high guard study

[shs101]

What do you wiser folks in here think about an advanced high guard or active?

Whats the most important things to do? Head movement and distractions come to mind ie canelo,tyson

but then you have fighters who dont pre empty move their head that utilize some sort of ear muffs, joshua clottey comes to mind for a quick example but obviously a very successful fighter....

Anyone with tips,tricks and who they think does a great job utilizing a high guard?

[Locche]

I'm surprised you didn't mention Winky Wright? Much better than Clottey at this IMHO. Although Clottey was also good.

I make the slight distinction between "High guard" like you see a lot of the say Cuban amateurs using, and the professional style "Turtle" guard (as it's sometimes referred to? Correct me if I'm wrong) you see Clottey and Wright using. But they're very similar.

I myself use a Winky Wright style guard. I'm old, don't have much footwork or fitness. I'm findig this guard is working pretty well really. It seems to block a lot of stuff without even trying. Even the body - if the elbows are well in, you dip down a bit and that's the body covered. I don't gas so much in sparring and find I can hold my ground with it. Winky Wright for example always moves forward, it seems to me, he uses this guard to walk down his opponent and pressure fight. He actually walked down Vargas with it, which was most entertaining.

The payoff, if you will, that I find, is it's harder to throw punches from there. So you offset a touch of offense in order to get that brilliant defense this guard can potentially offer.

An important thing to do you notice from the off is don't allow gap between your gloves and head otherwise it's possible to beat yourself up with your own gloves.

Another thing is to find the right position that's not impeding vision. You can blind spot the hooks if you're not careful. You need to find just the right position. Again, Wright seems to have this down perfectly.

You mention head movement - the one I'm talking about is the Wright/Clottey turtle/ear muffs. I don't find it neessary to move he head quite so much, but you do have to make sure you're covering and constantly subtley adjusting those earmuffs.

Also, with the earmuf guard - keep your elows on your ribs. If you don't, it's creating a gap to your body underneath your elbows which your opponent can get a shot through to.

High guard (not turtle) like you see a lot of amateurs using - foot movement should accompany this. In and out.

Now - I say all this but I'm just a beginner who happens to have ended up using earmuffs/high guard. I like it and those tips are only from personal experience in sparring over the last few months. I'm not qualified to be giving advice, but wanted to throw a few comments in and join in with this thread as I was going to ask much the same thing. If I get corrected then I apologise for my ignorance.

I love the earmuff guard, I think it's a damn effective defense. Crude but effective. You do tend to get a few scuffs and bruises from your own gloves, that's another payoff. And some people think it's a bit "boring". But I don't think we have enough fighters like Winky who mastered it.

As far as the "high guard" (not earmuff) goes - Mayweather uses it a lot too I notice. To very great effect IMHO.

Watch Winky for the earmuff stuff. As far as High Guard goes I'll be interestd to see what other people have to say about that. Any advice I can pick up would be great.

[Locche]

Also, I got some good stuff out of this - turtle not high guard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEcqM54W1Ws

There's a part 2 to it too.

Again, apologies if these are no good, but personally I thought they were quite good. Yeah I know it's in his living room or whatever but I think the guy's talking sense. If the guy's talking rubbish then it would be interesting to see what people on here are saying about this style, tips etc.