This question is for pro fighters and trainers only sorry guys.?

Question

I have a heavy weight who has a lot of ability and he is a pro fighter with no armature back ground his record is 3 wins and 4 losses not good but he is the best 3-4 fighter I have ever seen. The problem is everything Balance is off foot work is terrible punches wide does not move his head has no defence I know looking at this you say why bother I will tell you why he has a chin like Tex Cobb he is as strong as george Forman and he has the heart of Joe Frazier 6ft 4 in 235 if he hits you with his right had it all over his hook is average jab is av rage I just want to know where do I need to start to rebuild this guy he is the best prospect I have ever seen and I have seen every one if you have any suggestions I would welcom them all

Answer 1

I would start with basic footwork and balance drills as well as skipping rope.  From there things may start to fall into place for him better.  I once had a very tall student whose balance, posture and walk were all horrible.  This particular student was wealthy and was getting lessons from three different golf pros on  a weekly basis.  While his golf game improved some he was not very happy with it and one of them suggested he try martial arts after about a year of gold lessons.  Six months of hard work an learning about balance and becoming more aware of his own as well as his coordination and posture really did more for him than the three pros giving him golf lessons did.   Just the simplest of drills and exercises can pay big dividends in a case like this where a big, strong guy has out grown and lost his sense of balance and coordination.  Skipping rope will also help develop his sense of timing along with all this.  Three things I would recommend are the following:

1.  Leaning head backwards and arching back with feet one shoulder width apart and hold it for ten seconds.  Easy-right!  Once they can do this have them do it with their feet together.  Once they can do that have them do it with their eyes closed and feet one shoulder width wide and then later with eyes closed and feet together always holding it for ten seconds or longer.

2.  Have him do jumping jacks crossing his legs and feet alternating which one is in front each time instead of just bringing them together.  Once he can do them that way have him do them with his feet going forward and backwards instead of side-ways.  Once he can do that have him do them like an "X".  Have him do sets of 25-50 each for his warm up then.

3.  Take a look at if he is keeping his feet to close together or narrow when working the heavy bag.  To narrow and you can tape a small rubber ball about six to eight inches in size to the inside of his rear thigh with duct tape over some old sweats.  If its too short of a stance tape the ball more to the front of the rear leg up on the front of his thigh forcing him to keep his stance a little longer and have him do his bag work and shadow boxing this way.

Answer 2

What kind of fighting? MMA? Boxing?

What you seem to describe is boxing, so I would go from there.

Get him started in solid fundamentals, fist start off with conditioning, especially getting him started on jumproping, so that he can start to get some sort of coordination of footwork and balance.

I mean it sounds pretty run of the mill to me.. you fix him the same you would any boxer. Get him working on the heavybag and start correcting his form, get him to move around.

Use focus mitts to work his combinations, do a lot of movement and pop him in the head with straight jabs when he is not doing his head movement. The combinations are important, I bet most of his losses come to more technical guys who out angled him, and realized he relied on one punch. More than likely he doesn't use combinations well.

Do rope drills so he can get used to bobbing and weaving.

Work with him on Shadowboxing and proper stance, so that he gets used to moving around and getting good solid head movement.

Honestly, you need to find him a good technical sparring partnet. Someone who will really punish him in sparring for those mistakes, the key is to work him away from reliance on his one hand.

Have him spar and defend with his right arm strapped down.

Do wall drills getting him to get used to defending. (i.e. put his back against the wall and fire shots at him with him having to defend, he will find out quickly how important head movement and movement in general is).

I mean essentially you build him from the ground up, and ignore his previous fighting experience. Tell him you want to make him into a newer more dangerous fighter.

Not a big mystery, just get him working on the fundamentals, like you would any fighter, while giving him tons of encouragement about how he is going to rip people apart.

IF you have really high hopes for this guy, and truly believe in him, but don't feel you can correct these things, one of the most honorable and right things you can do is send him to a more qualified or better trainer, someone who produces great fighters consistently. Because in all honesty there will come to a point that he will need a higher level of sparring partner, and chances are he will have to go to, or work with a bigger gym and better stable of fighters to get the sparring partners needed.

Answer 3

What's his MMA background ( arts wise ) where did he take his boxing at ( gym name )?   And to be honest this sounds like a "sparring issue" to me.  How well is his soft blocking or does he understand such a concept?  wide shots = change up stance ( feet closer together ) 30 days to break a habit obviously you know that.  A balance problem does not sound good... has his inner-ears been checked by a physician for any irregularities?  Footwork problems can be corrected by going back to the basics in both boxing and his 25 degree jujitsu stances if he has jujitsu experience in an actual training facility.  Sounds like you may need to bring in outside "boxing" coaching on a temporary basis and see if that helps. How many trainers does he have? and is he at work at least 30 + week on vitals like core work? you said that he has no prior amateur experience, I'm thinking if you just get him back to the basics most of the things you've listed here should work their selves out, but I would have his inner-ears checked out for good measure.  Make sure he has solid "ground" coaching whether he's good at countering the take down or not.  Make sure he stays on the heavy bag, slip bag, double end and speed bag at least 10 hours per week and the rest "core muscle work" and endurance training via heavy resistance.  Keep him working on fading, swaying, breaking, ducking, bobbing and weaving.  Maybe even bring in a decent "Muay Thai" coach or trainer for good measure as well. I'd definately have those inner-ears checked by a doctor though man.... the balance problem just don't jive.

Answer 4

Is he an intelligent guy? Does he train well? Can he listen to your advice and make it happen without reverting to old habits.

If the answer to all of these questions is yes, then invest your time in rebuilding this guy. Otherwise don't waste your time.

Answer 5

I have to agree with judo - break the guy down and re-build his basic skill set.  Pull the guy out of fights for a while to save his record, too.

I'm a huge proponent of footwork and defense - 2 things this guy clearly lacks.  I'd hazard a guess that he's over-committing with his power punches which is what's throwing the balance off.  And with poor footwork on top of it, he's a target rather than an opponent.  And I'd bet he's a head-hunter who doesn't know how to change levels without off-balancing.

My guess is he's relying too much on his strength.

Judo has some good ideas for defense work - rope drills, wall drills, etc.  I really like mitt training if you know how to catch.  Force the guy to throw combos and MOVE after his combos. And put him on the double-end bag for some evasion / defense drills.  Make the guy jump rope for a couple rounds before he even starts training and keep him on his toes and moving when he drills.  Of course cardio will come into play here - I'll assume you have cardio routines already.

Get him on the heavy bag for that left hand and the shots he's weak at with his right.   I like using a really wide/low stance - that will force more power out of those shots and get the body behind his left (I bet it's an arm punch right now.)  Then get the guy sparring - don't let him throw that straight right for sparring.  Get him used to mixing it up and save that power shot for when it will connect.  

Strategy wise, when he fights get him to throw that right to the body a lot.  If he has good defense it will be fine.  Get the opponent used to the strong right body shot then go high with it.  Or feint it and throw the left hook.  If they respect the right too much the left can be the KO shot.

If you can get some video of the guy it would help.  I'm throwing a lot of advice out against just a guess.  You already know his weaknesses - you listed them.  Now just fix em!