2014, Precision Striking, 90 page e-book with 2-hour supplementary instructional video

I have read over 200 books about boxing, books aimed at the boxing fan. I have only managed to get my hands on 27 instructional books, and half of these were over 100 years old! There have been some nice ‘introduction to boxing’ books written in the 1990s by amateur boxers. There have been a number of how to books by boxing greats such as Jack Dempsey and Floyd Patterson. Never has there been a book like this that takes the aspiring boxer from dreaming about stepping through the ropes, through the evolution of becoming a boxer, to being able, 6 to 9 months down the road, to knock some snot over the top rope onto a judge’s table.

And Beginning Boxing is not just a book, but an instructional video as well.

Alone among instructional boxing coaches Jason explains the hand span and spends an entire chapter and 10 minutes of video on breaking down your stance. Similar effort is spent on footwork, then offensive essentials. All of these aspects build on one another in an evolutionary manner that literally describes the first year of a boxer’s biomechanical life cycle. Things that pro boxers ‘do’ and that no commentator or journalist has been able to describe, Jason not only names, and describes, but breaks down to the biomechanical level and reconstructs. He then steps back and critiques it—and on the sweet science evolves in microcosm, in his boxing shoes.

Jason Van Veldhuysen teaches biomechanical evolution for the boxer, and does not stop there, but goes on to the psychology of sparring and fighting. Along the way he throws in some well thought out training sequences. Everything Jason teaches has a destination. For instance he teaches hyper-pronation, throwing straight punches in a corkscrew fashion ending with the pinky up, like many Latino fighters, who use this for cutting with the glove. Now, I cannot do this with my torn-up shoulders, and I wondered why he was teaching it. Then he stopped and explained that you don’t have to go all the way with this as a competition punch. He wants you to practice it to increase your range of motion. In other words, he doesn’t want you young guys ripping your shoulders apart like I did when I was starting out.

Jason mines the art of boxing at the correct maximum depth for a beginning boxer, with just enough material to get him in the ring with numerous advantages over the normally hastily trained amateur boxer. His attention to ‘work rate’ sets this apart as a video. Likewise, his methodical written descriptions in the book will help coaches that use this as a resource further develop their verbal coaching skill set.

If you are thinking about boxing competitively, you absolutely should get a hold of this book. Go to our network page and click on the Precision Striking link and checkout the introductory video segment.