Ok so quick catch up, I was outta shape, not quite Tyson Fury out of shape, but a good deal too heavy and weak to boot. So I've been on the comeback trail with my eye on the prize. Its time to do this for real. I've already lost 15kg which is almost 2 and a half stone And I want to lose 5 more to qualify for light heavyweight since no one pays attention to cruiserweight class for some reason. Training for that is simple, just an hour cardio each day, weights, then 3 hours boxing, so I'll do the cardio via skipping rope in intervals, then get on a machine, then rope, then machines. On weekends I'll do sprints. The boxing training is devided into conditioning all my muscles, so my footwork is done at high intensity using rope ladder drills and cones etc Then evasive drills, lots of head movement, and developing ease of motion Then guard drills, keeping guard up, conditioning it so it stays up Then striking drills, aiming for fluidity of motion, sharp combos Countering, (different guards and stances vs different combos) Angling, I'll practice angling on the outside as well as angling on the inside Then for warmdown I just shadowbox while thinking of new skills I can implement and how to best train them No bag work at the moment or sparring, I'm implementing that next month, or in a couple of weeks Yesterdays training saw me doing a lot of thought exercises, far more than usual, trying to iron out minor kinks in my footwork. I knew my footwork on my toes is razor sharp but I got to thinking... "what if I'm flat footed at some point and don't realise it, I need to train flat footed a bit" So I tried to do footwork off my heels and plodded around trying to apply good footwork, It was hard at the start but I started to get the hang of it after thirty minutes or so And it helped drill into me an awareness of my feet and if they ever slip too far back onto the heels, which will be valuable, and I was also able to improve my movement on my heels reducing the damage I'll take if ever caught on them for some reason. I right now seperate training into evasion + striking blocking + striking entering/withdrawing + striking/evasion/blocking footwork and angling + striking/blocking/evasion I focus a lot on getting them all to gel together
Yesterday was just a load of cardio and weights, did work on trying to figure out how to be better at ring generalship I started by loosening up my style and trying to get a feel for many variations of fighters I could face in order to foresee what I might need going forwards and how I might best prepare for it with the skills I have One simply shouldn't assume good footwork will outsmart everybody, or a good guard will jam up every fighters offence, or that evasion will discourage and slow down every fighter The fighter being evaded will go for your gut The fighter being guarded against will mount pressure upon you The fighter being left for dead by fleet footwork will be patient and bide his time waiting for a stunning blow, from which he can rob you of your movement These are keys to remember when aiming to defeat an opponent with any one strategy And things to consider at great depth And having said that I got a bit more training to do so gotta go
Ok, so I focus on a new fighter every week in order to develop drills into my training regime I thought it might be interesting to share my observations for my fighter of the week this time Andre Ward Cons: Tight shoulders Limited reach Box-y steps Congestion A bit sloppy in how his hands can hang down a little bit during the jab or body shot Pros: Snappy Speed Initiative - He's very quick to land an opportunistic blow IQ Sly His punches often have a sweet spot feel to them What is so contradictory about him is he seems to almost fight as a puncher, yet he favors the philly shell. I mean, in my opinion he is neither an outside fighter like Bernard Hopkins, nor an inside fighter like Duran, but just sort of hovers between and fights from midrange. A kind of hopkins duran hybrid. I think this is due to his lessened reach and his limited footwork. He doesn't lack either of those things, but they are restricted enough that he has to be closer in. And he doesn't fight on the inside because his arms are a bit too congested to let off punches that close in unless he is passing to the side of the guy. My read on this is he is drawn into fights like gravity is pulling him, he can't properly withdraw and set boundaries, like "cross this and get a face full". He then just pulls out before he gets drawn inside, and triggers a fast punch or two or three with a sweet spot crunch to them. Exploiting almost by accident or by design the usually neglected transitions between ranges. Which puts fighters off, cuz they get hit while less prepared and it knocks them off their game plan. There is something brilliant about his style but also I feel there are huge missed opportunities. Like he isn't "freed up" to explore the outside and play with the stick and move nature of some boxing matches, and he isn't clear enough on the inside to truly create a CLASH of titans on the inside. Now regarding how I take those observations to my style 1st - his transition game is strong (note how off putting this is, reminds me of smokin joe) 2nd - come on, whats with the congestion, discipline, training, weed it out! I will do more drills to make sure I don't even make those slight dragging mistakes he makes --- drills on the jab retraction --- drills on body shots --- drills on clearance movements 3rd - he seems pocket dependent in that mid range, so experiment with ranges to make them interdependent 4th - blocky and rocking back and forward shuffles when waiting are a bad habit of his... I need to make sure my "presence" when waiting for a punch has a better form of "live tension" to it 5th - don't be locked down in your position, angle out and switch things up Develop drills to focus on expansion vs contraction Until truly smooth and abundant in all positions But maximise initiative and discomfort ideas: - He could of used a stiff arm, or stiff jab to hold out an opponent (but he pivots to break the movement too far inside) no stiff arm leaves him WAITING on his box-y feet - he often parries as he enters, it is better to obscure it with a jab or a one two combination, just adding a few one twos into the mix would add space - mild distance adjustments could help him avoid a lot of the shots he gets hit by I'd say ward fights for dominance, but doesn't "keep others honest" in the fights. So he lets em look like they want then attacks to see how they can take it. Perhaps to reveal to himself what they really can take and dish out, rather than figuring out the win from a bit of distance or through the force of his fists. Maybe this is morbid curiosity on his part. It would be better to just DO WHAT YOU DO and then "let them come", rather than "let em come" then change what you do. I think it is important to PROVE you can rock your opponent then leave him to figure you out as a force to be reckoned with, or to prove he can't touch you. This sets up a greater sense of wonder into the fight (AJ does this well). Actually, looking at AJ for a moment Does the small distance movements Obscures with his jab Launches a one two to clear space Implements a show of force Fascinating, maybe AJ just isnt morbidly curious so comes out strong. Though AJ has some similar congestion issues but his punches have a bit better range (however they are somewhat off balance). AJ has much slower initiative than Ward. So this is the trade off. If you could just combine the two... So I think that is the idea
Ok, so this week I did 4 hours plus each day I did something like 150 hard rounds You know, all the different bags, sparring, mitts I was attempting to have "skill under stress" So worked all week on being exhausted and not losing my composure and coordination Working towards a truly fluid pool of boxing resource to draw upon while in a match Last day friday, my forearm and hand muscles were totally exhausted, because by the last day, I was hitting the bag so solidly for every round I trained that it was just unmitigated assault. My hands gave out so I gotta train them up a bit more, and will keep my eye out for special ways to do so. I spoke to some managers, which was good, just mulling everything over at the moment. Doing strategy work this weekend, and letting my body rest up and fully heal. I might do some light training at the beach, you know shadow boxing at dusk In fact that is almost a certainty Was great, and in the upcoming week I'm going to be studying Sergei Kovalev, the current champ in my devision Gonna train this next week like a lighter version of if I had a fight coming up versus him
So I was playing around in sparring today, and I intentionally changed when I was using my jab to observe differences in how the fight went And what I noticed was that if you wait to use your jab until after attacking patterns are established, it is harder to get the jab going, and there is inertia resisting you While if you start it early and keep it consistent (like at say a 3 second interval) It almost "glides" in how easy it is to maintain The difference in the fight was very noticeable, to the point I realised something Most of the time I feel I have a lot of opportunity to attack, in fact so much so that I have too many timing options so might ignore opportunities I found that without my jab, this was not the case AT ALL Opportunity to attack had severely decreased So not only is a jab defensively magnificent for conserving energy and controlling the fight, but it also serves as a way to keep attacking lines open for you and closed for the opponent. And if an opponent has a bad jab, I see no reason why this shouldn't be an entirely winning advantage for you to simply outright take from him. Meaning, if he can't respond with his own jab, definately use it to win and keep him suppressed. Don't be merciful with the jab, be ruthless. Its his fault for not working on it in the gym as much as you.
Ok, so I'm 89kg now, wanna lose another 10 Training has gone really well Just tons of work on defense Making sure things are bulletproof Trickier than it seems, a lot of nuances to consider Doing tons of gym work... and am exhausted pretty much Gawwwd Haha xD
