Learning Jab: The Most Powerful Control Tool in Boxing
In a nutshell, a jab is “A straight punch from the lead hand”.
That’s it? A straight punch from the lead hand?
Anyone can understand that. You can, I can, anyone with a brain can. But if that’s all what a jab is, then what’s all the fuss about?
Why do trainers spend years teaching fighters how to jab properly?
I mean anyone can throw a punch using their lead hand, right?
Yes, you’re right. I know what you’re thinking now, “A lead hand punch … This must be for beginners and the easiest to counter punch in boxing”.
But you’re wrong! Dead wrong. You’re missing the essence of it. Even though it seems simple and easy, Don’t let it fool you!
Jab is the devil in boxing, it deceives the viewer. It confuses the mind by seeming simple but is definitely not a simple thing. You can’t learn it in a day.
If it could be learned in a day, trainers wouldn’t teach it for years.
If it was as simple as it seems, experts wouldn’t call it the key to boxing.
In reality, jab is hard to master, easily feinted, one of the most complex and hardest punch to read in boxing.
But most important of all, it controls the pace of the fight.
How important is it?
Well, it’s probably the most important tool in boxing. For most boxers, anyways. What does it do?
- It creates openings
- It controls the pace
- It controls the distance
- It is the easiest punch to land
- It can hurt even the toughest of opponents — a myth is that jabs can’t hurt opponents. To people believing this myth, I say “Power Jab!”. Boxers like Muhammad Ali, Gennady Golovkin, Sergey Kovalev, and more will agree with me on this.
Well, these were ONLY some technical things a jab can do. I know it’s hard to understand the technical stuff.
Don’t worry, if you didn’t grab the concept of its importance. Let me explain in clearer words by giving a real life example.
Remember the fight: “Gennady Golovkin Vs Canelo Alvarez 2017”?
It was the first meeting between two greats of our generation. Go and watch the fight, if you haven’t already.
*Warning: Spoilers ahead:
Let me explain to you how this fight shows the importance of jab.
Gennady controlled the middle rounds only through his jab. He couldn’t land powerful hooks or uppercuts on Canelo. The ones he did land didn’t carry KO power and were set up using a jab.
Gennady landed a total of 218 punches, out of which 108 were jabs and 110 were power punches.
On analyzing the fight, one thing becomes clear. Without using the jab to set up, he wouldn’t have even landed half of the power punches.
Minus the jab, and you get a total of 50 punches landed in the entire fight.
If being a jabbing master can get you a draw against a fighter like Canelo Alvarez, then it’s no wonder why it is considered the most important tool in boxing.
I know that excellent jabbing wasn’t the only reason Gennady was able to give Canelo hell. His granite chin played an important role as well.
But then again, without the jab his offense would have been nullified.
Learning to Jab
Here’s the vague idea
- Stand in a boxing stance
- Throw a straight lead hand punch
- Use important body parts such as shoulders, hips, and arms to generate more speed and power
You see? Once again, it can look deceivingly simple. That’s my whole point, it’s NOT!
Let me explain why.
A jab isn’t a singular way of punching. It’s much more complex than that.
There are so many ways to jab. Some of them are useless, some are fine, and only 3 are the right ways.
How many ways are there to jab in total? The answer may surprise you: Countless.
There’s the stiff jab, the fast hanging-in-the-air jab, the chicken jab, and countless other useless jabs.
There are a good number of useful jabs as well. But the 3 most useful inside the ring are:
- Shoot aka Pop Jab
- Reach aka Control Jab
- Power aka Bodyweight Jab
What’s the difference? The clues are in their names.
Today, we’ll talk about Shoot jab.
Shoot aka Pop Jab
Shoot jab is exactly what the name suggests, a jab you shoot!
Isn’t it the same as throwing a fast jab? No, it’s completely different. In a sentence, you pop your shoulder to shoot your jab.
It’s fast as a bullet. The opponent’s eye can’t catch it, well speaking for most of them (Excluding sharp eyed boxers like Muhammad Ali and Floyd Mayweather).
Before I share the complete steps, let’s clear the term pop, shall we?
Pop means to move your shoulder slightly upwards in rotatory motion while punching. It’s not the same as raising your shoulder. No, it’s a quick rotatory movement of precisely the back of your shoulder. The area with deltoid muscles to be exact:
The movement starts as soon as you begin to punch. It has to be quick in rotatory motion. Start by moving your shoulder backwards when you’re bringing your arm up to punch, right before you shoot the punch. Now, when you start extending your arm to hit your target (shoot the punch), rotate your shoulder forward in rotatory motion back to its original position. The impact will be maximized if you rotate your shoulder 1 inch backwards.
Here are the complete steps to shoot jab:
Step №1: Get into a boxing stance
Step №2: Make sure your power hand covers a small portion of your face, placed ideally near the chin for defense
Step №3: Make sure your lead arm is bend in V Shape. Meaning that your forearm following the elbow should be perpendicular to your bicep area. I don’t mean at exact 90° because that would be stiff.
Don’t do that, make sure you’re comfortable while making your arm bend in V shape. Get the idea? Here’s a picture:
Observe the lead hand.
Step №4: Now, jab while popping your lead shoulder instead of throwing the punch.
Step №5: That was part ONE, now comes part TWO. As soon as you start shooting, make sure you shift body weight to the lead foot. You can do this by moving your back foot heel up by an inch or two and stand on your toes. Note: Don’t raise your lead foot’s heel.
Step №6: Bring your lead hand back to starting position as soon as your jab is ideally extended. Make sure to bring your hand back in any of two cases: You miss or land the jab.
Make sure you follow these steps precisely.
The Perfect Shoot Jab
Watch this video to see what a perfect shoot jab looks like.
Did you watch how fast he landed those crisp jabs?
Here’s an exercise for you. Watch the video again, but this time slow down the speed to 0.25x.
If you watch closely, you can see that he follows all the steps mentioned in this post.
Check one step at a time, if you don’t believe me.
Floyd Mayweather is a master of shoot jab and uses it all the time.
More great boxers like Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, Sonny Liston, Tyson Fury, Miguel Cotto, have used it from time to time.
Key Uses
- Stuck in a corner against an aggressive opponent? Use a shoot jab to create a distraction and quickly move away from the ropes. This can be done both by landing or not landing on purpose, and using the punch to blindside your opponent.
- Standing in the center against a patient opponent? Use a shoot jab to score quick points. If that’s not working because your opponent is too smart. Throw some and feint some to create openings, mix it up!
- Pull counter a counter puncher. It works like magic if done right. You have to do a pull counter, which is basically pulling backward to dodge a punch and then pushing forward to land an effective counter. The popping shoulder and shooting part is important because pull counters only work with extremely fast punches. Floyd Mayweather effectively used this technique against Canelo Alvarez.
Now What?
Jab, jab and jab and jab.
Because: Practise makes perfect.
What about Reach and Power Jab? Well, you will have to wait for my next post.
Until then, keep training.
Note:
If you have any BOXING related questions, leave a comment. I’ll be happy to help.
“Boxing is a Sweet Science. It takes discipline, dedication, and desire to be a Sweet Scientist” — The Sweet Scientist.
