Lead hand first

Well, like the often quoted business strategy: 20% of your techniques should reap you 80% of the results you wanted (stunned, disabled, KOed). I remembered reading Mark Hatmaker's book, No Holds Barred Fighting, the most often used striking arsenal in NHB fights are hand strikes. That means it's only logical to devote most of our training time to learn how to strike with our hands.

But a new boxer is often overwhelmed by the vast arrays of hand strikes to learn and master: jab, cross, hook, uppercut and the combinations you can use. My take on this is simple: just focus on your lead hand, then slowly work your combinations. Find your personal bread and butter combo, and train hard to be good at it. Mike Tyson used to KO many fighters just by using his lead hook alone.

Try this nifty combo:

1. Make the opponent think you have a static striking pattern, eg. by punching lead-cross repeatedly.

2. Then level change to strike him with a low lead.

3. Feint a cross by staring at him and moving your shoulder.

4. But WHAM! strike him with your lead again.