When it comes to boxing footwork for beginners, less is definitely more in my experience. For a boxing beginner, mastering micro movements in for basic ways will lead to success. This simple boxing footwork drills set up will give you the best possible chance of building boxing footwork that gives you balance, power and economy of movement.
Boxing Footwork for Beginners – The Boxing Stance
Beginner boxing footwork all starts with the boxing stance. If you do not maintain a good boxing stance, then nothing will work. This is not opinion, it’s fact. Buildings need good foundations, boxers need good stances. When tackling boxing footwork for beginners, your main job is to maintain the good boxing stance during the execution of all movement in all directions. The first movement we learn is movement in and out.
Movement In and Out
As with all of these boxing for beginner drills, the aim is to maintain the basics of the stance as we execute the movement. The first part of achieving this aim is to make your movements small – micro-movements. If you try to cover too much ground, mistakes will creep in. Plus, if you overcommit with your movement then you are adding your own bodyweight to incoming punches – this is not good.
Some key beginner boxer tips when moving in and out:
- Stay on the balls of your feet. Don’t ‘heel and toe’ as you move forward
- Do not lose the line on the floor going from the toe on the front foot to the heel on the back foot
- Don’t narrow your stance. Always widen the stance and then return the stance to the original width.
If you avoid the basic faults that occur with your boxing stance when moving in and out, you will be better able to deliver effective punches and use the full range of defences to avoid taking unnecessary punishment.
Side Steps in Boxing
Any boxing for beginners program should focus on lateral movement, or side-stepping, alongside the movement in and out. Side-stepping, like movement in and out, involves some pretty simple concepts. A key concept again is efficiency of movement. The beginner boxer has the urge to move too far. Avoid this urge, you need to be in a position to deliver effective counter punching when you have performed the side step.
The big boxing for beginners mistake is crossing the legs when moving. So, if you are moving to your right, always make sure that your right foot moves first, but that this movement is driven by a push from the left foot. The same principle is applied when moving left, so the left leg moves first driven by a push from the right foot.
Enforcing this principle as a beginner boxer will ensure that you don’t cross the legs. So the boxing stance opens and then closes.
Time for Diagonals
Boxing footwork for diagonal movement left or diagonal movement right is simple when you know how, but there are some constraints that apply. As long as you apply the micro movement principle, it’s a classic boxing for beginners practice drill. The basic principle is that it’s easier to move diagonally forward to your lead foot side than it is to move diagonally forward on your rear foot side. Similarly, it is easier to move diagonally backwards to your rear foot side than to your lead foot side.
Diagonal boxing footwork is a brilliant skill for boxers of all levels. It adds an incredible dimension to a boxer’s mobility and when you incorporate punching and head movement it takes boxing for beginners to boxing for veterans.
Beginner Movement and Punching
Boxing for beginners is all about keeping this simple, doing the basics well and consistently. So, when starting out with your boxing footwork and you want to add in punches, go with straight punches – the jab and the right cross (straight back hand).
Because you are now adding more skills, the cognitive load increases and the risk of errors increases. So, make sure that you don’t see the errors of footwork that we have already covered as well as making sure that the punches themselves are well executed. The most likely errors you will see with the punches are under-rotation, dropped guard and elbow-flaring.
Beginner Head Movement
A simple and super-effective defensive skill to add in as you develop your basic boxing is head movement. Keeping things really simple, think about adding in the duck as you work this boxing for beginners drills . So, you can add the duck with each of the footwork moves and this will make you much more difficult to hit. This video shows how two use the slip line to add that duck into your footwork.
Over time, and as you get more capable you can add in slips, rolls and lay backs to really make your movement smooth and effective as well as providing a great platform for attack.
If you are a boxing beginner, layering on those additional skills will be a challenge. So, ensure that you master the simple boxing footwork for beginners elements of the micro movements. Only once you are comfortable with those skills, and you are avoiding the beginner faults, should you add in the other boxing skills.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this approach to learning your boxing footwork. Leave any questions or observations below.
Cheers
Fran
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