How to Counter the Parry

A quick guide to countering the quick handed fighters that are always parrying your punches or deflecting them with their arms. An opponent that parries all your attacks can be especially tiring for your arms or even demoralizing as you don’t know how to reach them with your most powerful shots.

 

How to Counter Parries

First off, learn how to throw snapping punches and not pushing punches. The more you push into your punch, the more vulnerable you are to getting parried. I know some believe punches do more damage when you try to punch through your opponent. I won’t argue with you if you believe that, but still, learn how to throw snapping punches to setup your pushing punches.

You also want to shadowbox more often and get used to throwing your punches at the air. Advanced fighters will parry you all day which means a lot of your punches will hit the air, not the heavy bag. This requires more energy for you to pull your hand back so try to get use to the feeling of hitting air. There are 2 counters to the parry:

• fake
• rollover (loose arm)
• first touch

 

Parry Counter #1 – Fake

Easiest way to counter a parry: throw a fake. Here I fake a jab.

 

Richard falls for the fake, leaving his face open for a jab or left hook.

 

Then I hit him with a real jab. This works well against faster fighters that react to your every move.

 

Parry Counter #2 – Loose Hook Rollover

Here’s another way to beat those parry-lovers. Throw a loose punch and wait for him to parry it. Then relax your arm and use the momentum to roll into a hook over the top. Here I throw a loose jab for Richard to parry.

 

Richard slaps my hand down (with his right) as I relax my arm, allowing his momentum to roll my fist down and over.

 

I surprise him with a left hook over the top.

 

This trick works well against down parries, side parries, circle parries, and even low parries. The harder he parries, the more momentum he gives your hand to roll into a hook. Your hook may not hit hard but it will interrupt his rhythm long enough for you to land a big follow-up.

Once you get good at this trick, throw a fast punch next time and hook immediately from the same hand before you feel even his parry. Joe Frazier did this a lot to Ali, with quick jabs at the body followed by a wide hook over the top.

 

Parry Counter #3 – First Touch

Another way you can go about this is to throw the first punch as a light tap into his glove and then follow-up immediately with hard shots. Treat it like a real punch except have very little commitment so that you can quickly retract your arm and go into the follow-up punches.

 

Read my guide on How to Parry Punches