Don't Forget the Jab!
It is Brett Gleason writing in the Evolve Blog again today. Enjoy the article!
"If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles."
— Sun Tzu, The Art of War
"In battle, if you make your opponent flinch, you have already won."
— Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Almost without exception, the punch we all learn first is the jab. It is a straight punch that seems fairly simple to execute. It initially appears there is less coordination needed than for the mastery of its cousins- the cross, hook, and uppercut. The jab even feels weak in comparison to the others (who benefit from the utilization of torque of the body’s core to deliver power). Because it comes first in the order of learning, it is easy to forget and neglect; but this is serious mistake.
So, why all of this fuss about a simple, straight, weak punch? The jab is so much more than this- it is the spy of our army. Every time we send this spy away from camp, it enters into our opponent’s range. If the jab is effective, our opponent will need to react and our observation of this reaction is the intelligence we need to set our strategy for the rest of the fight. In this way, the jab sets up all of the other more powerful punches, much as an army’s S2 paves the way for its infantry, cavalry, and artillery.
Military masters Sun Tzu and Miyamoto Musashi both knew of the importance of intelligence gathering in the support of successful martial campaigns. On a personal level, it is the often-overlooked jab that frequently holds the key to our success or failure in the ring.
Check out the video clip below of the top 5 Greatest Heavyweight Jabs in history.
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