orthodox = right handed person standing left hand and left leg leading.
southpaw = left handed person standing right hand and right leg leading.
Usually.
Then there are people who stand power hand forward and weak hand rear - right handed person standing right hand and right leg leading. Like me.
The “Small-phasic-bent-knee position.”
:eek:
Originally posted by yenhoi
[B]orthodox = right handed person standing left hand and left leg leading.
southpaw = left handed person standing right hand and right leg leading.
Usually.
Then there are people who stand power hand forward and weak hand rear - right handed person standing right hand and right leg leading. Like me.
The “Small-phasic-bent-knee position.”
:eek: [/B]
Oh man, I’m almost more confused. OK, I’m right handed and definitely have more power in my right hand. I constantly try to train up my left side to account for this. I’m fairly comfortable both sides, as mentioned earlier, but will usually start off at least with my right hand forward. I guess that makes me like you, Yenhoi. So am I a north-paw or an unorthodox!? 
YES! Boxing promotes assymetry and so freakin what?
Examples of physical tasks where excellence is better achieved through asymettrical training have been noted! :
baseball
virtually all musical instruments.
bowling
WE ARE NOT SYMETRICAL.
Once you’ve flayed a man you realize that our bodies aren’t symmetrical anyways. It’s just not a very efficient use of resources to make sure everything can do everything elses job.
I switch leads compfortably BUT my tactics change along with the lead.
The idea that one side is ‘stronger’ and one weaker is a myth as is the idea someone (WaterDragon?) mentioned that one side of the brain tends to be used more. The sides are just used differently. I was a waiter for 10 years and never once met a righty who could carry a tray steadily on his right hand. We all carry trays with out left and serve of of them with our right. It seems like mky right is more nimble but my left more steady.
Strangely, my right jab SUCKS! I can land a good stiff lead right but not a real jab. Consequently, when I am in an orthodox lead, I fight more like a boxer. I use the jabs to set up or cover my footwork and then shoot in with the power side. Fighting southpaw, I tend more to let my lead hang out there making contact with my opponents lead and use much more classical gong-fu techniques to ‘open the door’ or to turn them enough to enter the ‘side door’. I use much more stickyness with my lead right.
Well, first things first.
As Fa_jing said, boxers aren’t lopsided (excepting pershaps Sonny Liston), but they throw punches differently from one hand to the other. It’s simply a question of goal-- do I want to use the jab to gauge distance, to stop an incoming attack, or to do heavy damage? If I can get away with it, I’ll throw a jab with lots of torque and drop step into it, which is a power punch. But since most boxers will read that a mile away, I’m forced to use my jab in a more speedy fashion to set up my right cross, right uppercut, and rear hook. This is what I mean by lopsided, tactically. I can hit hard with my left, but I hit hard more effectively by setting up a strong right hand with a speedy (but weaker) punch from my left to open the door. Since it’s more tactically sound (for boxers) to fight this way, this idea becomes ingrained pretty quickly. It’s not that I won’t be able to hit hard with my left without a setup should the need arise, but unless I’m sure I can get away with it, I tend not to do it.
This tactical view point is part of the problem with boxers who decide to “switch” stances from orthodox to southpaw in the fact that your defense and tactics completely change when you change it up. You have to dodge differently, change your combos, watch your footwork, etc. It’s not simply a matter of doing mirror images of your orthodox stancework. It’s about learning new tactics, new footwork, new combos, and new bearings in the ring.
Personally, I’ve been playing around with fighting southpaw because it makes my Shuai Chiao throws easier to get; however, if I was to try to enter on a pure orthodox boxer southpaw, I’m sure I’d get eaten alive. If I slip a jab, I’d have to worry about moving right into the path of my opponet’s cross, rear hook, overhand right, etc-- in other words, his power hand. I’d have a better lead hook and maybe a slightly heavier jab, but I sacrifice a lot of familiar training and tactics for two dubious advantages.
However, as a final point, lemme stress that there ARE boxers who can switch it up, or fight strong-side forward. Paul Spadafora (yay Pittsburgh!) comes to mind, especially. If taught this way early on, I think it makes for an easier time switching between the two. Unfortunately, most people cannot make it work for whatever reason and tend to fall back into the strong/speed divide.
Man, I spent all that time writting a longass response, and Omar beat me to it. Well said, well said.
ps. I still say Dempsey is pound-for-pound better than Tunney.
Originally posted by omarthefish
The idea that one side is ‘stronger’ and one weaker is a myth as is the idea someone (WaterDragon?) mentioned that one side of the brain tends to be used more. The sides are just used differently. I was a waiter for 10 years and never once met a righty who could carry a tray steadily on his right hand. We all carry trays with out left and serve of of them with our right. It seems like mky right is more nimble but my left more steady.
Yay! I get to prove someone wrong today. We do use oneside of our brain more that the other. I am currently reading “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” <– Excellant book, which states that the left side of the brain is responsible for the analytical process while the right side is associated with imagination and creativity. As a society (Western), we use our left side much more often than the right.
What I’m not sure, but I think is true, is that the left side of the brain controls the right hand while the right side controls the left hand.
*pats self on the back for being intelligent today
WD has the correct by the scruff of its neck and is spanking its ass.
Research Quarterly for Exercise & Sport
Here’s part of an abstract for an article written by Susan L. Puretz, State University of New York found in Research Quarterly for Exercise & Sport, Vol 54(1), Mar 1983. pp. 48-54.
She continues by recommending that
The fact that it is not necessary implies that if one is trying to master a great deal of material that it may be more efficient to practice on one side and wait for transfer to occur.
Originally posted by CrippledAvenger
[B]Man, I spent all that time writting a longass response, and Omar beat me to it. Well said, well said.
ps. I still say Dempsey is pound-for-pound better than Tunney. [/B]
Acgtually… I think your right. Dempsey IS ..er WAS better. I just thought that particular fight was brilliant and liked how Tunney solved the puzzel that was Dempsey.
Water Dragon,
YOU OTOH, are still wrong.
Yeah, I read “7 habits…” too. That left/right brain thingy goes back to the 60’s when. I think, a lot of that sort of research was first done. “Drawing From the Right Side of The Brain” was my into. REgardless, that just says that YOU think we are all pencil pushing nerds here in “The West”. Us touchy feely artist types would be using the ‘non-dominant’ side quite a bit more. I recently saw an article about how people who speak Chinese, because it is a tonal language, acess both hemispheres more.
So if the argument says that we are westerners and therefore more analytical and THERFORE use the left heisphere more . . .
SPEAK FOR YOURSELF!!! 
p.s.
Yes, the left brain controlls the right hand and vice-versa. But, the crossover happens right about where the spine leaves the scull which means that if you are right handed you are left eyed. 
Apparently we have ‘eyedness’ too. We generally sight things straight ahead with one eye and then the other one triangulates in. (Collag anatomy. One’s you’ve flayed a man, you’ll never go back!)
[size=2]Dam[/size]mit Omar. You’re not supposed to prove me wrong in public. Now I’m going to have to delete this thread and have you banned with my uber-moderatoer powers. :mad:
Its ok. Just try some of my pimp juice™ and youll be just fine.
Man… That gas is back again… Wheres a hose leading to serpents house when you need it?
:eek: