10.10.20
Saturday brought my client up to the 5.5 hour point of his course, which is focusing on Western Boxing. We built up footwork drills – step-jab, pendulum, diamond step, shuffle and v-step – and revised some of last week’s head movement. I also brought in some southpaw work.
After a simple warm-up of dynamic stretching, we moved onto footwork exercises. This began with the step-jab and pendulum step. We then moved onto deflecting and countering with the Philly Shell, keeping an active guard. It is easy when shadow boxing and solo training create dead hand guards. All guards need to be active, ready to parry and intercept when needed. The Philly Shell is no different. The rear hand works in conjunction with the shoulder roll to catch incoming punches, often setting up for the rear hand. Then we moved onto the v-step using it at the same time as a lead hook and after a countering cross. Next, we began using a transitional lead hand changing jabs into straight arm hooks and uppercut jabs. When we switched to southpaw the up-jab and question mark uppercut were fired off the lead hand. I also used the shuffle to help switch into the diamond step, promoting overall fluidity and unpredictability in footwork patterns.
The lesson was finished with 5 x 3 minute rounds. Much like my client in Tuesday’s lesson, we had four technical rounds – this time I covered rear hand set-ups, southpaw, peek-a-boo head mobility and freestyle – followed by a final intensive round.