Old timers did almost no pad work and almost all bag work…Is that true ?

Don't know a great deal about this to be honest - although when I attended an evening with Jake LaMotta and spent a few hours chatting to him in the bar - I asked him whether he did much heavybag work (just coz I'd heard he had brittle hands) and he said to me he tried to do nothing but sparring sparring sparring - he said "if you're training for a fight what's better to do than just fight? That's what you're getting ready to do so why do anything else??"

 

wow complex training

 

Jake looked at my hands in the gym, RS, 'n said I better learn to body punch, like him.

 

I'd guess different training methods are more/less effective for certain fighters and their styles. George Foreman clobbered the **** out of people with full whack shots, you cant do that to your sparring partners. Thats where the heavy bag comes into play.

 

Heavy bag work is one of the few plyometric/anaerobic exercises in old school training, it was irreplaceable for their routine. Fighters do lifts and other stuff like that now so it's not quite as necessary from a raw strength training standpoint- although i do think that you develop a certain sense of leverage and followthrough on shots working with a heavy bag that's essential if you want to be a great puncher.

 

In Foreman's case he did that to his sparring partners as well.

See this "boxing exhibition" for example:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MWjMZnsKRY[/ame]

 

It teaches you to shorten your punches, straighten them and whip them better. But the bag can make you learn bad technique if you do it wrong