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The Herkimer Hurricane’s Push & Shove Drill by Mark Hatmaker



[Excerpted from our book Boxing Like the Champs Round Two. Available here.]

Lou Ambers, a two-time lightweight champion, was born in 1913 in Herkimer, New York, hence one half of his ring name. Lou was one of those fighters who skipped amateur bouts and jumped right into being a pro.

Usually without early experience one would suffer with this jump directly to the big leagues as it were, but Mr. Ambers racked up 32 straight victories at the beginning of his career. This pro-jump and success rate did not go unnoticed as he was ranked the 9th best lightweight contender in 1933 a mere year after getting into the game.

Lest we think that he stepped fully formed out of the womb, what Ambers did in place of amateur bouts was potentially a more formidable school of hard knocks. He fought many a “bootleg” fight before his pro debut. This is essentially off-the-books bouts where anyone with heart could be grist for the fight viewing entertainment mill.

Mr. Ambers, in the phraseology of the old days, “had been through the mill and he don’t grind fine.” In other words, he paid his dues and gave better than he got.

The second half of that awkward ring name referred to his work rate. He worked fast and furious. But he was no mere slugger despite what that bootleg school might imply. He was a vastly clever boxer.

There are many lessons we could take from Mr. Ambers, but the one we shall focus on for this volume is an interestingly non-violent method of drilling that he used to work power, footwork, balance, wind, and punch positioning.

Lou Ambers Push & Shove Drill

For this one, all you need is yourself and a partner. No gloves or even mouthpiece required.

The Protocol: Phase One

·        Face each other in stance.

·        Take turns placing either a lead or rear palm on the other’s upper body and push hard.

·        Don’t use a mere shoving motion, think punch extension mechanics.

·        Work this alternately while moving about the training area.

This shoving allows you to find how to set your feet upon punch impact while, on the flipside, allows you to find balance while you are being shoved.

This drill is a win-win in that regard.



Phase Two

·        This time face your partner in a left lead stance, you both fire lead palms to the chest simultaneously then…

·        Once contact has been made, quickly switch stance to right lead forward and fire the new lead palm to the chest.

·        Do this back and forth at a furious space and tell me it don’t light up the heart and lungs.

·        Learn to see your way to landing in the slow-motion tussle. [Slow motion compared to actual sparring.]

It is an ideal drill to warm-up with, to cool-down with, to use when the bags are full or to break the monotony of banging the pads. I might add, that is a great intro for gun-shy rookies to get used to the scrum without the concomitant impact.

Again, this deceptively simple drill allows both fighters to find balance, find how to set their feet for power, how to brace the body for impact, and it can bump the sweat-rate if both are willing to keep a Herkimer Hurricane pace.

For mucho more such Old School fun…

The Black Box Warehouse

https://www.extremeselfprotection.com/

The Indigenous Ability Blog

https://indigenousability.blogspot.com/

The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast

https://anchor.fm/mark-hatmaker

[For techniques, tactics, and strategies of Rough and Tumble Combat, Old-School Boxing, Mean-Ass Wrestling, Street-Ready Frontier Scrapping & Indigenous Ability culled from the historical record see the RAW Subscription Service. http://www.extremeselfprotection.com

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