don familton's superior boxing instructional tapes

Don Familton has close to 50 years of boxing knowledge to his name. His tales of his time inside the game and those whom he’s trained with or seen work out, reads like a whose who of the boxing game. With that in mind, he brings out a five-tape set under the Straight Blast Gym (SBG) moniker. Don’s association with SBG isn’t clear. A comment in his interviews lead me to believe he isn’t an instructor under Matt Thornton, instead someone brought in to pass on some knowledge on the art of western boxing, and that he does very well.

Don’s five set series goes over a great deal of information with regards to boxing technique, ring craft and strategy. Don’s goal when putting these tapes together was to give the viewer a chance to learn, establish and better their boxing fundamentals, as Don sees them, in order to take their game to the next level and that Don does remarkably.

Tape 1: Superior Fundamentals

After a short overview by Don on his background, Don states that believes boxing is ‘the manly art of self defence.’ He also distinguishes between boxing and fighting, which he views as more ‘chaotic’.

Don first covers the stance from which you will box. He says that ‘nothing will be successful if you’re not in the right stance.’ When covering stance, Don goes over the correct positioning of your chin, hands, shoulders and feet. He also makes an important point about hand positioning and how you can bring them down slightly, to limit fatigue in your arms, but still be in a good position to either defend yourself or to be in a good position to attack. Don also stresses the importance of having a slight flex in your knees as this gives you increased power and drive.

Next up is proper footwork. Good footwork is paramount to being successful in any type of stand up fighting. It is essential in being able to attack and defend effectively and with that Don covers the ‘step and glide’ as a means of moving forward. Don goes over a number of things not to do when practising this and highlights the fact that the rear heel should be up to give the necessary drive.

Don gives a basic theory on weight transferral and compares it to golf, gridiron and baseball, in that weight transferral is paramount. Don also explains that when it comes to punching the hands/arms are merely a delivery mechanism and it isn’t how strong you are in these areas that is important to good hard punching. Instead it is important that you are competent in transferring the weight through your body so your delivery mechanisms can deliver solid strikes. With that in mind, Don shows a simply drill to improve your weight transferral and shows how it works in conjunction with your jab. Very Nice 

The tape now goes to an interview with Don on the basic fundamentals. In this Don explains that you simply cannot expect to progress unless you have solid fundamentals. He compares this to playing the piano, and how you need knowledge of the keys before you can play the more complex melodies and boxing is no different. He says that every good pro he has seen ‘had a good jab, good footwork, had a good straight right hand, good left hook. All of the elements that are necessary to be outstanding, the great fighters possessed.’

Don then goes on to show the difference between a slightly more square on stance and the more conventional stance most of us are familiar with. He shows that when you move to the more conventional stance although your left jab is closer to your opponent, your right hand is further from the target.

Next Don shows an important point when it comes to stance and lining up with an opponent, something I had never seen before. He shows how to line your lead left foot with your opponents lead left. Don demonstrates how this makes it easier to slip punches your opponents jab to the outside and how by simply lining up your feet you place yourself further from his dangerous right hand in the first place. Very nice coaching  Don then shows this in comparison to not being lined in where he states that his opponent has ‘both guns right on me.’

Now Don carries on teaching moving forwards and backwards. Once again, Don briefly touches on going forward with the step and glide. This time he stresses the importance of ‘bringing your feet with you.’ When Don explains the importance of bringing your feet along with you throughout the tapes. Don says that it is the essence of punching hard, tracking an opponent and getting away from one. He continually stresses to the viewer that they should step on every punch as this helps you bring your feet along with you.

With regards to moving back, Don shows the same move in reverse and shows how you jab when doing this. He gets his son Dean, who performs most of the moves in the series, to jab and move backwards on the focus mitts. Don shows a nice sequence on how moving back can be used to move away from the opponents right and how to use a pivot to move to your left. He also covers how to move back into the middle off these techniques, again nice techniques.

Don makes a point of reminding the viewer that they should never fall into a pattern, whether its footwork wise or hand wise. You should always use a bit of variety, something Don refers to frequently later in the series as being able to ‘shuffle the pack.’

The next variation that is covered is to come in with a jab and then drop. This adds to the variety you have and will confuse your opponent, as he has already seen you come in to jab and go out to the left and right.

Don now, with the help of Dean, puts some of this into practise. Dean comes in to jab and steps out to his left to avoid a right hand counter. Next he goes in and does all the aforementioned ways of going back, and Don shows how difficult it can be to counter someone that is doing this effectively.

Feints are next on the agenda, but are only briefly touched upon. They are covered in much greater detail later on in the series. After this Don does a brief overview of the stuff that has been covered thus far.

Now the first of the punching techniques are covered, and that is the left jab. This is the punch Don, as well as many other acclaimed trainers, see as the most important of all of boxing. Don goes as far as to say that if you can’t beat the other guys jab then you can’t beat him. Similarly if he can’t beat yours then he can’t beat you. There is a great deal of information taught in the left jab segment of the tapes.

Don says that as far as teaching beginners goes, he teaches the jab slightly differently. He says he feels many people become too concerned with turning their hand on the hand and this can lead to them throwing a lazy jab from the elbow. So he often teaches it with the thumb pointing up until the person become efficient with throwing it and getting the appropriate weight transferral.

Don then covers the speed jab and its uses and does a good job explaining it with regards to how and when it should be used in the fight. Don also shows a jab and block and says you should practise this in the mirror with the varying the block to deal with the different types of punches such as the jab, cross and hook.

With the jab, Don states that there are a number of ways to bring it back. For example he says depending on your strategy you can retract it _ way, _ of the way or retract it fully. He also gives some pointers on how to deal with opponents with more reach than you or with a faster jab, saying you can keep your left hand a little bit further out to begin with so it has less distance to travel and helps you to back them up. Again, Don makes a point of stressing that you should not fall into a pattern with what you are doing, varying both the pace and number of jabs you throw and how you exit after you’ve thrown them. This makes it much harder for your opponent to counter.

The next topic covered is where to throw the jab from. Conventionally, we are taught to throw it from the shoulder or we leave ourselves open to a counter right hand. Don states this is not true. He states that it is not where we throw the jab from, but where we bring it back to. With that he gets Dean to show the techniques on the pads and demonstrates the jab from the conventional stance, fired of the chest and finally fired from the hip. Again, Don stresses variety when using these techniques.

After this Don demonstrates a full power jab on the pivot, which was totally new to me, but a nice technique nonetheless, that I will no doubt be practising at the first opportunity I get  .

Next Don gives a valuable and pretty rudimentary, yet still overlooked coaching point, on keeping your hands moving when your aren’t throwing a shot. He states that if your hands are stationary, then as soon as it moves your opponent knows you’re going to use them.

Also shown is hitting on the fly. Don states that some people are slightly confused or misguided in their interpretation of what hitting on the fly is and then goes on to explain it, stating that it’s simply moving your feet constantly and jabbing, never ‘setting’ your feet to achieve superior power. Don concludes by saying that as you are constantly moving it is extremely hard to defend against or counter and again adds variety to the offence you are presenting your opponent with.

Feints in conjunction to jabbing high/low are next, after which Don covers a nice sequence of moves where you go in and jab and come out. Then you go in, feint and come out again. After which you feint and fire in a hard jab. After showing that sequence Don states that you can feel free to get as creative as you like with these techniques and you don’t have to simply stick to the techniques that he shows as long as you stay with the fundamental teaching of stepping on every punch.

The next combination Don covers, he states is simply one of the best combinations in boxing. He states ‘it’s worked for a hundred years, and it’ll work for the next hundred.’ With this combination, Don breaks his rule of ‘step on every punch’ and then goes on to show why this combination is an exception.

The next section is unique to tapes, and I haven’t seen it used before. It features an in ring coaching session at the SBG and gives an interesting insight to Don as he coaches the boxers during the session. A quick side point here. The combination Don speaks so highly of is put to good use by one of the female boxers in this segment.

The tape finishes with an interview in which Don states that he wanted to make the videos as he felt his kids had nothing tangible from their fathers boxing knowledge. He said he has things written down, but it just isn’t the same, and it gives his kids something to work from if they ever decide to take up teaching.

Tape 2: Superior Combinations and Power

This tape starts off with an interview where Don is asked, what he feels is necessary to become a fighter or to teach it. Don’s answer explains that he felt a lot of the boxing technique is unnatural and requires teaching and a great deal of practise. In the interview he also states the importance of brains in boxing. As he puts it, its what ‘separates the greats.’

The technique segment of the tape begins with Don going over two more parts of the jab; the jab to the body and the jab off a parry and off a rockback or pullaway. With the jab off the parry, Don makes an important point of saying that you must parry down, or you’ll just muffle your own jab. Common sense when I think about it, but not something I’d ever been taught or really thought about as a counter shot.

Next Don covers a manoeuvre he says is one of the best in boxing, the rock back and how to put this into a sequence with jabs, again nice stuff here  Don states that sometimes it’s a great plan to get your opponent to fall into a pattern so that they are more surprised when the shot your working for actually comes. This is especially true of the jab/cross off the rockback.

Next Don covers a very interesting point, increasing hand speed. He goes on to say that the Russian Olympic team around the 80’s used hand weights in conjunction with the various punches and had a great deal of success in using it. In my opinion, obviously others have tried this method and it hasn’t worked as well, so really there is no harm in trying it. If it works then great, if not then practise, practise, practise.

Next Don goes over the heavy bag and how to use it to throw left hooks to the head and body. He covers the shuffle step I see used so often in boxing, most noticeably by Ricky Hatton and the shift step, used to throw the right hook to the body. Don, once again, says that you can get creative with the punches, the key point is getting off to the sides and creating the angles to fire the shots.

When covering the footwork segment in tape one, Don placed a great deal of emphasis on having your rear leg up. He quickly covers when you can and should feel free to put our heels down, so you can set your feet and start to bang.

The next punch covered is the straight right cross. Again Don talks about the weight transferral theory and the correct movement of the feet when throwing this shot. When covering the right hand Don shows how to close the distance to land the shot and shows what happens if you throw a jab and don’t follow your opponent, to allow you to throw the right. Don covers how to use a shuffle step to counter this. He demonstrates the footwork on his own, and then gets Dean to come in and demonstrate this on the mitts.

The one two is the never combination shown. This is taught off a traditional one step, and not off the shuffle step just shown. Don shows the sound on the pads that the punch makes saying that it should be almost rhythmic. Don shows a double jab and right cross and then combines this with punching or ducking after the right hand as was covered earlier.

The overhand right is the last punch covered on this tape. Don states this is a great punch for shorter fighters and demonstrates it off of two jabs. He also covers the proper way to protect your face when throwing the shot.

The tape ends with another sparring session in the ring and an interview with Don.

Tape 3: Superior Defence and Strategy

As with tape two, this starts with an interview. In this tape Don talks about boxing being about progressive learning and not to push people beyond their level of training. He states that you shouldn’t be doing any type of competitive sparring until you have a solid base to work from, and many gyms he’s seen are guilty of putting guys in the ring and expecting them to just know it. In that respect boxing is no different to any other sport in that you need to have a good base before you can expect to do well competing against a good level of competition.

He also distinguishes between recreational boxing, people who just want to get in better shape and lean to defend themselves and those who actually want to compete.

Tape three starts with the left hook. Don states that this punch is to be used as either a counter shot or as a follow punch as part of a combination, and should not be used as a leading punch. He demonstrates the mechanics of the punch and how it should be fired from the centre and not out wide. Don says that the power from the punch comes the speed of the punch and the pivot of the body and not the distance it has to travel. After he shows the mechanics of the hook and Dean demonstrates it on the pads, Don covers a number of combinations of mixing the jab, feints and the hook, both to the head and the body. Again nothing brand new, but good stuff nonetheless.

The next segment of the tape is focused on defensive techniques. Covered here are a number of techniques that should definitely help you improve your defensive game. Don also shows two techniques that you can use if you are trapped against the ropes, including the Archie Moore crab, which I hadn’t seen before but will definitely be trying out. In tape four, being trapped against the ropes is covered again with the emphasis on getting back to the centre of the ring.

Don shows the side step, and three or four variations of this and how you can use it to set up a counter shot. Don makes a good coaching point here, that if you see a lot of room between you and the opposite ropes then you ought to be thinking about getting to ready to side step and circle to avoid getting trapped.

The tape then goes to a quick interview with Don, in which he is asked about how his boxing interests came about. The interview was a nice little insight.

After the interview Don shows four more defensive manoeuvres. He shows rolling from somewhat of a half guard and how to counter off that with left hook, both to the head and body. He shows how to slip to the inside and outside of the jab, the inside method, reminiscent to that of Archie Moore. The bob and weave off hooks and the counter shots available are also shown. The next move is one, whilst I had seen used, had never used myself and that is crouching. Don states that when used properly this can be a good defensive strategy to use and states that James Toney has used it particularly well in recent years. It forces a guy to hit down at you and can frustrate them very quickly, making them more susceptible to mistakes from which you can fire off your own shots. Again, I look forward to working on this 

Yet again, the tape covers a unique segment in which Don covers strategy. I haven’t seen this covered on any other stand up tapes I have viewed, so I found this component particularly interesting.

In this section Don says that unless you have complete dominance over your opponent in terms of size, speed and reach, you do not want to make it a fight in the first round. Instead use a lot of bluffing, feints and speed jabs. What is he doing to defend or counter this? In round two, if he isn’t defending your speed jab and feints well, then step in with a few harder jabs and see what he does.

He also says that having a plan B is essential. You may need to resort to this if plan A isn’t working for you, or you may go to it anyway to see how he reacts and give yourself a bit more variety to your attacks. He states that for Plan B you may want to start hitting on the fly, seeing how he reacts to the movement and how good his footwork and counter striking is. He says that if none of that is working for you, then you still have the option of going to the body, and with that he shows how to successfully set up shots to the body. He also covers a shift step to set up the right to the body, as shown in the body punching segment on the heavy bag in the previous tape.

The tape ends with a tape on Don talking about some of the guys he’s seen training up in LA. Wonderful to listen to someone that has been there and seen all the greats train and fight.

Tape 4: Superior Sparring and Dirty Tactics

Don starts this tape with an overview of the strategy covered in the last segment of tape three. Then he covers how to successfully enter the clinch. Must point out this is a boxing clinch and not an MMA style clinch. When you are in the clinch, Don says that you should use weight and leverage to your advantage and goes ob to demonstrate what to do if your weight sprawled on your opponent or if you are under his armpit. This stuff isn’t typically taught in MMA schools, as the whole clinch game is different so it was interesting watching it from a boxing perspective.

The next segment goes over some tips on working against southpaw fighters. Don states that there is no easy answer to fighting southpaws as generally they have fought against and trained with right handed (orthodox) fighters on a daily basis in the gym. This means they know how to manoeuvre their feet much better to fire their jab and they are general more comfortable with them. He states the problem southpaw fighters have is when they have to fight another southpaw. In this segment he goes over a number of useful pointers in terms of dealing with southpaw fighters. There is a lot of good information in this segment of the tapes. Don does a good job breaking this information down and passing it on to the viewer.

Now Don gets to dealing with dirty tactics. The dirty tactics are shown so that you know what to look out for in the ring, but as Don demonstrates them it is easy to fit them into your game. In this segment Don states that these are moves you want to be on the look out for when in the ring and explains that some of them are very sneaky moves and that it is sometimes hard for the ref to spot them. With that in mind he says that sometimes the only options available to you are complaining to the ref, getting your corner to complain or simply retaliating yourself. The moves covered in the section are low blows the hip and groin, the uppercut turned into an elbow and shots to the inside of the arm/forearm area. He also talks about being wary of guys who dive into a clinch with their head down, and how they may be setting up a head butt. Don also shows an armbar in the clinch, that whilst being a dirty move is used quite frequently. In fact he states Mike Tyson was using it in his fight with Evander Holyfield and im very sure Tyson also used it in his fight with Botha.

After the dirty tactics portion of the tape, they go to an interview with Don in which he talks about the difference between fighters today and those of yesteryear. He states that a lot of prospects now are spoon-fed opponents in order to bolster their records to get to the top and how that simple didn’t happen during the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s where you had to fight your way to the top.

He also talks about the demise of boxing due to a number of reasons. He says that this is down to a lot of the great trainers dying and not passing on their legacies. He also says that there are generally a far less gyms around today and that the heavyweight division in particular is suffering due to a lot of the talent being drafted into other sports such as basketball and gridiron.

Next Don talks briefly on good training etiquette. He says that it is always a good idea to start with three, four or five rounds of shadow boxing in front of a mirror and use that to work both your offensive and defensive moves. He also talks about how paramount skipping and running are to a boxers training and conditioning regime. Don states the importance of varying the pace of your running, skipping and shadow boxing, similar to interval training, as the fight does not always take place as the same constant pace. The last point Don makes is on the heavy bag and the importance of it. He goes on to state what he sees as its main uses and the benefits it can bring to your game.

The next segment of the tapes is the sparring part of the tapes. Don goes over a number of moves to help u manoeuvre better when sparring. He covers the correct footwork needed to trap your opponent against the ropes and then how to back on up on the ropes and use the shuffle step to create angles for your head and body hooks. This was shown earlier in the tapes, but now Don shows its use in the ring.

A sparring session in the ring is now shown and it is noticeable that one of the fighters is constantly getting trapped against the ropes. With that in mind Don covers how to avoid this in the ring.

The next and last technique of the series is the uppercut thrown from both hands. Don stress that this is a close range shot and shouldn’t be thrown from far out, inside it’s a close, clinch range shot, but devastating.

The series finishes with Dean hitting the heavy bag putting into practise a number of the techniques and combinations covered throughout the series.

Tape 5: Don talks Boxing

This tape is of Don being interviewed. In it he talks about a number of subjects. He makes a good point of stressing the importance of good strong legs in boxing, and states that many people see it as a game from ‘the waist up’. Don believes if you don’t have it from the waist down, then what you have up top isn’t going to be of great use to you.

This tape was very interesting to sit and listen too. Don makes a number of good and insightful comments on a variety of subjects. For example he says that if you take up boxing after the age of about 17/18, what then he feels that it is essential that you have some sort of athletic ability or excelled in another sport before hand. However he does stress there are likely to be exceptions to this rule. He states that between the ages of 10 and 17/18 are what he refers to as the ‘learning period’ and that a lot of people who come in after this period and do well, have a solid athletic foundation. Don also has some tremendous comments on guys such as Jack Dempsey, Sonny Liston, George Foreman and Ali, to name but a few.

He also talks about the evolution of combat. He says that some of the guys he’s talked to at the SBG are taking the best parts of a lot of arts and blending them together, pretty much the essence of MMA as we know it. However he also made a point of stating that he has seen a number of boxers to this too. They would take the best aspects from other peoples games and incorporate it into their own. Don speaks very highly of this. At the end of the interview he again touches on this type of evolution and makes a point of how boxing, and how it is taught and studied, is changing all the time. In fact Don states that he is teaching boxing differently that he was 15 years ago, and how he has fizzled out certain things that were becoming less effective or modified techniques to keep them relevant.

There is one last point Don made that I want to touch. The interviewer asked Don for his opinion on MMA and UFC style fighting and how he thought boxing fits into that style of comment. Being somewhat of a boxing purist and not a cross trainer, I must say Don’s answer was somewhat of a surprise to me. He states that he always felt that the best form of self defence was ‘probably something where u neutralise the other person immediately and they can’t do anything.’ He goes on to say that whilst he feels boxing is terrific, and nothing can turn the tide of a fight better than a hard shot to the chin, it is not necessarily any better than wrestling, which Don views as extremely effective. Don also talks briefly about Bruce Lee and his theories on the different ranges and how to attack from them. A very nice insight.

All in all a very well thought out tape that presents the viewer with a lot of techniques, information and drills to improve the fundamentals in their boxing game. Don is obviously a very articulate coach, and lays out the information is a clear, precise manner with both speech and visual demonstrations. This is by far the best tape I have seen on the intricacies of stand up fighting and would recommend it to anyone wanting to improve their stand up fundamentals

Overall the presentation of the series was very good and well laid out. However I though that the information could maybe have been pieced together slightly better in terms of content and its layout in the tape. I think this would have helped the tape flow slightly better. For example I think the information on the left hook and uppercut could have, and maybe should have, been presented on tape two, after the work on the right hand. Instead the left hook wasn’t covered until tape three and the uppercut was the last technique taught in the series. Nonetheless I won’t let that detract from the quality of the instruction presented on the tape. My only other negative comment on the tapes was the placing of the interviews. Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed listening to them, I’m not sure everyone else will share my enthusiasm, especially when they appear right in the middle of a teaching segment. ’ Whilst I see these interviews as nice little segments, I can also see a number of people forwarding through them.

I’m sure that these tapes will add to whatever stand up knowledge you may have. I’m not sure how all boxing gyms work although I visit one in England when I am in that area, and am looking into one closer to my university. However, having been at the gym for almost 3 or 4 months, I must say I have been given very little actual instruction, and anything I get is slight pointers on distance and footwork. I can see myself taking the information from certain segments of the tape to go and work the combinations and manoeuvres on the heavy bag. The tapes present a great deal of information about techniques that I didn’t know, and cannot wait to try out, both on the bag and in sparring. Don presents a wider variety of drills that can be used to improve any of the punches on his set. Once again I wholeheartedly recommend these tapes to anyone seeking an improvement in their knowledge in stand up game.