If you have learned boxing from a martial arts program or a fitness program, or if you were taught how to throw a hook or an uppercut on your first day in the gym, consider starting from scratch. Consider starting how the best boxer I knew started, working nothing but the jab for six months.

You want a balanced workout, you say, don’t want to be a one-armed fighter, aye?

Then practice guarding, moving and jabbing from left and right. Train as a southpaw to get your conditioning requirement, and also to learn how things look from that vantage. Training the weak hand will also help prevent chronic injury due to muscular in balance, and will help you deal with survival situations more effectively.

You want to be fighting in six months, and need to tool up now, to be able to contend, you say?

That’s fine with me bro. Stop reading and go get your nose broken.

Find a mirror.

Put a piece of tape on the floor, or, if you think the bitch is about to kick you out, just draw one with a permanent marker.

Stand before the mirror and swear that you’re going to train that knucklehead in the mirror to jab like a pro.

Stand with your right heel just to the right of the line. Kick the toe out to a 45 degree angle. Depending on injury patterns to your lower leg or other sports you may have engaged in, angling your feet obliquely might be difficult. Do what you can not to have this foot pointed at your opponent—that would be the asshole in the mirror—and also not out at 90 degrees.

Step forward with your left foot so that your heel is under the left hip or left shoulder, or somewhere in between. The lead toe should almost touch the line and be angled in at 45 degrees. Again, depending on your build, how many car accidents you have been in, what sports you have played, etc., the angle may be less or even a little greater. If your foot is pointed directly at the target then when you pivot there will be a slight hitch in the motion, which may lead to injury, and will certainly make your form less than smooth. I have seen guys blow their knee out pivoting from a straight lead foot.

Bend your knees slightly.

Commit to never putting your head farther forward than the lead foot—and good, God, not farther back than the rear foot—realizing that ideally it will stay over the hips and knees.

Tuck your chin.

Close your mouth.

Breathe in through your nose and expel your breath out through the corner of your mouth.

Raise your right hand to the point where your thumb touches your jaw line and your index finger touches your temple. Now pull in the thumb to rise along the index finger and curl the fingers so that if your smartass uncle slaps you under your elbow those fingers will not go up into your eye.

Raise your lead hand so that your index finger lines up with your left eye. Bring your right hand forward and fan the fingers out to maximum expansion. Touch the thumb to your left shoulder and the pinkie to the base of your left thumb. That is your hand span, the space that should remain between your hand and your shoulder. This puts your hand closer, and makes you that much faster. Bring your right hand back to guard, slide your left thumb snuggly against the index finger, and slightly curl the fingers inward.

Target your opponent by using the inside of your lead hand as your sight.

Do not look at your opponent over your lead hand—yes I know he’s doing it! Despite what the dummy in the mirror is doing, I want you to sight your opponent through your hands. Never look over your hands.

Your shoulders must remain relaxed. Do not raise them, hunch them, or tense them. Let them hang lower than the hands.

Your hands are now cupped for checking, like they would be held open in the curved competition glove. Practice closing your fist in slow motion, with your fingers curling into you palm. As your index finger curls under your thumb tighten the thumb under the two lead fingers. You want to be able to box with a loose hand but with your fingers together as a unit, the thumb riding along the index finger. By closing the hand as you launch the punch you will reduce tension that might inhibit the motion by keeping the hand loose instead of clenched. Also, a fist that closes just before impact, does hit slightly harder and sharper.

[I do not know the physics behind this. In any case, the reason for closing just before impact is to keep up punch velocity by reducing muscular tension.]

That’s it, practice holding those hands up with relaxed shoulders, maintaining your hand span with the lead, and clenching that easy fist.

Keep your hands up for 20 minutes while you practice sliding into a fist, looking through your hands, and breathing in through your nose and out through your clenched teeth.

No, you cannot turn the fan on.

Get a drink between guards. After you do 20 minutes in the orthodox guard, get a drink and then do 20 minutes in the southpaw guard.

Yes, it’s boring.

No, you cannot bring your girlfriend.

Yes, you are working the jab. What do you think that hand span lead guard is for? Having that hand span ingrained in your muscle memory makes your jab twice as good right off the bat. Most of the guys you will fight are already learning how to do it the wrong way. Give yourself the time to build the correct foundation.

Do this, 40 minutes per day, per week, and then we’ll start moving.