How do you improve your balance?

[MAK212]

My balance is sometimes really bad when I am fighting, in competitions exclusively, I can take punches and kicks to the chin without getting rocked but i often fall over due to bad positioning or tripping over myself, which are obviously counted as knockdowns and make me look like ****. Is there any drills to make your balance good or at least acceptable?

[Rockin']

Quit standing so tall, widen your stance and lower your center of gravity. With tripping over yourself, practice only footwork while shadow boxing. Be very mindful of the space that you keep between your feet while working. Work the whole ring, all of it. ....................Rockin'

[markusmod]

Quit standing so tall, widen your stance and lower your center of gravity. With tripping over yourself, practice only footwork while shadow boxing. Be very mindful of the space that you keep between your feet while working. Work the whole ring, all of it. ....................Rockin'

Good advice here from Rockin

[OctoberRed]

Quit standing so tall, widen your stance and lower your center of gravity. With tripping over yourself, practice only footwork while shadow boxing. Be very mindful of the space that you keep between your feet while working. Work the whole ring, all of it. ....................Rockin'

Rockin always has the goods.

[Tails]

You got the first part down which is accepting that your balance and positioning is not good and needs improvement.

As for what you can do to correct it you need to do a bit of learning and then practicing. How long it takes to get to where you want to be depends on how natural it feels for you to fight in a manner which you are not used to.

I would start by watching top level fighters (of all styles) and really paying attention to the way they position not just their lower half but their upper half as well. Then try emulating some of that in shadow boxing. Going slow at first and then upping the speed as time goes on.

Having a strong balance to react to, counter off of, or block a shot is not too difficult to achieve once you understand what you are doing. It really is just a matter of placing one foot maybe a few inches in one direction, concentrating more weight on certain parts of your foot and having your upper body in a position to roll/slip/brace/counter without knocking you off balance.

A drill to assist is to hit the heavy bag and let it come back and bump into you whilst defending with your guard/arm/shoulder while also mixing in a few counters once it makes contact with you.

[Tails]

Also don't cross your feet or have your feet side by side. At that point a simple straight ir decent jab will knock you off balance.

[Shadoww702]

Quit standing so tall, widen your stance and lower your center of gravity. With tripping over yourself, practice only footwork while shadow boxing. Be very mindful of the space that you keep between your feet while working. Work the whole ring, all of it. ....................Rockin'

That's great advice. I also use a balancing board with a blindfold on.

[OctoberRed]

Also don't cross your feet or have your feet side by side. At that point a simple straight ir decent jab will knock you off balance.

Good points made.

[MONGOOSE66]

Loma’s father put Loma in dance school. I know your not going to do it but it works.

[TinAgeOfBoxing]

Groin workouts. More developed lower body. Most boxers are top heavy.