Stamina

alot of things can affect different people's stamina. i think it's really more of a mental thing. good examples are like joe calzaghe or marvin hagler. they both had their unique brand of training techniques which may help them physically, but their never say never attitude i think helped them the most. joe even clowns around in the ring and seems very loose in there even tho he's in with a murderous puncher like kessler or coming back from a ko from the legendary B-hop. it's almost as if the guy was never dropped, and hurt he was. as for marvin, he was a construction worker for years and when he went into trainingmode he totally isolated himself for months, even away from his family and friends, unlike what you see today in 24/7. no sir nothing like that and pretty much ran in bear infested trails so there was no such thing for the marvelous one as "overtraining". he'd call it "going to jail". best example might be Salvador Sanchez. the man was a great fighter overrall, but if you notice not once did he ever gasp for air in any of his fights. americans would call him "Mr. Lungs". the man was always in shape. just look at joe. he doesn't seem like a great fighter, but his stamina has taken him a long way.

 

yeah you have to be born with it. like any top athletes, you gotta be born with a higher ceiling in the areas which you need. reflexes, stamina, power, speed etc.

a guy can go in and train until he drops, but will never be a hard puncher or still get exhusted after a few rounds. meanwhile another guy can hardly train at all and have more power and stamina.

it's genetics. of course your upbringing, mental toughness and dedication to training etc will help improve your assets but everyone has a different ceiling that they will hit.

for example i hardly do any art practice yet i can paint and draw really well. yet i've seen other people far more dedicated to me go and practice 24/7 and still produce childlike crap. i suppose the physical attributes athletes have is like an artist has talent. you either got it or you dont.

 

I think it's a variable factor from person to person - no amount of training in the world will let you exceed your maximum natural level of stamina - of course, if you're unfit and train hard, you will increase your fitness level and eventually reach your maximum stamina level, but I don't believe any sort of training can allow you to increase your birthgiven stamina level.

 

Stamina absolutely can be improved by training. Most fighters start off as amateurs, only fighting a few rounds, which at first is unbelievably tiring, and then they progress and progress until some can fight hard for 12 (and historically for 15 or more) rounds. So stamina is improved over time by training, and is the focus of much training: the running in particular, and also very particular things such as altitude training.

However, it's not just about training:
A fighter's energy output in the ring changes.
Fighters can conserve energy by fighting efficiently, only rarely throwing full power punches for example.
Their relaxation can help, as stress quickly saps energy.
Experienced fighters also pace themselves well, and in many cases will plan for how tired they will be. It may make sense to allow oneself to be tired by the end: leaving it all in the ring.
Fighters can even have a rest by "taking a round off".
Making weight can be a factor too, and the decision about how much to sweat and rehydrate, versus losing muscle for example to make it easier, will affect how much energy someone has.
Will, as stated above, also has something to do with it. Fighters with the heart and desire can keep themselves going when many people would have sat down and given up.
Then of course, there will be some factors to do with your genes etc. but there is so so so much to do in training, that I think it's far more important.

It's like a car: the size of the engine matters; the mass of the car matters; the fuel efficiency rating matters; how it's driven matters; where it's driven matters; the size of the fuel tank matters...

For some fighters; mastery of the complexities of stamina is a large part of their success: look at Ali for example!

 

both

 

I always thought Calzaghe and Salvador Sanchez look very relaxed in the ring. So loose and fresh compared to other boxers who seem tense and rigid.

 

It can be trained to increase, but every person has different limits. Stamina has alot to do with more than just doing cardio, one example is diet.

 

hey listen, When I started playing basketball in 2001 I had no stamina, and I mean organized basketball... (College Level) I worked really for the last 5 years and I have really great stamina, I can play a full basketball game easily, Ive played soccer games easily and I usualy spart 6 rounds with local fighters at the local gym with no problem. So yeah stamina can be gained by really hard work wish not many people will be able to handle, only if you are truly dedicated.

 

Stamina can be improved upon with hard work but I do think some people have a natural ability to maintain athletics longer. Just like some naturally have better punch resistance, some are naturally faster etc.


but stamina can be improved with training.

 

I think people round here tend to like to believe that there are magic attributes of boxers: power, stamina, etc. which make them special champions, more like superheroes.

The truth is that a hell of a lot of it is training, and it depends on the skill, the intelligence, the team, and the effort. That perhaps makes our favourite superman seem a bit less like Superman. Maybe we want to believe that these things are innate, because then maybe we really could have them ourselves, just undiscovered, and anyway, it wouldn't be that we hadn't done what the boxers have done to get there, but just that they were special. It makes them more like heroes, and us less like lazy people posting on message boards.