This actually clicked for me as a boxer when I was learning to rock climb. A guy said "if you ever feel confused about what to do, off-balance, or weak you need to move your feet". I realized that probably applies to every single sport. If you ever don't know what to do, standing there is probably wrong. If you feel like something is sluggish or awkward, it's because you're not standing in the right place, and if you feel weak it's because your feet aren't lined up to exert force wherever you want it to go

"Position before submission" that grapplers teach applies just as much to striking, and chess, and Street Fighter. It's a fundamental of combat. The chess equivalent is something along the lines of "the threat is greater than the execution."

I was a D1 wrestler and EVERYTHING starts with your footwork. Half steps, maintaining balance while moving and looking for openings, it all comes back to footwork.

Izzy style bender is a testimony to how effective superior footwork is.

Footwork is the difference between a "tough guy" and a skilled fighter. I tell my guys that the foundation of fighting (all fighting in all contexts -- sport or self-defense, weapons or unarmed) is managing range and bearing. That's true for both offense and defense. Nearly all of managing range and bearing is done through footwork. (The other little bit is clinch work, where you're physically manipulating the other guy.) You're exactly right though...people want to hear the satisfying "pop" when they hit a bag much more than they want to do pivot drills and shadow boxing.

Mike’s commentary on it being hard to train-it is, but I think it’s mostly in people’s heads. I find throwing arts run into this a lot because you will practice something, your partner will know it’s coming, and thereby be able to devote 100% optimal defense and shut you down all the time. I’ve gotten this a lot rolling with BJJ people as a Judo guy. I’ll be on the attack and the BJJ person will be 100% defensive-arms stiff, super low posture, no incoming threat to me at all. Of course I won’t be able to throw this person unless I escalate to, frankly, a really dynamic and typically unsafe (for intermediate training) level. Yet I’ve encountered a lot of these types who will take that and run with the idea that “see, Judo doesn’t work.” And of course it doesn’t when you’ve decided to be 100% defensive; it’s just you’re not really doing anything to progress in the fight or training. In the case of Judo (and really most martial arts) the curriculum reasonably assumes the opponent has only ambiguous prior knowledge about your game plan and that they are, in fact, trying to win the fight rather than just not be thrown or hit 100% of the time. I find footwork training to be pretty similar. You’re either working compliantly-which I think is bad if it’s the only thing you do, but otherwise gets way too much hate online-or with extreme resistance and an opponent who knows exactly what’s coming. The latter might be useful at high level, but to learn fundamentals, it’s basically a waste of time. Tl;Dr I don’t think ANY of this has to necessarily be “hard to train,” I just think we are in a martial arts culture right now where compliant training is necessarily fake and where the only “real training” happens with absolute resistance. The reality is that the overwhelming majority of training typically happens in the middle, somewhere between 50-70% resistance, I’d say. Which is why training to be a good training partner is an extremely slept on martial arts concept, imo. I get it can absolutely be taken too far, but semi-compliment training gets slept on too much. Idk why huge swaths of the martial arts community expects anything to work on a perfectly defensive opponent-especially when the attacker is still early in their career.

that being said, I agree with Mike - footwork is the first layer of defense.

Control the distance with foot movement for offensive and defensive attacks on your opponent. Controlling the distance between you and your opponent is key to hitting your opponent and not getting hit by your opponent. I have a routine on the Bob for lining up and getting your distance , hitting correct and where to hit the opponent on the Bob . Foot movement is for controlling the distance between you and your opponent.

I came to this channel by Icy Mike, stayed watching the other videos, subbed then got just more hard2hurt XD

As my first Boxing Coach use to say "You either learn your feet first or your hands first and if you learned your hands first your feet never catch up!"

Exactly.. I've always caution fighters on a risk vs reward stance. Stepping out and leaning back is one of the easiest thing to do in a fight and let your opponent drain and expose themselves. But at the same time, there's so much more to footwork than just stance work that's not MMA, that's for real fighting, like crushing your opponents ankle, or snap kicking the knee extremely hard. Using momentum and leaping to close distance and leaping forward kicks. And then you get into training stuff like dropping spin kicks like Phillip Rhee does and Capoeira type kicks. Footwork is one of the most important things to any fighter simply because it is the beginning of balance. All our stances and movements begin with footwork. But to ignore the rest of the body would be folly. The body and mind, the hands, the feet, the arms and legs, fist and heels, elbows and shins.. Are all one.

"Best way to avoid punch…No Be There!” I'm still restarting MA/SD training after a decade off and a recent surgery, and general fitness after getting way overweight during Covid. So I am reading & watching stuff almost as much as I train. I have a massive pile/queue of books, and videos, and many more on wishlists but once I get caught up, or get really into reading about actual fighting and technique, I have a book on footwork to get through "Footwork wins fights". My plan is to start boxing in December/January once healed from surgery. However i'm also looking into Ballet, Salsa, Swing, Jazz, Contemporary, and other dance styles to train in a few ideally a couple times a week. In the Shotokan karate I do and the Aikido weapons I did (ended today) I don't move until the last second or until I feel in "danger". The instructors get it and do it themselves, however other students are worried about hitting me or hitting me too hard so go off line or pull their strikes just short. I have to tell them "if I get hit that's my fault not yours. Really try to hit me and hit through me."

From the ground up!!! Footwork and distance management

I really love this content. Lateral footwork saved me from receiving stiff jabs and sneaky hooks from my coach.

Great stuff guys. I really like the coaching principle of inches = miles

The margin for error and they're wearing big fat boxing gloves too. So imagine the margin for error without the gloves on.

Footwork can make or break your whole game man!! Love the vid you seem really cool

My bro who recently became the Wisconsin Middleweight Champion in boxing would always tell me: your hands will win you the fight, your feet won't let you lose.

I always start my training with footwork shadowboxing then next round i add different jabs while moveing, always set me into right groove from beggining

Mike looks like David from 20 years in the future, come back to deliver a message.

Footwork , overall positions of your body and proper body mechanics are actually the biggest factors in determining "speed" , power and accuracy. Many don't know that of course, even in the competition arts many fighters, even pros really do not spend much time with any of that, of course the ones who really stand out do and that is why. , like Mike Tyson for example

Positioning is everything. You must be comfortable, stable, at range and save energy while your opponent must be uncomfortable, unstable, out of range and waste energy. If you do this well, you start picking people appart.

I really really agree with you dude..

I remember Mike laughing off Aikido's footwork, and now I see him doing increasingly more in this area. Unfortunately many aikidokas fail in this department despite its importance in Aikido 😞

Great video

This video covers exactly what in Fighting Games we call "footsies"

Could you do a vidéo talking about the five layer of offense and defense ?

Appreciate the content! Coach what would the proper way of drilling in striking sports ? As stated in the video

@ 6:47 I feel attacked right now.

My first day in class my instructor said footwork footwork footwork..... Ingrained in my head

I need to work on my footwork More

In my experience, which is limited, eveytime I try and teach someone boxing thier eyes glaze over as soon as I get to footwork and I always start every session with footwork

In my opinion, the barriers to entry for footwork is not putting the strong leg forward. It's alot harder to train left lead vs right lead. My two cents.

imo the concept is easier to grasp if you think of it as "moving out of center line". now the beginner doesn't have to concentrate on his feet while trying to use his hand, which is probably the biggest problem

I misread that title as footwork is over rated but was luckily mistaken lol

So what are drills we can do Solo or with a partner to improve our footwork while competing or Shadow boxing or just in general

Great content. Subbed. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help your channel grow.

My footwork is shit NGL

Tae kwon do teaches a lot of footwork. People just don’t know how to use the indirect skills that come with it. Also the reason why the jab is the most important punch in boxing is because it allows you to measure the distance. Footwork is key for keeping your distance. Don’t listen to all the zombies out there that regurgitate saying “keep your hands up”. All they know how to do is regurgitate what they hear. Keeping your hands up actually hinders your mobility (footwork) because your center of mass becomes too high which makes it hard to move your body naturally. Footwork is what allows you to keep the distance but also the thing that allows for offense as well. Footwork is the key to offense and defense.

Feet. Agree on Mike.

wheels are all

OK I need help I got a 15-year-old son he’s good on the bag he’s good at throwing kicks but for the life of me soon as I put on gloves and tap him all of that goes out the window remind you I am using soft touch and soft kicks. Please help

I drill my footwork just as much as my hands

Mmm, drill :)

I like bald Shane Fazen.

Know this is a weird comment table tennis is years 1-2 shots, years 3-6 footwork. Footwork is so important in sports because balance is.

Getting out of the way and moving randomly is easy. Taken to the extreme, you might as well tuck tail and run. That's not fighting, it will never win you a fight. The hard part (real footwork) is when you move out of the way, and are in a position to fire back.

You kidding me? Self defense puts SO much emphasis on footwork.... ...If running away counts as footwork that is. Great video btw, would love to see more on this topic.

It's really poor coaching telling people they don't have to use their hands to defend themselves or learn to block a Parry, just learn footwork. That's why you teach classes and you're not a professional fighter. Gabriel Vega would tell you completely otherwise then what you said. Just goes to show you that everybody has their own way of teaching and thoughts on the matter and most of them are wrong

Boxing footwork is way more complicated than grappling. Its hard to capitalize on good footwork because the moments are so fast and fleeting.