Somebody brought up recently that they thought height was a more important factor in range than reach. As I recall I agreed that it was probably about AS important. I was thinking about it earlier and got my mate to try something out as an experiment - stand on a stool and compare his reach to mine versus when we're both level. The extra height effective added about 3" to his reach. Now Im hungover as fuck and frankly a bit thick on the best days so Im obviously missing something glaring - but what the hells going on there? Why does the height effectively add reach?:dunno::dunno:
Of course it does. If you're a few inches taller than your opponent, your shoulder is very very close to the altitude of his jaw/chin. Making a straight punch maximise the reach 100%, not wasting any reach by the movement vector being at an angle.
Think of Sugar Shane Mosley...He has an ABNORMALLY Looooooooooong Reach for a Relatively SHORT Welter...If REED's Not Mistaken, Sugar Shane has Never EVER had a Shorter Reach than his Opponent... Nonetheless, TALLER Foes like Vernon Forrest, Dela (N the RE) & the Wink ALL Effectively OUTJABBED him & Kept him @ Bay... Height is a VERY Big Asset...It's MORE Taxing to Consistently Punch UPWARDS than it Is DOWNWARDS & there's NOT as Much Power on an Upward Trajectory as there is a Downward Trajectory... Take the HEIGHT Away from Tommy Hearns & He's an AVERAGE Fighter @ Best, DESPITE his Reach...Take the Height Away from Paul Williams & he's a BELOW Average Fighter, Despite his Reach... REED:mj:
Right, of course, it's as glaring as suspected, old pythagorus n' all that. Half a dozen less putrefying strongbows in my intestines and Im sure that would have been obvious. Nice to have a concrete basis for it though, thanks guys.
And take the height away from Wladimir and Vitali Klitchko and they'd be average heavyweights who would not have held on to their titles this long. And that big hair bag Povetkin wouldn't even be a professional fighter if it wasn't for his ridiculous height.
Vitali Klitschko was listed as having a lower reach than Lewis, but his height more than made up for it. Golota was tall but had shorter reach than the taller Grant....but found Grant through better timing and a better sense of distance. A man must be smarter than the tool to use it, I guess.
