind's eye the power beginning in your legs, shooting through your hips as you torque, flying up through your shoulder and exiting the end of your punch. Start doing this consistently, and you'll be amazed at how hard you start hitting.
I have a challenge for you that is going to dramatically improve your training and elevate your mood in just a week.
It's no secret that water is good for you. Making up the majority of your body, it is required to keep things working smoothly. It cleanses and eliminates waste. It hydrates and keeps your cells and organs working at optimum efficiency.
Trainers and nutritionists since the dawn of time have been telling you to drink 8 glasses a day, yet I guarantee nearly 90% of you don't drink near enough water. Instead, you quench your thirst with fruit juice, pop, and beer. All of those contain water - so what's the big deal - you're still getting your water intake - right?
Sugar is a sweet poison. It has absolutely no dietary benefit and takes the place of good nutrients. Every time you eat 100 calories of sugar, that is 100 calories less of something that can build muscle or promote fat burning that you can put in your body. Even worse, 100 calories of sugar is sooooo incredibly easy to put in your mouth, whereas 100 calories of something better for you, isn't.
It amazes me everytime I go out to a friendly dinner or get together, the amount of dessert that shows up. It is unbelievable and like some wierd contest where the more outrageously sweet the dessert, the better. Desserts just taste so damn good, that the thought of not gorging yourself on them, is unbearable.
Well, for any of you wondering how to create a meal plan that will promote your training, and help you achieve your fitness goals, I want to challenge you to do two things for the next week:
1. Stop eating sugar. Cold turkey - eat NOTHING with sugar in it. Doing this will naturally force you to seek out healthier foods - whole grains and so on. (I'll get to refined white flour in another challenge).
2. Drink nothing but water. I won't even tell you to drink your 8 glasses a day, but when you are thirsty, go to the kitchen tap and fill a glass of water or pull out a bottle of water. Water and only water -- no juice, no beverages, no coffee, no nothing. The only exception is milk and even then, only about a glass a day or on your cereal.
Doing just these two things is a huge step forward in your nutritional lifestyle. Eliminating the sugar will make your body work less hard to get rid of it and increasing your water intake without the limiting factor of the sugar will make it so much more efficient. Picture the cleansing water going through every part of your body pulling out all the waste and flushing it down the toilet.
Some are going to say this isn't practical - that completely eliminating sugar and the "good tasting foods" is just going to make you binge harder on those foods later. To all of you, I say -- take some responsibility for your actions. What you put in your mouth is up to you - it's a choice everytime you pick up that doughnut or piece of cake. If that's what you want to do, then fine, admit it and move on, but don't blame your choice on anything other than your choice to eat that sugary goodness.
Do these two things for a week and then make a note of how you feel. You may even want to check your weight or body fat percentage and see what difference a week can make. I would also encourage everyone to come back to this post in a week and leave your comments - how did this make you feel?
Once you've mastered the basic boxing punches, you may want to consider adding some other more advanced boxing techniques and punches into your repertoire. The bolo punch is just such a technique. It is not used very often and for reasons you'll soon learn, but if mastered can give you options in the ring. You'll be pretty hard pressed to find a lot of professional boxers who use it and probably even fewer amateur boxers. But, if you look hard enough...
Kid Gavilan
A Famous Bolo Puncher
Kid Gavilan is one of those professional bolo punchers. One of three famous bolo punchers (the other two being Ceferino Garcia and Sugar Ray Leonard), Gavilan said he developed the wide sweeping uppercut motion working in the sugar cane fields as a youth. The machete he would carry was swung in an underarm fashion which he developed into a boxing punch later in life.
While the bolo punch can be an effective punch, it is more commonly used as a distraction. By dropping the back hand and pretending to make an obvious wide sweeping throw, your opponent's eyes gravitate to the dropped hand, leaving you free to throw your front arm. Often you'll see variations of the bolo punch where the boxer will drop the right hand and make circular motions - basically showboating, before throwing a stiff jab or hook with the lead hand.
Over time, your opponent will obviously figure out what you are doing and may then focus on the lead hand. That's when life gets really good for you as you are free to follow through with the bolo punch. Because of the distance and torque you can put into it, it can be a devastating blow when it lands.
The bolo punch is an advanced technique and leaves you wide open, so be aware of that if you plan on using it.
The Left Bolo Punch
Most boxing fans will agree that the monster left handed bolo punch that Ike Ibeabuchi gave to Chris Byrd is one of the most famous bolo punches. See the video to the left at about 6:30 to see it in full speed and 8:50 in slow motion. It resembles a very obvious uppercut. Notice how Ike kind of faked a right - threw it but with very little on it. That transferred his weight to the left which he put every ounce of into that knockout punch.
For more examples of the bolo punch, watch any of Sugar Ray Leonard's fights, in particular his second fight against Roberto Duran and the rematch against Thomas Hearns.
"Persistence without focus is a train on a circular track. Focus without persistence is a stationary train on a straight track. Focus with persistence is a high speed locomotive that doesn't need a track."
I'm going to ask you a question and I need you to come up with an answer to illustrate something important. If you're truthful with your answer, you might learn something about where you currently are in your life. Here it comes...
Why do you train?
Now, look at your response and put yourself into one of the following groups:
Group A - Your answer included an action and a time limit. Examples include specific responses such as:
- To lose 10 pounds in 3 months
- To gain 10 pounds in 1 month
- To decrease your bodyfat percentage by 3% over 6 weeks
- To win a fight that is scheduled in 6 weeks
Group B - Your answer was general and lacked either an action or a time limit or both. Examples include general statements such as:
- To get in better shape
- To lose weight
- To gain weight
- To learn boxing skills
- I don't know - but I know I train for some reason
Is it Better to Be in Group A or B?
If you've ready any self-help books, I bet you put yourself in Group A because every self-proclaimed self-help guru tells you you need to define a goal and a time limit for achieving it. If you haven't been brainwashed, then you probably just know what the result is you want and will find yourself in Group B.
Actually, neither is perfect on its own.
If you're in Group A you know what you want - you have focus and the time limit you placed on yourself acts as the catalyst or motivation to go merrily on your way to achieving that focus. So you're off and running, but are you running a curved path or a straight one? You may initially be aimed at your destination, but the problem is that you could expend an unbelievable amount of effort getting there. You run the risk of having your train run out of fuel and quit after missing deadline after deadline or failing to stop at the refuelling checkpoints along the way.
If you're in Group B, you seem to know what you want - you have an idea, but you don't really. You see something through the fog, but you haven't really seen it and there really is no real urgency to get it. Because you haven't told yourself how long you have to get there, chances are you aren't doing anything to move your train to that location. You are the stationary train waiting for some magical force to get moving. You continue to dream of that ideal, and will start moving when the stars align. Problem is, that getting an object moving takes a heck of a lot of energy and tomorrow never comes.
In reality, it doesn't matter if you're in Group A or Group B, because both groups of aren't getting anywhere fast.
Where you really need to be is in Group C.
It's like driving a car from New York to Los Angeles in 4 days. You know where you're going and how long it is going to take you to get there. Everything else that happens in the span of that 4 days will either help you get to Los Angeles or stop you from getting to Los Angeles. Even with this focus, you are not getting to Los Angeles without something called...
Persistence.
You could get a flat tire, get into an accident, or somehow get sidetracked, effectively losing your focus. However when you have persistence, it doesn't matter what happens, you will eventually get to Los Angeles, even if you miss the deadline, even if you have to walk or crawl -- your focus is never lost. Nothing is going to stop you from getting to Los Angeles.
That end result, your ultimate focus, is non-negotiable - you have to end up in Los Angeles. You have the ideal situation in mind - 4 days time, but even if that 4 days comes and goes, failing to meet that deadline does not negate the fact that you need to get to Los Angeles.
So what do you do? When day 4 comes around, do you quit and sit down on the side of the road - or do you keep going? If all you have is focus and no persistence, you sit down and start wishing you could end up in Los Angeles rather than taking the necessary action to get there.
Blah, blah, blah...what does all this have to do with boxing training?
There is nothing that takes more persistence than becoming the best boxer you can be. Every aspect of your life has to be focused on the prize and only you can define what that prize is. It could be to win your next fight, or lose 10 lbs, or to perfect your jab. It doesn't matter, but what does matter is the single minded focus and persistence to drive towards that focus at all cost.
I have a lot of ideas, completely unrelated to boxing that most people would consider crazy and stupid -- but as far as I am concerned, not one of them is unachievable. No matter how crazy or stupid or completely impossible something seems, I have learned that it isn't if you know what you want (focus) and will spend all of your time and energy moving in as straight a line as possible towards that focus (persistence).
So, this time when you ask yourself the question:
Why do you Train?
Commit to the persistence.
Action Steps
So, in order to put together a rock solid training plan that is going to incorporate both focus and persistence, do the following:
- Focus on one thing (that's why it is called focus...). This goes for everything., but with training decide what the focus of your training is for the upcoming timeframe you set. You can only divide your time and energy up so much before everything grinds to a halt. Believe me, when you have more than one thing going on, the result is that everything starts to slow down. It is far better to focus on one thing and finish it to the highest standard possible and then start something else. Multitasking, as it's called, has been shown to be highly inefficient. It's like shooting a rifle and aiming at multiple targets at the same time - you won't hit anything.
- Plan and Revise. Do not start moving towards your goal without a plan, but at the same time, start moving. Huh? Take the first step today - it is usually easily identifiable. For instance, if you want to learn to box, then buy this complete boxing training program (my shameless plug) and do Day 1 tomorrow (or even today if you have enough time). Then revise your plan as you go. You may start off on a curved track, but if you're moving, it is easier to make turns than to wait until the perfect time to start moving -- because that perfect time never, ever comes.
- Measure Your Progress. Persistence is the result of motivation and motivation breeds persistence. Use the progress reports on How to Box to measure your progress and to see when you're moving towards your focus. You have to take off the blindfold and have some way of knowing when you do something right. If you follow a plan that makes you add weight when you are trying to lose it, but don't see that it is happening, you don't even know that your train is going in reverse.
That's all there is to it. See what you want and don't let anything stop you from getting there. Sounds like fluff, but once you grasp this concept, you are going to achieve great things, not only in boxing, but in the rest of your life as well. So, tell me - why do you train?
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