Dynamic Movement: Unlocking the Power of Boxing Footwork

Table of Contents

1. What is boxing footwork?
2. The Boxing Stances: Orthodox and Southpaw
3. Practise the movement
   1. Slip & Pivot
   2. Step, Slip & Pivot
   3. Step, Slip, Hook & Pivot
   4. Step, Slip, Hook, Pivot, & Cross
4. Apply to training

If you’ve ever attended boxing classes, you’ve probably found yourself slack-jawed at the power and speed of trained boxers. The various combinations and the resounding boom of each punch hitting the target are nothing to scoff at. Beginners tend to fixate on powering up their punches (and we don’t blame them!) But often, this results in neglecting an essential but much-underappreciated movement in boxing: the footwork.

In this article, we’ll talk about everything you need to know about boxing footwork.

What is boxing footwork?

More than just punching your way through a round, boxing also has to do with the skill to deal with incoming punches. Boxing footwork is an essential set of movements in the sport that keeps you agile and light on your feet. It refers to the change in the positioning of your feet to help you manipulate distance as you need. With good footwork, you can slip out of a punch’s range and move right back in to deliver a counter.

The value of practising boxing footwork drills is easily overlooked when first starting to learn the basics of boxing. However, you will soon learn that mastering footwork is crucial if you want to be successful in the sport.

Before we dive into the details of the boxing drills for footwork, let’s talk about the boxing stance.

The Boxing Stances: Orthodox and Southpaw

There are two stances in boxing: orthodox and southpaw. Your movement in these drills will depend on whichever one you are, but an easy way to adapt any footwork is to remember that these are mirror images of each other.

Boxing guides typically focus on instruction for orthodox boxers, mainly because southpaws are vastly outnumbered. Orthodox (or right-handed) boxers outnumber southpaws (left-handed) ones 5:1. This is only a little higher compared to the general population where righties outnumber lefties 7:1.

A proper boxing stance brings many benefits. To begin with, it becomes easier to maintain a stable fighting position. You can maintain your balance while punching and dodging. It helps you perform more powerful punches and minimizes exposure. As a result, you are less likely to receive a direct hit. 

Whether you’re orthodox or southpaw, the boxing stance has several key elements:

• Keep your hands and shoulders up, covering your face.
• Turn your body at a 45° degree angle, with your dominant hand further from the front. (Keeping your dominant hand in the rear gives it the distance to create momentum for a heavier hit.)
• To position your feet, draw an imaginary L on the floor. Your feet should be at the two ends of the L. Keep the lead foot firmly planted; it will bear most of your weight. 
• Keep your rear foot on its tiptoes. This makes it easier to twist your hips and deliver a solid punch.
• Crouch a little bit to prepare for movement.

If you’re right-handed, your left hand and foot will be closer to the opponent. This will be your jabbing hand. If you’re left-handed, the opposite is true.

Practise the boxing movement

Once you’ve got the stance down pat, it’s time to move on to the next step: practise the boxing movement. Familiarize yourself with the various motions and their purpose before you do the combinations. In these footwork drills, there are two functional movements: slipping and pivoting.

• Slipping is essentially ducking at an angle under an incoming punch. It is a defensive movement that lowers the shoulders and moves the head to the side, removing it from path of the punch. It puts you in a position to counter.
• Pivoting is a rotational movement around an axis (usually your lead foot). It allows for a quick change in direction to disorient the opponent, and can be used offensively or defensively.

IMPORTANT: Regardless of how much you move inside the ring, you should never end up with your feet together. Every time you put your feet together, you severely compromise your balance and put yourself at risk of toppling over.

The drills below start simple and build you up towards the more complicated combinations.

1 Slip & pivot

• Start in a your boxing stance.
• Slip your head to the left to dodge an imaginary right punch. Keep your right hand high!
• As you bring your head back to the centre, pivot clockwise around your front foot and bring your back foot around behind you.
• Finish with your hands up protecting your jaw at the end of the movement.
• This should change your stance approximately 90 degrees.

2 Step, Slip & Pivot

• Starting in your boxing stance, slip your head left to dodge the imaginary right punch. Keep your right hand high!
• This time, as you slip, step your lead foot to the left at the same time. This little step will put you further away from an opponent, and give you more room to throw punches.
• Finish with the same pivot used in footwork drill 1, turning 90 degrees clockwise.

3 Step, Slip, Hook & Pivot

• Starting in your boxing stance, slip your head left to dodge the imaginary right punch. Keep your right hand high!
• As you slip, step your lead foot to the left at the same time.
• Throw a left hook as your pivot clockwise to counter as you change directions.

You may try out a variation of hooks and straight left punches to go with the pivot. Ideally, you’ll be able to adapt the punch depending on what your opponent does. If you want to keep it simple, stick with the hook for now. Practising footwork and balance is priority in this boxing movement exercise. (And when your feet move on reflex to evade, it becomes so much easier to focus on the punches you want to throw.)

4 Step, Slip, Hook, Pivot, & Cross

• Starting in your boxing stance, slip your head left to dodge the imaginary right punch. Keep your right hand high!
• As you slip, step your lead foot to the left at the same time.
• Throw a left hook as your pivot clockwise to counter as you change directions.
• Follow up with a hard straight punch.

The pivot and hook combo brings the left shoulder forward and the right shoulder back, setting it up for a good straight. Your right foot helps you generate power through the right cross by pushing off the ground transferring your weight back through the punch. If you struggle to stay balanced, step the right foot underneath your body as you land the punch.

APPLY TO TRAINING

Do five 2-minute rounds of shadow boxing using drills. You don’t need to do them at high intensity, but feel free to do some high intensity. Aim to strike a balance, though, so that you don’t gas out and not finish the rounds. The goal for this session would be to perform the movement as many times as possible to commit it to muscle memory.

Do one drill per round, with the final round being freestyle shadow boxing. Use each of the footwork drills randomly and incorporate them among other boxing movement.