Body Punching in Amateur Boxing…Ouch!

Did you ever see the film ‘White Men Can’t Jump’?  You know the one, the early Nineties basketball film starring Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes.  OK, so it’s a fairly obvious racial stereotype but does that make it untrue?

For what it’s worth, I think that in fact white men can jump.  It’s just that black basketball players are far more in the public eye as the top players because the true superstars (a la Jordan and Johnson) happen to be black.  The fact that most top basketball players happen to be black could be put down to a whole host of factors, none of which I am going to even attempt to address here (although my ignorance of basketball could well be one of them).  The fact is though, a stereotype is definitely at play.

I often hear a similar stereotype used when comparing the sports of professional boxing and amateur boxing, and in particular with regards the art of body punching.  There is a popular belief that in the amateurs body punching is not part of the game, that they are not used in the attempt to incapacitate a determined foe.  One of the most popularly recited chants is “The judges don’t score body punches.”  Another oft-used statement is that amateurs don’t go for power with their shots, as if by throwing a lighter punch in some way scores more effectively than any other type of punch.

Well, for me, amateurs punch in all departments just as well as the pros.  The points scoring system lends itself more readily to single and double shots being landed (although aggression and combinations are definitely making a comeback due to scoring changes), whereas the pro game is much more about setting the feet and hammering home big combinations.  But, don’t ever mistake this strategic variation in approach as amateurs not being able to throw power punches, or the even more misguided position of believing that body punches don’t exist in the amateurs.

In this article I am going to show you how amateur boxers DO use body punching.  As a coach I know that I place lots of emphasis on landing effective body punches.  Do judges score body punching in the same way as head shots?  Well, the rule book says that they should, but going with the benefit of the doubt maybe it’s more difficult to clearly spot body punches landing in order to score them.  But, and here’s the thing, even if the judges don’t score effective body punching, the opponent will most definitely score them.

All of which brings me neatly onto the matter of one Vasyl Lomachenko, a Ukrainian fighter widely regarded as one of the best amateur boxers in the world.  In this fight he takes on Tongan Lomalit Moala in the preliminaries of the 2011 AIBA World Amateur Boxing Championships in Baku.  Here’s the video then below are some key points that I’ve picked out:

OK, my key points:

• From the outset, Lomachenko by uses constant ducking and slipping to not only provide a defensive ‘blanket’ but also to use as feints to exert pressure on the opponent.  Check out the article on Feinting in Boxing to find out more.
• From about 1:00 to 1:05 we see short bursts of body punches from Lomachenko.  The left hook to the body and the right hook to the body both being used, albeit reversed as Lomachenko is a southpaw.
• Notice also that as well as using the slips, Lomachenko is using very subtle diagonal foot movement to the left and diagonal foot movement to the right to better position himself to land his own shots and to provide himself maximum leverage to land those shots.
• At 1:50 to 1:55 we see the end, perfectly landed hooks behind the defending arms of the unfortunate challenger.  Having taken shots like that myself as a boxer, I can testify to the very dark and miserable place that they send you to!

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