With today’s article, we’re going to give you a comprehensive breakdown of the Uppercut punch in Boxing and Kickboxing.
The upper cut is a powerful knock out punch that commonly sneaks in between the forearms of your opponent.
To start things off, here’s a quick tutorial of the right upper cut.
Now, we’re going to look at the left Uppercut. Note the similarities in the form- dropping the hips, rotating the hips and the shoulders all with proper elbow and hand positioning.
When students are new to Boxing, people execute the upper cut without first dropping their hips to load up the legs. This is a mistake.
You need to power the upward motion of the Uppercut with your legs and with your back.
As well, you need to get underneath the target to properly place the uppercut.
Finally, if you are just dropping your hand, this telegraphs the uppercut and leaves you open for an easy hook counter.
Keep your hands up to your face and bend your knees to lower your elevation. Now you’ll have power and the proper position to launch your upper cut.
As well, many boxing and kickboxing students make the common mistake of loading up their hand by bringing their fist down to their hip before executing the upper cut.
This is a very dangerous error as it opens you up for a counter hook.
And at the very least it will show your training partner that you are about to launch the Uppercut and he’ll easily defend it.
Remember if you want the punch to land, you have to make the punch invisible. The Uppercut is a very short punch. Power is developed in a very short and tight amount of space. About 6 inches.
Remember, if you throw a right upper cut, you need to turn your right heel.
People fail to realize that not only are you using your legs and your back to generate the upward force of the upper cut, this force development is also assisted by hip and shoulder rotation.
Turn your heel to facilitate hip rotation and you’ll improve the power of your uppercut.
The most functional way to train the upper cut is with focus mitts. Here’s a video tutorial on how to train the right uppercut with a focus mitt.
When you’re training the left upper cut, the holding pattern for the focus mitt is slightly different. Check out this video for a deeper explanation.
I tried to make this article about the upper cut as detailed as possible. Please let me know in the comment section below if I missed something or if something remains unclear.
Take care Everybody!
