Boxing hand position v MMA

O'Leprosy

But been a MMA fan I've often wondered why boxers tend to hold their hands down lower than the higher ( and closer ) position of an MMA fighter to his face. Ok, the boxers have large gloves to parry and block better with, but I still wonder why it's lower than an MMA fighter stance? Is it to prevent more body punches and as they have the large gloves they can fend off head punches better ?

So, boxers ( or MMAers ), why the lower hand position ?

crokester

Crazy monkey, the method of blocking shots in MMA and street altercations involves using the whole arm to cover the head, much like how a thai boxer would block against elbows. The arms are therefore kept higher at all times

Millionaire

O'Leprosy wrote:

So, boxers ( or MMAers ), why the lower hand position ?

Thats a good questions, and I was thinking about it the other day, after seeing one of Cassius Clays earlier fights on TV. (Magic stuff!)

I actually cannot figure it out???

Could be to "draw" oppoent to do a certain attack? e.g when I was kickboxing one trick.. I used to open side of my body to "draw" opponent to kick, so I could level him with spinning back kick the second he moved to go for the opening:D

Though one observation is that some of the lower down bobbing, weaving and ducking in boxing, would result in a knee in the head in Muay Thai or MMA.


Anyone else got an answer?

Colm_OReilly

Not being a stand up expert please bear this in mind.

Ian Butlin, a great MMA striker, was doing a workshop here a while back. He was saying how when coaches are yelling keep your hands up really what's important is that your shoulders are higher than your chin, this is what prevents knockouts.

I think the gloves factor into it a lot as well.

Colm

Millionaire

Colm_OReilly wrote:

Not being a stand up expert please bear this in mind.

Ian Butlin, a great MMA striker, was doing a workshop here a while back. He was saying how when coaches are yelling keep your hands up really what's important is that your shoulders are higher than your chin, this is what prevents knockouts.

I think the gloves factor into it a lot as well.

Colm

Chin Down! there is alot of merit in that old boxing exercise of shadow boxing with a bag glove between you chin and chest, to train you to keep your chin down. My kickboxing trainer use to get us to do that every so often, even though you felt like a right fool boxing trying to hold a bag glove with your chin.

cowzerp

boxers dodge more through fast feet and ducking and diving therefore the very high hand position is not necessary-thai boxers stand fairly static so need there hands up more-also shots are delivered better from a boxing stance aswell..

DAVE_K

as said before boxers duck and dive a lot to dodge punches (attribute based boxing) so there's more ways of avoiding a punch - some people coming at mma would be coming from non-boxing backgrounds so it would either be too late or take to long to learn all the ducking and diving as well as the punching techniques too. Crazy monkey (with arms up and using the arms to block the punches) is a quick to learn effective way of getting around this

Pro. F

Yup, boxers seem to move there head out of the way and duck and dive for a lot of their defence.
When knees and kicks are allowed to the head that's dodgy (leaves you open to take downs as well I'd guess) so the Thai way is to block shots to the head. This seems to be the idea behind hand position in MMA.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Millionaire wrote:

Chin Down! there is alot of merit in that old boxing exercise of shadow boxing with a bag glove between you chin and chest, to train you to keep your chin down. My kickboxing trainer use to get us to do that every so often, even though you felt like a right fool boxing trying to hold a bag glove with your chin.

I was scrolling down to type in the very same information!.

We used to do the same, and indeed I've had kids do practice shadow boxing with the glove tucked in between their shoulder and chin. Its a great technique to the kids to tuck in that chin.

Like you said, you can feel like a right idiot doing it and thats why its very important to explain the reasoning behind it.

FiannaGym.com

Firstly you have to take into account the gulf in skill between the Boxers hands and the MMA fighters hands.

Okay now that we are keeping that in mind.

I'm always telling my guys to get their hands of their face to move their hands more and mix up range. THis is required much more in boxing than in Thai and in Thai more than in MMA. Because the range is mixed up in other ways, shooting, faking a shoot, kicking, etc.

As a result boxers use hand position to mix up range and angles, MMA fighters do it with changing foot work (for shoots blahdy blahy) and kicking etc.

I do think MMA fighters can learn a lot from boxers. If you watch how Chuck lIddel's hands always get through that tight MMA guard and how effective the striking of CroCop, Silva and Liddel are when using a "looser" guard you'll see what I mean.

I say "looser" in quotation marks because it is just as tight just how tight it is depends on other factors, not just proximity to the head (which can result in an actual loose guard).

Thats just my opinion of course. Maybe Paddy Clint will shed some light?

Peace

O'Leprosy

" move their hands more and mix up range. THis is required much more in boxing than in Thai and in Thai more than in MMA. Because the range is mixed up in other ways, shooting, faking a shoot, kicking, etc.

As a result boxers use hand position to mix up range and angles, MMA fighters do it with changing foot work (for shoots blahdy blahy) and kicking etc. "

Yeah Fianna, you seemed to have hit the nail on the head. It's interesting how circumstances evolve different approaches/styles.

Ger Healy

As someone who's been working with Rodney King the devleoper of the Crazy Monkey fighting system for the last year. I agree with DAVE_K in that most people in mma don't have time to learn how to duck and dive as well as boxer's do, because of all the other skills that mma people are trying to master clinch ground and so on.
So crazy monkey offers a effective way of getting around this problem for some people.

Tim_Murphy

From training with Ger I would say that the crazy monkey defence system (not just the basic hand position) is the best that I have come across for MMA.