Moving your hips is one of the most critical aspects of proper boxing technique. Although it might seem like you should throw punches with your arms, a good punch begins in the legs and hips, allowing you to punch far harder and with far less effort than you otherwise would. In fact, in a proper punch, the arm motion should almost be an afterthought.
Step 1
Drive off your rear foot and hip to throw a cross correctly. A cross is a straight punch thrown with your rear, or power hand -- in the case of an orthodox fighter, the right hand. Keeping your rear foot firmly rooted to the floor, drive with your rear leg to turn your rear hip and then your rear shoulder forward. Keep your rear hand up and your elbow in; as your hip and shoulder pivot forward, allow the momentum to snap your fist out in a straight line, as if you were cracking a whip. Make sure that you keep your chin below the level of your shoulder to keep yourself protected from counters while you throw the cross.
Step 2
Pivot in a semicircular motion with the same side hip as your punch when you throw a hook. You can throw hooks with either your lead hand or rear hand, although they are somewhat more common with the lead hand. Turning your hip when throwing a hook is, if anything, more important than it is when throwing a cross. As with a cross, push off the foot of the same side leg as your punch, but turn that leg's hip almost 90 degrees, so that the side of your hip faces your target for a split second. As your hip and then your shoulder turns, your body pulls your arm through your target.
Step 3
Corkscrew your same-side hip forward and up when throwing an uppercut. The most common mistake boxers make when throwing the uppercut is exaggerating, or "scooping," the motion of the arm. Your fist should not move up and down more than a few inches -- approximately the distance from the bottom of your chin to the top of your forehead. The rest of the distance comes from changing levels by bending your knees. As your knees bend, if you are throwing a left uppercut, you should twist slightly to your left; then, when you drive back up by straightening your legs, pivot your left hip to your right in an upward corkscrew motion, exponentially increasing the power of the uppercut.
Posted in: Boxing