The stance every step starts from
Every step begins from a base. Each federation describes it in its own way — and those differences are not style points, they are coaching cues worth quoting.
| Federation | The base (feet) | The guard |
|---|---|---|
| England Boxing Level 2 Handbook, §9 | Feet “at approximately 45 degrees to the opponent”, rear-foot heel raised, width and depth between the feet, target area minimised, balance enough to “move quickly in any direction”. | “Drop arms to the side and lift at the elbows to protect the chin”; hands “closed but not clenched”; chin down — “look at the opponent through the eyebrows”. |
| Swiss Boxing Box-Technik, §1.1 | Feet about shoulder width (“Abstand der Füsse ≈ Schulterbreite” — the distance between the feet is roughly shoulder width), knees slightly bent, weight even on the balls of both feet. The base changes with distance: at long range the left heel sits level with the right toe, toes to the opponent; at half and near range the feet are nearly parallel. | Forearms vertical, rear (power) hand at the chin, lead fist at eye height (“ca. 10–20 cm vor dem Kopf” — about 10–20 cm in front of the head); shoulder girdle lifted and drawn forward (“Rucksack anziehen” — as if pulling on a rucksack); chin lowered almost to the breastbone. |
| Boxing Canada NCCP, Instruction-Beginners | Rear heel raised and offset from the midline, rear knee flexed more than the front knee, weight on the balls of the feet and evenly distributed. | Hands high, chin down; the non-punching hand and arm stay in the guard position at all times. |
Moving without ever crossing the feet
On one point the federations agree almost word for word, and it is the rule to anchor first.
- Push off one foot, move off the other. England Boxing: “push against the front foot to move back and the back foot to move forward.” The foot nearest the direction of travel leads; the other follows at once to restore the gap.
- The feet never cross and never come together. Boxing Canada, verbatim: “At no time should the feet cross or come together.” Keep the same distance between the feet throughout.
- When you punch, both feet are planted (Boxing Canada). You do not fire mid-step, on moving legs.
- Swiss Boxing puts a number on the step: the front foot advances 10–15 cm, the rear foot drags up to restore the stance, “dynamisch gleitend über den Boden” — dynamically, sliding, close to the floor.
And the line England Boxing uses to sum up the whole theme: “the real skill of footwork is in changing direction and tempo” — not moving fast, but changing.
Range: the core skill
“Distance management is one of the factors of success,” writes Alain Delmas’s lexicon of English boxing (Dicoboxe) — the most explicit account of range in the corpus. Distance is “the interval that separates two opponents,” and it divides into four bands. Each band has its own punches: that is what makes range a skill and not a hunch.
| Band (near → far) | EN · FR (Delmas) · DE | What lands here |
|---|---|---|
| Contact | in-fighting · corps-à-corps · Nahdistanz | Short hooks and uppercuts; “control at three heights” (opponent’s torso, arms, hips). |
| Short/mid | mid-range · mi-distance / combat rapproché · Halbdistanz | Hooks and uppercuts, bent arm (short hook < 90°, long hook > 90° — England Boxing). |
| Long | long range · longue distance · weite Distanz | The straights: the lead straight, then the rear straight, full arm extension. |
| Beyond | out of range · hors distance · Aussendistanz | No clean blow — the boxer is “safe, far from the opponent.” Crossing the “fictional barrier” = entering the “exchange territory.” |
The tool that measures this distance has a federation name. The lead straight is, for England Boxing, the “primary range finder” that sets up the more powerful rear hand. The two faults that cost you range are named too: jabbing from a square stance (you lose reach) and bending at the waist instead of the knees, “leaning into the opponent’s range.” To act on the gap, Delmas lists three moves: break the distance (casser la distance), press (pressing), lengthen the distance (rallonger la distance).
The running games, with their numbers
Here are the footwork drills the federations actually print, with the dimensions and durations exactly as published. The first three come from the Swiss J+S games of Swiss Boxing / the Federal Office of Sport (Monthly Topic 12/2014 “Light-Contact Boxing”; several originate with Cougoulic et al. 2003, adopted by the federation).
| Drill | Source | Setup and published numbers |
|---|---|---|
| Mirror run Spiegellauf | Swiss Boxing / FOSPO, p. 7 “Beinarbeit” | Pairs facing, 1–2 m apart, in the stance, no gloves. A moves with shuffle-steps (the near foot leads); B stays directly opposite and copies every step. Swap the leader every 30–45 s. Non-contact. |
| Shadow run Schattenlauf | Swiss Boxing / FOSPO, p. 7 “Schattenlauf” | A holds exactly the same gap while B moves freely — advancing when B retreats, retreating when B advances. This is range control trained with footwork alone. Progression: each step, A lightly touches B’s lead-hand knuckle at eye height — an open-hand range check, still no punch. No printed duration. |
| Tennis-ball dribble in stance Tennisball prellen | Swiss Boxing / FOSPO, pp. 7–8 | Bounce a tennis ball while staying in the stance: “trainiert gleich 3 wichtige Komponenten” — it trains three components at once (balance, the springy footwork rhythm, returning the free hand to guard). Every bounce, free fist back to the temple, cushion off the balls of the feet. |
| Rhythm ladder FFBoxe, ECR | FFBoxe, Gant Blanc ateliers + Gant Blanc explanatory booklet (21 Oct 2025), pp. 6–9 | An agility ladder of at least 6 m with at least 10 rungs; 10 coded patterns (GB_ECR.1–10) coupling steps to straight punches. Cue: foot and fist land together — the punch times to the step, not before or after. |
| Pendulum steps Boxing Canada | Boxing Canada (NCCP), Instruction-Beginners (2024), §5.2 | Small controlled hops of about 3 cm (one inch) per weight-shift, always on the balls of the feet. Then add a jab that lands exactly as the lead foot lands. Use sparingly with beginners until the base is stable. |
The one theme with no contact gate
Boxing is a head-contact sport, and most federations gate contact and sparring by age (see Age groups & contact). Footwork is the exception: it is the only one of the seven themes with no contact gate — everything is done without touching the partner.
- The Swiss J+S games are framed for ages 5–20: you can run the whole set with u9, no gloves, no headguard.
- The shadow run and its progression (the open-hand touch at eye height) stay a range check, with no blow landed.
- The one caution named in the sources: the pendulum step, which Boxing Canada uses “sparingly” with beginners until the base is stable — start with the static left-right weight-shift, no hop, before adding the bounce.
FAQ
Should you bounce or slide?
Which foot moves first?
From what age can you train footwork?
Sources
Swiss Boxing / FOSPO-BASPO — mobilesport.ch, Monthly Topic 12/2014 “Light-Contact Boxing” (p. 7 Beinarbeit, Spiegellauf, Schattenlauf; pp. 7–8 Tennisball prellen) and Box-Technik (§1.1–1.2; several games originating with Cougoulic et al. 2003, adopted by the federation) · FFBoxe — Gant Blanc ateliers and Gant Blanc explanatory booklet (21 Oct 2025), ECR rhythm ladder · Boxing Canada (NCCP), Instruction-Beginners Reference Manual (2024, §5.2) · England Boxing, Level 2 Coaching Handbook (2019, §9) · World Boxing, Competition Rules (November 2024, §7.2.3.1) · Alain Delmas, Lexique de la boxe anglaise / Dicoboxe (vol. D “Distance”). Content verified August 2026. Boxing has no single authority: where the federations diverge — here on bouncing — both positions are printed side by side, each named. The German distance labels (weite Distanz, Halbdistanz, Nahdistanz) are standard usage and were not verified against a DBV document.
help.boxing.footwork-and-distance