A strong neck is the shock absorber for the chin. Easier to build up your neck than your chin. http://www.amazon.com/Joe-Gans-Biography-American-Champion/dp/0786439947/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
there was a fighter in the the late 40's who used hypnosis because he wanted to be able to take a punch like jake LaMotta. it didn't work !! you can either take a punch,or you can't,in varying degrees. a weak punch is sometimes offset with a good chin,which seems fair !!
Interesting that they still do that kind of training in Russia. It was once common practise back in the old days before the weight lifting fad began.
When you think about it those training ideas seem obvious but there not.Really thats some pretty smart stuff by the Ivans.Ive seen Kostya Tzoo do these excersises before.
Well, in addition to what I mentioned, Russian/Soviet boxers of the top level also DID do weight training, plyometrics etc. I think there is a difference to doing weight training as an auxilary exercise to boxing, or getting obsessed with bodybuilding style training instead of learning your craft. So long as your training program is focused on the primary purpose: maximum boxing results, diversity is useful. I remember reading about Matvei Korobov (now a pro, former world/euro/russian amateur champion) and it consisted of daily roadwork, daily boxing training, and then he would alternate between strength work (inc. weights) and water polo, which he played several times a week, and finally, he did football etc. on his rest days. I think that is an example of a good approach for an amateur boxer who already has substantial experience. For beginers it would be different - emphasis should be on getting fit and learning skills.
A lot of Tszyu's training I've seen is stuff you do a lot in the Russian amateur school, which is hardly surprising because the man was a standout within that system. One thing you can say about the Soviet (I say Soviet because it was developed in the USSR, and is now in Russia, Ukraine, etc. etc.) system was that it is a very methodical and structured approach to developing a boxer, less random than what I've seen in gyms in Europe. This structure extends to how a boxer is moved through rising tournament levels, and you get different categories based on your boxing achievements. For example, you get 3d, 2nd, 1st 'razryad' (category), then if you get a certain place in a stipulated competition you become a KMS (candidate for master of sports). Then if you win an appropriate top level tournament with a certain number of Masters of Sports entered, you become a Master of Sports (these are very good, national level amateurs). Then for international achievements an MSMK (Master of Sports of Internation Class) is awarded, and finally, for outstanding victories on World or Olympic level (can't remember what exactly is required), you get ZMS (Distinguised Master of Sports) - Tischenko for example has this. It's a good way to measure your quality, as opposed to records - because the system ranks you by who you've boxed, rather than how many times you have boxed!
Do you know how much research the Russian (or Soviet) sport scientists did with boxing? Would they have published the results somewhere?
They did a lot of boxing specific research actually, and some of it has been published in Russian journals. There are also a couple of books (very rare to find though) by leading researchers in this field. It's entirely in Russian though, so you beter find someone who has the time to translate if you want to get into that.