John L Sullivan Training Camp

Bump.

 

Great read. Too bad Mike is no longer posting around here.

 

Reading great stuff like this along with being a teenager obsessed with Boxing in the late 70's and early 80's seeing all those great fights... 15 rounders with guys looking like they could go another 5 half the time. Now everybody and there brother has a strength & conditioning coach and 75% of the time or so it seems there pretty well gassed by the 9th. Progress my azz

 

"In some cases I smoke one nice cigar after dinner, but it is my belief that smoking, especially if it be immoderate, is injurious, and tends to shorten the breath"

So he had an idea it was bad, but still did it.
Perhaps not as much as we thought, but far more than what would be acceptable today.

 

Also interesting:

"Out of training or when not preparing for a fight or contest I take things as easy as possible. I eat and sleep whenever I feel so disposed; I usually rise about nine or ten o’clock in the morning, eat a light breakfast, sometimes a lunch in midday, and have dinner towards evening. My food consists entirely of whatever strikes my fancy. I smoke as many cigars as I feel like smok in g, attend theatres and shows whenever I wish. In fact, I give my system its whole lee -way By doing this I find that when I start to train I have some superfluous flesh to train Off, and then curb myself accordingly. My whole existence and manner of living is guided by nature and nature only. Some athletes pride themselves on being in condition always, but this I do not approve of, for I reason that a man continually in training keeps nature up to its highest tension and without any relaxing he soon becomes mechanical and more like a steel Spring than nature’s own."

To train properly requires a considerable amount of will power. It is actually hard work; in fact, training 15 the hardest kind of work. The training and preparing for all my contests have always been ten times harder than my fighting. In old times preparing for a fight required months and months of training; that is, that was the idea of the old -time pugilists. They sometimes trained as long as six months before the fight; this I do not believe in. From Six to ten weeks I consider sufficient time to train any man; that is, for boxing or fighting; I would not give my opinion for rowing or any other athletic sport, because I do not know enough about them."

I highly recommend reading page 254 and on as Mike suggested.
Lots of good info from the source himself.

 

Bump again. Great read.

 

Bumping this bump.

 

Bump. Great stuff.

 

terrific researched post.