Over time, many types of boxing emerged as combat sports, but each one depends upon punching strikes and kicks. However, there is another important thing you should be an expert in is your footwork skill. This skill has a significant impact and has a vital role in playing professional boxing.
The footwork in boxing is mainly based on sliding steps to maintain the center of gravity, sliding steps forward and backward, and sliding left and right steps as the basis. When the footwork is skilled enough, the power of any footwork can rise to the waist, and then use the waist as the axis to change a variety of highly lethal boxing methods, so if you want to learn boxing, you must first practice to learn various boxing footwork techniques.
But, for practicing your footwork drills for boxing and learning techniques, you must need an opponent; it can be a real one as a coach in a gym or the best punching dummy at your home gym or workout site. You can also use a top-quality punching bag for this purpose, but for your workout drills, a dummy mannequin can give you a sort of real human feel.
Boxing Footwork Drills
Following are some best boxing footwork workouts that can enhance your striking and defense strength in a real fight against your opponent in the ring. However, if you are a novice then you must start to learn boxing footwork drills for beginners.
Forward Slide Move
Basic boxing footwork has a key role therefore you should to keep focus on it. The following each move is required to be started from the basic posture. First, slide the left foot forward and follow up with the right foot, keeping the original position and distance between the two feet. The forward sliding step in footwork drills used to match various boxing techniques to advance and strike, or as a move to find a suitable distance from the opponent and make oneself in a favorable position on the stage.
When you start to move forward, your left foot raises your heel slightly, and your right foot pushes backward simultaneously. Keep your feet moving forward at the same distance. At this time, your upper body maintains its original posture, and the projection of the body’s center of gravity always falls between the feet.
Sliding forward while rubbing the ground, don’t jump or jump up. After sliding, keep the original posture and the actual distance, and the feet should not be brought together.
Backward slide Movement
Start with the basic posture, slide your right foot back one step, and follow up with your left foot, keeping your feet in the original basic posture and distance. Sliding back is the footwork of retreating defense and backlash.
When sliding backward, lift your right foot slightly and push your left foot forward with a short elastic force. The step length of the back slide is the same as the front slide.
Sliding left Action
Slide the left sole of the left foot to the left side, and slide the right foot on the ground to keep the original posture. Sliding left action is combined footwork of moving to the left.
At the beginning of the movement, the left foot is slightly lifted first, and the elastic force of the right foot pushes the ground to the right, pushing the body to move to the left. Wipe the floor when sliding, not jumping.
Swipe Right Move
Starting from the basic posture, first, slightly lift the right foot, and at the same time use the elastic force of the left foot to push the ground to the left to push the right foot to slide one step to the right. Match the footwork of flashing to the right. Same as the left sliding step, but in the opposite direction.
When sliding to the left, to keep the body’s center of gravity stable after moving, when sliding your feet on the ground, you should pay attention to the outer edge of the soles of the feet first to avoid the body from moving too much and losing balance.
Sprint Step Action
Starting from the basic posture, lift the left heel slightly, push the right foot backward with a short and fast elastic force, sprint forward with the left foot one step further, and follow up with the right foot to maintain the actual distance. The footwork of hitting a straight left fist is for a long distance.
This footwork has more force when pushing the ground than the forward sliding step, and the sliding distance is also relatively long, generally 50 to 70 cm.
When sliding in, the body’s center of gravity is slightly moved forward to increase the speed of the impact.
Step Backward Action
Starting from the basic posture, push the front foot hard on the ground, and slide the hindfoot quickly backward. When the hindfoot lands on the ground, the front foot will promptly follow up, and the body’s center of gravity will move to the left foot along with the backward sliding.
This is the footwork of sliding backward quickly away from the opponent.
Since boxing is the main branch of fighting sports with a long history, there are many drills, training and practice methods, but they are not limited to this. Based on my personal experience, these are some of the important boxing footwork drills I discussed above.
I hope you will find this article useful. Please let me know in the comments and share these tips with your friends. Also let us know your own boxing footwork practice experience.
What boxing drills for footwork you like and prefer?
Also Read About:- How to Perform Boxer Push Ups and Gain Explosive Power?
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