Just like John Wayne and Douglas MacArthur, it’s time to go Back to Bataan. 

I have been out of the boxing gym for some months. Sure, it’s the usual suspects…life, work, family. But it has also been something more.

I realized some months ago that there were some prerequisite attributes and understanding I needed to develop in order to maximize my training in the boxing gym. 

The “Fitness and Fighting: Pulp Fiction Practice” section of this site has been the record of this physical and mental journey this past half year, since January-February 2023. 

And yesterday, with all these attributes and understanding under my belt, I hit the boxing gym again…and went Back to Bataan!

SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY

Yesterday’s drill came from James Lafond’s masterful boxing book, Solo Boxing: Learning and Applying Punches for Fitness, Competition, and Survival. 

The Drill was simple: a continuous Jab-Cross combo on the heavy bag with a focus on syncing internal hip rotation and internal shoulder rotation. 

I tried this sort of thing in February 2023…and I realized I had a long way to go. 

But it wasn’t just “more practice” I needed. 

I knew I needed something else entirely if I was to master this drill… 

THE LOST TRAINING SECRET REVEALED!

In the last six months, I have written extensively that Internal Hip Rotation is the lost training secret to fitness and fighting success. 

In fact, all sports, combat and otherwise, “revolve” around Internal Hip Rotation! 

I came to discover this secret in February 2023 when I realized that I had terrible Internal Hip Rotation, and it was the main thing inhibiting my fitness and fighting ability in every way…not to mention my ability to live pain free!

I knew that if this was my biggest weakness, then it had to be my biggest training focus.

And consequently it has been. 

Those who know my “Pulp Fiction Strength & Health Doctrine” know that I love single-joint isolation exercises for high reps in the 100+ range. Consequently, that has been the foundation of my Internal Hip Rotation Training. 

For months I worked on this using “Prone Internal Hip Rotation” and “Supine Internal Hip Rotation” for Internal Hip Rotation proper, and “90-90 Internal Hip Rotation: Back Leg Focus” (progressed and regressed as needed) for the Sacroiliac. 

On June 1st, 2023,  I kicked it up a notch when I learned “Reverse Clamshells“, which I have found to be a superior high rep isolation exercise for Internal Hip Rotation then all of the above. 

This is because you are actively fighting gravity to internally rotate the hip…not just passively going with it like in all the others! 

However, Isolation exercises at the hips aren’t the only thing I’ve been doing during this time to prepare…

JACK DEMPSEY MEETS WING CHUN 

In conjunction with Internal Hip Rotation isolation, I was also working Internal Shoulder Rotation as well. 

Jack Dempsey calls this Internal Shoulder Rotation “The Shoulder Whirl”, and explains that it is as critical for boxers in his masterful book, Championship Fighting: Explosive Punching and Aggressive Defense. 

The Shoulder Whirl is nothing out of the ordinary like the above Internal Hip Rotation exercises…just regular twisting of the shoulders from the spine as legendary boxing coach Tom Yankello demonstrates. 

After testing this, I realized I could improve on it…but the improvement isn’t really something I can take credit for…

After reading Wing Chun Kung Fu: Traditional Chinese Kung Fu for Self-Defense and Health by Ip Chun and Michael Tse on April 22 2023, I realized that the pigeon-toed Traditional Wing Chun stance was the perfect platform to work on Dempsey’s Shoulder Roll.

For Boxing application, I modified the arm position with a Peek-A-Book Guard for the arms instead of the Karate-esque way it is often done.

Now the Traditional Wing Chun stance takes a lot of crap from the critics…but this is because both the critics and the fans alike forget its true purpose. It is NOT meant to be a fighting stance in sparring or an actual fight. 

The pigeon-toed stance is meant to train the hips, knees, and ankles for Internal Rotation in an Isometric strengthening fashion. And this is critical when it comes to the real fight. 

As has been repeatedly demonstrated from the 1950s to today, both in the underground and in the mainstream, Isometric strengthening has the biggest crossover into dynamic movements. 

So when it comes time to dynamically Internally Rotate those hips, knees, and ankles in combat, your nervous system has been given an extra nitrous-fuel like boost from all the isometric lower body training in the Traditional Wing Chun stance!

However, before I started hitting the heavy bag, I knew there was one more thing I needed…

WHAT THE WHIRLING DERVISHES KNEW

The above described Internal Hip Rotation and Shoulder Whirl from the pigeon-toed Traditional Wing Chun Stance are Isolation exercises…they dynamically work only one joint at a time. 

But all the punches in boxing are Compound movements…meaning multiple joints have got to move together in coordination to put the hurt on the enemy! 

Consequently, I knew that I needed one more drill to tie it all together.

I found it in the masterful bodyweight workout book, Combat Conditioning: Functional Exercises for Fitness and Combat Sports by the legendary Matt Furey…Dan Gable-mentored University of Iowa wrestler and esoteric extraordinaire! 

He called the exercise “The Whirling Dervish” because it is a staple of the champion wrestlers of Iran…as Indo-European as it gets!

To do it, you bring your arms up to shoulder height and out to the sides, and you internally rotate the hip, internally pivot on the ball of the feet, and internally rotate your shoulder, all at the same time. 

This mimics the mechanics of both the straight punches like the Jab and Cross, as well as the curved punches like the Left and Right Hook!

Doing this for 30-100x reps, the nervous system is primed for the full body compound rotational movement that is striking in boxing…all you have left to work the actual strikes is make contact with the fists with the target!

And yesterday, that’s just what I did…

MIRROR, MIRROR, ON THE WALL

“The mirror is absolutely the best tool for self-correction,” writes Mark Hatmaker and Doug Werner on page 11 of their must-have book, Boxing Mastery: Advanced Tactics and Strategies for the Sweet Science. 

“By working before a mirror,” they continue on the same page, “You provide your own feedback about your movement, technique and guard. Is it as tight, fluid, and powerful as need be?”

In the preceding weeks to yesterday, I took their advice, and practiced James Lafond’s continuous Jab-Cross combo drill before a mirror. No heavy bag, just punching the air…shadow boxing style. 

I did high reps, 4x sets of 30x, and added in a like set rep scheme of slips as well. 

After a few weeks of practice syncing this into my nervous system, I knew it was time to test it on the heavy bag!

So yesterday, I went to the gym, and pounded away!

What I felt astounded me…

HEAVY BAG BATTLE!

I started out the session with a warm-up of 3x sets of 100x “Reverse Clamshells”. This warm-up lasted approximately 7 minutes. 

Then it was time to lace up the gloves and go to town. 

Immediately I saw instant improvement from my past attempt at this drill on March 1st, 2023. 

Every little micromovement was coordinated to the tiniest degree without me thinking. The Internal Hip Rotation, the Shoulder Whirl…and I was relaxed and loose until the moment of impact when I tensed like lightning to pound the bag!

I also found that I could transfer the weight in the hips via Internal Hip Rotation both with and without the foot pivot…that’s big coordination progress, right there!  

What’s more, I did this with the mouth guard in the whole time…this has been a problem for me in the boxing gym in the past. You stick that thing in your mouth, and your only source of air is coming through the tiny holes in your nose. 

But as the old adage goes, “you train as your fight”, so I knew this was the time to accustom myself to the mouth guard. This made the drill doubly hard…amping up the cardio aspect!

Instead of counting reps as I did with the shadow boxing drill, I decided to set the timer. I wanted to see if I could do this drill for 3 minutes. 

On the first attempt, I could go for 1 minute. 

The next attempt, I could go for 30 seconds. 

I settled into my 30 second groove, and worked this drill repeatedly for approximately 20 minutes, anaerobic power style. 

After each drill, I took a little time to breathe, but never took the mouth guard out. I wanted to get used to breathing through the nose while exhausted without panicking. 

It kinda feels like trying to breathe while swimming. And the trick in both is stay calm, self-talk that you’re not drowning (on land and sea!), and you’ll be ok!

From the first drill to the last, I felt my heart rate lower in between rounds to a significant level. 

To wrap it up, I hit the tire with a sledge hammer for 1x set of 30x reps, each side of the body. 

The whole thing clocked out at 33:03.03. 

FIRST DAY OF MANY 

Well, my friends, there you have it. Six months of boxing gym training secrets revealed!

At the end of the day, this half year experiment has taught me that a progression of Isolation to Compound exercises are needed to effectively teach Striking. 

Striking is composed of Jabs, Crosses, Hooks, and Uppercuts. As we have seen, these are all Compound exercises involving the linking of the Feet, Hips, Shoulders, and Fists together in delivering energy into the bad guy. 

Therefore, just like Isolation Exercises help in mastering the Compound Lifts of Powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting, so too can Isolation Exercises help in mastering the Compound Moves of Striking!

This vital lesson learned is just the first step. 

And yesterday was my first day of many back in the boxing gym…

Just like John Wayne and Douglas MacArthur, I’m going Back to Bataan!

Sincerely,

Richard Barrett

06-23-2023

Written at 2:35 PM, somewhere in the USA…