The guard, and eyes always up
No defence holds without a guard. Two federations describe it in detail, each in its own vocabulary — and on the essentials they say the same thing.
| Federation | The guard as it prints it | The faults it lists |
|---|---|---|
| England Boxing Level 2 Coaching Handbook | Arms dropped, then lifted at the elbows to protect the chin; "hands closed but not clenched"; chin down; "look at the opponent through the eyebrows". Feet at roughly 45° to the opponent, rear heel raised. | Four named errors: hands too low (chin exposed); hands too high (body exposed); elbows out; failing to return to guard after a punch. |
| SwissBoxing Box-Technik | Both forearms vertical; rear (power) hand at the chin; lead fist at eye height, 10 to 20 cm in front of the head; the shoulder girdle slightly lifted and drawn forward (the "shoulder block"); chin lowered almost to the breastbone, mouth closed, gaze on the opponent. | Five fault pictures: stance too narrow; too wide; leaning back; fists too low; chin raised. |
The two lists do not overlap word for word, but they converge on three invariants that carry the rest of this guide: chin down, fists in front, gaze that never lets go of the target. That is the point of the English cue "look through the eyebrows" and the Swiss "gaze on the opponent" — you slip, you block, you roll, but you never drop your eyes or close them.
Three families, four federations that name them differently
Boxing has no single world authority, and it shows first here: each of the four federations read for this guide sorts defence by a different principle — by body surface, by move, or by intent. None borrows another's grid.
| Federation | How it groups defence | What it names |
|---|---|---|
| England Boxing | By body surface, in three groups: hand, trunk and foot defences. | Hand: block, outside parry to the lead-hand (head), outside parry (body), elbow block to the jab to the body. Trunk: duck, push away, lay back, slip outside. Foot: push away, step outside. |
| Boxing Canada NCCP | By move, learned one at a time with the jab, then the rear straight. | Guard-hand block / catch; outside parry; elbow block (body shots); forearm block (cross to the head). |
| SwissBoxing | By function, and always tied to what follows. | Innenhandblock (the inside-hand catch); Ellbogenblock (elbow block); Abducken (a forward-sideways slip) — "always quickly coupled to a counter". |
| FFBoxe Gant Orange | By intent: deflect, evade, withdraw — then counter. | Parades (chassée = deflect / bloquée = stop); esquives — slips (rotative = roll / latérale = to the side); retraits — pull-backs (partial / upper-body); contre-attaque indirecte (the indirect counter). |
The repertoire, move by move
Underneath the four grids, the same small set of moves recurs. Here is each one with the execution point its source prints.
- Block / catch (inside-hand block). The open palm of the rear hand receives the jab; the forearm stays rigid; "do not try to reach for the jab" (Boxing Canada). It is the one defence Boxing Canada, SwissBoxing and England Boxing all three name.
- Parry. Let the jab land a few centimetres short of the target, then deflect it toward the lead shoulder (Boxing Canada). The FFBoxe splits the chassée parry (deflected) from the bloquée parry (stopped).
- Slip. The upper body moves off the line of the punch; the fist passes beside the head. The Torero game (below) trains it with no punch landing at all.
- Roll / bob-and-weave. You go under the punch, rolling the shoulders — the FFBoxe's rotative slip, the Swiss Rollendes Meiden.
- Pull-back. The upper body draws back out of range without the feet moving (the FFBoxe retrait buste, England Boxing's "lay back"), or with a step back (the retrait with movement).
The Gant Orange: defend, then counter
In the FFBoxe's coloured-belt grid, each belt adds a technical block: the Gant Blanc (white) teaches straight punches, the Gant Jaune (yellow) circular punches — hooks and uppercuts — and the Gant Orange teaches the means of defence (slips, pull-backs, parries) with the counter and the linking work. In the French system, it is the belt of defence.
Its defining feature: every defence family there closes on an indirect counter — the defence first, then a string of 2 to 3 punches. You do not merely avoid; you answer. England Boxing publishes the same shape, one worked example to keep: "jab – rear straight – lead hook – back to guard", with its printed reminder "throw when you know" and "forget the 20-punch combos!". Defence, short counter, immediate return to guard — the loop closes on England Boxing's fault No. 4: never forget to come back to guard.
The Swiss defensive-reaction games (J+S / BASPO)
The J+S "Light-Contact Boxing" programme publishes a small family of games that train defence as a reaction. No Swiss source gives them an age; it does print, for each, a non-contact version for the youngest.
| Game | What it trains | Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Innenhandblock "hand open – hand shut" | The catch: the guard hand receives a punch thrown into the air. | Non-contact — suits everyone. |
| Torero the matador | The side-slip: the fist passes beside the head, no punch lands. | Non-contact — suits everyone. |
| Rollendes Meiden the roll | Going under the punch by rolling. | Light contact (open-hand slap at forehead height) — for older boxers; below that, the slap passes beside the head (non-contact). |
| Meidekünstler the slip artist | Slipping single jabs to the forehead. | Light contact — older boxers; SwissBoxing prints a non-competitive regression to bring the age down. |
The head stays off the target: the progression, and age
Boxing Canada publishes a 7-step defence progression whose opening rule decides everything: "the head must be completely excluded from the target area" until the defence is stable. You build the defence first without ever targeting the head; only then against known, controlled attacks; and the head enters last of all, "at controlled speed, less than maximal". That is the spine of any defensive teaching for a young boxer.
Then the question the corpus refuses to flatten: from what age is head contact permitted? The federations do not agree, and they have to be read side by side.
| Federation | Head contact for the young boxer |
|---|---|
| SwissBoxing / J+S | Absolute ban on head strikes under age 8; up to at least 15, light head contact only with a cheekbone-protected headguard; Olympic / amateur boxing (hard blows) from age 13. |
| FFBoxe | Boxe Éducative Assaut (BEA) is touch only, from age 6: the front and sides of the head are a legal touch target, but with no power and no KO. Combat boxing (BA, KO allowed) opens only at Minime (~12). |
| England Boxing | Non-contact at 10/11; skill bouts at 11/15; competitive bouts at 15 and over. |
| Belgium royal federation, context | Full contact with headguard from Aspirant (8–12), but results are technical only. |
The disagreement is real: head contact opens at 8 in Belgium, 10 in England, 11 in Switzerland, 6 as touch in France (and ~12 for combat). You do not average it. A club that sets a limit has to name the federation whose limit it is applying — there is no common number.
Sources
FFBoxe — Gant Orange booklet & ateliers (means of defence: parades, slips, pull-backs, indirect counter) and Gant Blanc / Gant Jaune for the belt sequence · FFBoxe — Code Sportif BEA (touch only, from age 6) and BA (combat, from Minime) · SwissBoxing — Box-Technik (guard, blocks and slips) and the Light-Contact Boxing Lehrmittel (Käser) · BASPO / J+S — the Light-Contact Boxing monthly dossier (defensive-reaction games) and injury-prevention Merkblatt 30.423.110 (no head strikes under 8; cheekbone-protected headguard to 15) · England Boxing — Level 2 Coaching Handbook 2019 (guard, hand / trunk / foot defences, combinations, coaching ratio) · Boxing Canada (NCCP) — Instruction – Beginners Reference Manual (block/catch, parry, the 7-step defence progression with the head excluded). All federations are World Boxing members, each with its own grid and its own age gate. Content verified August 2026.
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