A Brief Post on the Importance of Head Movement

Head movement, by most, is thought to be the wobbling around of one's head while in fighting range, making it harder for the opponent to "lock on" to one's head and throw punches at it. Hitting a moving target is always harder, but it is not difficult to hit someone who wobbles their head around at distance and then stands straight upright when they attack.

This is what I am always moaning about in MMA in particular, but it's also happening more in boxing nowadays as the focus on spamming combination punches from a squared up stance overtakes the importance of hitting and not getting hit.

When moving forward with a jab, especially if one only hopes to land the jab, without following up - as it is important to be able to do early in a bout, it is sensible form to dip slightly to the side of the non-jabbing hand. This can be done with a slight slipping movement, or by stepping forward into an almost sideways stance and bending at the waist.

Here is a sketch from J. C. Thomas' great book, How to be an Ass Whipping Boxer, which depicts a slip combined with a jab. 

It is important to move one's head when moving straight in with a jab, because against anyone who is not a complete novice, an attempted counter is practically assured. 

While thinking of ideas for a full length, print book, I spent some time studying the many films on youtube of so called "pikey fights" or bare knuckle encounters between Irish travelling folks. While I'm sure a great many of you find the idea of fighting bare knuckle, on concrete, over ridiculous family rivalries abhorrent (I know I do) it is certainly a fascinating and alien cultural facet - the need to come to blows over things that seem like non-issues to outsiders. This clip also amply demonstrates the lack of offensive head movement.

Take a look at the exchanges of jabs in this film. It should be said that these men had been fighting for almost half an hour during this section of the video, but the sound fundamentals were never there to begin with. Watch as they both move in to jab, and land simultaneously almost every time. 

Semi Hiatus

Hey everyone,

The support for my book continues to overwhelm me, and I am currently in search of a publisher for a revised print copy. The support for my blog and my work at BloodyElbow is equally brilliant, and I once again extend my massive thanks to everyone who keeps up with my work.

I am sorry to announce that I will be taking a brief semi-hiatus over the coming weeks, due to some important deadlines. I say semi-hiatus because I am sure that I will pop on to the site to link some interesting fights that I've ended up watching as a form of procrastination, but I will be attempting to resist the urge to write new articles for a few weeks.

I hope you all keep coming back to check up on me and my work, as I said I'll probably put up some small posts fairly regularly, and to the existing pages on techniques and concepts. If you have purchased Advanced Striking please know that I would love to hear any feedback anyone can give me if you find time. Also, as I have no means of advertising, I always appreciate word of mouth to your colleagues, friends and training partners.

Cheers,
Jack

Jack Slack on The MMA Show with Mauro Ranallo

Hey folks,

Just to let you know I will be appearing on the MMA Show with Mauro Ranallo at 2:30 ET.

Tune in to support me and to hear my fruity English accent!
http://blogs.thescore.com/mma/

Cheers,
Jack

Bloody Elbow Front Page!

Hey folks, check out my newest article which is also my first on the front page of major MMA website, BloodyElbow!

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/4/18/2955813/UFC-145-striking-of-rashad-evans-vs-Jon-Jones

Enormous Thanks & Future Plans

Hey everybody,

I just wanted to thank all of you for your amazing support with my book so far. I have sold more copies in the last 3 days than I thought I could in total! What's more, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and constructive, and those giving it vary from fans of the sport, to striking hobbyists, to professional coaches!

If you haven't picked it up yet and would like to, don't worry, it's still on the introductory price of just £10 until the end of the month, so you can wait until pay day. At the end of the month I will also have it available on Ibooks and Amazon.com for the Kindle.

After that we have the possibility of an app for the iphone in the works and a couple more books in the planning stages. Aside from my Guide to Angles in Striking, we are also looking at the possibility of writing a pair of books on Karate, one on competitive kumite, and another on adapting karate techniques and strategies to combat sports as Lyoto Machida, Stephen Thompson and Andy Hug all have done. And all that without even mentioning the prospect of volume 2 of Advanced Striking! ;)

Advanced Striking: It's Here!

I am proud to announce the release of my first book Advanced Striking: Tactics of Kickboxing, Boxing and MMA Masters.


It is available on the books page, which you can find: HERE


Thank you all for your support,
Jack

Jack Slack's Troubleshooting: Episode 1

Over the course of writing this blog and pieces at HeadKickLegend.com I have received several emails from individuals in need of a little guidance with their striking game. While I try to reply to all of these emails, I often find some questions come up several times, and that it would be useful for me to answer them out in the open. Other times questions are quite unique but are so outside of the box that many readers of this blog could benefit from them, and they certainly made me think!

And so, I commence my first "Agony Aunt" style post, which I hope to make a fairly regular feature on this blog, and will compile under a menu in the bar at the top of the page eventually. The question I will be answering today comes from Ashley and reads:

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At the moment when I'm sparring I'm scared of getting countered, this severely limits my offense. Is this probably just a technique flaw with keeping my hands up and jaw down?

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The first thing to say is that there is absolutely no problem with being timid about attacking when beginning to spar. It shows intelligence and that you understand the existence of counter punches. Often, when someone so conscious of counter punches gets caught with one while attacking, he finds that it was nowhere near as bad as he expected.

On the other hand, someone who simply learns to wade in and overwhelm and opponent with his attack will eventually meet a sparring partner or opponent with the savvy to catch him clean as he comes in, and then he will be in a world of trouble. It is absolutely important that you be scared of the counter punch and work around it with science, rather than trying to Wanderlei Silva or Chris Leben your way through it.

Dealing with the counter seems overwhelming - between slips, sidesteps, parries and blocks, Edwin Haislet estimated that there are over 700 variations of counterpunch to be exploited, and even more to be made up. It is rarely so complex though. Most normal fighters will favor one counter almost exclusively, and even the most feared counterpunchers such as James Toney still only use one or two initial counters, then follow them with combinations.

The way to best deal with counterpunches is to look at your opponent and prioritize. An orthodox fighter against another orthodox fighter will struggle to land right handed power counters until he has already his opponent. They are slower and have to cover far more distance, in which you can see them. Unless your opponent is very sharp, you will be able to at least duck a right hand counter.

Left handed counters are far more common. If an opponent is in a traditional half facing stance, his jab will be the best counter to your attacks. In which case a trick which might help is to extend your rear hand to cover his lead hand as you jab. This was a staple of Joe Louis, who was not a particularly fleet footed fighter and so had to cover all the opponent's options when he moved in to fire his combinations.


This covering of the lead hand as you enter completely nullifies the opponent's most effective counter, and his favored lead. It effectively eliminates both his offense, and his counter offense and puts the ball in your court. Here is a still from a fight I linked to yesterday, where the crafty Roy Jones Jr (having switched to southpaw against his southpaw opponent) neutralizes the opponent's jab while searching for an opportunity to lead with one of his hooks, jabs or uppercuts. Of course, a degree of reaction time is needed, but few men are fast enough to swing their lead hand outside of your extended arm and land a hook, and such an action is easy to see coming, and to block.

Fighting is often as simple as "bite down on your gumshield, tuck your chin, and go in", but by taking a step back and studying it as a science rather than a contest, you can use tricks such as this to eliminate your opponent's quickest counters and leave him struggling to land slower, less practiced ones.

If you have a question for Jack Slack's Troubleshooting, please mail it to JackSlackMMA@Gmail.com