Shadowboxing
Sports training exercise
シャドーボクシング
- Type
- Punches
- Martial arts
- Boxing
- Learning path
- Boxing: step 7 of 23 (beginner), Muay Thai: step 10 of 32 (beginner)
Shadowboxing is a combat sport exercise in which a person throws punches at the air as though there is an opponent, and is commonly used as a warm-up exercise. Practised primarily in striking-based martial arts or sports such as boxing, it serves mainly to develop and refine one's punching technique. Muhammad Ali once performed a now famous shadowboxing routine next to Howard Cosell for ABC's Wide World of Sports television cameras. Black Nova Scotian boxer George Dixon is widely credited for developing the technique.
Other Boxing punches
- Bob and weave
- Check hook
- Jab
- One-two combo
- Overhand punch
- Punching power
- Shovel hook
- Slipping
- Uppercut
- Cross
- Rope-a-dope
- Russian hook
- Hook
- Rabbit punch
- Milling (military training exercise)
- Counterpunch
- Bolo punch
Japanese terms for punches
| Term | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 正拳 | seiken | seiken (karate proper fist); straight punch |
| 四つ身 | yotsumi | cross-grips (situation in which each rikishi has an underarm grip on the other) |
| 引っ掛け | hikkake | hook; gab |
| 腕を返す | kainaokaesu | to place one's arms under those of the opponent and lift them up, in order to prevent an overhand grip on one's mawashi |
| 上手投げ | uwatenage | overhand throw |
External links
Facts from Wikidata Q559615 (CC0); text quoted from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.
Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0); Subskills sports technique taxonomy (CC BY 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.