(upbeat music)
- Hi, I'm Marlen Esparza,
Olympic boxer for team USA.
I won a bronze medal at the
2012 London Olympics Games.
And fun fact, I was the
first woman to ever qualify
for the Olympic games in boxing.
Now I'm gonna show you a few tips.
We're gonna start off
with some footwork drills.
A lot of people think that
boxing is just primarily
upper body, but what they don't realize is
that everything you do in the
ring comes from the bottom up.
So you really gotta make
sure that you know your feet,
know your foot placement,
and that way everything can
transition better into the ring.
This is good for anybody
who just started boxing,
all the way to someone who's
been boxing for up to 10 years.
(upbeat music)
For the first drill, what
I'm gonna show you is
how to move in and out of the pocket,
which means in and out of your
distance with your opponent,
while being able to circle to the left,
and circle to the right,
this will work both for
orthodox and southpaw fighters.
We're gonna pretend that
your opponent is always
on the outside of these cones.
We're gonna step in, throw your punches,
and then you'll step out.
This is keeping you out range,
and then you'll circle, same thing.
In range, throw.
Out of range, circle.
In range, out of range.
So it might seem a little bit repetitious,
but you do need to understand exactly
how it feels to move your feet,
that way you can always stay
in range when you wanna be,
and out of range when you need to be.
A lot of common mistakes that people make,
when they step in,
they forget to keep their hands up
because you are in range to hit them,
they're also in range to hit you.
So you need to make sure
that when you throw punches,
you're always keeping your
hands back to your face,
and that you're always
moving both feet forward,
and backward, so it's an equal movement.
A lot of people tend to step
in and bring their back foot,
or step out and drag their back foot.
If you step in and move
forward, you're gonna get hit,
you'll be off balance.
If you step out and drag your back foot,
what would happen is that you'll get stuck
on your back foot, and you're
more likely to get hit.
(upbeat music)
So now I'm gonna be demoing
how to get in and out,
in three different angles.
If you can't find something like this,
you can always just use tape.
What's most important about this drill is
that you have to move your foot
and your head at the same time.
So we're gonna pretend that
we're avoiding our right hand.
You're gonna step in and turn down,
you won't get hit with anything,
you're in a safe position,
you'll be able to throw back,
or you'll be able to turn out,
or you'll be able to step away at a 45,
which will potentially avoid
anything coming at you.
Same thing goes to the right side,
if you're an orthodox fighter.
This will mean potentially
avoiding a straight jab,
even a left hook, if you're low enough,
and you can step back out.
Pay attention to the fact
that I'm staying centered
when I step.
I'm not leaning back.
I'm not leaning forward.
I'm right where I need to be,
in case I need to throw a punch.
Once you have a hang of that,
you can kind of just have
a little fun with it.
Switch it.
Switch it.
Come down.
Make sure that you never leave
your back foot straight up,
that's what a lot people tend to do wrong.
You won't be able to throw anything
if your back leg is straight.
So this is good not only if you're trying
to avoid something, but
also if you're trying
to land something at the same time.
(upbeat music)
So with this drill,
you're always gonna be stepping laterally.
And this helps because a lot of the times,
we think that boxing is in and out,
but our opponents will be
trying to avoid to the left,
or evade to the right.
So what we're gonna do
is we're gonna step in,
step out,
step in,
step out,
step in,
step out.
That might seem a little basic and boring,
but what you have to realize,
to make it to the next box,
I'm not stepping straight back,
'cause if I were to step straight back
and try to make it there,
I would get hit and I'd
get thrown off balance.
So I have to make sure
that when I step in,
I'm stepping out at a 45, and
this is the constant movement.
And then you can throw
in the head movement
that we already learned.
Just making sure that your
foot placement is always
putting you in the right
position for the next punch,
or in the right position for
the correct head movement.
Now that we're done with
our foot work drills,
make sure that you focus on the cones.
Circling to left,
circling to the right.
Make sure that your front leg
and your head move together,
and also your foot
placement on the ladder.
Stepping out at 45 angles.
I really hope that you
use these, and be safe!
Thanks for watching!
Let me know how it goes
in the comments below.
I was the first woman to ever
qualify for the Olympic games.
- [Director] Perfect, and can you say,
Olympic boxing?
- In boxing.
- [Director] Yeah.
Other than that it was good.
- [Marlen] I know almost perfect, dang it!
