Larry Holmes' disdain for rigorous training and hardcore coaching

Maybe the fact that he didn’t do as much sparring as some fighters is why he wasn’t as damaged as many of them in old age

 

How can three trainers have a collective three hundred years of boxing experience?

 

Larry was one of the best-honed fighting machines I’ve ever seen. He sparred like 300 rounds for some of his bigger fights, far more than a lot of fighters then or now.

He was certainly well-conditioned.

Tape don’t lie — look at Larry and you’ll see he was in shape and he was also ready. Yeah, there’s a few fights later where he wasn’t fine-tuned, but look at his fighting schedule (compared to the twice-a-year guys we have now) and that takes a toll … when he came back at a later age, it showed as much as anything that he needed a mental and physical break from the sport.

 

i do think fighters benefit from lifting weights.

But excessive running can also cause joint and knee problems.

Yes, fighters need great stamina. But you can develop that by swimming or running on a soft surface like grass as opposed to hard surfaces like roads. Roads and other hard surfaces damage your knees and joints more.

Holmes had very good stamina so clearly him not running 5 miles in the morning didn't hurt him. I think as long as a fighter is able to develop good stamina and maintain it, they don't necessarily need to wake up 4 in the morning to go on long runs.

 

I think what he says is 50/50. Obviously, Holmes may not have felt like running at 5 am, maybe he preferred running later in the day or in the evening, and he knew his body well enough, if he was overtired to cut back on his training regimen for example. I think though that a good trainer can see things and help develop things that a fighter needs to improve on, because they are not in the ring and watching the action, maybe if a boxer keeps getting hit by an opponent's left hook, a trainer could tell his guy that he keeps getting hit by a certain punch to be more aware of it.

 

I'm not sure i am buying all of that.

 

Exactly....i remember reading some old SI articles on Holmes before some big fights of his in his prime yrs and the man trained hard. Always weighing in at 212 in those yrs. One of the articles even had a pic of a very steep long hill in Easton that was part of his daily run so no I dont buy into this.

 

Sounds like he threw that baby out with the bathwater.

Larry is also forgetting that he is saying this from a place where he already has a high base level of fitness from years of 'old fashioned' conditioning in his youth. Anyone into boxing or training in general knows maintaining good shape is a bit different to actually building it up.

 

HW fighters certainly need to be conditioned it's obviously the only division where you can foolishly cut corners and still come fight night you are weighed in and you fight whatever shape you come in, up to a certain level where the ability gulf is in your favour you may get away with it.

Roadwork, modern be way less of, fighters have more state of the art facilities good or bad. You guys will also of read about old time fighters doing road work in big heavy boots, that never really made sense to me. I like a lot of the old school training I'd read about but that often left me puzzled, horses for courses I guess.

I did read Ron Lyle's book and he did his roadwork in his cell, running on the spot in his prison boots, imagining he was out on the streets, may never of become a WC, but had a champions mindset, that's priceless, whatever your ceiling.

 

I agree with not waking up early on purpose. Recovery in athletics is as important as the workout. Wouldn't it make sense for any pro athlete to sleep without an alarm, wake up when they wake up? Is there a reason why running 5mi at 10am is different than doing it at 5am?

As to his comments about sparring, that's just bizarre coming from a guy who learned his craft as a sparring partner and then was known for being a prolific sparrer in his prime, sparring hundreds of rounds in prep for a fight; sparring is literally what made him. I guess toward the end he may not have sparred as much, but that's after building up a long career's worth of muscle memory and instinct.

 

The thought process was that when you did roadwork say in heavy boots when you put on your much lighter shoes for boxing it would make your footwork faster.
The problem is if you are not running on sand or other soft surfaces and run on a hard surface you will 100% destroy your knees if you do it long enough.
I think the whole wake up at 5AM for road work is to instill DISCIPLINE as well.

 

No way did Holmes spar 300 rounds for any fight. Not even a maybe. I say that in isolation.

But he's pretty much said it in the opening post with the quotes, that he never overtrained.

 

I never liked the idea of getting up at 5 for running, when most championship fights don't take place until the late evening, or even after midnight.

 

I'm a BIG fan of Holmes.

But he slavers rubbish and should be taken with a pinch of salt.

His trainers asked him to run 100 miles? He makes it sound as if that was a single run, but he more than likely means during an entire camp for a fight. Doesn't explain himself enough.

But that's Larry for you.