Strength and conditioning coaches. Are they really needed?

Somebody has been wearing a neck harness in the gym... :hi:

 

Anyone who answers "no" doesn't understand what a REAL (qualified) S&C coach provides.

Flexibility, speed, recovery improvements, reflexes, nutrition.... Even biomechanical information that can increase leverage, etc. It's quite advanced and a real specialty.

Trainers don't know about this stuff.

 

At last! Somebody who knows what's up!

 

basically, ellerbe performs the fucntion of floyd's S&C coach even if it's not an official role. a boxer needs some of these strength or conditioning routine in some form or another. if your coach can do it for you, fine. but someone is more fit for the job than the head coach, then it would be better so as the coach focuses more on the boxing aspect of training.

 

Thanks.

Well, I should. I went to school for it, 30+ years ago. It was pretty advanced back then, but nothing like it is today.

PROBLEM IS: I don't know if there any many (any?) truly qualified guys working in boxing. Most of them seem to be just PED-pushing hacks, or somebody's second cousin who claims to be qualified because he read a couple of books. ("they didn't even have pictures!")

Imagine you went to UCLA or U Mass or some other top Physiology school, got a masters in both physiology & nutrition, & graduated in the top 10% of your class.
Would your first thought be, "Oh boy, now I can go work in some smelly boxing gym!"

No, you'd be applying to the NBA, NFL, Olympic committee, or some other high-profile organization.

 

I think there's been a lot of advances in conditioning and sports science and it would be churlish not to utilise them.I think the best solution is to have guys who are primarily boxing coaches coming through having learned the "new school" methods whilst not forgetting the basics from the old school.
That way,young boxers in the future would get the best of both worlds without having to miss out on the things that elite boxers or high profile amateurs and young pros benefit from.
I think Timothy Bradley is a good example of what can be done without high profile celebrity training.Good diet and a mix of old and new.

 

Agree alot of people thinks improving is just a matter of time in the gym. It's the quality of the time that really matters. Training with a purpose, a plan.

 

Another thought:

I have a feeling that a lot (not all) of the old school boxing coaches resent / are secretly afraid of real S&C guys. You know, them young, egotistical upstarts with all that useless university lernin' and newfangled but unproven ideas. Why it's just a bunch of hooey, I tell you! Them modern computer-shaped athaletes just crack like china when the going gets hard. Boxers just gotta' be TOUGH!

And so forth.

Change is hard.

 

They can definitely help. Plyometrics for example can certainly improve explosive movements, and a lot of the more technical aspects of S&C aren't fully understood by boxing trainers. However, I think there has been too great a focus on S&C coaches in recent years, which can detract from the far more important technical training.

 

- This made me smile, because if a guy tells a boxer to eat bananas, you know he's a hack. (and it's a very common mistake, or at least it was back in my day.)

FWIW, bananas are just about the hardest fruit to digest, as they contain primarily complex sugars. Very little fructose. And you can get potassium elsewhere, very easily.

- And see, this is exactly the kind of stuff a trainer isn't going to know. Each member of the team should be a specialist in just one area.

 

Steve Bunce was talking about this on Boxnation recently.He said you always knew which trainers were proper old school because the first thing they'd ask a guy in training for a fight was "you gettin plenty bananas son?"

 

I remember reading Joe Louis's autobiography and in one of his early fights, he didn't perform that well and when they asked him what he ate before the fight, Joe got defensive and said "Just a couple of bananas!". They supposedly shook their heads and watched his diet like a hawk after that.

 

if the boxer does what he needs to do, no. but, i can see how a guy like chef can be a marvelous addition to anyones training camp. the guy teaches u how to eat properly and deliciously

 

Pedro Diaz is good. He combines the best of both worlds