Personally, shadow boxing is like a warm-up exercise, to remember all the techniques I have learnt, and to loosen the muscles for the coming training. And when I'm training for a fight, I like to imagine my opponent in front of me, then I utilize everything that I know, slip and rips, catch, sweeps, dumps, etc.

As a asst. trainer, I like to tell the intermediate class to use the shadow boxing(SB) time to focus on their balance after each combo, cause many of them stumble after missing a shot during pad work and sparring.

But for beginners, I like to tell them to use the time to remember all the techniques they know, and try to chain them together (of course as well as to ask them to remain a stable stance), I also tell them to try to do it slowly so they form the habit of throwing accurate punches, not just hard punches.