The bob-and-weave, peek-a-boo or Philly Shell style of fighting is intended to frustrated a taller boxer who has the natural gifts to dominate behind the jab. One man who used it as a stop-gap measure was multi-style fighter Evander Holyfield. Unless your injuries [Norton] age [Foreman and Moore] or build [Frazier] demand that you fight from a peek-a-boo guard, don’t make it home base, but a place you go to. Below are some tips for not getting caught up in the various pitfalls of this style.

1. If you move your head away, defensively, behind the shrugging lead shoulder, then you must move it elsewhere next, preferably along with a stepping off to either side or a stepping in. Once your head is back over your rear hip you are stuck and tensed for the KO. Do not stay in the high shoulder fade behind the hip or you will get caught.

2. Jab with the rear hand when in close.

3. You must develop a good wing block, which is like the “bong” block in Wing Chun.

4. You must have some jabs in your arsenal. The idea of peek-a-booing without jabbing only works with monstrous punchers and extreme work-rate fighters like Frazier. The blind jab, sneaky jab and up-jab should be your mainstay, as they are all rising jabs.

5. Break your style rhythm whenever he seems to have a good read on you. If he gets locked in on reading your style, pop up and box like him, and then as soon as he gets a read on this and you are about to pay for your impertinence, go back to your peek-a-boo.

6. You must seek his shoulders and hips and work with both of your feet and hands against one of his. When your coach holds mitts or when a novice just throws punches at you for your defense, your goal should be to put your empty hand on his shoulder or hip and then turn him.

7. You must be observant while he throws, as you want to draw his punch so you can watch it come and either stop him with a cutoff punch [stop hit in JKD], counter him or get to his shoulder or hip and then go to work.

8. Your most important punches will be the shovel and straight to the body, thrown as he throws at your head and you move your head and hit him. Peek-a-boo style requires body shots to even out the fact that this style expends more energy. You must take his easy fighting wind away. When he throws a jab, duck under that and smash his body with straight to the heart. When he throws that right, slip it and dip, popping back up into a shovel hook with your leg muscles driving up under it into his liver.

9. Do a lot of defensive shadow boxing to various types of music so that you can vary your rhythm with different opponents.

10. Escape in close proximity. When he has you backed against the ropes, cage or wall, side step to your right with a bobbing motion, passing your head under his jab or measuring hand and popping your head up on the outside of his extended arm as you drag your left foot and pop him in the nose with a sneaky left jab.

There are many more nuances to the peek-a-boo style. The main thing you need to work on is defense and moving him to where you want him. Practice with the bag with this in mind, moving it and hitting it at the point of separation, or swinging it, stopping it with a punch, and then moving around it with another.