We did some mitt drills today and I got paired up with a new guy that only shows up occasionally. I've never actually worked with someone who didn't actually punch before, he seemed to be playing patty cake with the mitts. I understand that you should go slow in order to work on technique, but this guy didn't seem to hit at all.
I've noticed that when doing a combo with a hook in it, I tend to not keep my hand up on the side I'm preparing to hook from, telegraphing the strike and leaving myself wide open. I need to focus on resetting my hand before the hit so that I don't get clocked.
After that, both sides put on gloves and we did defensive drills vs jab and cross, consisting of deflecting the incoming punch away in a sort of patting motion. I need a lot of work on this, but my partner seemed afraid to hit me. At one point I stopped, lowered my gloves and asked him repeatedly to hit me in the head, that he wasn't going to hurt me. I tried to go really light with him, but I did end up tagging him once or twice. I hope to work some more on this on Saturday.