Stay in the Pocket: What I Took Away From a Full Striking Class With Coach Nico

Most of my longer videos are jiu-jitsu sparring sessions, but this one is different: a full striking class with Coach Nico, just over fifty minutes from the first boxing round to the final “Good work, everybody.” I’m in it as one of the students, and at one point you can hear him correct me by name.

I went back through the whole class and pulled out the cues that stuck with me. If you train striking, or you’re thinking about starting, these are worth hearing. I’ve added timestamps so you can jump to each part in the video above.

Round one: stay in the pocket

The class opens with a boxing round (around 0:30), and the very first instruction sets the tone for everything else. Coach Nico doesn’t want us drifting away from each other. In his words: “I want you guys to learn to stay in the pocket.”

The drill is simple. You and your partner stay right in front of each other and take turns: three strikes from me, then three from my partner, back and forth. When you’re on the receiving end, you defend. Move your head, parry, slip, rock back if you want. What you don’t do is run.

He’s very clear about the range, too (around 2:15): “We’re not kickboxing.” This round is about boxing distance, standing right in front of your partner, not staying out at kicking range where it’s easy to avoid everything.

Train your eyes

The part of the intro I keep thinking about is this (around 2:25): “Look at the puncher, react to it. Don’t be scared. If you’re scared, you’re gonna get hit with something that you don’t see.”

His point is that the drill is there to train your eyes. You see a jab, and you have options: parry it, block it, slip it, rock back. If you flinch and look away, you lose all of those.

Then he says why we’re doing it this way (around 2:51): “Don’t just go like, I’m here to win, or I wanna land everything.” Instead, he wants us to use the time to watch how our partner reacts, how they defend, and what opens up after we throw a particular strike. It’s a drill for learning and paying attention, not a contest.

He sums it up with a line I like a lot: “Can’t always be the best, but be smart, okay? The smarter you are, the better you’re gonna do.”

Talk to your partner

Before the first round starts (around 3:18), there’s a reminder that’s easy to skip past but matters a lot in any partner drill:

“If your partner’s going too hard for you, let him know. If they can go a little bit harder, let them know as well. It goes both ways.”

That’s how you keep a training room productive. Nobody gets anything out of a partner going way too hard, or out of one barely moving. The pace is something you work out together, and that goes for jiu-jitsu just as much as striking.

Two-punch exchanges: hold your ground

Around 13:00 we stay with the same partner and switch to two punches each. The cues come fast here: “Stay in there, don’t move back.” “Hold your ground, guys, hold your ground.” “Stay in the pocket.”

He also wants the answer to come right away. When your partner finishes, you fire back immediately instead of waiting. In the last thirty seconds he’s calling for hands up and more pace, and when people defend well he lets them know: “Good defense, good defense, keep those eyes up.” Toward the end of the round he’s calling out angles too.

Pad work: keep it simple, keep it constant

Next comes pad work. Around 16:13 Coach Nico gives us freedom: the pad holders are in charge, and you can ask for whatever you want. Even so, the instructions stay basic: “Keep it simple, okay? Nothing too crazy.” Constant work, constant punching, stay in range, and move a little to find an angle instead of drifting around.

Kicks: repetition, and don’t fall forward

Around 28:00 we move on to kicking combinations: push kicks, and one-two-three into a roundhouse. Here the theme is repetition: “Over and over, get it sharper and sharper. Don’t rush.”

This is also the section where he calls me out by name (around 29:49): “See how you’re falling forward, Travis? Don’t fall forward.” His fix is to drive the strike with my hips instead of throwing my weight forward. He also explains why it matters: if you miss while you’re falling forward, you end up right in front of your partner, off balance and in range of their punch.

That’s the kind of correction you can’t see in yourself until someone points it out. When I fix it a little later, you can hear him: “Nice and sharp, that’s it… that’s what I wanna see.”

Don’t go through the motions

Around 33:45 there’s a short speech I think anyone who trains should hear:

“Guys, I don’t want you to go through the motions the whole round, okay? If you need to start off slow in the beginning, that’s fine. But I want you guys to pick up the intensity as your body gets used to it.”

The idea is that you should get sharper as the reps add up. Early in the round you’re working on your flow. As your body settles in, you pick up the intensity and the speed. Then he tells the whole room to hit the pads harder.

I like that it gives you permission to start slow but not to stay slow. It’s a good way to treat a warm-up round in any martial art.

Finishing the class: no conserving energy

The class ends with hard rounds. Around 40:20 Coach Nico tells us there’s no conserving energy at this point, and opens it up to freestyle: punches, kicks, elbows, knees, everything.

The last few minutes are mostly coaching over the noise: hands up, keep moving, twenty seconds left, keep the pace high. Then the last round wraps up, and it’s “Good work, everybody. Good work, good work.” Then everyone walks it off.

What I’m taking into my next session

Watching this class back, a few things stand out:

Stay in the pocket. In a boxing round, defend in place. Head movement, parries, slips, and rocking back are all better than running out of range.
Train your eyes. Watching the strikes come in is a skill, and you only build it by not looking away.
Drill to learn, not to win. Use partner work to study how people react and what opens up.
Talk to your partner. Too hard or too easy, say so. It goes both ways.
Hips, not lean. On my kicks, I need to drive with my hips instead of falling forward.
Start slow if you need to, but build. Get sharper as the round goes on, and don’t just go through the motions.

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