The SOVIET BOXING Style Breakdown

🔬Is there SUCH A THING as Soviet Boxing? Check our In depth Analysis.

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0:00 Intro
0:50 Boxing Timer PRO
1:14 Soviet Philosophy
2:48 Relaxed way of Punching
5:08 Pendulum Step
7:33 High Punching Volume
9:55 Lead Hand Control
11:10 Cold Blood
11:53 Question?

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[skillrboxing]

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[СебастианСбербанко]

Many people criticize the style for weak punches. I am originally from Russia, I did boxing as a child. Old coaches told me that in the USSR boxing became, like chess, a race for the prestige of the country, ideology. Hundreds of scientists from different fields of science were involved in developing the ideal boxing style. From psychology to thermodynamics. An optimal, resource-intensive style was needed. Scientists calculated that 43 kg of punching force is enough to knock out an opponent. 43 kg provided that the person does not see the punch. And many techniques were built precisely on creating conditions so that the opponent does not see the punch. This is very clever in my opinion. There was a time when we hit the opponent's gloves from below with the back of our left hand so that his glove blocked his view. And immediately a right hook, a knockdown is close. 80% of the time we were taught to be counterpunchers. We were like radars. We scanned the opponent's shoulders, legs, pupils, lips, the moment of their movement. It was important to counterattack immediately as soon as we received this signal. The enemy's brain, for some biological reason, does not have time to read the danger, which is what we needed.
What is important! We did not just jump back and forth, stretching out our left hand. We did this to gradually get closer to the right hand strike. "Feel the striking distance" - that's what we called it. That's the first step. Step number two is to deceive the opponent. Boxing is chess. As soon as the distance was determined, we, like fighter pilots, made a feint. This time we imitated the jab so that it was not threateningly close to the opponent's face - as usual. It was exactly the same as the opponent had seen 2-4 times before, so it was unexpected for him. However, at this moment we did not stretch out our hand for a full strike, only half. We jumped up to him at the striking distance of the right jab, masking his view with our left hand at eye level. Then followed a 100% combination as we said - a strike with the right hand. It was important to deliver two strikes as quickly as possible, the force was put into the strike with the right hand, of course. The opponent saw only the left glove looming in front of his eyes, back and forth, and then recovered from the knockdown.

P.S. With your permission, I will add to the comment. Tactical tricks:

1) Always watch how your opponent breathes and breathe slower than him with all your might. This will break his mental confidence in the break between rounds.

2) Many people underestimate the influence of the first seconds, when the referee explains the rules and you stand opposite each other, looking into each other's eyes, and then touch gloves. A person is a very sensitive creature, he instantly reads all non-verbal communication, especially when he does not know you as an opponent. At the amateur level, this simply crushed opponents. "Won before the fight." At this moment, you need to hold your breath, do not blink, no emotions on your face, shoulders straightened, legs wide apart. Look straight into the eyes of your opponent and mentally visualize how you literally send him to the next world - very dirty, mean and not according to the rules, you just escaped from a mental hospital with a sharpened knife in your hand and went on the warpath. "The eyes of a killer." This visualization gives a crazy non-verbal signal to another person. If you don't believe me, try it on one of your colleagues at work)). When the referee says to disperse, only then do we exhale oxygen through our nose. Takes a couple of steps back without turning the body, maintaining eye contact. Watch the video where Fedor Emelianenko watches on TV how Mirko knocked out his brother.

3) If after a blow to the body the opponent grimaces on his face, that he is not hurt - immediately imitate a blow to the body with a combination to the head. If he really was not hurt by the blow, he will want to quickly take revenge (to show who is the daddy here), put a lot of effort into the blow and lose focus. And we will catch him on this action.

4) I love this tactical thing. It is simply pure intellectual domination. During sparring, the opponent looks straight into the eyes. I let him work on the block. And gradually move back without losing eye contact. The opponent is sure that he dominates me, he has everything under control, he needs to finish me off. I step back, and as if out of helplessness, I start to make quick glances at his stomach and then back to his eyes. First once, then with increasing frequency, the pauses between glances are shorter and shorter... and then I take a breath, look at his stomach, sit up - bring my right shoulder forward (simulating that I am about to throw a right straight to the body) and immediately throw a left hook on the jump to the head. This technique is a real game changer.

[vasjaforutube]

One more thing about the Soviet culture of boxing is that showboating, cheap talk etc are strongly discouraged, while modesty and sportsmanship is encouraged.

[k.k]

Love the fluidity of this style. Apart from being effective, it's also very aesthetically pleasing.

[fikriasrofi]

As a muay Thai guy this is my favorite style to emulate into Muay Thai it give me mobilitty and fluidity without compromising my head position

[payamism]

Soviet-style, if done right, is extremely hard to counter. But it would be best if you had insane stamina and strong footwork. On one hand, you have to be a professional dancer below the belt and a pro puncher above the waistline.

[willc]

Not a boxer, but fenced for a long time. The footwork and theory expressed here are very similar to that of soviet fencing, including exactly the chelnok technique.

[FWolf-rvlg]

Our German-Russian Trainer, who was a succesfull Soviet boxer, teached us exaktly what your dokumentation says about this boxing style. I found really every aspekt in it. For the German boxing it was a blessing that the East Germans and the Russia-Germans brought their great school of boxing to Germany.

[genesemakouangou]

I hope one day mastering both the Cuban and Soviet style and will name the mix of the the two the Fidel Stalin style.

[flippomane]

Me personally, i'd describe the soviet style as the attempt for maximum defensive and offensive efficiency, but without considering much of the stamina spent on defense and the footwork. It is all about being smooth, using momentum and flow to its maximum capicity for generating the most amount of power possible without much effort, to make up for the tremendous amount of stamina used in the defense and footwork, as said earlier. I'd say it is also the perfect mix of offense and defense in any boxing style, which is why many consider it to be the best style in boxing, although there isn't really such thing as that.

[VladKydimov]

My first coach was a from last wave of classic USSR boxers, his name is Sergei Kosenko and he teach us very hard. It was nice to see this video, it's a lot of true moments here, especialy about "rotating feet" :D it was a basic that u practice a lot of hours, footwork took a 90% of our time in "first year" training. But "extending arms" was an optional feature and, i think, may be 30-40% of boxers use it, only a real tall boxers. And "Chelnok" u always move in chelnok all 3 hours u move only this and no matter how many is ur weight, by the way it's sounds funny "pendulum steps".

p.s. Thank you, for this video. It's was really cool watch analysis from the "other side" of the world. Sorry for my bad enlish i don't use translators. Like, subscribe and hope u make a lot videos about USSR and Russia in future! Tip. Make video about classic USSR combinations))

[markanthony]

I love the Soviet and Cuban style so very much

While unconventional to the western eye they’re so fundamentally sound.

[adtfor]

9:20 - coach from my childhood - Valerii Motkin, he is now a senior coach for the National Team

[SLikhushin]

Интересно со стороны посмотреть ! Спасибо за разбор !

[djordjetosic]

I've been trying to implement a lot of Soviet style techniques for the past year, and you touched on the most important stuff I have found. You made a really good look into it, better than the rest until now. I also love the "Cold Blood" segment. It's the reason I found Bivol-Beterbiev so captivating. It was 12 rounds of pure boxing, constant action and sticking to the plan. I am a Bivol fan, but the plan probably needed some tweaking mid fight.

[georgelevin]

Great video! I'm Russian, living in the US, and all my coaches were old-school Soviet boxers.

At my gym in the US, I’ve noticed that using the "chelnok" (in-and-out movement) with the lead hand always up at the level of the opponent’s head really frustrates my opponents.

For beginners, I’d say this combination works wonders: chelnok + lead hand up + one-two. It makes you almost untouchable. But there’s one major catch—you need incredible stamina to maintain constant in-and-out movement with your lead hand up, even for just three rounds.

So, my advice for beginners is to focus on conditioning (lots of jogging and bag work) to build the endurance to handle 12 rounds of nonstop heavy bag training. Then, learn the chelnok technique with your lead hand always up (it takes serious shoulder and core strength) and perfect your one-two. That’s it. At the beginner level, nobody will be able to touch you.

[siegfriedo]

This is such a beautiful, graceful, yet highly efficient style. ❤️‍🔥

[shiroyuyona]

SOVIET STYLE LETS thanks team skillr 🥹🔥🔥🔥

[Migtvc]

WOOW, what a lesson. I wish youtube were built for this. Awesome video.

[tombombadil]

I trained for a couple months, locally in Poland, with a rather old instructor. I was curious if I would recognise some of the key aspects from this style in my experiance, and yes, this is pretty much what we did. I was constantly told off for punching too tense, and we did a lot of in-and-out bag work (move in, 1-3 punches, move out, and repeat). Some more experianced guys would do the thumb-in hook. It was great, I kinda regret I couldn't have kept going.