Your guard is where your hands live between punches: lead hand up in front, rear fist by your chin, elbows in, chin down behind your lead shoulder. It protects your head and body and keeps both hands ready to punch, and every punch should finish back in it. This lesson teaches the basic guard used in amateur coaching manuals; styles like the high guard or a low-lead guard are variations you learn later.
Hands up
Raise your lead hand to between shoulder and eye height, roughly 6–10 inches in front of your face and just to the side of your lead eye. Don't park it directly in front of your eye; that blocks your view.
you can see your opponent past the edge of your lead glove.
Bring your rear fist up by your chin, thumb side close to your cheekbone, palm turned slightly toward the front so it is ready to catch a jab.
your rear glove sits beside your jaw like a shield.
Close both fists loosely and keep your wrists straight, so the back of each hand lines up with your forearm.
hands relaxed but firm enough that the wrist doesn't bend.
Tuck the elbows
Pull your rear elbow in until it nearly touches your ribs.
your rear forearm covers your side.
Let your lead elbow hang down under the lead fist, bent at about a right angle, covering the ribs on your lead side. Don't let it flare out to the side.
elbows pointing down, not out.
Chin down, eyes up
Lower your chin and keep it behind your lead shoulder, with that shoulder raised slightly to help cover your jaw.
your lead shoulder is close to your jaw.
Keep your eyes up and watch through your eyebrows, looking between your gloves. If you are looking over the top of your lead glove, it has dropped too low. Don't jam your chin into your chest; over-tucking is also a fault.
head still, chin down, eyes level on your opponent.
Return to guard
When one hand punches, keep the other one in guard to protect your head and body.
the idle hand stays parked by your face.
Pull the punching hand straight back along the same path it went out, quickly, to the same guard position. Not low, not out to the side.
out and back on one line, like a piston.
Feel it
Compact and relaxed, not stiff. Coaching manuals list constant muscle tension as a common mistake: your hands stay up, but your shoulders and arms aren't clenched. Your chin is down without being crushed into your chest, you see your opponent between your gloves, and every punch comes back to the same spot. The app reads your hand height, elbow position, chin tuck and whether your hands return to guard, not incoming punches.
Fix-its
- Your hands drift down as you get tired This is common: in one study of elite amateur bouts, time spent with a lowered guard rose from round 1 to round 3. Use the eyebrow check (if you see over your lead glove, bring it back up) and practise holding your guard for whole rounds of shadowboxing.
- Your punching hand comes back low or out to the side Slow the punch down and retract it along the same line it went out, back to your chin or cheek, before throwing the next one.
- Your chin lifts Lower it behind your lead shoulder and watch through your eyebrows. Coaching manuals flag a lifted chin as a knockout risk.
- Your elbows flare out Pull the rear elbow back until it nearly touches your ribs and let the lead elbow hang under the fist.
- You're tense and stiff Close your fists loosely, drop the tension from your shoulders and arms, and keep the hands up by position rather than by squeezing.
Drill
- Mirror check: hold your guard facing a mirror, then side-on, and run the list: lead hand shoulder-to-eye height and beside the eye, rear fist by the chin, elbows down and in, chin behind the lead shoulder, wrists straight.
- Slow jab-and-return: from guard, throw a slow jab and bring it back along the same line while the rear hand stays by your chin. Then do the same with the cross, keeping the lead hand up.
- Shadowbox full rounds at an easy pace, checking that both hands return to guard after every punch and stay up as the round goes on.
- Catch drill with a coach (gloves, headguard and mouthguard on): as they throw a light jab, open your rear palm just in front of your chin and keep the arm firm so the glove isn't pushed into your face, then return to guard.
- Film from the front while you shadowbox and compare the start and end of each round for dropped hands, a lifted chin or flared elbows.
Sources
- AIBA Coaches Commission — AIBA Coaches Manual, 2.5.1 Boxing Stance, straight punches and equipment (2010)
- USA Boxing Grassroots Task Force — Training Manual v.01: Boxing Stance, Ready Position checklist, Catch/Block, gloves (2014)
- Boxing Canada / Coaching Association of Canada — NCCP Club Coach Reference Material v1.7, Skill 2.3 Stance and common errors (2016)
- Dunn et al. — Human behaviours associated with dominance in elite amateur boxing bouts, PLOS ONE 12(12): e0188675 (2017)
Last checked 2026-10-26.