keeping hands up

[markeeta]

just wondering if anyone knows drills, techniques etc. to help me keep my hands up all the time... other than shaddow boxing and getting hit too many times with big right handers?

[Trrmo]

When shadow boxing, doing bagwork etc always get into the habit of thinking about your hand position, make sure you do not drop your hand to chest just before punching and remember to bring it back to guard position not to your chest first as many beginners often do.

Video yourself sparring/SB/doing bagwork to watch your technique because you might not be aware of it when you drop your guard. Shadow box in front of the mirror to monitor your hand position. When doing padwork coaches can throw punches at you when you drop your guard.

After skipping I do shadow boxing with hand weights because often arm fatigue is a reason for dropping guard. I start with a few rounds of just footwork, moving around the ring in all directions, at the same time I have hand weights about 1kg, even though it is just footwork I always concentrate in keeping the hands in guard position at all times.

Having said all that dont rely on blocking with your gloves to stop all punches, practice slipping punches and learning effective counters eg if you catch quite a few straight rights to your head due to your left being momentarily too low (which happened to me quite a bit before) practice slipping to the left and countering with a left look.

Just some ideas

[Paardekopski]

As you said, my trainer keeps punching me in the face when I drop my guard, still the best way to remember :-)

[DutchDynamite]

work the SPEEDBALL that is all you need to do, it will strengthen your shoulders. Weak shoulders make your arms go down when tired

[markeeta]

i'm doing exactly all that... weights, speed ball and punches in the face. i guess it is just time and more of the same thing

[Paardekopski]

Exactly...
It's never just one thing, cause if I keep my hands up all the time, trainer starts working the liver, so I guess it's about being active and keep observing. My main problem is my defense, in the flurry of punches I tend to face down instead of straight ahead, so usually I sit down after the to be expected uppercut :-)

[mr tricky]

an easy way,


next time you go in the ring, foucus and remmebr that this time your gonna keep you hands up and a tight gaurd, forget about other things a little bit and focus on where your hands are,

do this next time

then the next

and it should stick

[msagrain]

when you get knocked out in the ring cus you ain't got your hands up you will remember.

[d_lyrik803]

when i shadow box train myself to keep my hands higher than usual that way when i do get tired, they drop down to where they're suppose to be at.

[mspiegelo]

when you hit the heavy bag try not to move the bag at all. punch as hard as you can, but pull back immediately after. a good punch will have an audible "snap" on the bag. don't try to "follow thru" unless you are doing a stamina drill where you're punching as fast and hard as you can with reckless abandon. most beginners make the mistake of not bringing their hands back to a high guard after each punch. exaggerate it if need be. try and pull the punch back even faster than you throw it out. that way even your offense is defensive. when you do a 1,2,3 make sure the 2 comes back to a high guard so your right is blocking while you throw that 3. if you get tired, focus even harder on keeping those hands up, because thats the training that will matter most when youre in a fight (tired training)