Bob and Weave

We had just a short practice today due to my having to get back to office and my wife doing a photo shoot. As a result it was a focused practice, boxing basics with a focus on developing the bob and weave.

The Bob and Weave is an integral defensive technique in boxing and MMA (in MMA it can be used as an entry technique for a leg pick or takedown or just simply a punch evasion like in boxing). While it is a seemingly simple technique, putting it into practice in the ring is a different story. Work on the slip line to ingrain body mechanics helps tremendously and mitt and glove drills assist in putting it into context (defending against an actual attack – which is much less predictable than simply bobbing and weaving under the line). One of the common errors I see with trainers in training the bob and weave is that when they throw hooks with the mitts they “aim to miss” – going above where the trainees head was (or even still is) or angling the hook upward making it easier to get under. I feel it is essential that you “keep it honest” – hook to the jaw or ear level, the trainee should keep their hands up since their gloves should catch the blow if they don’t bob under. If your trainee fails to bob under they should be covered up and catch the blow on their glove, if they fail to bob under and you still sail the mitt over their head you have done them a disservice (they think they did it correctly and they’ll get nailed for real in the ring as a result). When I have my trainees hold mitts for me I always test them every a few times each round by failing to bob down – if they still miss they aren’t “keeping it honest”.

Roll Call: Tony

Warm-up:
Quick 1 round warm-up consisting of 3 continuous 1 minute rounds of:

• Forward single leg hop going across the line up and back, switching foot with after each return to start.
• Double leg hop facing line going across line and back and traveling up and back down the line.
• Shoulder/hip twist in stance going up and back down the line.
  (for a video illustratio to these drills please refer to The Evaluation Line.)

Defense Circuit 3min/30sec
Maize ball – hung from 8 feet
Rope line
The Rack (see last post for a video link for this)

Mitts 3min/1min rounds
Working on the bob and weave
Bob under left hook

• Under left hook followed with cross hook return
• Jab cross – bob under left hook – return with cross hook cross

Bob under right hook

• Started with bob and weave under right hook and returning left hook cross, progressed to throwing jab cross left hook – bob and weave under right hook – return left hook cross left hook

Alternating left and right hook

• Working off the jab cross hook - holder throws either right or left hook and defender returns as above (cross hook or hook cross).

Tony is new to holding the mitts so I settled for practicing the defense for left and right hook in separate rounds only (skipped the last round of alternating right and left hooks).

This was a bare bones workout but we were able to accomplish what we needed to in the short time we had. We have another abbreviated workout scheduled for Friday morning (around 8 or 9am) but with a focus on muay thai instead.

(Please post comments, questions or suggestions to "comments" below)