Scouting is of great value in team sports. The same is true in respect to scouting in boxing. Looking over a future opponent engaged in a boxing match with a third team does not present the same problems inasmuch as you must watch only one man at a time.

The primary purpose of scouting is to determine the strong points of each man on a team to be met at a future date. You must then figure a defense to combat the of­fensive strength of each man, and at the same time pick out his weaknesses so that you can show your boxer how to take advantage of them.

Your boxer will benefit by knowing whether the man he is to face (1) is an aggressive boxer; (2) is a counter puncher; (3) is right or left-handed; (4) is taller or shorter; (5) has a longer or shorter reach; (6) is a boxer or a swinger; (7) carries his hands high or low; (8) is a straight puncher or hooker; (9) is vulnerable to body or head blows; (10) is orthodox or unorthodox in move­ments around the ring; (11) presses, or moves in side-to-side; (12) stands up straight or uses a weaving style; (13) makes any special or peculiar movements that give away his next move—i.e., does he drop his left before he hooks; does he raise his elbows before a straight right; is he tense, thereby susceptible to being feinted out of position; (14) is a cool-headed boxer, or changes according to the way the bout is progressing; (15) drops his left after a jab, thereby making himself vulnerable to a right; (16) uses his right hand, if a southpaw?

All the above information must be summed up and given to your boxer on the basis of his capability to com­bat or take advantage of it. In other words, if you discover that a future opponent is open to a sharp jab, for example, but your boxer is not a jabber, another plan of attack would have to be devised. We often know what punches would definitely work against an opponent, but we must determine whether or not the boxer we are advising can properly use that particular punch. Some boxers, for example, cannot use left hooks, hence should not be in­structed to throw them and in so doing take a chance of being hit with a hard right-hand counter. The entire situation must be summed up, and your advice given accordingly.

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