What's the point of mitt drills?

Well, that's why you're not a professional boxer or a trainer.

Go watch the Ward demonstration vid. He explains it perfectly.

[yt]rSUyE6p2EpM[/yt]

13:20

 

Focus mitts have been a part of boxing training for generations now, probably close to 100 years if not longer.

The argument I've seen bandied about to deride them as some "new school" thing is that neither Ali nor Leonard used them...but that's because Angelo Dundee simply wasn't a fan of them. Neither was Ray Arcel. Plenty of their contemporaries (trainers who came to prominence in the first half of the last century) - many equally as renowned as either of them - were fans of them, and had their fighters use them regularly. These include Eddie Futch, Cus D'Amato, Charley Goldman (coach of Rocky Marciano, who always hit the pads for his entire career) and of course Emanuel Steward, though he came along somewhat later, swore by them and considered them as integral a part of training as the bag or roadwork.

 

when i first went into the gym in 1979 it was to teach novices like me how to punch with correct technique and how to snap your hands back up to protect yourself from counters.

never got to the stage where the trainer ever got out of the pocket like ward and hill
then again i was not that good.

 

I like the snapping my punches off the mitts and the sound that it makes across the gym. I also like looking defensively sound when I'm put through my paces.

 

They are very important for the reasons given above, but you need somebody who knows what they are doing.

I'm seeing more and more amateur trainers slapping the mitts on the gloves, with the boxer barely moving their arms.

I blame YouTube

 

Some of these new drills seem pointless to me.

Yeah, you can do a fancy 20 punch combination on the mitts, but when are you EVER going to do something similiar in a fight?

 

if you keep yourself able to throw a 24 punch combo you will have the stamina to throw plenty of 3 and 4 punch combos. It is a stamina thing

the mitts prepare you for the basic defensive fundamentals you need to compete. The trainer can throw strikes back and the fighter can defend. whether or not it is choreographed is irrelevant. the point is to keep the reflexes fresh.

 

Well, they are not necessary but they are one method of training.
It's really just a repetition principle.
Punching things, y' know.
It helps when you're job is based around punching.
There's really nothing more to it.

All a boxer really needs is sparring and some fitness/strength/conditioning. That may or may not involve punching things, depending on how hard you're allowed to beat up on your sparring partners.

 

IDK, for me they exposed more flaws about my technique, you're not in the driving seat like you are when you shadowbox or hit the bag, you don't dictate the pace as much nor do you get to select what you want to do.

 

Muscle memory and the trainer can get really involved with them.

 

Routine build muscle memory and teaches technique.

 

From everything I have ever seen they seem to be good for novices. The way Virgil Hunter does them seems to be a much more effective way than how just about everybody else I have ever seen does them. It comes down to the coach. If he doesn't do them like Virgil Hunter than they are useless. The energy could be better spent in sparring.

 

Damn good video!