Sometimes we all wonder about defending and blocking those imaginary punches. The ones where we’re against an antagonist trying to be a hero. But life as a boxer means that everything I just said is applied practically. In fact, to a level, where it’s not about blocking punches but doing them without using your hands.
If you’re new to boxing, you might already be wondering as to how that’s possible? So, whether you’re just starting your boxing journey or have reached an intermediate or advanced level, this shoulder roll guide will help you learn about this extremely challenging boxing technique which will take your boxing game into an upper echelon.
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Shoulder Roll or Philly Shell Defense
Before we understand the practical science behind Shoulder Roll in Boxing, let’s understand shoulder roll in simple words. A shoulder roll also known as the Philly Shell Defense technique is a legendary technique that uses either of your shoulders at a given time to deflect punches and the other arm to block the counter.
Shoulder Roll in Boxing
A shoulder roll in boxing is a defensive move wherein you deflect an incoming punch by rolling your shoulders away from the punch. The punch thereby connects with your shoulders causing little to no damage and puts you in a pole position to get back in with a heavy counter.
The shoulder roll is an advanced technique, used by only a handful of boxers who use it successfully to neutralize their opponent and gain an edge in combinations.
Shoulder roll by nature is a defensive technique, but many see it as a weapon effective to set up counters.
Using shoulders to deflect and incoming punch helps you destabilize your opponent and gain an edge through an effective counter.
The main reason why boxers prefer shoulder roll is because it’s extremely hard to block punches in quick succession without eating them. And if you’re taking the damage then you’ll eventually wear out against tougher opponents.
By using shoulder roll, you can simply deflect an incoming punch – remove the sting out of your opponent’s punch, use his momentum against him and land a devastating counter.
Shoulder Roll vs Shoulder Block
A shoulder roll is not the same as the shoulder block. In shoulder block, a boxer doesn’t deflect a punch but rather eats a powerful punch to his shoulder which does the damage but less as compared to your chin or the body.
However, you can’t rely on shoulder block for long as eventually, your shoulders will give out. Thus, using shoulder roll is an effective technique to neutralize your opponent’s strength and set up powerful counters.
Why should you learn the shoulder roll?
Easier to implement than Blocking
While blocking does consume a considerable amount of energy, shoulder roll is ridiculously easy. With shoulder roll, you can block a single punch or an entire combination just by rolling your shoulders back and forth. Now since you don’t have to worry about blocking, you don’t need to focus on hand placement and punch tracking.
All you need to know is from which direction the punch is going to come from and then roll away with it. Shoulder roll, though hard to master, takes all the complications away from boxing which is posed by general blocking techniques.
Much Effective Than Blocking
The truth is that you can’t keep on blocking hard punches with your hand. You’ll eventually give in. Blocking a hard punch with your hand is equivalent to blocking a hammer with the hand. Can you even think of the impact and the subsequent pain that follows? Me neither. So, it’s better to avoid it.
Furthermore, blocking the punches in not an effective way to carry on in boxing. Rolling away the punches deflects the power and minimizes the impact even if the punch lands. Not only is it quick to step out and step in with a counter, even if you miss out, but you’d also still have minimized the damage.
Shoulder Rolling is equivalent to parrying
In our parrying in boxing guide, we’ve already seen how the technique can help you get rid of punches without taking little to no damage. Well, shoulder rolling is a natural progression from parrying. Both defensive techniques teach you to deflect your opponent’s punches. While parrying involves using your hand, shoulder roll involves moving your shoulder away.
Frees your hand for counter
At the end of both these maneuvers – Shoulder roll or Parrying, your hands become free to counter and time your punches to perfection. I’d go on and say that in terms of time saved and momentum gained, shoulder roll is even better than parrying. With shoulder roll, you use your body rotation without using your hands at all. Thus, when you do the move correctly, you have the hands which you can use for punching back.
Saves Energy
Shoulder roll involves subtle movements to block, parry, deflect and slip the punches. Since it’s just based on your upper body movement and bending of knees, you remain in a stationary position for most of the time. Thus, it saves a lot of energy of using your footwork to move in and out from your opponent’s range. The range of motion is simple and not complex; thus, it helps save energy both physically and mentally.
Puts you in an advantageous position
Every time you do a successful shoulder roll, you’ll have a significant opening to counter. You can use this to counterpunch your opponent and quickly turn the defense into offense. You can check out our James Toney Masterclass to study the art of turning defense into attack in-detail.
Frustrates your opponent
Since your opponent would find it hard to penetrate through your guard, it’ll frustrate them to the core. Out of frustration, they’ll do anything to connect with you and lose their composure in the process. Thus, you can let them come at you wildly and all you need is an effective counter to put them in their place.
How to Shoulder Roll?
Visually, shoulder roll looks super easy but you can only master it if you put in a tremendous amount of work. Here are a few steps in which you can get started with shoulder roll in boxing:
Get into the basic stance
The starting point in shoulder roll is not any different from when you’re hitting usual punches. Simply get into the basic boxing stance.
Shoulder roll away using the right hands
The only thing you need to remember is that you don’t have to drop your left hand to shoulder roll. As an orthodox fighter, always use your right hand to shoulder roll. If you’re a southpaw, then that’ll be the opposite – use your left to shoulder roll.
Roll away from the right as whilst trying to lift your shoulder to cover your skin. Remember to keep your back straight and not lean backward. You just have to roll enough so to avoid your opponent’s incoming punch. Over rolling can cause an unbalance and leave you in a terrible spot.
Pre-determine the angle
You can block an incoming punch by either rolling outside or to the inside. Sometimes you can block your opponent’s hand by rolling inside as seen in the image below. Alternatively, you can even deflect your opponent’s punch on the inside. Knowing where the punch is going to come from will put you in a great position to roll and counter.
Rolling shoulder inside
Deflecting punch inside
When deflecting the opponent’s right hand to the inside, simply roll your shoulders away which can make way for an overhand counter.
Similarly, when you see a punch coming from an outward angle, move inwards which puts you in a great position for a body shot or perhaps an uppercut. (Feel free to try out different combinations and punches with your sparring partner)
Using Shoulder Roll for Defense
Leaning Backward
From your stationary stance, just lean slightly backward with your left shoulder to deflect an incoming straight or overhand right. Remember not to lean too much as it may putt you off balance.
Rolling and Blocking Punches
To roll and block punches, for instance, a left hook, rotate your left shoulder whilst leaning back slightly to deflect your opponent’s right hand. Once, you’ve done that, rotate towards the other direction whilst raising your right arm (to protect your chin) to block and roll the left hook.
Ducking punches
Deciding what to do with an incoming punch is completely on you. You can either roll, block, duck a punch or slip certain punches based upon your convenience. Personally, against incoming hooks to the head from southpaw, I try bending my knees and move slightly forward at waist level.
Parrying
We’ve already seen the effectiveness of parrying punches. Remember, when confused between whether to parry a punch or roll it. Go with the following: Do not parry overhand, straight punches or hooks because the force is too much and might damage your hand. For such power punches, shoulder roll is quite effective.
Using Shoulder Roll to land Counters
The shoulder roll is of no use if you can’t capitalize on it. In order for it to be fruitful, you must follow it up with effective counters. Here are few moves you can keep in mind when wanting to land a counter.
Jab
The most basic option is to throw a jab from the waist level and make sure it’s snappy. If you get this right, you can build your combination off of it. With that said, do not backhand your jab and always try to bring your jab to the point of inception.
Cross
One of the best moves is to use your right hand to attack. Since the right hand is always protecting your chin, letting it loose will allow you to throw punches in quick succession when you’re in range.
Straight Right
Once you deflect your opponent’s power punch with your left or right shoulder, you can rotate in the other direction and shoot the straight fright. Though a short counter, it’s extremely effective.
Right Uppercut
I personally am a big fan of the uppercut counter. For me, it’s the best and most effective counter punch after a shoulder roll. Herein, once you deflect an incoming punch with your left or right shoulder, you’ll be in a position to throw a crunching uppercut. This move-in itself is capable of putting your opponent to sleep.
Left Hook
As soon as you block your opponent’s left hook or an uppercut, you’ll be able to throw your own left hook. Just check for their guard, if their guard isn’t up, you’ll land clean and crisp on their chin.
Common mistakes to avoid when doing a shoulder roll
Over rotating
Do not over-rotate. I’ve said this once and will say it again. Over rotating will lead you off-balance and put your opponent in an advantageous position right away. You just want to rotate enough to deflect the punches and come back in with a counter. When you over-rotate, you miss the counter cue and might lose your balance. So that’s a big No-No.
Not maintainingeye contact
The crux of shoulder roll revolves around studying your opponent’s movement. Thus, tracking the direction from which the punch is coming in is extremely important. You can only achieve this by maintaining constant eye contact helping you sense the direction from which the punch is coming. If you don’t maintain proper eye contact, you’d hardly be able figure the direction let alone the punch.
Tiring the mind through Guesswork
Trust me when I say this, Shoulder roll works against any punch. Thus, instead of trying to focus on what your opponent might throw, try focusing on the angle from which he is to throw. Don’t keep your mind occupied with things that don’t matter. At the same time, have a counter planned as soon as you track the angle.
Using shoulder roll against lighter punches
Shoulder roll is effective when an opponent throws the power punches. Thus, it works against hooks, jabs and crosses or combinations but isn’t effective against a jab. Since your opponent is not fully committed, using a shoulder roll doesn’t really make much sense as it won’t be fruitful. Thus, there’s no room for using your opponent’s momentum against him/her.
Not inculcating pivoting
It’s okay if you don’t pivot but it’s excellent if you do a pivot. When you add pivoting when rolling your front shoulder, you gather the momentum. Thus, when you’re coming back at your opponent with a counter, your punch packs more power than usual. Many beginners don’t emphasize on pivoting at first. Even advanced level boxers can miss out on this. But it’s the little intricacies like these which make all the difference.
Tips for effective shoulder roll
Ideally, I believe that shoulder roll is a technique that every boxer should learn from day one. The fact that it’s simple and effective should be enough to convince the trainer to teach this technique right from the start. There’s a misconception that shoulder roll is just a defensive technique. It’s more than that.
Shoulder roll can help you get in rhythm when you attack, counter-attack or defend. As soon as you understand your opponent’s rhythm, you can easily roll with the incoming punches.
Apart from the tip that I just shared, there are a few more that I’d like you to know about.
Using rhythm as a defense
When shoulder rolling, try not to think about your shoulders at all. It doesn’t require a cent percent concentration like blocking punches does. It’s more or less rhythmic and instinctive. When you practice it a lot, you’ll have an instinctive edge as to where your opponent might come from. As long as you develop the rhythm, you’ll be able to take the sting away from any punch. Let your natural rhythm flow which will work your defense automatically.
Balance is not the key factor
When I say balance, I don’t mean your entire body but just the momentum. Truth is that shoulder roll works with anything and everything. You don’t need to be in an advantageous position to roll a punch. Even against the momentum, you can do the simple action of turning away from an incoming punch capable of neutralizing the punch.
Throw counters
After the hard work of rolling away is complete, try to make it count with effective countering. Don’t just wait there for your opponent to come at you again. Roll away, get back in, stun your opponent with combinations and return to your stance. Make it a habit to make every shoulder roll count. If you don’t have the cognizance to come right back in and land an effective counter, all your hard work is eventually of no use.
Popular boxers who use Shoulder Roll Technique
The likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr., James Toney, Adrien Broner, and Bernard Hopkins are world-renowned for their Philly Shell Defense. These skillful boxers have been able to use shoulder roll to the best of their abilities in order to swing the tide in their favor. That’s what Shoulder Roll is, once you master it, you can maneuver quickly and effectively against the toughest of opponents.
To pull off a shoulder roll, you should have a clear idea about what you want to do it and when to do it which requires a combination of timing and reflexes. It’s not easy but with thorough practice, you can implement the shoulder roll in your boxing strategy.
I’d urge you to study some of the most talented boxers who mastered the shoulder roll. I’ve mentioned a few of the names above but would like to expand it. I highly recommend you to watch these guys take your shoulder roll knowledge to the next level.
James Toney: An excellent fighter who was naturally talented and possessed an abundance of old school boxing skills. He is recognized as one of the most iconic defensive fighters of all time.
Floyd Mayweather: Extremely effective and precise with his shoulder rolls, the only reason why James might not be considered the best ever is because of Floyd’s undefeated streak which can largely be accredited to his defensive excellence.
Pernell Whitaker: Whitaker is one of my favorite boxers. His slipping skills are beyond magnificent. Ridiculously talented and precise, he could make his opponents weep without using his hands.
Guillermo Rigondeaux: Rigo’s counter-attacking skills overshadow his defensive excellence. We’ve already covered Rigondeaux’s brilliance in our Guillermo Rigondeaux Masterclass. Feel free to check that out.
Conclusion
I hope this guide helped you learn about some crucial points regarding shoulder rolling. Personally, I love to watch film studies of boxers to learn in-depth about how to apply such boxing techniques practically.
I’d urge you to do the same if you haven’t started yet and would also remind you that shoulder roll might seem easy but without grueling practice, you might never be able to pull it off effectively. Thus, keep rolling.
