Shadowboxing is an exercise used in the training for combat sports, especially, as its name implies, in boxing

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

. It is used mainly to prepare the muscles before the person training engages in stronger physical activity. In shadowboxing, only one person is required to participate; the participant throws punches at no one in particular. Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...

 once performed a now famous shadowboxing routine next to Howard Cosell

Howard Cosell

Howard William Cosell was an American sports journalist who was widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality. Cosell said of himself, "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff. I have been called all of these...

 for ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

's Wide World of Sports

Wide World of Sports (US TV series)

ABC's Wide World of Sports is a sports anthology series on American television that ran from 1961 to 1998 and was originally hosted by Jim McKay. The title continued to be used for general sports programs until 2006...

television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 camera

Camera

A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...

s.

Details

Most boxing trainers

Boxing training

Boxing training is the training method that boxers use in order to get more fit for their sport. This training method is often cited by medical doctors, boxing trainers, and writers as one of the most spartan forms of sports training.- Training :...

 prefer that their fighters do their shadow boxing before engaging in any other daily exercise routines. The main purpose of this exercise, apart from getting the muscles ready for other activity, is usually to maintain a fighter's rhythm and show the fighter how they would look at that stage of training against a certain opponent. This could be important as fighters envision themselves facing their immediate future opponents: it usually gives fighters an idea of what is, and what is not, to be fixed.

Fighters may want to do some shadowboxing of their own after their daily routines are over, either inside a boxing gym's ring

Boxing ring

A boxing ring is the space in which a boxing match occurs. A modern ring, which is set on a raised platform, is square with a post at each corner to which four parallel rows of ropes are attached with a turnbuckle...

, or wherever they please to at home without having to look directly at a mirror.

Shadowboxing is not, of course, limited to boxers. Many fighters from other striking based martial arts also use the exercise as part of their daily routines and aside from punches and perhaps dependant upon fighting style they will use kicks, knees, elbows, or even throws. Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee was a Chinese American, Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement...

 was often seen practicing his kicks in front of a mirror on his films, and he incorporated other concepts from boxing into his Jeet Kune Do

Jeet Kune Do

Jeet Kune Do is a hybrid martial arts system and life philosophy founded by martial artist Bruce Lee with direct, non classical and straightforward movements. Due to the way his style works they believe in minimal movement with maximum effect and extreme speed. The system works on the use of...

 style such as footwork and live sparring

Sparring

Sparring is a form of training common to many martial arts. Although the precise form varies, it is essentially relatively 'free-form' fighting, with enough rules, customs, or agreements to make injuries unlikely...

. Shadowboxing with swords and other weapons, referred to as a floryshe, is a major training tool among Historical European Martial Arts groups such as the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts

Association for Renaissance Martial Arts

Association for Renaissance Martial Arts is an international educational non-profit organization dedicated to the study and practice of historical European martial arts of the 15th to 17th centuries...

 and the HEMA Alliance

HEMA Alliance

The HEMA Alliance is a martial arts federation dedicated to the study of Historical European Martial Arts. It is organized as a United States nonprofit organization incorporated under the laws of the State of Utah....

.

Fighters of other more grappling based martial arts also shadowbox as part of their daily training regime. Freestyle wrestlers also practice many drills simulating specific wrestling moves without the aid of a partner such as shooting, sprawling, hip switches and bridging.

Styles

The long method involves a shuffle of the feet that rocks the body back and forth. This is a style favored by fighters with long reach, who use more of jabs and straight shots. An example of this would be Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...

.

The short method sees the fighter move his head and body to the left and right, constantly slipping punches and moving in for closer body shots. Joe Frazier

Joe Frazier

Joseph William "Joe" Frazier , also known as Smokin' Joe, was an Olympic and Undisputed World Heavyweight boxing champion, whose professional career lasted from 1965 to 1976, with a one-fight comeback in 1981....

 and Mike Tyson

Mike Tyson

Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson is a retired American boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles, he was 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old...

are among the best examples of fighters who use this method.

Psychology

Shadowboxing means trying to overcome a negative stereotyped self-image that prevents you from achieving success for example.