How To Throw a Perfect Uppercut
About the Uppercut Punch
The uppercut is probably the most commonly abandoned punch in boxing as well as the most incorrectly thrown punch in boxing. I imagine part of the reason for this is because there are few pieces of boxing equipment that are made for practicing uppercuts. The other reason is that the uppercut is only meant to be used in close and boxers are usually taught to fight from a distance. In the ring, fighters are more likely to use a more direct punch like the cross because it travels faster to the opponent. Using an uppercut can be a risk because it momentarily drops your guard and leaves you open to counterpunches while you wait for the uppercut to land. A proper uppercut punch is a short crisp punch that comes from a deadly angle with a lot of force and can knockout your opponent.
How To Throw The Uppercut
Bend into your knees
This is number #1 most important rule. The power starts from the ground, so you always want to bend your knees to put draw power into your punches.
Keep the Hips Down
This is the trickiest part of the uppercut punch that confuses most people. During the uppercut, your hips will go DOWN into the ground while the punch goes UP into your opponent. The reason for this is because the uppercut punch doesn’t get its power from you jumping off the ground. The power is generated from the hip rotation, and to get powerful hip rotation your body (and hips) must stay grounded (low).
Rotate The Body
This is where all the power for your uppercut punch is being generated. Your hips generate power from the ground by ROTATING NOT JUMPING. You pivot your feet, pushing off the left calf for the left uppercut or off the right calf for the right uppercut. The foot that is not powering the uppercut will drop its heel to the ground. Your hips will rotate just as it would for any other punch spinning your whole body especially the hips and shoulders into the uppercut punch.
Release The Uppercut
The hand is momentarily relaxed as you quickly lower it into the desired uppercut angle and the palm is turned upwards towards the sky. The arm release is timed perfectly into the rotation of your body and you throw the uppercut with a relaxed arm at your opponent, tightening the fist right at impact.
Timed Impact
The uppercut punching fist tightens on impact and SHOULD LAND RIGHT AFTER THE HIPS ROTATE. Just like a hook, the left uppercut should land right as the right heel touches the ground; vice versa, the right uppercut will land as the left heel touches the ground (the left heel may already be grounded if the previous punch was only the jab.) Again, the uppercut should land right as the hips finish rotating.
Recover
The uppercut should be recovered once it hits a certain distance. The punch shouldn’t just rocket into the sky when you miss. You should pull the punch straight back to your chin or drop it again to throw another uppercut. The main idea is to make sure your uppercut punch has an endpoint and it doesn’t go past that.