How to Shadowbox Properly

1. You need a goal

The goal is not to showoff for everyone else in the gym, throwing as many punches as you can, and jerking your head back and forth. That’s a terrible goal and if anything, only leads to you getting tired in under 5 minutes. Which is pretty sad if you’re getting tired fighting the air.

Common reasons for shadow boxing:

• Warm-up – Move around. Use your legs, move your head, relax the shoulders, throw some punches, move move move. Shake your limbs out. Repeat! Breathe and put some purpose to your movements. Breaking a sweat is OK if your goal is to warm-up. You want to put your body into motion.
• Technique – Are you working on a certain punch? Or a defensive move? Go slow, take your time, and check out your form in your mirror. Instead of working on the entire movement, maybe you can pick out 1 or 2 key points to focus on. Once that part feels right, you can move on to another detail or try the movement in it’s entirety. Repetition is important but only after you know for sure that you’re practicing the right thing. This is where having a coach helps.
• Coordination – Being able to do a move perfectly doesn’t mean you can do a move NATURALLY. Perhaps you’ve got your jab technique down right but can’t seem to land it in a real fight. You can improve this by throwing jabs from different situations. Instead of always setting yourself up in the same stance, you can try throwing the jab from different stances. Also try moving around and throwing the jab at different points in your footwork. Instead of trying to force the jab out, try to find a way for your body to allow a movement to feel natural.
• Rhythm – Sometimes singular movements feel good but you lack the flow during a fight. You can work on your rhythm while shadowboxing by making many movements. 3-4 punches, 3-4 slips, 3-4 steps, repeat. Here you’re working on rhythm so it’s ok to minimize the movements to help you find a natural “fighting dance” rhythm in your body, rather then fully extending all your punches and putting 100% power on every movement. Develop some rhythm by focusing on the SHAKE-SHAKE-SHAKE!
• Strategy – Shadowboxing is perfect for working on key strategic moments during a fight. Maybe you’ve got a bad habit of always running away. Or maybe you’re working slipping the right hand to land the left hook to the body. Or maybe you just got out of a sparring match where a guy kept landing his jab. Shadoboxing with a strategic mindset is great for developing new strategies to beat opponents and then developing NEW HABITS to fulfill these strategies. It’s all muscle memory.
• Warm-down – Move slowly, relax, breathe. Reflect on the sparring you just had earlier in the day. Think about different techniques or movement strategies that could have helped you and work on them. You’ve already done the hard work for the day. This is your time to enjoy the moment rather than to squeeze one last workout out of your body.

The worst thing you can do for developing technique
is try to work on everything all at once.

2. You need to execute

I’d say my biggest complaint about shadowboxing is not so much that boxers are doing it wrong but rather that they’re not doing it enough. If you’re a serious fighter, you should be shadowboxing a minimum of 30 minutes a day. Pros will do more like an hour. That shouldn’t be hard at all considering you already use shadowboxing for warm-up/warm-down and also when developing new techniques.

A general shadow boxing workout would be about 15 minutes of shadowboxing. You do it straight through, no rest. Keep your body moving and your muscles warm. If you’re getting tired too easily, simply slow it down. Shadowboxing can be done anywhere anytime. You should never have any excuse for sitting down and doing nothing at the gym. You can shadowbox, even as you’re watching a sparring match, or waiting in line for the bag, or talking to a friend. Shadowboxing can be your default “rest workout”.

When to shadowbox during your workout:

• Warm-up – use shadowboxing to get warm and start loosening up your joints.
• Technique Drills – use shadowboxing to work on new moves like punches, defensive techniques, or footwork.
• Conditioning – use shadowboxing to condition your hand and leg endurance. Work on the common repetitive movements that you use during a fight.
• Warm-down – use shadowboxing to close out your day and loosen whatever muscles that may have tightened from your workout. Take one last look at your technique in the mirror to recap on the techniques you’ve learned that day.

Different shadow boxing workouts:

• Alone with your thoughts – Shadowbox anywhere, anytime when you’re alone. Try using a mirror and see what happens when you change different things. Or try shadowboxing in a ring when it’s not in use and get yourself used to moving around on the canvas and touching up against the ropes.
• With a slip rope or slip bag – Shadowbox as you practice your slipping, bobbing and weaving, and head movement techniques.
• Around a heavy bag – Push a heavy bag so it swings and then move around with it as you throw punches but don’t connect so it stays moving. It’s always good to have a moving object to your senses alert.
• With a partner – Don’t shadowbox alone. Have a friend shadowboxing with you so it’s like you’re fighting each other except you keep a distance so no punches connect. This is a great way to ensure that you’re keeping senses alert and not developing lazy eyes or bad movement habits that don’t help you in a fight.
• With a coach – Shadowbox under the supervision of a boxing coach and take in the feedback. Adjust on the spot and see what happens. You can also have him move around you and hold his arm out or throw slow motion punches for you to practice working from different situations. If I know my fighters will face a southpaw in their fight, I’ll stand in a southpaw stance in front of them with my right arm extend to get them used to moving around the southpaw’s jab.

3. You need feedback

This is one of the biggest reasons for training in a gym and having a boxing trainer. You need a way to know if what you’re doing is helpful. You need a way to critique yourself and look for opportunities to improve. It is very hard to improve if the only feedback you get comes from yourself.

How to get feedback while shadow boxing:

• HAVE A TRAINER – have a trainer oversee your movements and make little suggestions here and there. There really is no substitute for having the resource of someone more experienced than you. Even if you don’t have a mirror, you could have a fellow boxer (preferably one more experienced) take a look and adjust what he sees.
• USE A MIRROR – look at your form in the mirror and see if you can find areas for improvement. It also helps to compare your form to other boxers in the gym. See how certain aspects of their technique look different from yours.
• PAY ATTENTION TO HOW YOU FEEL – if something feels too difficult, you’re probably doing it wrong. Your shoulders shouldn’t be hurting during the hook. Your back shouldn’t be aching when you slip. You shouldn’t be falling off balance when you move around. If you’re getting tired shadowboxing, how can you expect yourself to have much endurance during a high-stress fight with an opponent?

4. You need to think

This should be a rule that you apply to every minute of your training. Don’t ever let the brain go dead. THINK! Be alert. See if you can notice your own vulnerabilities before your opponents do.

What to think about while shadow boxing:

• WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS? – What are you focusing on? If it’s speed, then work speed. If it’s strategy, then work strategy. Pick one thing and focus on it. One thing at a time.
• WHERE IS THE PROBLEM? – This is the hardest part of learning. It’s very hard to improve if you don’t know what the problem is. Again, this is why you need to work with trainers, coaches, and people more experienced than yourself.
• TRY SOMETHING NEW – Instead of throwing the same jab everyday, trying finding new ways to change it up. At first you try throwing it from different positions. Then maybe you can try it with a different emphasis on the muscles used (shoulders vs lats). Maybe you can try it with your weight more over your front foot or your back foot or in between. Maybe you try it with a 1 inch step, and a 3 inch step. Applying this theory in every way to every technique will get you very far! Paying attention to the more experienced fighters can give you a clue as to where to vary your technique.

Common questions about shadow boxing:

1. Can I shadowbox with weights or gloves on? – I do not recommend it. It distracts from the purity of the shadowboxing exercise. If you want to add resistance, it becomes resistance training. And even then the weights do not help your punching speed/power very much because they apply force in the direction of gravity rather than the direction that your punch travels. It might be a good conditioning exercise and even then, the pros that shadowbox with weights do it at a VERY SLOW speed. High speed shadow boxing with weights may damage your joints!
2. Should I shadowbox as a southpaw? – No it’s not necessary. Maybe every now and then you can mess around as a southpaw but it’s not necessary as part of your regular boxing training. In my opinion, if you want to try something new, weird, or different…you should try something new from your regular stance. That would make more sense to me than using a switch stance and doing the same thing you’ve always done.

 http://www.expertboxing.com/boxing-training/boxing-workouts/guide-to-shadow-boxing