I am about to get into a number of specialized jab applications that would not normally be covered for beginning boxers. So, for you boxers who are new to the ring and the gym, please make certain that you have a hard, high-handed jab, like Alex, working the bag in the linked video below. In order to set up a man for a power right or hook you need a hard jab that will shock him enough to fix his position. Generally, if you can shock a boxer with your jab, then you can KO a regular dude with it.

Also, using the many nuanced versions of the jab that I will be covering in the jab progression will not be very effective unless your jab has stopping power. Stopping power does not have to mean KO power, but the ability to set a man back on his heels with a jab or to stop his forward progress.

In this video Alex, formally the #3 174 pounder in the nation, now a coach and family man, uses a high three-quarter fist jab for power, and a pronated [palm-down] power jab at chin level. Note that he is not turning the punch over when he hits high on the bag, for, when that bag buckles up high, if his fist is palm-down he will strain the ligaments that extend the fingers and stabilize the wrist. This is called a three quarter fist. You do want the thumb turned in slightly to keep from jamming the nerves behind the wrist.

The fist with the thumb side up is the vertical fist or sneaky fist and is for a different application.

Alex is putting rear leg and weight into this jab. Against a good boxer, those monster hooks will achieve nothing if he does not shock him with the jab.

At :42 to :43 you see a weight commitment jab [not a lunge, which is amplified weight commitment] which sets his weight onto the lead leg, so that he can hook off the jab with power.

At 1:00 to 1:03 he clinches the bag and practices turning his man into the corner, just in case the skinny twerp managed to get off the ropes.

At 1:05 he does a good basic combination which is a jab, right, jab [1,2,1] on the high line. When working the bag, always try and finish with a clean-up punch, which is to say a lead hand punch, to get you back to an oblique guard.

At 1:10 you see a power jab combination on the highline that uses the rear leg for power without committing weight, which preserves that weight to be shifted into a rear hand punch. Look at his calf muscle of the rear leg flex as he jabs. This is a good jab to use against a rush and against a looming taller man who is plunging downward with reaching jabs.