Can't believe we ain't spoken about Pete yet. Sweet Pete's biggest strength was that his mind was trained from a young age and so he had amazing anticipation and quickness in the mind even though he wasn't the fastest in the body like say a Mel Taylor was. As a result he had incredible awareness. Having the awareness means you have a good eye and thus a headstart in seeing things. Pete was like a chess player who's ALWAYS a few steps ahead and see's further on. Shadowboxing, the floor to ceiling and speedbags were Pete's best friends. Georgie Benton always said the key to being quick was training the eyes and training a quicker mind. It's why they were a great partnership because they had the same philosophy. Pete's reflexes were not all natural. He did certain things as a youngster to get those radar like instincts. Many people don't know this, but much of Pete's talents were developed in the projects he was in. Sitting on the toilet, baby. This content is protected
Pernell had natural talent but his training was spot on with Ronnie Shields. Spent time before training camps just working on defense and always before/after sparring Lifted weights, interval sprints, limited long distance running..he was way ahead of his time compared to other fighters IMO
There's a theme that repeats itself with fighters with sound fundamentals. Repetition. Repetition is the key to learning. Pete became the fighter he was before Shields who came on board later on. Shields didn't have much input in what Pete did. He came to learn from Georgie Benton and then took over later on when Benton fell out with Lou Duva. Didn't really help him much either. Getting him to fight wrong fights late in his career, like trying to press Tito Trinidad and causing havoc in the corner because Shields is not the best communicator. Pete didn't lift weights for most of his career. Only in about the last few years. Even then it wasn't anything heavy or a lot of free weights. He did a lot of sprints and the roadwork was about 4 miles when he was older and a lot more when he was younger. Much of his training was pretty much 'old school'. Most of his excercises had boxing incorporated in them. He got fit BOXING. The most showboxing of any modern day fighter i think. And an insane amount of sparring. He understood sparring really well, the purpose of it which many fighters don't. He did most body sparring much like Duran. Basically only being allowed to hit the body. Pete Whitaker was so good because he was as comfortable and RELAXED in the ring as the normal person is in the shower.
Btw, i don't care how biased or controversial this is. But Pete Whitaker is the most rounded and best fighter i've EVER seen. He's my GOAT!
Quality repetition is a key to skill development in any sport He was doings weights before the Azumah Nelson fight even some Greco Roman wrestling with his strength coach This is a really good read: http://articles.latimes.com/1990-05-19/sports/sp-226_1_pernell-whitaker
I love some of the crazy, unorthodox defensive moves Pernell pulled off but underneath the showboating were rock solid fundamentals. He was a joy to watch but not as much fun as this guy... :yep This content is protected GIFSoup
Pete was ALL fundamentals. Just had a lot of special effects with amazing twitch fibres. Unrivalled in rolling with punches properly. Don't get me talking about Pernell Whitaker. I'll get irrational. That's why i don't do it much on this forum.
If i was training a fighter i'd look to integrate wrestling to build up strength, i'd do a lot of block work out of camp (Defence 4 weeks/Footwork 4 weeks etc). I'd look for repetition and targets in each camp. I'd do a lot of technical work with all my fighters, i'd also not just do normal sparring. I'd condition certain sparring sessions to develop certain aspects of game. I'm a technical freak even in my coaching in football i demand good technique.
What's that mate?. Edit: Just having a read about it now :good. I look at football sessions and coaches stop and coach, in boxing there's not much being stopped in the sparring. Partly lazy coaching but also wanting kids/fighters in general to get full 3 mins. I just think now and then they could have more technical based sparring. More conditions on the sessions.