Mining Gold From The Art Of Boxing

© COPYRIGHT 2009 BY BRADLEY J. STEINER - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Sword and Pen – May 2009 Issue

[Reprinted With Permission]

American Combato
Seattle Combatives


NO doubt about it, Western boxing is an immensely underrated combative discipline. While there is no question about the fact that boxing is a sport, there is also no question that a professional boxer is considered to be in possession of deadly weapons (ie his HANDS) because of the incredible power and devastation that his hands can produce. This does not mean that the clenched fists are the most effective natural weapons (they are not). It does not mean that boxing is the "best" martial art (there is no "best" martial art). And it does not mean that a person who wishes to learn how to defend himself — or prevail in a military close combat engagement — should depend upon boxing as his hand-to-hand method (he should not). It does mean, when you analyze the art of Western boxing, how boxers train, the way they utilize their weapons, etc., that there are priceless PRINCIPLES OF USING THE BODY IN MAN-TO-MAN BATTLE THAT BOXING OFFERS, AND THE HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT STUDENT WILL BENEFIT BY LEARNING THOSE PRINCIPLES, AND THEN APPLYING THEM TO HIS OWN THINKING, TRAINING, AND APPLICATION OF COMBAT SKILLS.

In a number of ways, Western boxing is superior to the art of karate. Malcolm Harris, a well respected police instructor in England (and a black belt in both judo and karate) opined that without its techniques of kicking, karate is inferior to Western boxing. We vigorously agree. (Note: Harris' book, Unarmed Close Combat — also published as Lethal Unarmed Combat — is one of the finer presentations of real world, practical close-in combatives. This book is, unfortunately, out of print. If the reader can locate a copy on line or at a used bookshop, we certainly would recommend its purchase).

We do not have space here to delineate all that Western boxing offers the combat arts pupil, but we would like to mention a few of the most valuable and adaptable principles, and let the reader ponder how he might begin to utilize them with the skills that he is learning in order to make those skills more effective for actual hand-to-hand combat.

No "counterbalancing" when a boxer punches:
The corkscrew punching action, accompanied by a snapping of the opposite arm and hand back, as the punch is delivered, which is typical karate form, is never done by boxers. The truth is that counterbalancing actually serves to negate the true delivered force of the blow, not to mention drastically delays action for the second blow.

Punching is a secondary kind of hand strike in close combat. But if the combative arts pupil will emulate the manner in which the boxer delivers his punch, and if he will follow that same method of delivery with the handaxe chop, the chinjab smash, the fingertips thrust/jab, and so on, and if he will cultivate more of a whiplashing delivery of his basic kicks (something that will, to a degree. make his kicks approach the old school la savate method of French footfighting in form) instead of employing the "chamber-and-then-kick-and-retract-to-chamber-then-return-foot-to-floor" style of strict karate type kicking, he will be amazed at how fluidly fast and more practically versatile his blows become. And they will always be more powerful.

No focusing on minutiae:
Boxers drill incessantly on four basic blows. They realize that they must adapt those blows to an infinite number of situations and occurrences, and that only ongoing practice, practice, and more practice of those simple punches will give them this adaptive capability. If the unarmed combat student would take half a dozen key blows and drill them the way a boxer does, he would be ASTOUNDED at how effective he became. But "martial artists" like complexity, acrobatics, detailed step-by-step choreography, and — ahem! — bullshit. Hence, they often end up knowing a thousand techniques and being realistically able to do not a single one under combat conditions!

Simple, basic stance and movement:
Boxers train to stand and to move easily, naturally, in perfect balance, and so as to be able both to withstand punishment and be able to dish it out. So practical and efficient is the basic stance and movement concept of Western boxing that it provided the basis for the United States Marine Corps' original bayonet fighting stance. We adopted boxing's footwork and stance concepts to unarmed combat, and while we do not go to any obvious "fighting position", we do stand in a manner approximating how a boxer positions himself, and our footwork follows the time-honored boxing mandates: 1) Never cross your feet, and 2) Never face a man head-on.
Combat trainees do not use a "boxer's stance" per se. But that which typifies how a boxer stands and moves is all but "required doctrine" for any hand-to-hand combat course.

Boxers train to HIT, not to block:
"Karate begins and ends with blocking". That's an old adage, and those of our readers who are highly experienced in any of the karate disciplines have doubtless heard it. "In ju-jutsu we do not attack, we defend." Another venerable adage. And both these old adages have something in common: They teach the individual who applies them to abandon one of the most important principles of real combat; a principle that — to a Western boxer — is and always has been, self-evident: In order to win in hand-to-hand combat you must attack, and you must keep on attacking!
Many years ago we ran a rather large gym in New York City. Attending that gym were all sorts of athletes, including martial arts people, wrestlers, police officers, and boxers. We taught a series of programs in unarmed self-defense at that gym and we were incessantly interested in garnering whatever information we could from any members who knew anything about any form of barehanded or armed close combat. Among the friendliest and most generously helpful people we ever approached were boxers. These terrific athletes were in many ways like judo men: tough, accomplished, rugged, and without pretensions.

We learned pronto that one CANNOT use karate and/or ju-jutsu type "blocks" and counters against a boxer's punches! Even a rank amateur boxer who has been at training seriously for only six months can whip a series of speedy punches into a black belt's face and body before the black belt can say, "Rising block!" (let alone even begin to apply a block)! We developed our counterattacks against boxing by working with these wonderful fellows, and we remain grateful to every single one of them for what they taught us.

Streetfighters too, just hit. They aren't afraid of your blocking a punch they throw, and they certainly don't waste time waiting to block your blows! They HIT.
Boxers hit expertly. That's how they fight. That's how they win. Don't use boxing in hand-to-hand combat; but do use the boxer's wisdom and train to defeat a dangerous enemy by going after him and attacking. Forget about emphasizing blocks.

Boxers train hard:
You will not walk into a boxing gym and smell burning incense, or see groups of yuppies sitting in the zazen posture. (One of our back belts once visited a dojo where a young lady sat in a corner playing a flute — presumably providing background music with an authentic Japanese "flavor" so that the dojo's clientele felt assured that they were getting their tuition's worth).

Now we understand that people have a perfect right to train as they wish, and to conduct their programs and arrange their facilities as they please. Our only point here is that, despite whatever "charm" or "ambiance" classicism and its trappings may have for the Westerner who dabbles in the Eastern arts of combat, these things are not relevant to the matter of hand-to-hand warfighting. And boxers know this; and boxers' training reflects their knowing this.

Go into any boxing gym and you will smell sweat, see people pounding heavy bags, rope skipping, shadow boxing, sparring, and whipping away at speed bags. They are training and they are training HARD.

Obviously, hand-to-hand combat requires training that is quite different than that of a boxer's. However, few people are willing to train ON THEIR HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT SKILLS with the intensity that a boxer trains on what he does. We freely acknowledge that commercial schools must not demand that everyone follow a program that requires "boxer-like" adherence to a vigorous, demanding training regimen. The dropout rate is high enough as it is from the necessarily rather mild training that is generally demanded in self-defense programs!

Smart students compensate by drilling themselves fanatically away from class, as well as going as all-out as they are able when in class. And good teachers will encourage those students who really want to develop, to TRAIN HARD.

Boxers train as INDIVIDUALS:
Boxing is perhaps the simplest and least "technique-inundated" martial sport on earth. (It is possible that I am incorrect, and that Japanese sumo wrestling is . . . but since I know little or nothing about sumo, and only observe that it seems to have only a few techniques, I prefer not to make a statement about the Art). Boxers utilize four basic punches, some simple footwork, and a couple of simple strategies — like dodging, slipping, etc., and that's it. Yet, no two boxers train exactly alike, and no two boxers' styles are exactly alike. Boxers train and workout individually, and their coaches invariably work on their (ie the boxers') personal and individual capabilities, talents, and propensities. The combinations that are worked out for the boxer are designed for his unique boxing "style" and capacities. Result: In short order a boxing student can box! And he can apply his boxing, to a limited extent, in unarmed combat — often far better than a lot of "martial artists" with ten times the amount of training behind themselves than the boxers possess.

None of this is said to denigrate the martial arts. Nor do we wish to give the false impression that boxing is viable, across the board, as a "combat system". It isn't. But the sensible and excellent manner in which boxing training cultivates the individual and encourages him to maximize the

manner in which he becomes able to express his renderings of a select few techniques, is a lesson that — hopefully — combatives practitioners will begin to heed. The classical/traditional way of martial arts training (ie there is one right way to "do it", and you've got t do it that way) just does not make sense when preparing for actual hand-to-hand close combat and self-defense.

Boxers really know how to hit live opponents:
Not that all martial arts people are completely lacking in this regard, but many are. It is obviously not feasible to train by hitting human partners using the blows of unarmed combat. Such would be insane. However, combatant trainees should emphasize the loose, cat-quick fluidity of motion that so typifies the boxer when he hits, and in our opinion they would be well advised to train in striking posts, bags, and dummies, by utilizing this style of power transference.

Boxers punch in a manner superior to that of the martial arts men. We recall seeing this actually proven scientifically on a cable TV show titled, if we recall correctly, "Fight Science".

Boxers never loose site of reality:
Not all martial arts people are guilty of living in a kind of misty never-never-land where fantasy either overtakes or mingles with fact, but those of us who go back a ways know for damn sure that a hell of a lot of them do live in their own little world of non-reality.

Boxers do not.

Boxers get pounded hard and knocked unconscious routinely. They cannot afford the luxury of indulging in mysterious, foolish, unrealistic flights of fancy wherein they imagine that they are supermen, or that they are privy to "secrets", "mysteries", and knowledge that enables them to defeat all comers with ease.

Those who train for self-defense could learn something from boxers on this score.
Boxers train to stay in tough, hard shape — and they always appreciate the role that conditioning plays in being prepared:
A boxer's conditioning is much more combat-specific than that of the classical/traditional martial artist. Boxers emphasize the acquisition of practical, usable, effective bodyweight and strength, and they endlessly work to harden and to toughen themselves. They expect to get hit (and hit hard) and they learn almost to disregard being hit!

The closest that martial arts people come to the boxer's "kind" of conditioning is in the art of Kodokan Judo — in our opinion KING of the competition Asian martial sports. A judo man in his 20's and 30's who is in hard competitive training is a tough, rugged, rock hard individual. Like the boxer, the judo man's techniques are not ideally suited to unarmed combat when the battle is for real — in war, or on the street. However, the judo man and the boxer are physically tough individuals.
Boxing training's type of toughening (ie being hit, pounded, and subjected to endless drills in tempering his natural weapons against targets that condition those weapons) should serve as the combat trainee's model. The combatant will forge his hand edge, heel of hand, fingers, elbows, knees, feet, and arms, and give only perfunctory attention to clenched fist work. But his body needs the same kind of toughening and hardening that the boxer's body needs — and for the same reason. In the street or on the battlefield, the combatant is GOING TO GET HURT no matter how good he is. And he must be able to "take it", as well as dish it out.

We actually could go on, but we'll call a halt at this point. We feel that we've gotten our message across to anyone who's paying attention.
Take a long, hard look at what boxing teaches. It has a lot to teach you, if you're a serious student of self-defense and close combat!
Postscript: It has always been our opinion that the finest introduction to self-defense for young boys (say, between the ages of eight and fifteen) is a combination of Kodokan Judo and Western Boxing. Those fabulous arts teach a wealth of things, and do so in a venue that does not instill the kind of "warfighting" attitude and genuinely mayhemic, over-the-top violence that a pure combat curriculum must — if it is to be worth anything — teach and emphasize. Responsible adults can and should train in unlimited, unrestrained, all-out skills for emergency self-defense. Children should not do so, but they do need to be introduced to skills with which they can avoid the encroachments upon themselves that their contemporaries sometimes impose.