What do all of you wise men think of right handed people fighting as southpaws? I know the conventional wisdom is that keeping the dominant hand for your straight punch makes it more formidable and gives fighters more power at their disposal more quickly. But here are somethings that occurred to me:
1) Isn't it more often the problem that people have no jab and consequently no skills that are built off the jab? Wouldn't putting the strong hand forward solve that problem?
2) Orthodox fighters have to delveop a jab and lead hook with what is their weak hand. Crosshanded fighters have to develope a straight left. 6 of 1, half dozen of the other, right?
3) More subjectively, the few times that I've done drills, bag work, etc. crosshanded, everything has just felt more comfortable and natural, from footwork to head movement, etc.
Am I making a huge mistake?
James
no, Wing Chun and JKD, among other styles teach people to put their strong hand forward. So you aren't making a mistake. I take turns fighting with both hands in front, but I do kickboxing and takedowns that way too.
The problem I see with that in a boxing type situation is that putting your strong hand forward pretty much leaves you without a back hand, because your rear hand is already slower, and when you put your less dominate hand to the rear, its horribly slow, and doesn't really seem to hit that hard.
I don't worry too much about that because I take up the slack with my kicks, but you might want to think about it. You could probably overcome it with training, so it might be no big deal.
throwing the left is a bit tricky if your a convert I always thought, cause you cant always rely on right hooks. Most of the damage Corrie Sanders did to Klitsckoe was with the straight left.
yeah, that's basically what I was saying. Your lead hand is great, but you basically don't have a power hand at all.
I'm left handed and I fight out of a conventional stance, as do a number of lefties I know. It took me a little bit to get the right hand going, but now it can hit pretty welll with it.
ttt