Running length: 1:20:16

Earlier this year I was sold on Jason as a boxing coach based on some of his free YouTube videos. Jason give’s a jock’s eye view of combat. By that I mean he is not offering secret knowledge, rarified techniques of the masters, etc. Rather, as combat coaches do, he is just walking you through the gym work necessary to survive and thrive in the ring.

Jason begins his presentation by defining the prerequisites of position and balance. He then goes on to illuminate his guiding concepts: ‘soft center focus,’ and ‘small motion’. He then takes the fighter through passive, reactive and active defenses, building to creative angle generation and creative countering methods.

Jason does cover two specific variants of the peek-a-boo defense. As with most of his instruction Jason makes it clear that there is a pitfall to everything. Boxing is a sport without magic bullets, and Jason gets that; gets that well. He does real boxing drills with gloves predominantly, not spending all of his time on the mitts—which is something that drives me crazy about white collar, JKD and MMA boxing instruction.

Jason fills you in on the instinctive aspects of the game, by defining cagey and lazy fighter habits, as well as dropping, dipping, fading, turning, twisting, stuffing, stopping, catching, rolling, posing, slipping, loading, standing tall, going, and stopping and going. As you can see, boxing doesn’t come with some encyclopedic skill set. Boxing is a dance that is meant to be broken and Jason breaks it down well.

This video is available through Jason’s Precision Striking link on our network page. I cannot recommend it highly enough, particularly for intermediate level boxers, most of whom naturally have significant holes in their game even as they step up in competition. Jason addresses the core aspects of defensive boxing that are all too often overlooked by MMA and JKD fighters. Not every aspect of boxing translates well to these hybrid arts. But if you are a mixed art fighter defining yourself it does not hurt to make certain you did not skip any necessary fundamentals pertaining to a root art.