ALTA Week 2 Striking

Striking – Straight punching combos and drills

Mostly, this week is a second bite of the cherry on material from week 1. We want to take the basic steps and put straight punches with them to get comfortable with our first combinations. Then, we’ll start becoming very familiar with drills that allow us to do a lot of volume of repetition, so that we get better and better.

Combinations using week 1 footwork

• Stiff jab (using the touch step)
• Pull, Cross (using the touch step backwards)
• Hop jab, Two (using the hop step)
• Double jab (using the shuffle step)
• Double jab, Cross (using a variation on the shuffle step)
• Skip jab, Two (aka “Bop the baby”, using the skip step) 

Drills

• Line work: Repeating your combinations while travelling forwards or backwards across the mat in a straight line. 
• Shadow Boxing: Repeating your combinations whilst moving around in random patterns visualising actually fighting someone. 
• In both drills, it’s vital to focus on precision and correct sequence. Never gloss over the movements and accept mediocre reps. Strive for perfection. These are your building blocks for more complex movements later. Get these half right and your foundations will crumble when you build on them.

Record yourself! 

It’s very useful when practicing to take video footage to review. The camera doesn’t lie. You may think you’re Mohammed Ali when you’re doing a drill only to watch it back on video after to realise you’re actually more like Ali G.