Old School Boxing Tricks – Hand Trapping

Occasionally we see a move in boxing make a resurgence and people begin to think it is a new trick, something which has never been done before but there really isn’t anything new in boxing and this move shown in the video below is the same….

Vasyl Lomachenko was the boxer who used this move, often referred to as hand trapping where the boxer will pull down one side of the opponents guard to create an opening for their attack and all of a sudden you started hearing about this new move in boxing but like any other move, it had already been done before and in this case it was Terry Norris who used the same trick 30yrs ago back in 1991 against Donald Curry.

Now Norris was a world champion as a Light Middleweight and mostly fought in the late 1980’s and 1990’s – he is one of the most exciting fighters in recent times and his offensive game, combination punching is also some of the best I have seen, an all action fighter he was one of those fighters you knew was not going to be involved in a dull game and anything could happen at any moment.

Norris uses two variations of the hand trap in this fight – the first method he used was very crafty with his jab, using the jab to nudge the lead hand of Curry just enough to the side to create an opening for his right hand. Once the right hand had landed and had stunned Curry, Norris then used his lead hand to pull down the lead hand of Curry, who had bought the guard back high to protect himself after getting rocked by the right hand. As Norris pulled down the left hand of Curry, he set himself up for another right hand which sent Curry to the canvas.

Hand trapping is effective in setting up your attacks against the high guard or someone being ultra defensive and as we saw here, it is also very effective when your opponent is hurt when they are not as alert to what is happening and you can pull the guard down without as much resistance.