Head Movement Part #1

In the last few years, as MMA continues to evolve, we see more and more use of boxing technique in the cage. The obvious would be the punches and combinations but we are also starting to see some good footwork and head movement. At Carlson Gracie MMA in Maple Ridge we study boxing and Muay Thai / kickboxing separately, put it together, then blend it with our wrestling to get the best positioning for take downs and defense. A large part of boxing is in the defense which includes head movement and foot work. These basics should be in what I call "Auto-pilot". The way we train our fighters is to have these things along with the jab working constantly to keep the opponent busy while we strategize and look for openings and weaknesses from the corner. I expect my fighters to be busy from the start with non-stop movement, so I can concentrate on calling out punches, kicks, combinations or shots. I don't want to be telling them to do these basic things. A fighter should never be standing in front of his or her opponent waiting, unless it is part of a strategy to suck them into a counter.
The three components of "Auto-pilot" are :

1. Footwork
2. Head movement
3. Jab

If a fighter does not have these 3 things absolutely mastered, they are not ready for the ring.


For this series of posts I will concentrate on head movement and it's key components and uses.

Head movement does 3 important things.
1. Defense - It makes you a moving target; Add head movement to your combination and any time you are not punching or kicking you should be moving your head or moving your body.
2. Adds power to your punch or kick by hiding your windup in your defense.
3. Adds momentum to your lateral movement.
4. Can be used as a set up or fake by making him flinch.
(We don't fake with punches, either throw em or don't!)


Check out Couture vs. Sylvia to see a great wrestler who learned how to employ the use of head movement to get past a larger opponents long reach.