STICK THE JAB PART TWO
Posted on | August 19, 2007 | No Comments
Stick That Jab! (Part 2)
By: PATRICK MCELLIGOTT
One of my nephews is planning to start a boxing program for the youngsters in the community center where he works. My brother and I first took him and his cousins to watch an amateur boxing card about 25 years ago. These days, he is among the group of friends who I attend amateur and professional fight cards with. He understands that boxing offers kids something that they do not find in high school sports, and he appreciates the reasons why our group of older, retired social workers and teachers are backing his efforts.
Boxing teaches self-discipline. Every kid comes in the gym in a hurry to learn everything immediately. It takes patience, and a good trainer starts with that most basic of skills: the proper stance, followed by the jab.
Almost without exception, every kid that I’ve worked with has listened to instructions on the jab, thrown a couple at the heavy bag, then asked, “Okay, what’s next?” Those who become disciplined will learn to focus
on that jab, confident that everything else will flow from it.
When I work with young boxers, I tell them that although I’ve been involved with boxing for over 40 years, I am still a student of the jab. I will look through the Title equipment catalog, and order DVDs such as Freddie
Roach’s “Fundamentals of Boxing,” which gives valuable instructions for young fighters on how to use the jab for both offense and defense. I will help a kid learn the proper stance; to throw a straight, crisp jab, turning
his hand over; to tuck his chin into his shoulder; and to immediately bring his fist back up to the proper position.
I will watch that young fighter throw hundreds of jabs on the heavy bag. I will have him watch himself throwing hundreds of jabs in the mirror. Together, we will learn how to improve his jab.
Years ago, Angelo Dundee told my brother something that is useful in teaching the jab: tell the young fighter to pretend that there is a fly on the heavy bag, and that his goal is to swat it with his jab. That simple tool will help a kid concentrate on developing the speed that a good jab requires.
I’ll watch boxing on tv with young fighters. Almost every week, on the ESPN segment of “keys to victory,” Teddy Atlas will explain how the warriors in the main event should engage their opponent. Teddy always talks about the jab as a key to victory.
When ESPN-Classic shows the great fighters of the past, I make sure that young fighters take note of the fact that guys like the most explosive heavyweight champions had great jabs. Joe Louis, Sonny Liston, and George Foreman all had fast, powerful jabs. Ali’s jab wasn’t just an annoyingly fast punch that opponents needed to get past – it was what made their eyes blurry, and what began to snap their heads back and make them dizzy.
On ESPN-Classic, we hear Teddy Atlas say that the great trainer Cus D’Amato had analyzed Larry Holmes jab, and had told a young Mike Tyson that after a few rounds, Larry began to drop his left hand after throwing the jab. Cus knew that a fighter needed to be willing to absorb some of Holmes’ powerful jabs, in order to close the distance on him. When we look at Tyson in his prime, we see the genius of D’Amato’s “peek-a-boo” style, which combined rapid upper-body movement with the ability to come in under the jab. That allowed Tyson to beat bigger opponents early in his career; in his later years, Tyson stopped using that upper-body movement, and forgot his jab – and he lost to a couple fighters who he would have KOed in his youth.
I encourage young fighters to read, too. One of the best sports books of this era is “Atlas– From the Streets to the Ring: A Son’s Struggle to Become a Man,” by Teddy Atlas. One of the highlights in Teddy’s life came when his fighter Michael Moorer won the heavyweight title from Evander Holyfield in 1994. On page 211, Teddy notes that moments before the first round started, he “reminded Michael once again that he was going to win this fight with his jab.”
Teddy had studied tapes of Evander, and noticed that there were times Holyfield tended to bounce with his foot-work. When a guy is mid-hop, he can’t punch, and can’t fully defend himself. Teddy knew that Moorer could use his jab in that split-second, and that there was little that Evander could do about it. And sure enough, it made the difference for Michael Moorer that night.
Moorer lost the title in a fight in which he had a big lead on the score cards. But Big George Foreman used the jab to distract Moorer, and to keep him off balance as the fight entered the later rounds. When Michael started concentrating on George’s jab, the right hand followed, and history was made. But it was the jab that set everything up.
This year, we saw Oscar De La Hoya doing well with Floyd Mayweather, Jr., in the first half of their fight. In the second half, Floyd pulled out the victory. Afterwards, Larry Merchant asked Oscar the question all of the De
La Hoya fans wanted answered: Why did he stop throwing the jab? “It wasn’t the ‘night of the jab’, ” De La Hoya incorrectly answered.
When I was a young fighter, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter taught me that EVERY night was the ‘night of the jab.’ We used to discuss how to properly use the jab to set up everything else. Use the single jab; double up on the jab. Throw the jab to the chest (just below the throat) of an elusive foe. Take the measure of every opponent with that jab.
I’ll share with readers a couple of photos that the Hurricane gave me, that illustrate a lesson on using the jab. They are from his September 18, 1965 fight with Joe “Axe Killer” N’Gidi, in front of 30,000 fans at Wemberly
Stadium in South Africa. N’Gidi was the welterweight and middleweight champion of Africa, and he fought in the rather straight-up, stiff style associated with Europeans at the time.
In the first round, Rubin was able to land his jab. The first photo shows Carter’s perfect form – note how his chin is tucked into his shoulder – and the jab has lifted N’Gidi’s head back. But the second photo – which is a
follow-up – shows that Carter misses with his hook. The jab had moved Joe outside of his range, and so he had to adjust.
There are several options for adjusting the jab: you can throw it a little lighter to the head; you can slam it into the opponent’s chest; or you can knock his head back, then hook to the body. Each one works; mix them up, and you have the complete package. In this fight, Rubin did, as he would deck Joe N’Gidi a total of seven times in two rounds. And, as he told me, after the last knockdown, N’Gidi wasn’t able to walk on his own for over 20 minutes.
Rubin described the fight to me as “the Hurricane was on the move!” It starts with the jab.