One of the easiest things to overlook while training is your defense. Everywhere you look there guys and girls, amateurs and professionals alike that relentlessly pursue perfection with each offensive combination thrown.

What you don’t see, are those same people relentlessly pursuing defensive perfection or even pursuing it at all.

This doesn’t become a problem until you mix it up with someone who’s actually trying to hit you.

No, that doesn’t count

You honestly don’t really realize how important defense is until you start sparring hard.

I didn’t.

Slipping and bobbing and weaving in front of the mirror while you shadowbox doesn’t count.

Working on footwork around the heavy bag that doesn’t hit back doesn’t count.

Dodging all those half-ass punches your buddy throws at you with the focus mitts doesn’t count.

And sparring lightly with guys over the years doesn’t count either (this was why I thought I was good).

Nope, there’s no better wake up call than the first time somebody steps in front of you and actually tries to knock your head off your shoulders.

Then you’ll realize you how necessary defense is.

Defensive Epiphanies

Here are a few things I realized I could no longer do:

1. You can’t just stand there
You know how the heavy bag stays nicely in one place for you and you know how your fat-ass coach stays right front of you holding the focus mitts?

Yea, that doesn’t happen. The ranges of combat continually change throughout each round and punches are coming in from every angle.

Constantly moving in and out of range and adjusting the angles to your opponent are very necessary.

2. You can’t be Roy Jones Jr.
Hell, Roy Jones Jr. can’t even be Roy Jones Jr. anymore. What I mean is, you can’t fight with a low guard.

Sure there are times when out of range you can relax your guard a bit, but if you’re within striking range of your opponent the hands need to be up at least as high as your chin.

I used to think it was cool to fight with your hands down. Now I think it’s much cooler to not get tagged.

3. Nobody has fast enough reflexes to defend 4 and 5 punch combinations repeatedly
Not even Anderson Silva does this. For whatever reason, I, along with a bunch of other fighters practice standing in one spot (see #1) defending combinations of punches.

It’s kind of silly when you think about it. Why stand in one spot and defend 5 punches when you could just defend the first one and step off to the side.

Everytime you’re not standing right in front of your opponent he can’t hit you. It’s a novel concept that even I’m struggling to grasp—and I’m the one telling you!

4. After you throw you can’t stand there and take a picture
This kind of falls in line with #1 again (are you beginning to see the theme here?). After you throw your combinations on the heavy bag you can stand there and admire them without consequence.
After you throw your combinations into your trainer’s focus mitts and you defend his mostly unrealistic counters…you get to relax for a moment without fear of him continuing the pursuit.

But when you throw your combinations against an actual opponent…his most likely response will be to punch you back. And if he’s really aggressive he may not stop until it’s over.

So you got to get your shots off and then get out of the way immediately.

5. You have to be conditioned to defend
Think about it. When fatigue sets in what’s the first thing that happens?

You don’t move. You lose focus. Your hands drop.

At that point, it’s not even a question of how skilled or not skilled you are defensively, because you’re not defending at all.

A couple weeks ago while sparring I was so tired that I preferred getting hit to moving. Seems counter-intuitive, but you’d be surprised how little you care about getting hit when you’re exhausted.
There are times when you can lose because you defended poorly and then there are times when you lose because you weren’t conditioned enough to defend. Know the difference.

Make no mistake about it—being supremely conditioned is important, if, for no other reason than to be able to defend yourself properly for the duration of the fight.

6. The best defense is a good offense
Aggression pays off. More aggressive fighters tend to be less defensive minded simply because they don’t have to be.

When you establish yourself as an attacker, that psychologically affects the opposition. The weaker minded the opponent, the more effect it will have. So in order to keep the guy off you, you got to let him know you’re going to engage.

If at all possible I like to be the first one throwing, and the one who’s coming forward to set the tone. That way I have to worry less about him coming forward unabated.

The Solution to My Defensive Epiphanies

I was already used to coming forward and being first. So if you’re not—then try it, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

As for the conditioning, I’m working on that. More anaerobic conditioning like intervals, and I’m also working on relaxing. That plays an important role.

And for the others. I’m making it a habit in training to couple every offensive movement with a defensive movement and couple every defensive movement with an offensive counter—then change my angle and start all over.

Visualizing an opponent in front of me throwing punches every step of the way.

Sparring is super-important because it’ll reveal all the holes in your defense. Holes that you wouldn’t otherwise know about training in unrealistic settings.

Then once you know about them. You can return to your unrealistic setting with a realistic mindset.