Paul Sharp on boxing in the weapons based environment

[conw]

Paul's blog is a gold mine of great info.

He has worked as a cop in or near Chicago for a long time, some of that being undercover work. He's an accomplished shooter and also has a background in boxing, wrestling, BJJ, and has competed in mixed martial arts as well as being a long time affiliate and accredited coach with one of the top gyms in the world. He is a colleague of Craig Douglas (southnarc) and if you've taken one of Craig's classes you've probably already done one or more drills Paul originated (they have a very healthy respect for and exchange of one another's ideas).

Anyway, this link will lead readers to a great post on empty hand skills in the context of real world self defense. Paul's perspective is both fresh, and tempered by more experience than anyone of whom I'm aware. This (what Paul et al have to offer, broadly speaking) is the state of the art in terms of a truly integrated to self defense and surviving a violent encounter.

Enjoy!

http://sharpdefense.wordpress.com/2013/11/24/why-would-you-bring-boxing-to-a-gunfight-part-one

 

[torqem]

I differ

Once guys are pretty good, I want them working on their weaknesses, not their strengths. My students are not training to fight in matches, they are training to save their lives.

 

[Fred Fuller]

Interesting blog - a good wide spectrum outlook. Thanks for the link...

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Good Reading Thanks.

 

[conw]

Glad you two enjoyed it. His blog is filling up with great articles quite rapidly...

 

[Prophet]

Excellent reading. I ended up with a heavy bag and a couple sets of gloves recently. Actually my shoulders, wrists and knuckles are aching from a session as I write this. I'd only remotely considered the possible defensive benefits, I mostly wanted the bag for the indoors workout. This has got me thinking I should be taking it more seriously.

 

[RTR_RTR]

Excellent reading. I ended up with a heavy bag and a couple sets of gloves recently. Actually my shoulders, wrists and knuckles are aching from a session as I write this. I'd only remotely considered the possible defensive benefits, I mostly wanted the bag for the indoors workout. This has got me thinking I should be taking it more seriously.

I'm saying this under the assumption you're a beginner - put the effort in to get your technique down pat early on. Once you build a habit boxing, it is reallllllllly hard to break it

 

[torqem]

It teaches bad habits, like not clenching your fists tightly, leaving your thumb hanging out there to be broken. It teaches you to ignore the lower body and expecet to be hit with jabs, (which can be maiming eye-gouges, or certainly, fight ending rakes/stabs into your face. You learn to hang on the other guy (doing nothing) and letting him hang onto you. You learn to NOT use your elbows, biting, headbutts, to not use grabs, throws, knees, kicks, pins, etc. All of which you desperately need to know how to use instantly and effectively, and which you must know how to counter.

 

[conw]

Prophet, if you work some 1-2 combos with good stance and posture on the bag I don't think you'll do too bad as far as habits... try to video it and compare it to vids you see of knowledgeable people hitting the bag. Remember, in terms of stance, hips face the bag and you want your back (strong side) heel off the ground. Crunch the abs down and keep your nose over your toes.

The Crazy Monkey Defense Youtube channel (and all of Rodney King's material) is good BUT don't mistake being familiar with the material as being able to self-train.

If at all possible I would do a class with Cecil Burch (or Paul Sharp for that matter). Cecil's 2-day boxing and jiu jitsu seminar is great and gives you a lot more ability to shadow box or hit the bag without developing bad habits.

 

[Prophet]

I've been seeing quite a lot of stories in the media lately about former and current boxers redeeming themselves in defensive situations. I don't have a lot of time or money to put into expensive and fancy hand-to-hand classes but at this point I figure that doesn't excuse me from conditioning my body at the ground level and solidly developing some basic boxing techniques. I don't think it's prudent to discount the value of being able to throw a few basic yet powerful punches (which in some cases may be all you need) just because you can't afford to become Bruce Lee.

RTR and conw, thanks so much for the responses and tips. I'm a beginner, never been in anything worse than a minor scuffle in real life. I definitely did some youtube college before even putting the gloves on, and am trying to go slow and steady mostly because I don't want to injure myself but also because I want to do it right. There's a channel I found called JT Van V, the guy seems to know what he's talking about. I'll definitely add Crazy Monkey Defense to my subscriptions. I'd never thought about video taping myself (allusions to a certain Uncle Rico suddenly flood my mind ) but I can really see where it would make sense to compare videos and will definitely be trying it since I don't have anyone experienced to critique me. Wise words concerning material familiarization and self-training. This is definitely something I'm not interested in armchair QBing, that's why I'm sticking to developing the bare basics for the time being. I think the problem I'm having trouble overcoming at this point is footwork/placement. I'm a pretty wiry guy at 5 8 140lbs, and I just have this overwhelmingly feathery feeling that given my size and weight I should be giving a lot of thought to how I anchor myself to the ground. Other than that I'm just trying to focus on staying out of range of the bag when not throwing punches, leaning in and punching properly without destroying my wrists, and properly returning my arms/fists after each throw.

 

[torqem]

But that's the point.

You WON'T learn how to throw proper punches from boxing. Mike Tyson, I think it was, broke his hand on somebody's jaw. Where/how it's ok to hit with gloved hands, and where you should avoid hitting are things you should know. Boxing doesn't teach you the back fist, the ridge hand, the junk grab, the hammer fist,. etc It teaches you to let people jab you in the face. It teaches you to let them hit you in the stomach, not worry about the lower body, etc. All of those shortcomings are potentially lethal mistakes.

 

[RTR_RTR]

Proper technique goes a long way. When I boxed, I was 5'11/6' at 137 lb and was known in the gym for having some power. It honestly doesn't take that long with proper coaching to have more or less proper technique on the bag and decent footwork, but I understand/time money constraints. Without a trainer, video taping yourself is def a great way to go, so long as you know what you're looking for error-wise. I just skimmed this, but it looked like it covered all the basics - http://www.expertboxing.com/boxing-basics/how-to-box/the-beginners-guide-to-boxing. Would probably be a good preface to looking at videos. Have fun!

 

[conw]

Here's another great one for prophet and others

https://sharpdefense.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/throwing-hands-in-the-wbe/