What's the point of mitt drills?

The heavy bag is for increasing punching power. Nothing else. I don't know how some of you guys don't get that. You can't practice defense on it because nothing is coming back at you. Speed bag is for coordination, rhythm, and hand speed. Double end bag is for timing. It's all that simple.

You guys don't see much success because you use the equipment incorrectly. I recommend all of you go back to square 1 and re****yze how the equipment was designed to be used. You guys are lucky we live in the age we do, the pioneers of the sport did all of the heavy lifting when coming up with the equipment to train with! Do you have the audacity to question what the men who accomplished extraordinary things in boxing developed??? No shut up, keep your head down and train.

 

My point exactly. All the tools work toward the ultimate goal and no one tool does it all. Sparing is but one tool but it in itself with not make a new boxer good or a good boxer great. May be we don't have boxers go up into the mountains and chop wood anymore but we have other tools now that do the same thing. We have created dozens of new training tools over the years. All were created for a training need. It you think mitts are hard to master. Just wait until you try our creation The Sticks or the Bad Boyz Hammer. I disagree that the training is inferior compared to the past. I have been involved in boxing for over 50 years. I have seen so many improvements in that time.

 

Heavy bag teaches the explosive hip principle.

Can Help develop shoulder and back musculature.

 

Just think how much better the great boxers of the past would have been had they had all that is available for training, nutrition and equipment today.

 

Muscle mass means practicality nothing in boxing.

 

It's not that I think all new things are inferior it is that I think too much emphasis is placed on certain exercises. Mitts can be great if the trainer knows what he is doing. The stuff where the boxer sits in the pocket firing off mindless combinations. Yeah I'm not going to lie it's not easy to do that but it doesn't translate to the ring....let me rephrase that...it is rarely APPLIED in the ring. When has anyone seen a boxer just sit in 1 spot letting the other guy hit them at will? Know what I mean? The coach should emulate the movements that an opponent does moving forward, backward, and side to side.

I also think that S&C coaches have too much power in the training of the boxer. S&C is ridiculous nowadays anyway. Strength naturally comes from hitting the bags and sparring. The only time strength comes into play is in a clinch and even that is guided by placement more so than strength. I think we can agree that boxers of the 15 round era had a lot more stamina and in some cases higher work rate per round as well. So the S&C coaches are obviously not helping the fighters stamina.

 

Pad fighting drills won't work.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FZVlwLluF4Y
Here's the boxing rendition.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oanNcyDriII

 

Let Jim Carey provide his two pence. This sums up the theory of pad work.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9lTcI1AHfqU

 

the tools are great training wheels as skills are learned, but they don't replace a training partner. a maize bag will assist in learning to slip a shot, but it won't replace another human being throwing random jabs at your face. even mitts are great training tool if done properly. i see trainers all the time throw punches over their boxer's shoulders, instead of throwing at their face. i don't get it. that's not how its going to go in a real match.

i worked for a boxing company that had 10 real boxing trainers on staff. the S&C guy came in and showed us a pretty power point with charts about higher heart rate with circuit training compared to running, but he couldn't sell us on it. Every single one of us agreed (and we weren't used to agreeing with each other) that nothing replaces road work. there's just something about it; getting feet to the pavement/path. i can be out there for an easy 20-30min and i'm visualizing the match all play out. it's almost meditative. i can't get that at 30sec stations with a trainer yelling in my ear and i'm losing form. even something as simple as chopping wood. every gym (mine included) has a tire and a sledge hammer. but a 1-3min station in my cardio class isn't the same as going out back for 30-60min to chop wood so i'll be warm at night. it might sound funny to some of you but (my experience is) the more toys there are the less spiritual connection there is. nothing beats having another person in front of me. it's a vulnerable and intimate space to be in with another human being as we challenge each other so we both get better.

as i've personally experienced boxing over the past twenty years (and taken in many life times of past coaching role models who learned way before me) i believe there's a huge grey area between the activity of boxing (that you find in a fitness gym) and real boxing. unfortunately the activity of boxing has gotten bigger to the point where people believe they're really boxing because they're doing all the stations, mitts and bag stuff. boxing is person on person. you cannot learn real tennis or wrestling without another human, but some people (i hear it once in a while from mma guys) think you can learn boxing from a heavy bag. not true.

alright, you get it. now i'm getting off my old man "you kids and your toys" soap box.

 

I can tell you havent been involved with athletes on a competitive level. S&C coaches are absolutely necessary in a sport that requires speed and power. Resistance training for example increases neural efficiancy which means it trains you to recruit more of the muscle fibers you already have. Conditioning is key in a 12 rounder especially at a high pace, conditioning your body helps absorb bodyshots and recover faster from bodyshots.
Alot of S&C coaches in pro sports are also the ones who get athletes the right PEDs and design their drug regimen around testing schedule, telling them to inject their HGH and testosterone suspension at night or right in the morning so it is out of their system by the evening etc etc.

 

I can tell you are new to the sport and DKSAB. Look at what BoxingScienceUSA said. He articulates it perfectly.

If your methods are so proven why has the quality of fighters gone down since the 15 round era? Boxing training is for boxers. We're not training for sprinting, we're not training for weightlifting, we're training for skill. Focusing too much on the athletic aspect will take away from the skill aspect which is the most crucial.

 

Game plan: how to beat a strong mauler.
1. Square up

2. Lift the elbows. Place each hand on the sides of your jaw until the elbows are sticking out and LIFT them.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y1zB-Bu6V44

 

Haven't you been saying that squaring up and lifting the elbows are bad habits brought on by hitting the mitts? Have you confused yourself?

 

Excuse my sarcasm! My point is that by simply following modern day boxing style of head over the center hands on the jaw, while fighting out of the pocket won't work against a raging bull. In many gyms today fighters are taught to square up against bigger competition. The receipt is the following: both feet flat on the floor. Gloves placed on both cheeks. Head over the center. One trainer told me if your the little guy you should line up. NO DON'T SQUARE UP.

 

Instead of fighting from the pocket use the heavy bag to develop lower body movement by working around the bag using footwork.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T-9nn2Hi2xA

Dempsey nine.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aJkiwu_04dw