Boxing movement: the basics to fly like a butterfly!

The basics of boxing movement 

For move around in boxing, the basis of the bases is ¾ face position. You must not be facing directly otherwise you become too easy to touch.

Your feet are slightly turned diagonally and your body weight is good balanced on both legs.

And to adopt a good boxing attitude :

• keep it tucked chin
• Mount your arm on guard
• Lower your shoulders
• Stick your elbows to the body
• Tighten your abs by bringing the pelvis forward

From there, getting around is simple:

• To go forward, it's yours front leg moving first.
• To go rearward, it's yours back leg moving first.
• To go towards the left, it's yours left leg moving first.
• To go to the right, it's yours right leg moving first.

The importance of travel

The art of moving and the mastery of your footwork in boxing are important For :

• Better hit

• Dodging blows

• Better defend

• Managing distance

• Dictate the fight

And for move like Lomachenko, your supports must be flexible, but not only. You must think about keep the same leg distance when you move.

The supports 

The lighter, more flexible and relaxed you are on your supports, the more you are fast And dynamic in your travels.

In English boxing, to have good support, you have to always be on tiptoe, with the slightly off heels.

The space between the ground and your heels will act a little like a spring when you are going to move. When you move, your feet must graze the ground. It's a bit as if you slide on an ice rink.

In addition to keeping you on the toe, you must also have the knees slightly bent. In this way your legs will also play the springs when you move.

Leg gap

This is what will allow you to be well stable well balanced in each of your travel. You will therefore have more ease of delivering powerful blows.

In English boxing, a good leg distance is approximately equal to the width of your shoulders, or even a little more.

When you move, you must always keep this same distance. For that, imagine that you have an elastic band on your legs. In your head, remember to keep it tense, no matter your travels.

When you move, to keep this gap, YOU do not bring your back leg towards your front leg. And Conversely, do not bring your front leg towards your back leg. They must not not be too close to each other.

Now that you know the basics and the importance of travel, we can see different ways of moving !

The different movements in boxing 

In boxing you can move in different ways, including:

1. THE thrusts
2. THE pivots And offsets
3. THE impulse-repulsion
4. There walk

1. Flare-ups

We talk about flare-ups because they are your legs pushing into the ground to allow you to move. This is really the basic movement for getting around.

For the thrusts, the technique is not complicated. For example, if you want to go forward, it's your back leg that will push. Your front leg, she goes get up (but not too much) To advance.

For the thrusts you must keep in mind that this movement is done by pushing on the front of your foot and not the heel.

2. Pivots and offsets 

Those are very useful movements, particularly in defense. For what ? Because they allow you to get out of the way of your opponent.

For the pivots and offsets, You must take support on your front leg. Then it's your rear leg that initiates the movement.

Your front foot pivots 45° or 90° for example, and your rear leg will follow to change direction.

These movements will therefore help you get out of alignment, not only to avoid hits, but also to counter and attack better.

3. Impulse-repulsions 

These trips consist just of move back and forth while hopping. Those are very light jumps that skim the ground.

In fact, impulse-repulsions are like you're skipping rope. You are in support on your toes And you jump without taking off the ground too much.

It's a bit of a transition position. The impulse-repulsions allow you to stay in a dynamic position. Whether before sending a blow, or after sending it.

These trips allow you in particular:

• Improve your movement speed

• To be more responsive to your support

• Of move more easily And faster

4. Walking

It's not not the most appropriate movement for boxing, but it can be useful. For example, when you are tired, to walk can help you recover A little.

Walking can also allow you to be more stable and solid in a phase of hand to hand.

To move around while walking, you have the heel slightly on the ground and the legs well bent. It's yours front foot who will you guide you in your journey.

The downside is that you are not not resting on your toes. So it becomes difficult to move quickly.

Here are the 4 most used movements in boxing. At first, you risk getting your brushes a little tangled when you move. So to help you, we'll see together how to improve your travel.

How to improve your boxing moves? 

There is no secret, practice makes perfect… So, to improve yourself, you must train regularly. For this you can test:

• Shadow boxing

• Remote work

• Jumping rope

• The agility ladder

• Changes of guard

• Stability and balance exercises

• Exercises to strengthen your legs

1. Shadow boxing

Nothing better than shadow to improve your travel. If you don't know what the shadow boxing, it is simply the fact of boxer in the wind without gloves.

To improve your travel, start with shadow rounds where you will only concentrate on your movements : pushes, pivots, offsets, etc.

try move fairly slowly to start, then gradually increase the speed.

During each round you must always stay moving. And especially, vary your trips : small steps, walking, forward-backward, sideways, etc.

Once you feel good when traveling, you can add strokes (jab, cross, hook, uppercut) and do little jumpsuits.

Associating your movements with strokes will help you improve your coordination.

However, even if you box in a vacuum without an opponent, always keep the right attitude : keep it high and chin tucked in.

2. Remote work 

The fact of training yourself to manage distance will help you improve your travel. Indeed, to be at a good distance, you have to move intelligently.

You can work the distance punching bag or with any other target (a pole, a tree, etc.).

The goal is to move around a target seeking to have the good striking distance with your jab.

Instead, do small trips. Unlike big steps, you won't spend too much energy and you won't be too far away. of your target.

This distance work is also very interesting to improve your eye. The more you have the right distance, the more your eyes will remember it.

3. Skipping rope 

This is really the essential exercise in boxing. You have probably already seen Floyd Mayweather performs rounds of jump rope Like nothing ever happened.

For improve your stability, your supports and your reactivity, there jumping rope is ideal. Not only that forces you to stand on tiptoe, but also to place them correctly.

Skipping rope also and above all allows you to work on your coordination and timing. It's simple, if you're not in the right tempo, you'll trip over your feet.

With this exercise you will improve the endurance and speed of your legs for some more efficient travel.

Furthermore, it is a very good way to work your cardio and strengthen your ankles as well as your calves. So above all, don't hesitate to do it often.

4. The agility ladder

It's almost as interesting as jumping rope to work on the coordination and speed of your movements.

The purpose of the agility ladder is to work on your supports and especially on the tip of your toes. For this, you can do boxing moves, or simply small supports from the side, from the front, etc.

You can even do shadow boxing with the agility ladder. Vary the movements, rhythms, etc. But above all, think about do not touch the ladder with your feet !

5. Guard changes 

It's not not an easy exercise to set up, but it can be very useful to improve your travels.

As you are not at all used to being in reverse guard, the fact of change and box like this will allow you to be more comfortable in this position.

Your travel, your blows, your dodges, etc. will become over the course of training easier for you to perform in reverse guard.

The fact of change guard can surprise your opponent and destabilize them. It is also a good way to get out of a difficult situation.

6. Stability and balance exercises 

For good travel, you need: good support, A good sheathing and an good stability. But how to do it to improve everything ? THE stability and balance exercises !

For example, you can make proprioception exercises on a bosu. Or you can also try the plyometric exercises for more explosiveness.

Not only you reduce the risk of injury, but in addition you strengthen deep and stabilizing muscles.

With stronger muscles, you therefore have stronger supports that allow you to better control your movements.

7. Exercises to strengthen your legs 

In each exercise that we have just cited, your legs are put to work. But for strengthen them and improve their endurance, It is interesting to focus only on them.

Because yes, if your legs no longer hold, you can no longer move... And this is what often happens when boxers get tired. Their legs no longer respond and they no longer move as they want.

To avoid this, you can for example improve their endurance by running or cycling. You can also tone them with explosive or non-explosive strengthening exercises (squat, jumping lunges, jump squat, kettlebell swing, etc.).

With those exercises your legs will hold the road much better and your travel will be good more efficient and controlled.

And before you let yourself perfect your movements with all these exercises, we have prepared a small list of tips for you to remember.

Some tips for good travel 

Details make perfection. So, to help you, we have grouped you together some little tips that make the difference:

• Never cross your legs during your travels.
• Stay all the time on tiptoe.
• Think of move your head a little when you move.
• try always be on the move.
• Don't tense your legs, keep them relaxed.
• Hold always the same leg distance.
• Your legs should be bent.
• Don't bring your feet next to each other.
• Think technique before speed, your movements must be smooth.
• Consider making flexible and light travel as if you were sliding on the ground.

With these few tips, you should be able to step up the level of your moves to fly like a butterfly !

Conclusion

To move well in boxing, you must always be on your toes and always keep the same leg distance (approximately shoulder width).

Once you have these bases, you can use the thrusts, THE pivots, THE offsets, THE impulse-repulsion, or even to walk (with the right technique).

For improve your travel and for reactive supports, nothing better than shadow boxing or the jumping rope ! So above all, feel free to train, train and train again.

And if you want move as well as a boxer like Vasyl Lomachenko, could you do like him, make dancing for a few years before starting boxing again!

For more more information on the basics of attack and defense in English boxing, direction our article on the boxing technique tiger!

Fly like the butterfly and sting like the bee at the Circle! 

You want improve your boxing and your travel ? SO, join the circle and discover Le Cercle!

The circle What is it exactly ? It's simple: a workout 50% boxing 50% bootcamp of 50 minutes in 10 rounds.

You alternate the boxing rounds where you hit them aqua bags and the bootcamp rounds. Side boot camp, YOU strengthen your whole body on the benches equipped with dumbbells.

In addition, what is good about the Cercle is that there is no no fight and no shock. No matter your level, you can come put the aqua-bags to the mat, they don't hit back!

So don't wait any longer and come and test THE Circle workout in crazy atmosphere with ultra-motivating coaches. It happens at the foot of the Sacré-Cœur in Paris 18 !