How to improve your footwork in boxing
Fancy footwork is eye-catching and intertwines the violence of boxing with an elegance as you shift your body, lean and deliver power and punches through integrated movement. Watching Floyd Mayweather slip, parry, shift and use the pull counter is like watching a master artist at work. Vasyl Lomachenko was made to learn traditional Ukrainian dancing as a child to help his footwork, and look at how well that turned out. A prime Prince Naseem Hamed delivered cork screwing upper cuts, finding great power for a featherweight by unorthodox means.
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So for beginners, what are different ways we can improve our footwork?
Famously, Cuban amateur boxers, who have enjoyed so much Olympic success in their history, use more shadow boxing than any other nation. Cubans are famous for their fluid, slick style and their gracefulness. One of the greatest Olympic boxers of all time, double Gold Medalist Guillermo ‘El Chacal’ Rigondeaux, was an amazing example of grace, precision and power in his counter punching and movement. The Jackal was an apt moniker. Being a Cuban bantamweight did not deliver Rigondeaux the recognition he is due, and the catchweight and rehydration conditions he fought Lomachenko at left him at something of a disadvantage.
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Speed work in your running is also known to be helpful, developing fast twitch muscles and power in your legs as well as being beneficial for cardio. Sprint repeats, hill sprints, tabata intervals and interval training can all play a part at developing speed, assisting with cardio and getting power in your legs for delivering strikes.
No boxing article on footwork would be complete without mentioning skipping, one of the oldest methods known and still in use today for obvious reasons. It has been a trusted method for footwork and cardio for as long as modern era boxing has been around. Intensity and speed work in skipping, as well as introducing more complex moves such as double unders, cross overs and double crossovers are all part of a routine that can assist in training your feet and brain to work at a high and complex level.
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Movement drills such as working around a figure of 8 layout and switching positions around a pattern on the ground have also been used. In the famous Wincobank Gym in Sheffield, UK where Prince Naseem trained out of, there are stories of a movement sequence around a diagram on the floor similar to a star, devised by Brendan Ingle, for showing all the possible movements and directions.
In conclusion, if you are doing speed work, shadow boxing, skipping and movement drills, then your footwork is going to improve. Fine tuning and putting it all together only happens in sparring, if you have the ability to listen to a coach and observe yourself in action.
