throwing a straight right

[josh-hill]

hi guy. i was boxing on the mits last week in an excercise where the hitter dose a 1 2 combo and then ducks and you have to hit him with the pad. anyway when i was on the pads my partner kept switching lear hands. so he would go left right duck right left duck left right e.c.t. prety simple but it realy threw me. even though it was a pattern it was away from what i was expecting and i kept moving the wrong pad. anyways it got me thinking how effective is starting a combo with a straight right? ive never realy thougt of it before. is it likey to catch peope off guard or is it more common than i thought? cheers

[ScottDBA]

There's a couple different thoughts on this.

Really get your jab going and then throw a lead right once and a while to catch your opponent off guard. However if you are starting most of your exchanges with jabs, your opponent can time you better and counter you.

Or you can throw plenty of lead right hands, lead hooks, lead uppercuts etc to keep your opponent guessing so he never knows what you are coming with. The downside to that is that right hands, hooks and uppercuts take longer to throw then jabs and leave you more open to a counter. If you have really fast hands you can get away with it more, especially when you're a novice and your opponents aren't as skilled with reacting to openings as fast, but when you face more experienced guys they will exploit stuff like taht.

Like many things in boxing there's good things and bad things so you have to figure out what works best for you and your style. But overall yeah it's good to start combinations with right hands atleast once and a while.

[Righthandbanger]

for a long time it was the only way I could land a right hand.. IMO its good if you catch them coming in but a right that has been set up with a couple of jabs can be devastating

[Walt Liquor]

nothing wrong with it at all, as long as you are fast and don't telegraph with your shoulder too much

[Righthandbanger]

the problem I guess with most people throwing lead rights is they aren't very powerful because guys try so hard to make it move fast.. what is the point in throwing a weak right hand when it opens you up anyway?

..so if you're gonna throw a lead right it should be as a counter or well timed

[ScottDBA]

the problem I guess with most people throwing lead rights is they aren't very powerful because guys try so hard to make it move fast.. what is the point in throwing a weak right hand when it opens you up anyway?

Because most times speed is better than power, especially in amateur boxing.

You get your opponent used to seeing your jab coming, then when you snap out a quick lead right that he isn't expecting and can't react fast enough so it catches him clean and that's a point for you (and possibly more points if you throw a combination starting with a lead right)

But if you try to throw a lead hard power shot, it's going to be slower and he will see it coming so even if he's not expecting it he will have more time to react.

It could still hit him and if it does it could hurt him but unless you have insanely heavy hands you're not going to be koing people with one punch in amateur boxing so it's better to just throw a quick shot and take the point then load up your shot and go for a ko. That goes for any punch, not just a lead right.

[Righthandbanger]

with timing you can throw a power shot.. I've got pretty good at catching southpaws coming in with it and if it lands it rocks people like 90% of the time.

[DeepSleep]

I have average hand speed so I can't get away with leading with my left(I'm a southpaw so for me it's the lead left against another southpaw) on a dime against good fighter's too often. What you can do is walk you opponent into it. For example try: Jab, step at 4:30(If your a righty 7:30), Jab same angled step, Feint the jab and fire the straight which if you really sold him on the feint he will walk into. Be creative and mix up how throw it if you start repeating the same pattern your going to be the one walking into something unpleasant.

[Righthandbanger]

I have average hand speed so I can't get away with leading with my left(I'm a southpaw so for me it's the lead left against another southpaw) on a dime against good fighter's too often. What you can do is walk you opponent into it. For example try: Jab, step at 4:30(If your a righty 7:30), Jab same angled step, Feint the jab and fire the straight which if you really sold him on the feint he will walk into. Be creative and mix up how throw it if you start repeating the same pattern your going to be the one walking into something unpleasant.

This is exactly why I can't get away with it. I try to use feints and distractions to make up for not having outright speed.

footwork and a solid defence is the biggest thing you can do to negate handspeed imo.

[Ivansmamma]

I sometimes throw a lead right hand but only if i have speed advantage cause it sucks to get a left hook or counter right back in return. I find more use for the lead left hook then the straight right.