Notational Analysis of Anthony Joshua’s Counter Types and Punch Types used in 2 boxing bouts.Study Collected 300+ rows of data and highlighted the most significant pieces of data.

Results

Table 1. Counts the occurrences of Foot Defence/Attack with Counter Types. (The blue highlights every occasion Joshua’s footwork successful countered his opponent. The grey bar represents every time his footwork was unsuccessful in countering his opponent).

Table 1 identifies that Joshua’s successful counters were most successful when using foot defence, however foot defence also scored the highest percentage of unsuccessful counters. His successful counters with successful punches was most successful when using foot attack.

Table A1. Coaching Recommendations for Foot Defence and Foot Attack.

Coaching Points- Avoid successful counters with successful punches when using foot defence. - Joshua should continue to use foot defence to increase successful counters but be aware

that this also increases higher percentages of unsuccessful counters. - Increase successful counter with successful punches when using foot attack as he is most

successful when moving towards his opponent when landing this counter type.

Table 2. Most successful counter types based on opponents punch type. The blue highlights every occasion Joshua in some form successfully countered his opponents punch. The grey highlights the times he was unsuccessful in countering his opponent. (This table looks at the 3 most common punches used by his opponents and excludes opponent’s rear uppercuts, lead uppercuts, and rear hooks due to low quantities).

Joshua is highly unsuccessful when using a slip to counter the opponents jab, and block is his best counter type when avoiding jabs. His successful counters and successful counters with successful punches occur most when using block to counter a jab. Joshua’s highest successful counters occurred when using lean backwards to avoid opponents straight. However he had a better successful counter with successful punch percentage when using slip to evade a straight. Finally block was unsuccessful in countering lead hooks and counter types such as lean backwards were more successful.

Table B1. Coaching Recommendations that highlight most successful way to avoid opponents punch.

Coaching Points- Avoid using slip to counter opponents jab.- Use block to counter opponents jab as this increases successful counters and successful

counters with successful punches.- Look to use lean backwards to increase successful counters when countering opponents

straight.- To maximise successful counters with successful punches consider using slip to counter

opponents straight but be conscious of being unsuccessful with this counter type.- Avoid using block to counter opponents lead hook and instead use lean backwards as an

alternative counter type.

Fig 2. Success rate of counter types used by Anthony Joshua (including and excluding successful counters and successful counters with unsuccessful punches).

The figure displays that block was used most, however this was also his least successful when including successful counters and successful counters with unsuccessful punches. He scored a 95% success rate when using bob and weave. This was also his least used counter alongside duck which he had high success with. Whilst lean backwards and slip were used a similar amount of times, he was much more successful with slip.

Table C1. Coaching Recommendations on best counter types.

Coaching Points- Use slip as most used counter type due to the high percentage of success.- Avoid using block as a counter type.- Explore duck and bob and weave success rates by using these more frequent in sparring to

determine whether these counter types would continue to be successful in future bouts.- Consider whether the benefits of lean backwards outweigh the negatives as you are only

half as successful with this counter type when combining successful counters with successful punches and excluding successful counters and successful counters with unsuccessful punches.

Table 3. Counter type success rate when successful counters with successful punches occurs in fights (excluding successful counters with unsuccessful punches and successful counters).

Table 3 shows slip is most successful when combined with successful counters with successful punches. It is evident that block when combined with successful counters with successful punches is least successful. He should consider using duck and bob and weave more often as these have positive percentages. Finally lean backward has a negative percentage.

Table D1. Coaching Recommendations on most successful combination of counter type and successful counters with successful punches.

Coaching Points- Continue to combine slip and successful counters with successful punches.- Avoid combining block and successful counters with successful punches.- Look use duck and bob and weave more often to avoid becoming predictable to opponents

as these are successful counters particularly bob and weave.- Consider not using lean backwards as frequently as this is not effective in achieving

successful counters with successful punches.

Fig 3. Joshua’s most unsuccessful counter against opponents.

In this instance the block is his most unsuccessful counter type. Conversely slip, bob and weave, and duck were unsuccessfully countered the least.

Table E1. Coaching Recommendations on least successful counter type.

Coaching Points- Avoid using block as frequently.- Use slip, bob and weave, and duck more often.

Fig 4. Quantities and success rate of Joshua’s successful counters with successful punches.

Joshua’s most used punch type was lead hook. Joshua’s lead hook scores the most points and misses. We can see that he uses jab and straight a similar amount of times and has similar success rates.

However his rear hook and lead uppercut are not used very frequently despite such high success percentages. Joshua only missed twice with the rear uppercut but didn’t use this punch often.

Table F1. Coaching Recommendations on quantities and success rate of Joshua’s successful counters with successful punches.

Coaching Points- Use rear hook and lead uppercut more to gauge a better understanding around the success

rate of these punches in training.- Increase the outputs of jab and straight as these are successful punch types.- Look at improving lead hook to avoid so many misses. This could be due to overusing this

selection of punch type allowing his opponent to telegraph the punch.- Therefore it is important to be less predictable and increase the outputs of rear hook and

lead uppercut to vary up counter punches as this may aid the success rate of lead hook.

Fig 5. Most successful ring locations for SCP’s.

We can see that Joshua attempts counters most in section 5 and lands his most successful counters with successful punches in this segment. However percentage wise segment 3 lands the most successful counters with successful punches. The higher percentages tend to occur in segments 1, 2, and 3 of the ring.

Table G1. Coaching Recommendations on most successful ring location for s.

Coaching Points- Consider fighting on the side of the ring closest to your corner in segments 1, 2, and 3, as

this is where you were most successful. - Look to use successful counters with successful punches in segment 3 as this is your

highest successful percentage.- Avoid fighting on the side closest to the opponent’s corner as you were less successful in

these segments (7, 8, and 9).

Table 4. Percentages of points scored and missed on opponents with successful counters with successful punches.

In this table it is clear that Joshua is most successful with the jab and straight. Despite being 100% accurate with the lead uppercut due to low quantities shown in figure 5 it is difficult to establish whether this is an effective punch. Refer back to figure 5 for coaching points.

Table 5. Three most common punches used by Joshua (Jab, Left Hook, and Jab), measured with step with punch and success rate. The blue highlights a point scored and the grey highlights when Joshua misses his opponent when using a counter punch.

When Joshua combines jab with a step he scores more points. He also scores more points when combining a step with lead hooks and straights. However, we can see when he doesn’t step with lead hooks he misses his opponent more often.

Table H1. Coaching Recommendations on most successful punch type combined with a step with punch.

Coaching Points- Continue to step with counter punches for Jab and Straight as you score more points.- Try to combine steps with punch with lead hooks, and avoid the combination of step with

punch and lead hook as you miss more when this occurs.

6a) 6b)

Fig 6a. Percentage of successful counters with successful punches when divided by the total count of successful counters with successful punches in that location of head and body.

Fig 6b. Success rate of successful counters with successful punches thrown in that location.

In figure 6a Joshua throws more successful counters with successful punches to his opponents left side of his head and less are thrown to his opponent’s body segments and right side of head excluding segment B3. In figure 6b Joshua had a 100% accuracy when aiming at his opponent’s body in segments B1, B2, and B4. The left side of his opponents head percentages remain high, particularly H3. Joshua’s success rate in H4 is lower than the other head segments.

Table I1. Coaching Recommendations on most successful punch location on segments of head and body of opponents.

Coaching Points- Joshua should continue to punch the left side of opponent’s heads as he is successful in this

location particularly H3.- However this can be dependent on the ability of his opponent to defend his head and so if

unsuccessful should consider punching the body as he was 100% accurate in B1, B2, and B4 despite the low quantities of punches he aimed at these locations. Additionally it is considerably easier to hit the body when countering opponents punches (Hickey 2006; Blower 2007; Malignaggi 2017).

- Also consider punching the right side of the head in segment H2 when unsuccessful with left side of the head as he was successful in this location with similar percentages to the left side despite the low volume of punches.

Coding System

Coding Abbreviations DefinitionsLocation in the ring

1 Home Corner

2 Between Home and Neutral Corners

3 Neutral Corner

4 Between Home and Neutral Corners

5 Centre of the ring

6 Between Away and Neutral Corner

7 Neutral Corner

8 Between Away and Neutral Corner

9 Away Corner

Type of Footwork by Anthony Joshua

FA Footwork Attack

FD

Opponents Punch Type

Footwork Defence

JO Opponents Jab

SO Opponents Straight

LHO Opponents Lead Hook

RHO Opponents Rear Hook

LUO Opponents Lead Uppercut

RUO Opponents Rear Uppercut

Type of Counter by Anthony Joshua

SP Slip

BK Block

DK Duck

LB Lean Backward

BW Bob and Weave

Outcome of Anthony Joshua’s Counter

SCP Successful Counter with Successful Punch

SCUP Successful Counter with Unsuccessful Punch

SC Successful Counter

UC Unsuccessful Counter

Type of Punch by Anthony Joshua

J Jab

S Straight

LH Lead Hook

RH Rear Hook

LU Lead Uppercut

RU Rear Uppercut

Step with Punch

Y Yes

N No

Location of AJ's punch on Body or Head of opponent

H1 Upper right side of opponents head

H2 Upper left side of opponents head

H3 Lower right side of opponents head

H4 Lower left side of opponents head

B1 Upper right side of opponents body

B2 Upper left side of opponents body

B3 Lower right side of opponents body

B4 Lower left side of opponents body

Outcome of Punch

PS Point Scored

M Miss

KD Knockdown

KO Knockout

TKO Technical Knockout