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close their eyes, or turn their head away or even pull their head upwards like those civilians of whom Harry
spoke during the automobile malfunction.
These reactions to the threat of a punch to the head, whilst entirely understandable, are something that all
boxers must curb at the earliest opportunity. There are a number of ways to achieve this and in this article
we are going to look in some detail at the flinch reflex and learn how we can make it work in the right
way for you.
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So by practicing your drills in a disciplined way you will ensure that you have something genuinely useful to
use as your controlled and instinctive response to threat.
#2 Remain Compact
This is about erring on the side of caution. If you have a loose and open guard then any threat of an
incoming punch is likely to further expose an already porous defence.
Instead you can resolve to keep a tight and compact guard when in range of an opponent. This does not mean
that you tense-up and become rigid. It means that you stick by the fundamentals of the boxing stance and
guard. Arms up, chin down into your chest, elbows into your sides.
You can go one better. For extra safety bring into play the double arm block at the same time. Whilst you are
not particularly using the your flinch reflex in your favour you are certainly increasing the likelihood of your
flinch reflex simply tightening up your guard rather than creating the situation where your neck cranes, your
eyes close, you turn your face away or towards the floor
#3 Learn to use your peripheral vision
Some fighters constantly look into the eyes of the opponent and some fighters look at the centre of mass of the
opponent (that is the chest area). The fact is that given time and the right amount of exposure to different
opponents you will recognise the tell tale signs of an attack, and you achieve this by using your peripheral
vision.
Peripheral vision will enable you to see the foot movement that brings an opponent into range. Peripheral
vision will enable you to recognise a small flare of the elbow of the opponent before they throw a jab.
Peripheral vision will enable you to identify a small drop in the hand before an opponent may throw a right
hand.
This is not an overnight thing. It takes time and experience of being exposed to different boxers with
different styles. When you do tune in to your peripheral vision it will make you a much smarter and more
effective defensive boxer, and take your counterpunching capability up a notch or two as well.
#4 Technical and Controlled Sparring
There are broadly speaking 3 types of sparring; technical sparring, controlled sparring and open sparring.
The first 2 types create an environment where a boxer can have a level of expectation as to what is coming
their way. But what does this mean? Well, lets take a specific scenario and it will become very clear.
You could set up a spar with an opponent where Boxer A (your opponent) throws a jab and Boxer B (you)
blocks that jab. Do this repetitively. The more you do it the more you will come to recognise the signs of the
jab coming. Its a very simple and very effective way of nailing both the technique of the block and
conditioning yourself to recognise the signs of the incoming jab.
#5 Open Sparring
Whilst you are working drills, undertaking technical and controlled sparring, the final step on the journey
ahead of any fight is to test yourself in open sparring. Open sparring is basically a simulated contest, with
full speed, full movement and the full range of punches.
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Boxers learn by doing. Open sparring is the ultimate way to really begin to hone your flinch reflex. Whilst
open spars can be tough, they certainly shouldnt involve punching with the kind of venom and intent that are
used in a full fight.
When mistakes are made in sparring they should absolutely not result in heavy punishment being received.
This means that new things can be tried and failure can enable genuine learning to take place.
A Final Word
Dont, whatever you do, fall into the habit of waiting to see what the opponent does. Of course this article
is about focusing on the flinch reflex and how to master it but this should not be taken as an overall fight
strategy! It is really important that you own the ring.
You put pressure on your opponent. Let him or her worry about what you are doing. Throw your punches,
look to feint your opponent. Take the initiative and be assertive.
You see to my mind boxing is a pressure business as well as a reflex business. That means that if you are
not punching you should be feinting, and if you arent feinting you should be punching. So bear that in
mind whilst developing your effective flinch reflex.
Cheers
Fran
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by
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jab cross etc as the foundation) but unfortunately there are only so many hours in a day. I advise a skim
read to the section on Training for the Response: Non-cognitive Event Programming. Anyone interested
have a read I think it can complement anyones training particularly boxers and gun fighters :).
Reply
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Going to send you some media of my home gym growing over the last few years via you are my online
coach.
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