This is a thread to post about all of the training methods that fighters no longer use. Innovative exercises. Silly ones. High tech methods. The sky is the limit. The rule is, though: to your knowledge, the method is *no longer used* by 99% of boxers you're aware of. I'll begin: * Dempsey's pulley shadowboxing * Greco-Roman and catch wrestling (Jeffries, Dempsey, others) * Fitzsimmons's advice to dance the hornpipe * Dehydration to improve athletic performance * Fred Hatfield's acceleration machine for Holyfield * Playing leapfrog with other boxers in an open field (abandoned for cultural reasons) * Chewing resin to toughen the jaw * (Allegedly) pickling the face / hands in brine or other potions to toughen them. * Jhoon Rhee's taekwondo punching methods for Ali * Indian club twirling * Strychnine as a performance enhancer (per @Seamus) Feel free to add your own. Also feel free to correct me on any methods that *are* common today after all.
Whatever the hell Lou Nova is doing https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detai...ches-out-news-footage/502795673?adppopup=true
This one I believe. Bare knuckle fighters or recent memory, soaked their hands in petrol. I worked as a refuse collector, to pay my way through university, and I was really hard physical labor. The old hands told me that I had to soak my feet, in a mixture of water an vinegar, or they wouldn't hold up. Ultra runners do all kinds of crazy things, to stop their feet disintegrating, but for the most part they don't double down on that kind of method.
A major component of any training regime, is psychological. A training camp is there to get the fighter in the best physical condition possible, but it is in large part a psychological thing as well. It is about bringing them to a physical and mental pinnacle, and even if the science was flawed, it probably at least made them a mental monster.
It's a bit less crazy when you consider that Lomachenko swears by his time learning traditional Ukrainian dance as massively helpng his footwork. This content is protected
This content is protected Watch at 5:17. I don't see the leverage guard at play anymore quite like this. Feel free to check me on that.
Nova's cosmic punch nonsense looks a little like a handheld makiwara. Which...well, it's just about the right time and place for this, since Nova was an open-minded yoga practitioner in California. Just a bit early.
I will note that there are rumours that Sugar Hill got Tyson Fury to use similar methods to improve his punching power.
