Key Performance Indicators for boxing?

well boxing has the involvement of skills.

if your just testing vo2 max and lactate threshold there is no way to tell the diffrence between a good boxer and any other good athelete.

youd need to test these things under boxing conditions like sparring, but then sparring is never really the same so youd get diffrent results from diffrent people sparring so there would really be no way to set a control or standard.

 

i think tests for the major fitness components we need are all relevant

you covered aerobic with the bleep test but tests for anaerobic capacity, strenght, power, agility, flexibilty, co ordination would all be indicators imo

if you were blessed in all these areas then you have potential to be a good boxer, however there are exceptions though, someone like hopkins lately might not do well in tests for all these but he still competes at a high level

 

and how do they measure performance in football? touch downs? yards run?

tennis? im not sure..

golf? yards driven.

baseball? home runs rbi's batting average

basket ball? points per game rebounds ect.

boxing? professional record, knock outs, first round knock outs.



not one of these are based on vo2 max.

you measure sport performance with their performance in the sport, things like vo2 max and lactate threshold, resting heart rate, thats just general athletic performance.

if a person who plays tennis or football has a high vo2 max in absolutely no way does it indicate they are going to be good at the sport.

 

it indicates potential though, if the skill set is already present which i think BB is assuming then it will be a good indicator

take BJ Penn for example, his skills were better than anyone in his weight and perhaps era but he lacked motivation and he would have sucked at the fitness tests because of inadequate training and it has showed throughout his career

 

i assumed that bb was refering to performance indicators specifically for boxing.

"Every other sport uses performance indicators, why not boxing? "

things like lactate threshold, vo2 max and resting heart rate are performance indicators that can be used for any athletic sport, even boxing.

thus something like vo2 max would not be a specific indicator for boxing, but a performance indicator for any sport, including boxing so to ask why not boxing just dosent make sense.

 

maybe if they measure how many punches you can throw in a set amount of time.

They could also measure your explosiveness I guess also maybe with a vertical or broad jump. Idk how knowing those two would be that useful, but it could help.

Good idea though

 

then obviously the normal athletic performance indicators should be used like vo2 max, lactate threshold, and resting heart rate.

 

This is an interesting thread, now that you put that question up really made me think. Looking forward for some decent posts

 

Also they could do an agility test

 

Increase in athletic ability improves any fighter, so I think it's a pretty valid thing to measure. I sometimes think there is a bit of a Luddite tradition in boxing that holds back innovation. I got an endless ribbing about wearing a heartrate monitor at my gym, but at the end of the day, I find the information to be a good gauge of improvement, and it gives you a bit of confidence to see tangible results. Just because your measuring athletic ability doesn't mean you are neglecting skill. The two run in parallel.

The interesting part of this thread is how you make some of the "intangibles" more measurable. My angle would be something to do with the decline in skills once people are approaching their athletic limits.

As an example, how quickly accuracy declines at certain levels of fatigue. At my gym they do this drill with 18inch hoops on the floor to practice footwork. It's easy when I'm fresh, but at the end of the circuits when I'm gassing I start treading all over the hoops, because my legs are like jelly. I'm not saying it's the be all and end all, but if you can improve that minor athletic issue just a little bit, there is a tangible benefit in the ring.