Head movement

Head movement is a foundational boxing skill. Many pressure fighters make head movement an integral part of their style. But all boxers should work on moving their head.

So, why move your head?

Well, there's there's the obvious reason — it's an excellent way of avoiding a punch in the face! The art of boxing is hitting without taking hits.

A moving target is more difficult to hit than a static one. Making your opponent miss with a punch poses them problems. First off, punching thin air is tiring. Very tiring. Missing with punches can become physically exhausting. It’s also very dispiriting. Missing with a punch effects balance, in turn adding to physical exertion.

Making an opponent miss isn't only a fantastic defensive strategy. Missed punches and unsuccessful attacks open up vectors for your own counter attacks. Slipping and rolling punches leaves holes in your opponent's defence. Filling these holes with swift counter-punches is an essential skill for a serious boxer.

How can you achieve this?

Using a combination of trunk and feet defences can quickly move your head off the line of attack.

This could be:

• slipping, rolling and ducking straight punches

• rolling and ducking hooks

• pulling away from uppercuts

These defences are easy enough to learn, but it takes supreme skill to master them at speed in combat. How you use these skills will depend on your boxing style and physical attributes.

Take heavyweight legend Mike Tyson for example. Head movement was central to his all-action, attacking style. Tyson employed trainer Cus D'Amato's famed Peekaboo style. This entails boxing from a squarer stance with a high guard. This makes the boxer easier to hit, so rapid head movement is essential.

American middleweight James Toney used head movement to underpin brutal counter attacks. I never tire of watching Toney slip outside of jabs and punish with a returning cross. His elusive style was a thing of beauty.

Returning to Tyson — from 1987 onwards, his head movement began to decline. He became more hittable. There a few reasons for this, but primarily his reluctance to train as hard as he once did. Practicing head movement at full pelt is hard work! Good conditioning is a must.

You should build head movement into every aspect of your boxing makeup. By practicing sound punching technique, you can train your body to move your head as you punch. Integrating head movement and good footwork makes for artful, efficient boxing.

And don't underestimate the mental warfare you can wage by moving your head. Incorporating head movement into feints can wrong-foot and confuse an opponent. Listen to the people who have fought Ukrainian master Oleksandr Usyk. They testify to how unsettling his head movement is. His constant feints and superb footwork exhaust his adversaries mentally.

So make sure to build head movement into your training and overall technique. Your coach and your nearest and dearest will thank you for it.

Stay pretty! ;)