(no subject)
I watched Wega play-spar* Bill today. Now that we've been doing this for a while and are getting a lot better, I could watch and see where we've improved, and where we need help. Wega's been working on his head movement and throwing combination punches, but he has a bad habit of having his legs too far apart when moving around. It may not seem obvious, but if your legs are splayed out, mobility is severely limited. Basically your feet become paralyzed if the other guy has better footwork and is able to come at you with an advantageous angle. He's got good hand speed, but since he's kind of a goofball, he's trying to copy the moves of Muhammad Ali**. Though I don't think his technique is all that great, he's got great fighting instincts. He's always aware and watching.
My flaws are very different. I don't have natural fighting ability, so I grind on the basics to my detriment. I practice head movement, footwork, speed bag, double-end bag, and all the different punches, so in many ways my technique is much better than Wega's. My problem is putting it all together, and a couple of really bad habits I have when it comes to sparring:
1. I actually close my eyes occasionally in fear when I spar, whether a punch is coming or not.
2. A lot of times I anticipate a punch coming, and end up ducking my head in front of my opponent, leaving me completely blind to whatever he might be attempting to do, and also very vulnerable to uppercuts.
3. Not all of these elements that I mentioned earlier have actually come together that well yet.
I'm getting better about closing my eyes. I don't do it nearly as often now, and I'm also significantly more relaxed, which makes sparring rounds much easier.
Since we're not pros (or even amateurs), I guess we do the things that keep us interested. If Wega wants to back pedal and keep his hands around his waist, that's fine. If I want to pound away at the speedbag instead of doing pushups, that's fine, too.
* play-sparring is not actual sparring. There is no headgear, foul protector, vaseline, or even sparring gloves in sight. We put on our bag gloves and mouthpieces and practice movement and punches, theoretically throwing stuff softly. I unfortunately am not that good at this. I tense up and swing much harder than I should, but my bag gloves are 16 oz. and puffy, so they don't hurt THAT much.
** Muhammad Ali was a natural talent. I watched Ali-Frazier III, and I felt there was nothing a boxer could learn by watching Ali. He does everything 'technically' wrong. He keeps his hands low, he doesn't throw body shots, he sits on his heels, and he dances, or something. At the same time, how can anyone with such bad form throw such fast, hard, and accurate punches? How in the world is his torso so durable to take Frazier's ripping body shots? He's one of a kind, but since he's such a natural, I don't see him as being a good boxer to emulate.
My flaws are very different. I don't have natural fighting ability, so I grind on the basics to my detriment. I practice head movement, footwork, speed bag, double-end bag, and all the different punches, so in many ways my technique is much better than Wega's. My problem is putting it all together, and a couple of really bad habits I have when it comes to sparring:
1. I actually close my eyes occasionally in fear when I spar, whether a punch is coming or not.
2. A lot of times I anticipate a punch coming, and end up ducking my head in front of my opponent, leaving me completely blind to whatever he might be attempting to do, and also very vulnerable to uppercuts.
3. Not all of these elements that I mentioned earlier have actually come together that well yet.
I'm getting better about closing my eyes. I don't do it nearly as often now, and I'm also significantly more relaxed, which makes sparring rounds much easier.
Since we're not pros (or even amateurs), I guess we do the things that keep us interested. If Wega wants to back pedal and keep his hands around his waist, that's fine. If I want to pound away at the speedbag instead of doing pushups, that's fine, too.
* play-sparring is not actual sparring. There is no headgear, foul protector, vaseline, or even sparring gloves in sight. We put on our bag gloves and mouthpieces and practice movement and punches, theoretically throwing stuff softly. I unfortunately am not that good at this. I tense up and swing much harder than I should, but my bag gloves are 16 oz. and puffy, so they don't hurt THAT much.
** Muhammad Ali was a natural talent. I watched Ali-Frazier III, and I felt there was nothing a boxer could learn by watching Ali. He does everything 'technically' wrong. He keeps his hands low, he doesn't throw body shots, he sits on his heels, and he dances, or something. At the same time, how can anyone with such bad form throw such fast, hard, and accurate punches? How in the world is his torso so durable to take Frazier's ripping body shots? He's one of a kind, but since he's such a natural, I don't see him as being a good boxer to emulate.