Knowing how to feint is an essential technique for boxers.
A successful feint disrupts your opponent’s rhythm, keeps him guessing, and sets up your attacks.
On the other hand, a poorly-used feint is a waste of energy and invites attacks from your opponent.
In this article we’ll discuss the reasons why your feints don’t work and how to fix them!
Why Your Feints Don’t Work
Some of the reasons your feints don’t work is that:
- You’re Throwing Too Many Feints
- There’s No Power Behind Your Feints
- Your Opponent Sees A Pattern With Your Feints
- You’re Too Far Away
You’re Throwing Too Many Feints
The first reason why your feints don’t work is because you’re throwing too many of them.
One problem with this is that you’re giving away too much information to your opponent.
These jerky movements waste your energy and show your opponent that you have no strategy.
Use too many feints and your opponent won’t respond to them. Your opponent will simply overpower you and attack whenever you feint.
If you do this, your feints will work against you.
There’s No Power Behind Your Feints
The next reason why your feints don’t work is because there’s no power behind them.
Even if your feints are convincing, it doesn’t matter if your opponent isn’t threatened by them.
You should feint with what you’ve been scoring with. If you haven’t landed a jab in the last few rounds, your jab feint won’t work.
If you have a weak hook, your opponent will simply absorb the punch and won’t bother to respond to your feint.
Work on your power and give him something to worry about.
Your feints may work at first, but you hesitate to let your hands go and capitalize on these opportunities.
Your opponent then will realize that your feints are just for show.
Your Opponent Sees A Pattern With Your Feints
Next, your feints aren’t working because your opponent sees a pattern with your feints.
The whole point of using a feint is to misdirect your opponent and hide your strategy. Feinting with regularity defeats this purpose.
If you consistently jab twice and then jab feint, your opponent will pick up on this and your feints will be useless.
If you always foot feint backwards but never load up a cross, then your opponent will notice this and advance with a double or triple jab.
Stay unpredictable and your feints will work more often.
You’re Too Far Away
Lastly your feints aren’t working because you’re feinting from too far away.
You should only use feints if you’re within striking range of your opponent.
If you’re out of range and use a cross feint, your opponent won’t respond to it since there is no threat behind it.
Similarly, if you’re just out of range, a jab feint won’t work on your opponent if you’re too far away. But if you take a hard step forward and then use your jab feint, that has a greater chance of working.
This idea applies to defense as well.
Let’s say you want to escape from an advancing opponent, so you use a foot feint to the side.
If you use it too early and you’re too far away, your opponent will be more likely to cut off the ring.
There’s no point in using it if you’re not in range to be attacked.
How To Throw Effective Feints
To throw effective feints:
- Use Your Feints Sparingly
- Stay In Range Of Your Opponent
- Feint With What You’ve Scored With
- Mix Up Your Feints
Use Your Feints Sparingly
One way to feint effectively is to use them sparingly.
By feinting too much, you’re giving your opponent too much information and wasting your precious energy.
If you’re familiar with poker, it’s similar to bluffing too much. Sooner or later, none of your opponents will take your bluffs seriously.
Instead, use your feints at the right time and situation.
Stay In Range Of Your Opponent
The next way to feint effectively is to stay in range of your opponent.
None of your feints will work if you’re too far away, go get closer and sit in the pocket longer.
On the other hand, if you’re too close to your opponent, most of your feints will go unnoticed.
Because of this, your feints will work best when you’re at an optimal distance from your opponent, neither too far nor too close.
Feint With What You’ve Scored With
The next way to feint effectively is to feint with what you’ve scored with.
If you haven’t landed a jab all round, then your opponent probably won’t see your jab as a threat.
On the other hand, if you’ve been landing jabs to the body and the head consistently, you’ll be able to use hand, eye, and directional feints successfully.
Mix Up Your Feints
The last way to feint effectively is to mix them up.
You’ve probably realized by now that each part of your body can be used to feint, not just your hands and gloves.
Use every kind of feint you have available:
- Hand
- Foot
- Eye
- Timing
- Directional
The more unpredictable you are, the more effective your feints will be as the fight goes on.
Conclusion
If your feints aren’t working, follow these tips and you’ll see improvement.
A properly-used feint is essential; it disrupts your opponent’s rhythm, keeps him guessing, and sets up your combinations.
On the other hand, a poorly-used feint is a waste of energy and invites attacks from your opponent.
If you keep falling for feints, you should also keep these tips in mind.
Maybe you’re falling for feints that your opponent hasn’t even scored with yet, or maybe you should increase distance to negate some of your opponent’s feints.
Keep these ideas in mind when you shadowbox and when you watch your next boxing match!
If you’re having trouble deciding what boxing equipment to get, check out these articles: