Shadowboxing is one of the safest and one of the most effective ways to practice your Boxing and Kickboxing skills. You need absolutely zero equipment and you can do it pretty much anywhere. There are some common mistakes that almost everyone makes. Here’s 3 common mistakes with Shadowboxing. Keep these in mind the next time you’re training and you’ll look like a pro in no time!
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1) Extending your punches when you’re Shadowboxing.
When we’re punching Focus Mitts and hitting the Heavy Bag, it’s the Focus Mitt and the Heavy Bag that stop our punches. When we’re Shadowboxing, we have to retract our own strikes. But we often retract our strikes too soon making our punches too short and ineffective. If you retract your punches too soon, your punches will lack extension and reach. So, when you’re Shadowboxing, make sure you’re fully extending your Jabs and your Straight Right Hands and you’ll have more reach and power with your punches.
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2) Staring at your hands.
When you’re shadowboxing, you’ll naturally want to stare your hands – this is a huge mistake. In fact, you should NOT see your hands at all. If you can see your hands, then your chin is too high. Or if you can see your hands, then you’re punching too low. Keep your chin down, keep your hands up and throw punches towards an invisible Brock Lesnar and you shouldn’t see your hands at all when you’re shadowboxing.
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3) Not imagining an opponent.
Your imagination is your most powerful tool when you’re shadowboxing. Most people just swing their arms wildly in the air when they’re practicing their punches. What you want to do is throw punches punches at an invisible opponent. You want to work your defense and exercise your counter punching. You want to mentally recreate the actual sparring sparring experience. As vividly and as clearly as you can visualize it, imagine an opponent in front of you as you’re training. This is the best way to practice and the ideal way to use shadowboxing to improve your fighting skill.
