Boxing Training - 6 Tips to Improve Your Counter Punching

In this boxing training video you will find 6 tips that will take your counter punching ability to the next level. It's simple boxing training concepts, but this stuff works and it's carried out in boxing gyms around the World.

1. Make your jab be the best it can possibly be.

We all know the importance of your jab. Range finding, setting up combinations, controlling your space and ultimately breaking your opponent apart. Add to this list the foundation for any range of counter punching techniques. Check out the jab of Wladimir Klitschko to get a demonstration of hammering home that jab so as to make the opponent react. This reaction is then punished.

2. Don’t wait to see what happens, make something happen!

A popular misconception regarding counter punching is that it involves waiting for the opponent to do something so that we can ‘counter’ it. 90% of counter punching exchanges are initiated by the counter puncher. How is this done? A mix of punching (see tip 1) and more often feinting. Brilliance in counter punching requires a thorough understanding of feinting techniques. A great place to start (aside from the article on Feinting in Boxing) is looking at the Roberto Duran Boxing Style Analysis article and checking out his use of the jab to establish counter punching onslaughts.

3. Build pre-set counter punching passages

Drills are incredibly important in any sport, and in boxing they are even more so. If you have taken the opportunity of signing up for the free mobility drills on the site, or indeed becoming a member of the Boxing Training Foundation, then you will know how much importance I place on drills.

The fact is that certain passages of boxing work very well together. For instance, a left hook to the body will create an opening to the head. The threat of a right uppercut may lift the head perfectly for a destructive short range left hook. So, it is very much worth constructing and practising these passages in gym time. You can start off with a couple of simple combinations. The possibilities are limitless:

Counter punching with Power!

Counter punching and side stepping

4. Identify patterns in the opponent’s responses

Set passages and boxing combinations are great. But, this doesn’t mean that you should not study your opponent as you fight. Becoming skilled at spotting flaws takes time but real benefits can be gained quickly. For example, if your opponent brings their hand quite far forward when blocking your jab, this means that at the very moment that the block is taking place they are open to a left hook. It may be repetitive straight line movement, predictable attack methods or defensive frailties on the inside. All of these can be picked up and used in your counter punching strategy.

5. Adapt your counter punching to suit the opponent

This is really about whether you are counter punching on the front foot (going forward and attacking the opponent) or counter punching on the back foot. Most people consider counter punching to be a defensive type of boxing, but again it is not as straightforward as that.

Would you for instance consider Mike Tyson to be a counter punching specialist? Well, he absolutely was. All that jabbing and slipping combined with explosive foot movements and even more explosive punching was counter punching at it’s very best. Tyson never had height or reach over his opponents, so it would have been pointless trying to counter on the retreat. He adapted his boxing (and therefore counter punching) style to suit his opponents.

Not to be too simplistic, but a good general rule of thumb is that if you are facing a taller opponent then you are likely to reap more benefits from an attacking counter punching style. If you are facing a shorter opponent then you are more likely to benefit from a more conservative holding ground/retreating counter punching style.

6. Learn your hand defences and learn them well!

The 6th and final tip is in many ways the most important; make sure that all of your blocks and parries are perfectly executed. An opponent is most vulnerable when they punch. Furthermore, when you block a particular shot, the movements you have undertaken are supportive of your own follow up shot. So, if you block an incoming hook to the right side of your body, you store lots of leverage to unleash your own short range left hook.

Blocking your opponent’s jab means that you are in perfect range to land your own jab. So, a golden rule is when you block or parry, always, always throw your own shot. If you don’t then it’s an opportunity missed, and champs don’t miss opportunities. This is a simple for really effective boxing training

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