For those who believe in "Lost Arts" from the Golden Age of Boxing: some resources

didn't Nat Fleischer put out an Instructional too?

 

Interesting thread!

The "lost" arts that crack me up the most are feinting and body punching! I mean, is there really anything to suggest, that today's boxers have forgotten how to do these things?

 

I think it has more to do with 'experience' with Solid Skill sets, it's obvious the more & longer you fight, the more you will perfect such skills - if indeed they are taught you in the first place.

looking at Tyson Fury for example, it has only been the last 3 years he has become a visibly improved fighter, just 6 fights ago he was still very much crude & unimpressive, he's still not great, but visibly much more improved.

so I think, for many, it might be as simple as say 25 fights over 10 years, whom where never great technicians to begin with don't develop them... where as others would indeed have the skills and more opportunity, or willingness to exercise those skills in real accumulated fighting.

 

Yes bits and pieces get lost over the years, because the sport just has so many wrinkles.

Tim Witherspoon was able to identify subtle tricks that have been lost, when we had the benefit of his experience.

 

Shall we create a category of semi lost then?

 

Do any manuals?

 

I've read many, many Boxing manuals and resources new and old and even old forum posts from experienced guys. And 'Counter Back on a Counter' by O. S. Westerman (1916) is still one of the best you can get. Goes from simple to advanced in clear language, advises practise over theory and doesn't over explain. It includes things I have not seen elsewhere such as how to defend from skilled shifting attacks and how to do 'defensive shifts'.

I'd also recommend anything by Jim Driscoll. I'd also recommend 'Instructions to Young Boxers' by Bobby Neil (British Featherwight champ) for beginners. And I have a lot of old threads where I have posted old pdf content, such as Jack Dempsey's article on training, advice from Peter Kane etc.

 

As for little nuggets of wisdom, her is a very old forum post (not from here) I saved about Elorde's shifting technique:

'The way it was described to me was that from an orthodox stance, a fighter leads with his right, slides his right foot forward, thereby shifting fluidly to a southpaw stance then delivering a left to the body, with so much power put behind the punch coming all the way from the pivoting left foot and leg, which spring and push the body weight forward and behind the punch.

Cely Villanueva, a Filipino who won an Olympic bronze, taught the move --with slight variations-- to Gabriel Flash Elorde, who had so much success with it, the variant was sometimes referred to as the "Elorde Shift". It required great footwork. So, with age, Elorde used it less and less later in his career.

The adjustments were necessary as Elorde fought out of a southpaw stance. Elorde was actually a converted orthodox fighter and put to sleep many of his opponents with his right. He was most effective using the shift when he had his back to the ropes. He begun by slipping a punch, countered with the left, shifted stance and delivered a blow with his right. Elorde, unlike, Fitz, looked for the head, not the plexus.'

 

Speaking of which, anyone know where he is, he hasn't posted to his YouTube channel in a couple of months

 

Old thread but had me curious, why is this the case?