Page 122 - Doug Werner Boxer's Start-Up

Chapter Twelve

own punches.Ducking is a matter of squatting straight down under
the punch and sliding towards the side your opponent is throwing
from.This is called a V slide.This is my first drill where offense and
defense are combined and it’s thrilling when we do a few
sequences at a brisk pace and the punches whiz over my head
(Wow, I’m ducking punches!) A couple land on top of my head but
Al is swinging so lightly it’s no big deal.The idea is to duck in close
to your opponent so he cannot land forceful blows.

In front of the mirror, Al has me do right-left, left-right slides
(straight right hand-left hook-left slide, then left hook-straight right
hand-right slide) one after the other until the sweat starts to rain
from my face.It’s really hard to do and I get frustrated.My right’s OK
but my left hook looks awful. I stop and start until Al says I won’t
get it right away anyway so just DO IT.As I complete a few dozen it
gets better but not much. Al demonstrates along with me (he’s
always moving) and makes it look easy.

Going over to the bag we work on an impossible drill where I gotta
step into each punch in a left-right-left combo. It’s ugly. I’m used to
punching without stepping and as odd as it sounds adding the step
throws everything off. I try and try but it feels so awkward and
sloppy.It’s the first drill that Al’s shown me that I just can’t do ...yet.

As if that isn’t enough (there are no breaks in Al’s Academy of
Boxing --- instruction, patter and drilling is ceaseless, overlapping
and just short of overload.The guy is a good coach and makes every
lesson a dynamic blur). Al has me step up on a stationary platform
to work on the right-left thing (again) so that I can concentrate on
keeping my feet still. Now I’m really sweating (there’s actually a
stream of sweat jumping off my forehead) and the left hook looks
only slightly better after swinging it along with the right 50 times.
But Al says no worries ...it’ll come ...I was worse at that stage ...etc.

We finish with that skipping-over-the-rope thing and whew! ...what
a workout!
TIED UP
8-14-97: Lesson #7
I thought I’d try to pace myself today since I wore myself out during
the first few minutes of my last session. After wrapping up, I shad-
owbox a bit and Al has me work on long and short rhythms.Long is

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