Developing The Uppercut With Jimmy McNally
When we throw the uppercut, we must learn how to change levels while moving our body weight from one foot to another. After we get the body moving correctly, we can start throwing the uppercut keeping our hands tight to our face without lowering our hands down to gain momentum, as we can get caught with a counter strike at this moment.
The most common problem with the uppercut is not knowing when is the wrong time to throw the uppercut. If we don’t understand why and when we throw the uppercut, the strike will leave us open for counters and do more harm than good.
The uppercut is not effectively thrown from a distance, as it dramatically endangers the one who throws it from afar; any opponent can beat us to the punch while we throw the uppercut. So don’t make the rookie mistakes of throwing uppercuts from a distance with no setup; you will be playing with luck, and you might go to sleep.
There are two main conditions for our uppercuts to succeed -
- Frontal opponents who leave an opening up the middle
- Crouched opponents who bring their head close to our uppercut
The benefit of landing the uppercut is enormous as it chains well with short strikes like the left hook, as it lifts the opponent's head out of his shell and leaves his head exposed with his chin high in an optimal position to end the fight with a left hook.
In this video, Jimmy McNally will show us the mechanics behind the perfect uppercut.
Who Is Jimmy McNally?
Jimmy is the son of professional boxers, which means he grew around the sport from a young age. As Jimmy accompanied his father to the gym when he went to his training, he fell in love with the sport and became a professional. Once becoming a professional, Jimmy signed a contract for 20 fights; he won 14 of them and lost only one before he had a car accident that injured his hands so bad that he had to retire. After retiring, Jimmy stayed in business and trained many amateur and professional fighters on their way up.
The Uppercut
In this video, Jimmy will work with us on the uppercuts; Jimmy likes to teach the uppercut on the mitts instead of the heavy bag because it is easier to hit correctly, unlike the heavy bag flat surface where the uppercut will slide over.
When we look for a boxer that utilized the uppercuts better than anybody, we find Oscar De La Hoya. Oscar is a natural southpaw, but he fought as an orthodox all of his careers, so he would set his opponent traps by throwing a right hand for them to go under where he can land his lead uppercut as a follow-up and do a lot of damage as this is his power hand.
The difference between the uppercut and other strikes is that the uppercut is a strike you lean back on, unlike the jab and the right hand where you drive forward; in the uppercut, we sit on the same side leg of the punch.
Jimmy advises us to use the uppercut against boxers that come in low with their head as they try to avoid the hooks and straight punches; they come right into our uppercuts.
Another cue for throwing the uppercut is when a boxer moves his head out of the centerline leaning on one leg, here we aim the uppercut to the body instead of the head as his head is out of the way the body stays in place.
When we throw the uppercut, notice that our palm is facing us, and we keep our secondary arm high and protect ourselves from the hooks that might come as we throw the punch.
Notice now that the uppercut lifts the chin when it lands, and it puts us in the best position to throw a fight-ending left hook. So after you get used to the uppercut, always drill it in a chain with the left hook.
Learn More From Jimmy McNally
If you liked the way, Jimmy explains such a fundamental strike with so much information and would like to deepen your knowledge of the fundamental strikes, check out - “The Basics & Fundamentals Of Boxing By Jimmy McNally” available exclusively on Dynamic Striking.