This lesson is not from a champ.
Nor is the “Chin-Hook” an actual punch per se.
Let’s set the stage.
Heavyweight champion, Max Baer, wasn’t champ for very
long. His fun loving, playboy habits often got in the way of diligent training
and his propensity for clowning showmanship, on occasion, cost him ground in
the midst of tough battles.
What was never in question was Bear’s punching power, particularly
that right hand. The Ring magazine rates him #22 in the 100 Greatest
Punchers of All-Time, and he had the unfortunate specter of two ring deaths
tagged to his name.
Max had power even if he didn’t always use it.
This lesson comes from an early Baer match in which he
lost [on a DQ.]
So why do we do we include it here?
His opponent in the bout in question was Jack McCarthy, a
bit of a journeyman fighter, but undeniably tough. Mr. McCarthy had a method of
controlling the clinch and delivering punishment that has been used by many fighters
but an observation from boxing journalist Jack Kofoed writing in 1934 allows us
particular insight into how this clinch control was achieved.
Kofoed writes, “Jack had a trick of getting in close,
and laying his chin on the other fellow’s shoulder and hammering away at the body
with wild abandon.”
This Chin-Hook Clinch, in essence, froze an opponent for a
brief moment and allowed McCarthy to get off a few ripping shots to the body
that the chin-hooked opponent had to “absorb” more than usual due to the
freezing-hooking aspect of the ploy.
The tactic served McCarthy well in his career, but Baer
loved this sort of stockyard brawl and got in on the act, until the referee disqualified
Baer for a blow that drifted mighty south.
Four Rounds to the Chin-Hook Clinch
This one simply has to have a training partner to work well
as bags don’t have a correlating shoulder shelf to chin-hook onto.
Round One-Have your Feeder don a body-protector and pads. For the
first round simply work a few punches from the outside, say a Jab-Cross to Lead
Hook and respond to a Fed Jab by rocking away and following inside to a clinch.
Strive for the chin-hook. Lock the chin and hook downward as if to freeze the opponent
flat-footed. Fire no body shots yet, simply work following inside and getting the
chin-hook.
Round Two-Repeat the above, but once you follow inside, apply two quick
body-hooks post-chin-hook then wheel out of the clinch.
Round Three-Repeat the getting inside aspect of Round One, but here fire
two uppercuts to the body then wheel out.
Round Four—Freeform. Work getting inside and to the chin-hook
clinch. Once there, freeform your hammering to the body, wheel out and repeat.
In a Pinch Solo Training
Although not a perfect correlate, I find the following useful
for when you simply want to work this tactic and partners happen to be scarce.
·
Tie
a standard bedsheet or bath-towel around your heavy bag at shoulder height.
·
Bang
from the outside as prescribed in Round One, then move in for a head-drive
clinch and slide off to your ear being on the bag and…
·
Hooking
your chin over the tied sheet.
·
You
will not be able to apply much downward pressure, but the sheet can act as
enough of a tactical mnemonic to get work the preceding drills.
Keep in mind, the chin-hook clinch is not for the long
haul, that is, extended sessions inside the clinch. But for quick weighting of your
opponent and rapid shots to the body it has more than enough to recommend it.
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