Joe Louis looks surprisingly poor skipping rope and on the speed ball

We were at an amateur tournament once, there was a guy jumping rope for his warm up, he must have jumped rope for 20 minutes doing every trick with the rope and he never missed. Probably the best boxer I've ever seen with the rope. We were waiting to see him fight, but when he did he wasn't good.

I don't know if he just liked to jump rope or if he had been jumping rope for a long time and just started boxing? If he stuck with boxing he probably got much better because he was in good condition.

Many times the person who jumps rope the best or is the best on the speed bag is not the best fighter in the gym and sometimes that person is just there for fitness and doesn't fight or spar. Most good fighters do look good jumping rope, and on the speed bag, both are fun for young fighters and they usually get good on them while they are still enthusiastic and wanting to learn. Later they might just go through the motions, but they have such a good base for doing the rope/speed bag that they still look impressive.

 

Yeah, I was just going to say that it would be pretty weird if doing well at a universally accepted training method for boxing had no correlation with boxing ability.

It would imply that jumping rope is a waste of training time.

 

No speed swivels in Joe's day for what its worth.
Joe did just fine without the flash in my book.

 

In the sense that it makes your legs stronger and builds endurance, it helps if you know how to move. But it isn't necessary by any means. You can get the same, better, results with boxing specific instruction and repetition.

 

Jumping rope can help with footwork, but just because a boxer can jump rope well doesn't mean he has good footwork. Boxers need to learn correct footwork and they need to practice it. Boxers can have problems with their footwork, even after years of work. It can be like a baseball player going through a "slump", the fighter's footwork gets off and he has to correct it. If the footwork is off, everything is off.

Jumping rope is an assistance exercise for footwork, it helps the fighter to be lighter on his feet and it also helps with conditioning. Depending on how the fighter uses the rope it can even help with knee bend and explosiveness. As someone mentioned, it won't work miracles. If a fighter crosses his feet when he moves jumping rope won't correct the problem, practicing good technique will.

 

I can't count how many guys I've seen that we're great at jumping rope but had bad feet. Jumping rope is something that just about anybody can pick up and get good at if they spend 15 minutes, five rounds, every day. How to move properly, in a boxing sense, you have to be taught.

I don't know if it is a waste of time but it is not a priority.

 

I think it’s good to warm you up. Get your feet and rhythm movin, your sweat building, and builds your stamina in a boxing sense.

But it won’t work miracles.

 

To be fair Joe Louis was 20 years old with 12 fights to his name and he looked a little nervous in front of the camera. But, that said he still looked good to me.

Here is Louis at 23 years old as a 33 fight veteran and much more relaxed in front of the camera.

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Joshua around 20 was extremely raw as well. But, after just a couple of years progressed by leaps and bounds.

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Really? I thought they did it 'cause it was fun.

 

Yeah, I used to jump rope a lot 10 years ago and I felt much lighter on my feet when I played basketball. I'm surprised that so many boxers seem to just jump in place, squared up, two feet at a time though. Seems like the least functionally beneficial approach to jumping.

And I completely agree--someone who's never received quality training and doesn't get the basics of footwork technique is probably never going to have decent footwork.

 

I think it's just the type of bag, and him probably not spending all his time being a speed bag champ.
Also to take into consideration is the poor volume of footage from that era.

These days vloggers go to gyms to try and capture fighters best and most impressive moments.
And they can capture hours of footage form their smart phone.
Back then they filmed you for 30 seconds or so, and what they got is what they used.

There are a handful of clips out there of Louis hitting the speed bag like you would expect:
https://streamable.com/6a2yc

 

Walcott for sure. Maybe Braddock

 

No rope jumping problems though, so we're good.