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Two Ways to Change Boxing and Kickboxing Stances

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Whether it’s in Boxing or Kickboxing, footwork plays a very important role in landing and avoiding punches. In this video Striking Coach Charles Martinez shows how changing stances can improve your success in landing combinations.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Jamarr Coleman:
Hey, what’s up everybody? This is Jamarr from The Arena and I’m here with striking coach Charles Martinez. Hey, coach, I have a question. Hey, I was sparring and I got caught in the eye and this guy kept changing stances on me. So can you show me how to shift and change stances?

Coach Charles Martinez:
Sure. That’s actually a two stage problem. Offense, defense, right? So, if we’re just talking about defense, whichever stance we’re standing in, if we’re mixed lead, if you switch your feet, all right, this is the battle. The battle is lead foot versus lead foot. My lead foot on the outside, I’m winning. Your lead foot on the outside, you’re winning. So it’s a matter of creating a better angle by keeping your lead foot on the outside and putting the person… Getting all your good hard tools lined up with me and taking away my hardest strikes. That’s the defensive aspect of it, is keeping yourself in the right position to land.

Offensively, go back to your stance. There’s a couple of different ways to do this here. You throw the one-two, I pull. All right. Easy to chase, but it’s a good time to shift. If you’re going to shift and change your stance, it should be for a reason. Right, so if I throw the one-two and you give me a little space, you create the opportunity to shift. All right? So it just feels like another jab, right? So it feels like jab, cross, jab. But it’s really not. It’s jab, cross, left, straight. Now my right foot is on the outside of your foot. I’m outside of your power zone, and I could throw and put you back in towards my power side. One option, that’s shifting on my advancement with a step all the way through, right?

Another option would be, I’m throwing the one-two and you’re defending the one-two. All right? You’re defending the one-two. Stepping through on the one-two. All right? That’s just a very simple version of it. But a lot of guys, when you throw one-two, they defend away from their face and they pull at their punches, right? So when you advance that way, a lot of times they don’t expect the punch to be there, right? Because they’re used to this straight line. one-two. Hard, fast. Again, again, shift. That’s what you’re looking for is that that moment where there’s supposed to be a punch to defend and it’s just not quite there. All right. Two very, very simple ways to shift. There’s a million of them, but there’s just two simple ways.

Jamarr Coleman:
Okay, thanks coach. Appreciate it. And there you have it. Tip of the week.

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