Working The Close Range Like A Pro With Teddy Atlas
The world of boxing is full of different styles, but the most exciting s to watch are the ones that use the pocket where the fighters get inside close to their opponent, and the action begins. The inside fighter looks to pressure the opponent and overwhelm him with short and powerful strikes.
Still, many people consider inside fighting a dangerous approach and would rather stay in the distance and outbox their opponents. Some fighters made inside fighting an art; when we see Mike Tyson, Joe Louis, or Roberto Duran, we can see that they have a tactic behind what they are doing, and they are not just swinging for the fences.
The problem most fighters face inside is they are panicking and throwing with no aim or set up, which leads the fight into a brawl where luck will decide the winner, or it will lead us into our opponent's traps where he can win the fight.
To be an effective inside fighter, you must make sure that some core principles are met:
- Keep your head off the center line
- Keep your punches short
- Keep your defense tight
- Keep your eyes open and always scanning
In this video, Teddy Atlas will show us how to find open windows to land our strikes on the inside.
Who Is Teddy Atlas?
Teddy Atlas is a known boxing coach who has built many world champions and their legacy. Teddy plays an essential role in boxing and its history as he carries with him the philosophy of the great Cus D’Amato as he was his apprentice. Teddy is also known for his short relationship with Mike Tyson, which ended up with an incident. Teddy Atlas is a figure we see almost anywhere when we watch boxing, as he is always a commentator for ESPN in many fights.
Check Out Teddy’s Extensive Line Of Instructionals HERE! Click Learn More!
How To Find Open Windows
The video starts with an analogy Teddy gives us when we fight on the inside “we never want to leave our windows open because we can never know what can come in.” The same goes for fighting on the inside; we want to keep everything tight and short so we don’t leave any openings for him to come in.
One rule the great Cus DÁmato pushed teddy to keep when working with his fighters is that we want to keep everything short when we work from the inside. We must keep it in mind when working in the pocket every little mistake can cost us, as from this range it will be hard to react to anything coming our way.
So the first thing we do is to keep everything tight, now there is something even more critical, and this is our “awareness” on the inside. Once we get in close, we want to see everything and stay calm to calculate our next step.
But this is not always that easy because when we are in close, everything looks like a mess, and to put order into that mess and see clearly, we must stay calm; this is the difference between the top guys and everyone else thinking inside this storm.
Once we are able to see clearly on the inside, we can react accordingly to the opponent's punches; when he throws a hook, for example, we can catch him with a short right where he is left open because those openings are always there when we open our eyes, almost everybody throws wide punches without noticing.
An excellent example of a fighter that utilized this concept very well is the legendary Joe Louis, and if we watch his fights, we can see that he almost always finds the openings for his punches on the inside, and once we are aware of that, we can use that too for our advantage.
Learn More From Teddy Atlas
Suppose you liked the way Teddy simplifies the work on the inside and would like to see his whole DVD to take your game to the next level, make sure you check out “Trench Warfare - The Art Of Inside Fighting By Teddy Atlas” available exclusively on Dynamic Striking.