Jack Slack's Guide to Striking: Counter-Jabbing

Part one can be found at: http://www.headkicklegend.com/2012/1/19/2718349/jack-slacks-striking-guide-the-jab-offensive

The Counter Jab is perhaps the most important punch in boxing and therefore in all around striking, it lands cleanly and often, and it is by far the safest counter punch to throw. Supposedly good strikers have been taken apart time and again by lesser strikers who counter jab often and accurately. There are many variations of the counter jab, but by far the most useful are the catch and pitch, and the dipping jab. The catch and pitch jab is a simple matter of using the right palm to catch an incoming jab while firing one's own jab simultaneously. The dipping jab is the act of slipping to the outside of the opponent's jab while simultaneously throwing one's own.

The former technique of catch and pitch is demonstrated here by the great Joe Louis

via gifsoup.com

Notice how Louis initiates his jab immediately upon his opponent's front foot entering punching range. Louis was not a fast mover, and it really showed as most of his opponents spent the early rounds running in and out of range, so it was these kind of well timed pot shots at long range that Louis used to slow them down before stepping into range for his violent hooking and uppercutting combinations. Watch in this gif as he grinds down Mann, a fighter who had begun the fight by attempting to rush Louis. Louis brought Mann under his control with a counter jab every time Mann attempted to fight from long range.

Continues after the Jump

via gifsoup.com

At the start of the gif you can see that Mann (left) is already tentative to throw his jab, as Louis is gently pawing and pulling back every time he thinks Mann is going to strike. Louis lands his counter jab as Mann circles toward the top of the picture, then again with a right hand behind it. Then while backpeddling he lands the jab and Mann stumbles on to Louis' infamous uppercut - left hook combination.

The dipping jab is different in that rather than preserve the range, as you do when you catch a jab, you close the distance between yourself and your opponent somewhat. Sometimes this technique is accompanied by a right hand parry over the lead shoulder, sometimes it is done with just a slip. By slipping as you throw the jab you can use it as either a counter punch to stop the opponent in his tracks, or as an offensive technique as most of his counters are negated by a movement of the head.

BJ Penn changed the path of his career when he abandoned his formidable left hook in favour of a methodical, plodding counter jab similar to Joe Louis. When watching Penn's fights against GSP (first time around) Sherk and Stevenson it is noticable how 70% of his counters are the direct slipping jab, occasionally throwing in a stronger counter punch. Equally, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is not an excellent striker, no matter how much training with the Cuban boxing team he did he still lacked speed, power, footwork and an adequate defence, yet in the two notable stand up performances of his career, against Sergei Kharitonov and Brendan Schaub - men touted to be much better strikers - he negated their power punches, bloodied them up and in Schaub's case garnered his first knockout over a true heavyweight by repeatedly going to the dipping jab. Watch as in this clip (the disgraceful quality of which I must apologise for) as Nogueira lands the dipping jab twice in 10 seconds backing up the younger, faster man and creating the opening for his finishing combo.

via gifsoup.com

Re-watching Nogueira's meeting with Schaub, the latter becomes tentative after Nogueira counters every strike he throws with the dipping jab, leaving Nogueira the opening to step in with the fantastic four punch combination that put the chinny American out. Previously in the match, Schaub had come close to a finish with a powerful uppercut which Nogueira was dipping on to. Were Schaub a more savvy fighter, he could have taken advantage of Nog's dipping with uppercuts. Here is Jose Aldo's take on countering the dipping jab:

via www.fightreport.net

At any rate, the counter jab - both catching and dipping, is an integral part of the scientific boxer / fighter's arsenal. One cannot "establish the jab" by simply spamming it on offence and hoping that 1 of 3 connects; but almost every punch an opponent throws can be countered with the dipping jab, if used thoughtfully and interspersed with other counters and defences.

Jack Slack blogs at http://fightsgoneby.blogspot.com/ and can be found on twitter @JackSlackMMA