1. Slips should be small. The smaller they are, the faster they can be while also being energy efficient. If you make them small and fast enough, you can hit your opponent before his hand gets back to his face.
2. Your head barely has to move in either direction to make any straight punch miss... that means you don't have to know which straight punch your opponent will throw, you just need to slip.
And again, keep your slips small!
3. Just to further beat this into your now-rapidly-moving head, here's Deonte throwing random left and right straights, while I execute the same slip to one side. It makes either of these punches miss:
4. To learn how to feel and engage the muscles that will pull your head laterally away from a punch, you can try rapidly sliding your hands down the sides of your legs about 3 or 4 inches. This triggers your 'obliques' or side-abs...
(these gifs were derived from an earlier version of the video... so you might not recognize the footage)
5. Next, you need to learn how to pop your shoulder. You can do this by imagining a ball in front of your chest, and using your shoulder to smack the ball 45 degrees down towards the floor.
6. Now we simply combine those movements. By crunching your obliques and executing a shoulder pop, you have the entire upper body aspect of a "Straight Slip" executed perfectly.
7. You need to MOVE while you're slipping to open up the best counter-punching possibilities.
Hooks and uppercuts are the most devastating strikes that you can throw after a straight slip, but they're shorter than straight punches... so you have to close the distance during your slip.
Your brain is going to be screaming at you to back up when punches start flying, so right away we build the habit of stepping forward on your straight slips, which will distance you effectively for crushing people.
8. Feel free to practice slipping your head to both sides, while also stepping in every direction. This will give you absolute freedom of movement while you're moving your head.
9. Use slips to load up a punch. When you pop your RIGHT shoulder forward, all punches from the LEFT side are loaded up for immense power (because that punch will be thrown from the rear). This allows your torso to be wound and unwound during the punch, in addition to your punch having more distance to pick up speed on it's way to the target.
10. Get some reps! Slip to load up various punches, and throw them on the air until your core muscles are on fire. This is an amazing way to build speed, power, and muscle memory pertaining to the head movement game. Make him miss and make him pay for it!
11. Finally, now that you can slip to both sides, mix slips randomly into your punching combinations to keep your head moving unpredictably. This makes you significantly harder to punch, while also loading power into whatever strike you want to throw.
Keep an eye on your email for the next lesson!
The game shall continue.
...and have a fantastic day.
-Trav
Humans like to talk about things:
©Copyright 2012-2025 Fight Smart
All Rights Reserved.
Session expired
Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page.
very simply put, and well done. the KISS method that one can practice by themselves
About 7 years ago I started sparring with a small group of guys and this one retired marine just kept drilling me in the head. Twice I went home with headaches and sore neck.
I happened to see the head movement video on YouTube, I bought the course, practiced every freakin day for a week and went back and crushed the guy. 😆😆😆 All I knew to do was slip and punch every single time he flinched, whether he threw a punch or not. Totally backed this guy away and he quit hitting me anymore. 👏👏👏👏
Thank you Travis!!!!
Excellent work and advice, I see it works well for you therefore if I follow instructions, work hard and practice daily it WILL WORK FOR ME! Thanks man!
Yes thanks bro this is exactly what I was needing. I wasn’t familar with the slips so I will continue all these lesson please keep them coming bro your Awesome!
This is amazing man
Been following you since that very first vid when you challenged people to hit you. Your technique helped me get better at dodging throughout my time in kenpo! Thank you for your hardwork and I appreciate your dedication!
You are most welcome!
Thanks!!