Joe Louis' training techniques(?)

I know Louis was big on rowing.

Not Dempsey's machine rowing... He actually got on a lake (The one he jogged around, I believe) and would row.

 

He used to catch flies (the actual insects) in his hands to improve his reflexes.

He would run 10 miles in the morning with his trainers driving behind in a car.

He ate a lot of prunes.

Rowing was a big part of his regime as others have said.

He often sparred with his right hand tied to the ropes to improve his left.

 

After Joe,s less than convincing first fight with Godoy,Blackburn had Louis in the gym incessantly throwing uppercuts,till he could throw them even handed you saw the result in the rematch.Blackburn also had Louis catching flies with his jab,Louis was a natural talent ,but Blackburn refined that marble and turned it into a work of art.

 

It was so that blackburn could fish

 

Pompton Lake.

 

Blackburn emphasised rowing heavily for all his fighters.

From a sports science point of view he was ahead of his time.

 

Richard Bak, in his book Joe Louis: The Great Black Hope (page 233) gives Louis' post-Blackburn routine as, essentially:
am:
1 hour roadwork (walk/run intervals)
after breakfast:
1 hour walk
after lunch:
5 min shadow
6 rds sparring
6 min heavybag
6 min speedbag
5 min rope
15 min calesthenics
5 min medball abs

Interesting stuff in there about his diet too.

Link: https://books.google.ca/books?id=F1...age&q=jack blackburn training routine&f=false

 

This is more than interesting!

This suggests that his training regime basically went out of the window, after Blackburn!

 

Yeah, that really isnt ****... unless you include smashing Sonja Henie on that list. That makes it really impressive .