What's the point of mitt drills?

It is a very good exercise for stamina if your coach moves around and pushes you.

Heavy bag work for example is individual and don't always really push yourself. Also, it's static, a heavy bag doesn't move around, it doesn't hit back (the guy who holds the mitts for you can throw a light telegraphed punch).

It's also a good drill to practice some combos. Like start with some 4 punch combos then add 2 more punches and so on. Even if it's some 20 punch combo that you'll never fully land on someone the muscle memory will remember the segments of the combo and then in a fight when someone is for example on the ropes and covers up you can quickly unleash 5-6 punches in a nice flow without even thinking about it.

Punching mitts is the closest thing you get to sparring. Sparring improves you more but you can't just spar all the time.

The question is not whether you should hit the mitts but why the hell wouldn't you do it? Unless no one is willing to hold them for you

 

I find that pad men lack the imagination and creativity to be of any use to me, plus pad work squares up a fighter and is the cause of injuries to the wrist , shoulder and neck. Richie Woodhall career was shorten due to an injurie to his elbow caused by over extending when hitting pads.

For me if an exercise causes injuries then it is throwen in the trash can. Only a truly elite trainer would know how to train a fighter with out using pads.

 

Slavic talks about muscle memory, but by hitting pads the muscle will remember hitting pads and all that entails, i.e. shorten punches, when the fighter gets in the ring with a real opponent his spatial awareness and distancing are out, and the fighters has trouble judging the distance. In the end the fighter becomes an upclose fighter and is not very good at boxing from a distance!

 

Also due to the limitations of the pads it is impossible to throw all the punches that are available to the fighter, this can only be achieved by sparring or bag work.

 

Has anyone seen it improve a good boxer. Dempsey never used them if I recall he preferred to hammer it out on the bag teaching himself to go forward.
This is the deficit of greysnotsoold is that he refuses to teach his fighters to go forwards attacking in a straight line like Dempsey and Holyfield. Like most padmen he has the fighters walk in circles around the pads while never going through the pads.

 

You have absolutely no clue what you are talking about, but thanks for thinking about me.

 

Point being to step into the punch one foot at a time, trigger stepping weight-transference going forward.

 

Wait.. your recommending them to fight in a straight line?

Tried that before. Ain't the greatest tactic in the world and any basic fighter worth a damn knows that. Greynotsoold gives pretty sound advice too when he wants.

 

Evander Holyfield says you gotta get hit a some point. Going around in circles isn't going to get you closer to your opponent. If you can't go forward you're at the end of his power he can closes his eyes and hit you. Get inside and keep your head of the line of fire. Dwight Muhammad Qawi.:good

 

I get what Ward says, but if you got it, you got it. You should think of the same things Ward is talking about when you're shadow boxing. You should visualize it.

 

As far as boxing skills are concerned, I think skill sparring (not hard sparring), heavy bag, speed bag, double end bag, and shadow boxing is all you need.

Pads are not necessary IMO.

 

No there not useful at all since pads are more of a defensive tool. However that creates an even bigger problem the minute pads start to dictate the movement of the head like ducking or rolling the right hand is lost. Actually I'm with Andy on this one pads are bad because they teach you to square up plus the moment the moves the right hand can't get off. Even worse pads teach you to lean in as well as to lift the elbows instead of punching through the bag. Pads give a false sense of learned accomplishment to both trainer and fighter.

 

Speed bag. Lol.

 

Jesus lord help this thread

 

:rofl:rofl

Where's Ant with his 15-week progression break down of wall sits?
That's all you ever really need to be a good fighter. :bbb:bbb