Portland Kickboxing Gym: Focusing On Fundamentals: Shadow Boxing!!!!

Ahhhhhh, I remember the first days at Mata Leao before I actually knew what Muay Thai was. I was a Kung Fu guy, and I definitely drank the Kool-aid . A couple TKO’s later (receiving end) in North Carolina, I realized I NEEDED DESPERATELY to have a standup game that was real and worked for me.  My life changed forever when I moved back to Oregon and discovered Mata Leao, Then enter Jacob Cooper, enter Jeremy Pires , Enter Omar Santiago. These coaches helped me craft my game so that now my standup has come a long way.  Any Portland Kickboxing gym worth it’s salt will tell you that shadowboxing is majorly important.

Major Caveat here guys: Thai People apparently don’t like it when you call practicing like this “shadowboxing”. Apparently they like for you to call it “Shadow Muay Thai” an important distinction. I will use the blanket term ” Shadowboxing” because I personally like to practice Western boxing a great deal. Some people would say “ayyyy man you’re limiting yourself because Muay Thai is a complete art and if you’re doing MMA then you need to cut boxing out altogether.

Bro. Not really. Stipe Miocic would also disagree. Recent interview he places a major emphasis on his game for his hands and the sweet science. SO FOR THE SAKE OF THIS ARTICLE we are calling BOTH Muay Thai and Western Solo Practice shadowboxing ok. But back the story.

Even up to my first fight, I didn’t realize the importance of shadow boxing. My coaches would always tell me to shadow box in the mirror, to shadowbox when I am walking, to shadowbox everywhere I could.

“When I first started,  I thought Shadowboxing was just punching the air. I could not have been more wrong”

Things I have learned since training:

• Shadowboxing is Underrated and is a MAJOR component of your training
• Usually shadowboxing feels weird, kind of awkward but feels better over time
• People that overlook shadowboxing as a component usually miss out huge gainz
• YOU WILL DROP YOUR HANDS LESS IF YOU SHADOW BOX IN THE MIRROR

Guys we are going to talk a lot about shadowboxing. We are going to talk about the mechanics of why this is important. We are going to go deep, this is just the intro, so stay posted.