Boxing's "drop step"?

[Mr. Nemo]

Can any boxers on here give me some info on the "drop step" technique found in boxing?

From what I understand, Jack Dempsey was the first to write this down - it involves dropping all of your weight very suddenly into your front foot as you punch to make yourself "heavier" - and to make your punch hit harder.

Has anyone ever been taught this technique, and, if so, how did you learn it? How do you practice it?

[jimmy23]

the book Championship Streetfighting has a great write up of this move


"You guys have obviously never done any real fighting if you are mocking spitting"
Spinning Backfist

[shaolinboxer]

Try this.

Stand a punch's distance from a wall or a tree. Take a nice cosy stance and place your lead fist on the wall. Now push into the wall using the alignment you would for a straight blast or a jab. Lift your front foot. And bang! There is the feeling you want when you land. Add to that a forward shuffle of your weight from your center, and you've got your punch. Fist before foot is the mantra for this one.

[Xebsball]

I dont think this is the technique that you are looking for, since its from kung fu.
Simply move to a bow stance when you punch, but i guess you have to train a lot to be fluid and fast on this.

-------------------------
"I AM EFFECTIVNESS"

[joedoe]

Some styles use a stomp with the leading foot at the same time as the punch to add power to the strike. The drop step sounds very similar.

cxxx[]:::::::::::>
You're fu(king up my chi

[Jaguar Wong]

Pro wrestling uses the front foot stomp to add power to their strikes as well. Pro wrestling is real.

hehe. Yeah basically it's like a lunging punch (or falling forward, however you wanna describe it :)). You're putting your bodyweight into the punch.

Jaguar Wong

"If you learn to balance a tack hammer on your head
then you learn to head up a balanced attack!"
- The Sphinx

[Kaitain(UK)]

I train this in Wado-Ryu - it's not really a stamp, just sink all your weight into the front leg as the punch lands. It's not a stamp as that implies a rigid leg, the leg must bend as the weight goes into it. It's good for launching into the next technique as the launching leg is fully loaded.

works best on hooks and overhands - it makes jabs too slow but it is very good for getting power into the rear jab/cross

I used it in Muay Thai on elbows as well

tbh I think it is effective more because it forces the waist to turn - I don't get much more power out of it on circular strikes as my Taiji has loosened my waist up nicely.

"If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?"

[Mr. Nemo]

Thanks for the replies.

ABandit: I just started training baji, a style in which stomping is almost a signature. I haven't actually gotten to the stomps yet (just started training it a week ago), but I the concept is similar to the drop step.

In baji (as we practice it), however, you don't actually stomp while fighting. You only stomp in practice, and it's to get you in the habit of dropping your weight into that front foot.

[JWTAYLOR]

If you stomp in practice you will stomp when you fight.
JWT

If you pr!ck us, do we not bleed? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that the villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction. MOV

[neptunesfall]

so....this could be seen as an opposite to the hsing i stepping?
i'm not sure i'm getting this.
mostly it just sounds like stepping forward and punching, a more yang punch.

[Jaguar Wong]

neptunesfall,
It's not the opposite of the Hsing I stepping, it's actually quite similar. Hsing I's step is more refined, and sharper (making it much more difficult to master, but your short power will be awesome if you do). The drop step is more like pushing off of the rear leg, and striking just before, or just when the lead foot lands. The power is coming from your rear leg pushing the body, then dropping your weight for the strike. In Hsing I, you're still using your rear leg to add the power, and you're also dropping your weight into the strike, the only difference is that the lead foot is already on the ground.

It looks like the opposite, but the mechanics are fundamentally the same.

Jaguar Wong
The 6th Deadly Venom!

"If it doesn't work, punch him in the mouth and try again"
- Professor Ed O'malley

[Mr. Nemo]

"If you stomp in practice you will stomp when you fight."

My teacher has been stomping in practice for 20+ years, and he doesn't stomp when he fights. The stomping is a training tool.

[yin lion]

I think the way neptunesfall is thinking is right in a way. He said it's more yang and in yin fu bagua that I do the animals that I train are more yang the striking is all like that only the hands and feet and in harmony(they arrive at the same time). The power is directed by the waist and in one direction you turn clockwise the other counter. One may be yin in accordance with a certian leg steping first the other then would be yin. I don't know for sure how this would work but it sounds right to me.

And to Jaguar Wong In our bagua when you do that step and land on your front leg your weight is 5050 and there is power added from the front leg too. Infact I've been told that that's where the power comes from "." I'm not too sure though. I think it comes like you said from the rear leg, but I can feel it(energy) ripple up the front leg adding power. I have learned the 5 elements also in my school so am familiar with the hsing-i steping too. It feels a little the same but at the same time totaly different. Like the yin yang there is a little yin in the yang. The machanics are the same but the movement doesn't even look the same, or work the same.

ok I'm done rambling

you must unlearn what you have learned then and only then will you be wise and have knolage