The Mechanics Of Punching: The Jab

[Mr Mitts]

Tell me about it.

[Marchegiano]

foot bone connected to the leg bone, make sure that structure is end-to-end from foot to fist and jango, you've a nice kinematic chain to put in someone's tum-tum.


Anything more is like bro what are you doing with it? Hell, even the one I halfassed described can't be Ali's flick jab. It's more Wlad's stab jab. And even then i left the return open because, what kinda jab ya know? Wlad would go straight in and straight out but heaps of dudes want to do a twist. It's gonna change the gapping, it's gonna change the logical responses, and the third law needs accounted for too.

I mean I don't hardly remember Wlad ducking the return fire and standing mid range after the jab. That's more a Mayweather move but it does also explain why Wlad's backfoot heavy and Floyd is, at least when he's doing the jab in then duck the hook ****, front heavy


What makes a jolt a jolt and a jab a jab if not the third law? One of these straight leads is by design a bouncing punch while the other is by design a pushing punch. My opening line can be applied to Dempsey's Jolt or Hopkin's blinder style jab but what else happens makes a huge difference.


Either way, the bones involved you want connected end to end, this maximizes transfer of energy. End to end also dictates what knuckles you want to land on and again that goes back to purpose but let's just pretend it's a relatively normal jab and should land on the ring knuck. Add gravity? No time for gravity? Depends on your means but let's pretend we Dempsey and adding gravity. That's a different step than a bouncing in and right there at that moment we have decided the third law. If you are bouncing in with a strike and bouncing out at no point do you form a wall. Whatever you hit, hit you back equally and without structure behind your fist it just bounces off and with it goes some of the energy put into that clash. Energy was chosen mindfully, not power, not force, energy. Conversely the fighter who stomps that lead foot while connecting that lead hand is forming a wall. The energy has no where to go. The fist hits the tum, the tum hits the fist back, energy flows from the point of impact through both bodies, but the receiver had not formed any kinematic chain connected to the point of impact and so has no means to transfer energy out of the body, it is received and damaging, while the energy transferred to the puncher has a kinematic chain to follow, from fist to ground and ground to fist, you are grounded and so the energy is like a newton's cradle held at one end, it has no choice but to go back to the receiver of the punch and cause damage through the lack of chains.

And that's the secrete behind the added power of the falling step. Dempsey will tell you gravity, eh, no, he's a boxer and it shows. He'll also tell you powerline instead of kinematic chain. eh, no, he was a boxer and it shows.


I got a little excited. I hope I actually explained something and didn't just babble. If you get nothing out of me, I promise, kinematic chains and understanding them are worth your time, find a better teacher but do not throw away the lesson.

[billeau2]

What makes the jab distinct has to do with pronation. If one looks at the lead, one can get a clue as to what the jab initially was: Marchegiano above makes reference to the interlocking chain assumed by the body and a lead was thrown much more with this in mind. The elbows are held inwards, the body set so the arm operates as a piston.

The problem was, the lead does not have much reach, and body dynamics like twisting the spine (Pelvic girdle), turning the back (opposite) shoulder, all do not make much difference because the power comes from being grounded and the body alignment. While we do not know who "invented" the jab... Johnson is seen, perhaps as the first heavyweight, to develop the jab. My opinion is he developed the jab off the parry. When parrying punches with the gloves (Jones carried this technique into modern times) it becomes a nice quick counter to turn the wrist and extend the lead as a counter.

Since that development we see many ideations of the jab: They all depend on the reach, the mobility and the ability to throw the punch with good body mechanics.

[Mr Mitts]

Great replies. A little off topic already I want to ask a question about bringing the jab back into the guard. It is why Louis lost to Schmeling. A lot of fighters don't even seem to care about that anymore. Maybe it is because of distancing. Louis was just standing there after a jab but other fighters with Ali/Leonard-like movement keep their lefts low almost all the time. I guess it is the constant movement on the outside that allows that style to keep the left low most of the time. That is probably the result of Bill's different ideations of the jab. Just wondering.

[JAB5239]

Great replies. A little off topic already I want to ask a question about bringing the jab back into the guard. It is why Louis lost to Schmeling. A lot of fighters don't even seem to care about that anymore. Maybe it is because of distancing. Louis was just standing there after a jab but other fighters with Ali/Leonard-like movement keep their lefts low almost all the time. I guess it is the constant movement on the outside that allows that style to keep the left low most of the time. That is probably the result of Bill's different ideations of the jab. Just wondering.

Louis hardly trained for the first Schmeling fight, a mistake I don't believe he made again. That said, to answer your question, yes. Louis brought his jab back low and schmeling had noticed this. He was able to get away with it because he was so much better than his opponents and nobody until Max had capitalized on it it. Louis threw his jab, brought it back lazy and low, and Max would shoot the straight right over the jab. As a fighter i don't believe the jab has to come straight back to the position it was in when thrown, but it does need to come back to a position that still allows you to protect yourself. Just my two cents.

[Mr Mitts]

The jab is more versatile than any other punch, it seems to me. A smashing weapon, a blinding weapon, a probing weapon, an annoying weapon, the most constant weapon.

[JAB5239]

The jab is more versatile than any other punch, it seems to me. A smashing weapon, a blinding weapon, a probing weapon, an annoying weapon, the most constant weapon.

Without a doubt.

[Mr Mitts]

Let's talk about the Left hook. Can one actually learn to throw a stellar left hook or does it have to come naturally to a large degree?