Watch your weight

Last night’s boxing class had a lot to do with watching our weight. Not in the sense of how much we eat or getting rid of unnecessary body fat, but in how we shift our weight in order to block punches and throw good punches.

You can only throw a good punch from the side of your body that your weight is on. Example: I block a punch coming to the left side of my face by holding my left glove over my left eye, tucking my left elbow to my ribs, shifting my weight to my left leg and leaning into the oncoming punch. From that position, with my weight on my left leg, I need to counter with my left hand by throwing a 45-degree punch or a hook. With my weight on my left leg, if I threw a right-handed punch it would have absolutely no power and end up putting me off balance.

I’ve come to think of weight more like the energy contained in the body. The weight we talk about in the context of boxing has nothing at all to do with how much you weigh, but has everything to do with where you create your center of balance.  If I shift my weight to my left leg and lean into an oncoming punch to block it, I have created my center of balance on the left side of my body. Now, all my potential energy to put into a punch is stored up in my left leg and since punches start in the legs it only makes sense to throw a left-handed punch.

The shifting of your weight, or the shifting of your energy, is something that has to be done in a split second. You don’t think to yourself, Ok, it’s time to shift my weight to my right side so I can throw a right-handed punch. It doesn’t work that way. It just has to happen without thinking about it. We did a drill last night that focused on the rapid shift of weight. My partner would throw a hook to my ribs on my left side. I would block it by shifting my weight to my left leg and tucking my left elbow into my ribs. Then I would counter with a left 45-degree punch and immediately let my weight transfer to my right leg and then throw a right-handed 45-degree punch.