Origins Of Boxing’s Philly Shell Defense Technique

Philly Shell Defense in Boxing is considered a stance where boxers keep themselves in a special position. In a Philly Shell Defense, the lead shoulder of a boxer is tucked up towards his chin. Also, boxers have to slightly lean away from their opponent fighter. 

In a Philly Shell Stance, boxers will have to use their lead arm so that they will be able to protect their body. While doing this, their backhand is tucked up at the side of the chin. A golden rule of boxing is “Hit and don’t get hit”.  A Philly Shell

Defense falls under this golden rule beautifully. The art of Philly Shell in Boxing has its roots back to ancient Greece. Doing Philli Shell requires boxers to have great skills and cat-like reflexes. Want to know more about the Philly Shell Defense in Boxing? Keep reading. 

In Boxing, Philly Shell’s defense is considered a stance where boxers keep themselves in a special position. In a Philly Shell Defense, the lead shoulder of a boxer is tucked up towards his chin. Also, boxers have to slightly lean away from their opponent fighter. 

In a Philly Shell Stance, boxers will have to use their lead arm so that they will be able to protect their body. While doing this, their backhand is tucked up at the side of the chin. Doing Philli Shell requires boxers to have great skills and cat-like reflexes. 

Philly Shell in Boxing enhances the skill of blocking body shots using the lead hand in a fighter. In this special position, a boxer can use the shoulder in defense offensively. He just has to throw counters off of the backhand or the lead shoulder.  

The origin of the Philly Shell Defense can be traced back to the early 20th century in Philadelphia. Some people in Philadelphia did not want to do boxing but enjoyed sparring regularly. Those people were said to be the pioneers of the art of Philly Shell Defense in Boxing.

They would use their shoulders to roll. While doing that, they planted their feet and rolled off the punches. This would generate more energy in them. George Benton is said to be one of the best fighters in the art of the Philly Shell Defense in Boxing.

George Benton popularized the Philly Shell art and took it to the world championship level. Al Mitchell, the legendary boxing coach in the United States, praised Benton for using Philly Shell for the first time. 

After George Benton had popularized the art of Philly Shell, he joined as a trainer in the US Olympic Team in 1984. Under his training, the team members practiced Philly Shell Defense. 

In this way, popular boxers such as Pernell Whitaker, Evander Holyfield, and Meldrick Tayor used the Philly Shell art many times while in a boxing match. 

Floyd Mayweather Senior began the art of Philly Shell in Boxing. He learned the art of the Philly Shell from his trainer Del Williams. Del trained Floyd Mayweather to plant his feet and roll off the punches instead of moving out of his range.

Later, Floyd passed his knowledge and wisdom onto his pupils and sons. His son, Mayweather Junior is popularly known as one of the greatest defensive fighters in boxing. Everyone knows his ability to do the Philly Shell defense with his great skills and razor-like reflexes. 

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Unfortunately, the art of Philly Shell also has some weaknesses. Here they are-

1. The art of Philly Shell is not as effective and good as Southpaw.
2. You can have limited offensive options in the art of Philly Shell Defense.
3. The other weakness of the Philly shell defense is that you can have difficulty beating the shoulder roll.
4. If you do not protect your body properly, you can be badly injured while doing the Philly Shell defense.

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