Page 127 - Doug Werner Boxer's Start-Up
P. 127

Journal


                II was won-         likes to start guys off, say, with jabs
                                    only. Or one guy throws while the
              dering about          other guy defends. It’s an incremental
                                    type of thing. He teaches his JV foot-
             getting hit on         ball team the same way.The kids have
                                    never really hit anybody or been hit
                 some level         before so there’s a gradual introduc-
                                    tion to blocking and tackling. Al says
              (hey, natural         he isn’t from the Boxing School of
              enough) and           Hard Knocks and for that I’m
                                    relieved. I guess I was wondering
                    his easy-       about getting hit on some level (hey,
                                    natural enough) and his easy-does-it
            does-it philos-         philosophy sounds good to me. I can
                                    only imagine what getting hit, time
              ophy sounds           after time, is like. I guess it’s the
                                    training that sees you through. At any
               good to me.          rate, the little talk was a good one. It
                                    gave me confidence in the plan and
                                    the coach.

           You know, I did well today. I felt it and Al saw it, too. Especially
           during the action/reaction part of the lesson. Al says that is a water-
           shed in the boxing education --- being able to ride with the offen-
           sive/defensive flow and flurry. Awright!
           GOT THAT?    8-28-97: Lesson #9
           I mix it up with shadowboxing at first --- rights, lefts and some
           defensive moves, etc. It doesn’t look very good. Like I’m still a little
           uncoordinated.

           Al teaches me the uppercut, which is something like a hook since
           you use legs and torso to drive the punch. The direction of the
           punch is up after you tilt your body to the side of the punching arm.

           Al springs a 12-punch combo on me today that I sorta get, but I
           mean really --- I’m supposed to remember 12 punches and their
           sequential order? Right! What I execute looks OK, though, and
           when I just let myself go with it, I do remember most of it.

           Then he shows me this drill where you throw straight rights and

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