|
TRAINING TO REALIZE CHAMPIONSHIP POTENTIAL IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING PRINCIPLES PRINCIPLE OF SPECIFICITY Good fundamentals are rooted in sound principles -- like the principle of specificity. To define by way of an example, if you're training to run a 440, practice 440's, not marathons. Why? Because the former is an entirely anaerobic event (explosive) and the latter is entirely aerobic (endurance). One study concluded that the only time an athlete would get stronger (more explosive) by doing nothing was when a marathoner stopped training. The point was that coaches can't have their cake and eat it too. You sacrifice explosiveness with endurance work and vice versa. Power lifters don't do high reps or distance work. Limit your endurance work to what you need. That may strike a lot of boxing trainers as nuts. The best and most accurate mix is achieved by following the principle of specificity. Every event requires a training pattern consistent with maximum explosiveness and only the required endurance to apply it for the period of the event. In the case of boxing, a series of events (3 minute), the event pattern is a 3:1 work rest ratio -- three minutes of work and one minute of rest. That's why you don't jump rope for ten minutes. It's better to make that rope sing at a super-fast pace for three minutes and rest one minute between sets. This principle is often violated in the little things boxers do -- even sometimes in the big important things like roadwork. Once an aerobic base is developed, the principle should be adhered to in running patterns. This will develop the maximum explosiveness and necessary endurance, as well as improve the boxer's ability to recover between rounds. RECOVERY RATES The only way to improve a recovery rate is by practicing recovering. Simple enough. There are ways to accurately measure improvements which will be described in an addition to this link on training. Coaches should establish baselines and measure everything they can. Traditionally, boxers run four miles early every morning. If you run four miles in 32 minutes, you've practiced recovering once -- at the end of your run. If you have the same 32 minute workout, but run eight 1/2 miles, each one as fast as you can, with one minute rest in between, averaging 3 minutes for each 1/2 mile, you've practiced recoverying eight times. You've also practiced explosiveness and worked on the endurance you'll need to sustain that intensity for an eight-round fight. You've applied the principal of specificity to create the proper mix of anaerobic and aerobic work. Resting heart rate as soon as you wake in the morning and 1/2 mile times will indicate whether to cut back on the frequency of these workouts per week. Normally, every other day or every two days is enough. WARM-UPS Little things in training cumulatively add up and become significant. For example, if you're warming up for your workout, or in the dressing room for a fight, your warm-up should warm up the muscle groups which work together during the fight. Shadowbox or work the mitts with a mittman. He should not try to do any last-minute teaching. There is nothing worse. He should lead and counter you in your mittwork, forcing you to warm up slipping while you lead and counter, and forcing you to move in and out to warm up your footwork and your depth perception -- simulating moves in your warm-up you expect to execute in the fight. This is consistent with the principle of specificity. A warm-up is supposed to warm you up, not tire you out. Neural pathways used in the fight are the ones which need warming up. I recently saw a world champion warming up for a title fight by jumping rope. Jumping rope would be a great warm-up of the muscle groups and neural pathways used in a jump rope contest. I'll bet if you asked him why he warmed up that way, his rationale would be, "That's what I've always done to warm up -- if it's not broke, why fix it?" Good boxing is a combination of habit patterns that come from following principles over a period of time in the little things from a warm up to the big things like mastering good form, maximizing leverage with maximum acceleration, and integrating that form and power into a smoothly working variety of combinations. DETAILS AND FORM Over the years we have become convinced that every detail is important, especially in the beginning when new patterns, new neural pathways, are being formed and muscle groups are taught to habitually work together. Success accompanies constant attention to detail. This, in our judgment, makes the difference between a champion and a near champion. There is no replacement for sound fundamentals, patience, and strict discipline. They will reinforce you in the toughest circumstances. The importance of little things cannot be overemphasized. Boxing is packed with pressure and there’s little time to think and no room for mistakes. SOME THINGS TO WATCH FOR There are many things to watch closely throughout their career whether a trainer is teaching a beginner the fundamentals, or reinforcing and improving the patterns and skills of a world champion -- especially a boxer with the potential of a world champion. The teaching list is always long and must be prioritized based upon his height for his weight, his genetic gifts, what the coach sees, and what a camcorder reveals or confirms about his form and patterns. The following are several random samples of things for a trainer to watch for in beginners as well as in experienced fighters and world champions. In teaching a hook or an uppercut, where is the boxer’s elbow when the fist makes contact? Is the elbow traveling in the same path directly behind the fist? If not, the sweep or chop in the hook or uppercut will cause a loss in force (the mass transferred) in the formula for kinetic energy. Is the length of the arc of his hook or uppercut too long or too short? Put a camcorder on his shadow boxing and you'll easily find this out. Is he hitting his imaginary opponents at the point of maximum strength and acceleration of his straight punches (at the end of his punch for boxers who are not gifted with an exponential power curve) and at the center of the arc of his hooks or uppercuts? Is he starting the acceleration at the beginning of a punch and continuing and increasing the acceleration throughout the stroke as opposed to just snapping (accelerating) at the end of his punch? Does he fully pronate his straight punches? Is he pulling or stopping some of his punches too soon just to get off a faster combination? When he pivots throwing his hook, do his shoulders end up almost perpendicular to his opponent’s, setting up maximum leverage for the next punch from the other side? Does he ever throw from the wrong side, i.e., set up leverage on one side and throw from the other, wasting his leverage? Is he in balance at the end of his hook when he has completed shifting his weight so he can immediately follow with maximum force from the other side? When he shadow boxes, do you see a fight with a good opponent? Does he pivot at the wrong time in the wrong position in the ring just to practice his pivot (and let his imaginary opponent escape)? Should he have stayed in front of him and moved laterally instead? Does the sequence of his offense and defense and the punches in his offense take advantage of the probable moves of a fast, skilled opponent? Is his footwork and the shifting of his weight always in sink with his punches? When the imaginary point of contact of his punches is close to his body indicating he's shadow boxing and fighting inside, is his footwork ever inconsistent with an inside fight, indicating an outside fight? Do you ever see him move defensively and make his imaginary opponent miss repetitiously without a counter? Is he always in position to counter leads and is he countering the imaginary opponent's counters to his leads? Does he maintain the angle of his upper body as he moves and changes directions, holding his center of gravity and maximizing his balance, moving quickly during the execution of combinations? Does he tend to lead and counter with one punch at a time? When he does, does he immediately move defensively setting up leverage to quickly lead again, or if his opponent does counter, counter the counter -- with a combination? Combination rhythm -- is there too much time between punches in his combinations so that he's easy to counter in between the punches of his combination? Does he waste good feints (repeatedly doing nothing after a great feint)? The whole point of a great feint is to set up a lead. Does he always lead with a jab? Are his leads predicated on the opponent's patterns? Does he have a variety of unpredictable leads or is there a predictable pattern? Predictable patterns make it easy to plan a fight strategy. CAMCORDERS AND DIARIES A daily training dairy and the periodic use of a camcorder is a must in training. Periodically video the shadow boxing, heavy bag work, and mitt work -- especially with a very fast boxer, and ALWAYS video tape the sparring. Form corrections become obvious when the coach studies parts of a workout in slow-motion, frame by frame. It will be the best assistant trainer you ever had. Keeping a training diary for each boxer will remind you of what you noticed in the training video that needs improvement and also enable you and the boxer to see the rate of improvement in his strength and speed times. Otherwise, you will never know how much he has improved over a period of time and in what areas. The improvement feedback will also improve his desire to improve. His times will go down as his recovery rate goes up during the one minute rest periods. Spend about a half-hour planning the boxer’s workout based upon his performance the previous day. A boxer’s progress in his ability to execute moves with proper form will vary from day to day. So will the balance in the variety of his leads and combinations. Accordingly, your emphasis and priorities in the makeup of his workout will vary according to the analysis of the previous day’s workout. You may want to use his available energy before he reaches a state of overtraining doing something more important than jumping rope or hitting the speed bag. REPETITION OF COMPONENTS A coach is a teacher. He should devise a system which teaches specifics. Boxing is a masterful combination of specific skills -- components. You can try to teach or work on too many things and teach nothing -- all you've done is impress the boxer with how much you know. Teach one thing until it's learned (until you see a gain and it's stable), then another, and then start putting components together -- then go back to the first thing to make sure it's stable. The best teacher is repetition, day after day, to the point that everything becomes automatic. Repetition develops strong neural pathways. Teaching and training require much patience for both the trainer and boxer. Every drill has its purpose -- to improve some component or combination. The correct execution of fundamentals become instinctive with the proper understanding of boxing, the principles of teaching, and a strong intention to teach and improve. IMPROVING BALANCE Any boxer can throw a combination from a set position with his feet planted -- and then move, plant his feet, and throw again. That's easy. Leads, combinations, and counters must be mixed with good defense, and eventually executed at full speed -- in balance -- while moving one's center of gravity forward, backward, to the left or right, clockwise, and counter-clockwise. A boxer's balance while moving is maximized, according to Coach John Wooden, if his feet are just wider than his shoulders. A coach should have a system of balance drills. A camcorder will tell you whether his form or his balance breaks down when executing a combination while moving quickly. If it does, slow him down until he recovers his form and balance and they become stable. Then, gradually speed him up again. To improve and gradually extend range of balance, the boxer, even champions, must be willing to look and feel awkward, wild, and off balance when practicing combinations while moving. This takes confidence and a strong ego in a public gym. Remind him of what Hagler looked like when he rushed to finish Hearns. OVERTRAINING AND PRIORITIES Each boxer only has so much energy to expend each day working out before he becomes overtrained. He only has so much to spend before he's working against himself. A trainer should decide the boxer’s priorities before each workout. Each boxer's recovery from the previous day's workout is different. Each will improve in different skills at different rates. Recovery rates are largely a function of genetics and age. Rest and recovery are as important as the training to maximize the training effect. You want to maximize the boxer’s rate of development and keep it consistent and balanced. If there is an imbalance in his ability, then work on his deficiencies. Some coaches have referred to that as the compensatory method. POWER-TO-WEIGHT RATIOS Power-to-weight ratios are extremely important -- even more important in the weight divisions below super heavyweight. In the lower weight divisions you can increase his power and muscle mass, but if he puts on weight he'll be fighting a bigger boxer and you haven't gained anything -- that's when ratios become critical. Ratios are important with super heavyweights but not as important because the added weight is mass, an important part of the equation in power. That's why you have weight classes. Power is the acceleration of mass. Acceleration is the rate of increase in speed -- a combination of strength and speed. Strength is much easier to develop than speed. Some very strong boxers can't hit hard. Some boxers with incredible boxing skills and strength can't break an egg because they have a terrible power-to-weight ratio. Improving a boxer's power-to-weight ratio is as critical as form, timing, and balance. If a boxer is naturally fast, a drill program can be designed to measure baselines and improvements in acceleration curve, top speed and power-to-weight ratios. It is important in boxing to understand power curves and how to increase their gradient. Part of your training must be to improve the power curve of short, inside punches. There is a huge difference between strength and power. I've seen very strong fighters who couldn't break on egg. An exponential power curve is especially critical for a short fighter who must fight with short punches inside. SYMMETRY Every boxer’s power-to-weight ratio is different, and it's different from one part of his body to another. With each boxer it is usually different in his lower body than it is in his upper-body, and the right side is almost always different from the left side. Until you measure it, you won’t know which part of his body to work on (the compensatory method) to develop symmetry in his power. His straight left with his right foot forward should be just as hard as his straight right with his left foot forward. The leverage is the same, so the difference has to be neuromuscular. You have to measure these ratios at the beginning of training to get a baseline and then measure them periodically. Otherwise, you won't know whether you’re making progress. An analysis at the outset will almost always show a lack of symmetry -- most boxers are to some degree "right-handed." Trainers should develop combination fighters who have symmetry in their power. Fighters are two handed. It's analogous to learning to write with both hands. If an opponent is against the ropes and moving laterally in either direction, a boxer should be able to step with either foot forward at a 45 degree angle and lead with a right of left hook. It's unorthodox, but so were Marvin Hagler and Aaron Pryor A boxer, even with a great trainer, is only is only as good as his body. The upper left part of his body should approximate the upper right -- the same for his lower body. A lot of his power comes from his lower body and the acceleration in the pivot of his lower body must be maximized. A boxer should be a combination fighter because of the probabilities in boxing. The best combination fighters have a lot of symmetry in the power of their left and right hands, straight punches, hooks, and uppercuts. Power should come from the lower and upper body and from both sides equally, regardless of whether he is right or left-handed. Improving power-to-weight ratios is a function of increasing strength and speed, and speed can only be accurately measured with a stopwatch. There are several excellent ways to improve acceleration. The routines are different for super heavyweights than the lower weight classes, but the principles are the same. ELIMINATING PREDICTABLE PATTERNS The skill level of most boxers varies for different leads and counters. The best boxer is very comfortable with a great variety of leads and counters and is very unpredictable. He is as comfortable slipping outside a right-handed fighter's jab and leading with a right hook to the body or head as he is slipping inside his jab and leading with a left hook to the body or head. It should be just as easy for him to set things up with his jab as it is to counter with his straight right hand or to lead with it. A coach should be familiar with the favorite moves of his boxer (usually the ones he executes best) and focus on those he does less well, seldom does, or never does at all. For example, most boxers are very good at parrying a jab but seldom slip outside and hook to the body. Most boxers lead with a jab which leaves their left side open. Most can parry a jab better than they can slip outside and hook to the body. A coach should work on these types of predictable responses. A boxer may have a great left hook, but his uppercut doesn’t have the same leverage or power. If you suspect that leverage is the problem, a camcorder may confirm it. The left side of a boxer’s body may be stronger than his right side. A lack of symmetry, leverage, or balance is often related to his preferences and predictability. That's one reason symmetry in power is important. It helps avoid predictability. Predictability in their leads and responses to leads, their preferences, become patterns which are very easy to read. Opponents can easily analyze their fight films in developing a fight plan. Therefore, a good coach will eliminate predictable patterns. in This is done day after day in the gym with drills, developing symmetry in the boxer's power, consistency in his form, and a variety in his combinations, leads, and counters. STYLES, GAME PLANS, AND PROBABILITIES Bruce Lee wrote a great book which included a few absolutes. There are few absolutes in boxing. He said there is an inherent advantage to a lead. I agree (who am I to disagree with Bruce Lee). Always stay "on the edge" (within leading distance) all the time. If you're just on the edge of your opponent's range, you can lead or counter. Bruce Lee also said an opponent's neurology shuts down -- relaxes -- momentarily when he has just completed a move. Therefore, a counter is the best lead. That may sound like a contradiction in terms. You can do that only if you're on the edge -- close enough to lead or counter. In most cases, styles are a mixture of good and bad form combined with abilities and lead patterns. You game plan is predicated on your relative height and reach and the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent and his lead patterns. Those criteria lead to patterns which result in probabilities. Opponents have habits (styles) which if carefully analyzed inherently deal with probabilities. Training for any opponent should maximize probabilities in your favor. That's why you study tapes of past fights and look for patterns. There are exceptions, but the probabilities are high, especially if he's tall for his weight, that most boxers will set things up with their jab. So, master defending the jab and make your defense your offense by parrying it if you have a height and reach advantage, or slipping it if you are short for your weight, and always counter with a variety of offenses which work off of a jab. The probability of hitting an opponent with a combination is greater than if you throw a single punch, so be in shape to throw combinations when you lead or counter. The probabilities are high that an opponent will duck a hook, so the best punch to follow a hook with is an uppercut. The first step in training a fighter is to develop habits which complement the probabilities of boxing. After watching hundreds of fights, the probabilities become apparent. DRILLING FOR SUCCESS Repetition develops neuromuscular patterns. The poorest trainer will use sparring as the key element in his teaching regimen. This is inefficient for a variety of reasons. It becomes efficient only if he chooses the right boxer to spar with, and he's able to control the "sparring" so it becomes a highly structured drill designed to teach a specific move using repetition. For example, if he wants to teach his trainee a new move or a lead he didn't execute very well, like leading by slipping outside an opponent's jab and leading with a right uppercut to the head (a very difficult lead), he'd need a taller opponent to cooperate by repetitously leading with a jab, slowly at first, holding his right hand under his chin to catch the uppercut. When mastered, this is a very safe (outside the opponent's jab and away from his right hand) and devastating lead. The point is that repetitious structured sparring with the right drill partner (a tall one for example) can be heads and shoulders above anything a short trainer using the hand pads can accomplish. One last thing about drills. They MUST be designed and prioritized to complement the fighter's gifts of speed, strength, and dimensions. Too many trainers teach the way they were taught and teach with the same emphasis to every boxer regardless of their physical gifts or dimensions. A good trainer's teaching priorities and sequence of things taught result in a "style." A good style is a set of habits (neuromuscular patterns) which must make it difficult for his trainee to be hit while attacking. The importance of the jab lead, as opposed to unpredictably slipping inside or outside the opponent's jab, leading with the right or left hook to the body or head, becomes vastly different for a short thick fighter. TIMING OF TEACHING TEACHING DURING THE FIGHT Timing the coaching during a fight is as important as timing a counter. You can hear good trainers (even if you're watching the fight on television) coaching during the fight, not just between rounds. The fighter is blessed if his trainer has good judgement and a strong voice that carries. A number system (single digit) is easy to learn in the gym and works best in a fight to prevent the opponent from hearing the play you called. Using a football analogy, a boxer runs a different offensive play or responds to an offensive play with his defense and offense every few seconds, and the coach should respond immediately if he thinks his boxer is missing opportunities to lead or counter, should change his leads, or improve the frequency or speed of his combinations. Many coaches think the best strategy is to keep quiet during the fight, watch carefully and develop strategy for the next round, and only advise the boxer when he returns to the corner. That's too late. Fight patterns are fluid DURING the round, and a coach has a better perspective of the the trend during the round than the boxer. The fighter is and should be caught up in the moment. TEACHING DURING THE TRAINING Timing the teaching in the gym is also as important as timing a counter. If it is a private gym, it is easy and efficient teaching to stop the boxer immediately the moment he makes a mistake. It may be bad form in shadow boxing or a missed opportunity to counter in sparring. Learning is quicker the more closely associated the teaching is to the mistake. If you miss it, or you're not sure he turned over his hook too far or not far enough because of the boxer's speed, get out the camcorder and play it back slow-motion. SHOWING VS TEACHING "Showing" the correct form is not "teaching" the correct form. When making a correction or teaching something new, stay with it until it's stable. Most every world champion can show a boxer the correct form of a lot of moves, but fewer have the gift or intention to teach it. Most will show it, then watch to see that the boxer executes it correctly, say, "Good," and then watch another boxer to find something to "show" him. The first boxer may be back to doing it incorrectly and he doesn't know it. That's showing, not teaching. Corrections have to become stable before they are learned. The trainer has to have a strong intention to teach, keep his eyes on one boxer -- stay with it -- until a correction is stable and consistent. Then, the trainer is teaching. WORDS IN THE GYM Words are powerful. Enough of them said consistently every day in the gym and you start building a boxer's belief system about himself. Belief systems are powerful. Words a trainer uses every day to teach should not only teach but they should also reinforce gains -- what's been taught -- things that have already been learned and improvements that a trainer has seen. The words should be specific. The boxer hears them even if he's not paying attention. Teaching always involves improvement. When teaching involves correction, it is extremely important to choose words which say what you want, not what you don't want. How many times have you heard, "Quit dropping your right hand," instead of, "Keep your right hand up"? Teaching also conveys what's been learned -- reinforcement. The boxer needs to know that he learned it, or that you see an improvement. A good trainer is a human verbal bio-feedback machine. A trainer's words are an important, powerful part of the training. CONCLUSION Coaching principles, teaching skills, up-to-date training methods, creative drills, and adaptability are indispensable tools in teaching any sport. The training emphasis will change from day to day because the boxer’s improvement will change from day to day. If a boxer appears to have very good form in everything, then the coach must shift his focus to improving the boxer's reaction time, strength and speed (acceleration), and endurance. The workout video, frame by frame, will always reveal something that can be improved. |