Why do boxers leave their legs behind?

[AlexKid]

Joe Louis, Julian Jackson, Yuri Arbachakov, Tyson, Shavers, Foreman, Roy Jones, etc are just some of the guys I checked.

They all leave their legs behind when they rotate their hips fully.

So ive been told by many on here when I asked this question before that they dont rotate their feet and legs fully because they dont want to be countered heavily and that is BS! Why? Because if you hips are fully turned then you can be nearly* fully countered. If the hips were moving partially that would be a different story but they are not for alot of these guys.

So If you leave the legs behind, you loose power and weight, so why do all boxers tend to leave them behind? (Even when finishing off a non firing back opponent)

(the hips rotate fully but the legs rotate very little, its more powerful if both the legs and hips rotate fully also you cant drive with the legs fully unless they turn in fully esp on the cross)

[mickey malone]

Where did you get this one from? Out of a Christmas cracker..

Why did the boxer leave his legs behind?.. Because his pants were on back to front

Historically speaking, fighters who left their legs behind, had either over-trained or carried on past their sell-by dates..
Example of a fighter who's legs always seemed to be few feet behind him, has to be the former 3 time lthwt champ, Dennis Andries

[likeamulekick]

Alex kid why don't you just join a boxing gym, you think your gona turn into mike tyson in your bedroom?

[soul_survivor]

Alex kid why don't you just join a boxing gym, you think your gona turn into mike tyson in your bedroom?

hahahahahaha

[billeau2]

Joe Louis, Julian Jackson, Yuri Arbachakov, Tyson, Shavers, Foreman, Roy Jones, etc are just some of the guys I checked.

They all leave their legs behind when they rotate their hips fully.

So ive been told by many on here when I asked this question before that they dont rotate their feet and legs fully because they dont want to be countered heavily and that is BS! Why? Because if you hips are fully turned then you can be nearly* fully countered. If the hips were moving partially that would be a different story but they are not for alot of these guys.

So If you leave the legs behind, you loose power and weight, so why do all boxers tend to leave them behind? (Even when finishing off a non firing back opponent)

(the hips rotate fully but the legs rotate very little, its more powerful if both the legs and hips rotate fully also you cant drive with the legs fully unless they turn in fully esp on the cross)

Nope. In fact when the legs and hips rotate it does not produce more power. It would seem to be the case but is not the case. Its kind of hard to explain why but I will take a stab at it. The thing to understand is that rotation, i.e. torque, is different than linear movement where the person steps, hits and settles the weight all at the same time. Most strikes in boxing involve torque...Stepping movements are slower and more committed attacks that do not occur in a boxing context.

When you do a circular movement in the martial arts two things happen: you create a base of stability for the movement, and the movement extends from this base into the target. The torque of the movement, i.e. the power generated from the movement depends partially on maintaining a base for the movement.

Its a little like a car. When a car wheel is turned by the driveshaft most people deal in horsepower....in fact the more pure measure is a measure of torque. Horsepower is purely and literally the measure of how powerful the car engine is as though it were being pulled along by horses right? But for this horsepower to maintain itself....I mean we don't measure horsepower by rolling a car down a hill right? it needs a wheelbase connected to an engine which can generate a great amount of pounds per when turning the front, back or all wheels. Now, this is where I am going with this analogy Alex: If you do not have a drive shaft that is constructed properly, or the proper fittings that convert engine work to torque....the car will not generate horsepower.

Now lets continue the analogy: If you and I have a contest and go to the highest hill in San Francisco and decide to roll two cars down it....usually the heaviest car will take the lead. What we are doing is measuring a quality of speed which requires no engine work.....This is the same, in a sense, as when a fighter, using pure body mass and a rising/dropping movement, steps full in with a straight punch. This works quite well for arts like Hsin Yi which is a linear punching/stepping Chinese art, but cannot work when one has to convert this straight movement into circular movement. Torque alway requires a conversion mechanism and in fighting, throwing punches, this conversion method is a strong base.

Finally. this gets tricky: if you spread your legs out at about 3 feet or so, and circle your front arm into a backhand type motion you are hitting in a perfect circular motion. if you keep your legs bent and DO NOT move the knees as you rotate your torso, your base will be strong and the strike will be like a whip. What happens when your knees turn, or when you collapse a leg on the strike is that going in the same direction as the strike subtracts from the force of the blow. In other words, if you turn the leg as you deliver the whipping strike the force of the blow would be the force of your arm - the force of turning the knee out/buckling the leg.

So. When a boxer punches from a strong balanced base, they are using a lot of primary and secondary circular movements along with a straight line of progression....(think of a tank moving in a straight line with the turret turning). The best punchers are the most explosive punchers...Take Tyson. To explode the body must maintain the base long enough for the blow to generate sufficient work/torque.

Hope this helps.

[SBleeder]

I'm a sailor peg
And I've lost my leg
Climbing up the top sails
I lost my leg!

I'm shipping up to Boston whoa
I'm shipping up to Boston whoa
I'm shipping up to Boston whoa
I'm shipping off...to find my wooden leg

I'm a sailor peg
And I've lost my leg
Climbing up the top sails
I lost my leg!

I'm shipping up to Boston whoa
I'm shipping up to Boston whoa
I'm shipping up to Boston whoa
I'm shipping off...to find my wooden leg

[AlexKid]

Nope.

Its a little like a car. When a car wheel is turned by the driveshaft most people deal in horsepower....in fact the more pure measure is a measure of torque. Horsepower is purely and literally the measure of how powerful the car engine is as though it were being pulled along by horses right? But for this horsepower to maintain itself....I mean we don't measure horsepower by rolling a car down a hill right? it needs a wheelbase connected to an engine which can generate a great amount of pounds per when turning the front, back or all wheels. Now, this is where I am going with this analogy Alex: If you do not have a drive shaft that is constructed properly, or the proper fittings that convert engine work to torque....the car will not generate horsepower.


Hope this helps.

Great answer thanks mate!!

So if the leg moves the hips dont have something stable to "push off" from, so if they move too much their is "give" in them where the power is lost.


Very interesting!!!

[jas]

Alex kid why don't you just join a boxing gym, you think your gona turn into mike tyson in your bedroom?

hahahahahahahahahaha

[billeau2]

Great answer thanks mate!!

So if the leg moves the hips dont have something stable to "push off" from, so if they move too much their is "give" in them where the power is lost.


Very interesting!!!

Pretty much...Again if you are throwing a punch in a straight line from a distance and stepping one can get away with doing this. But that is used as what the Chinese call "Long Fist" technique, specifically in Hsing Yi which is exclusively a linear fighting style.