Oly lifting bad for sport ?????

[musketeer]

So my buddy is trainng at a new boxing gym (one of London's best), and he's got this new trainer. I've been trying to get him to come and do some oly lifting wit hme because it will increase his power, skill and balance, etc. But anyhow, he's training at the gym and this huge guys doing clean and jerks with 250 and they talk about it and the trainer says "Dont do that. Just carry on with what we're doing and I'll tell you why later."

Thing is, I want to know right now! What the hell is wrong with doing some oly lifting if you are a boxer?????

 

[mekannik]

Agreed. Would love to hear why olympic lifting would not be recommended for boxing.


Maybe the coach just does not know how to - and does not want to look the fool for not knowing how.

 

[Madcow2]

A lot of old time boxing coaches (and athletic coaches in general) believed that weight training made one slow. Obviously strength to weight ratio is important to maintain or improve ideally. In the case of boxing I think that although training has made huge inroads there is still more of this left than in most other sports. Not sure if this is true in this particular instance but something to consider.

 

[go2failure]

A lot of old time boxing coaches (and athletic coaches in general) believed that weight training made one slow. Obviously strength to weight ratio is important to maintain or improve ideally. In the case of boxing I think that although training has made huge inroads there is still more of this left than in most other sports. Not sure if this is true in this particular instance but something to consider.

Could you imagine a major college/pro football program not weightlifting and still being competitive?

 

[DZLS]

comparing a football athlete with a boxer is really a silly comparo...

boxing requires quickness, and extreme conditioning for continous period of time... with football, you need short powerful bursts...

boxers generally stick with alot of long distance cardio training with their weights... you won't find many "boxers" throwing up big weights, as it's not condusive to their goals...

 

[go2failure]

comparing a football athlete with a boxer is really a silly comparo...

boxing requires quickness, and extreme conditioning for continous period of time... with football, you need short powerful bursts...

boxers generally stick with alot of long distance cardio training with their weights... you won't find many "boxers" throwing up big weights, as it's not condusive to their goals...

I wasnt talking to you.

 

[AEKDB]

Since most power is generated from the hips and legs, The clean and jerk should be a great lift for boxers. Light weight, high rep clean&&press is a great cardio workout. I think mekannik hit it on the head.

 

[musketeer]

A lot of old time boxing coaches (and athletic coaches in general) believed that weight training made one slow. Obviously strength to weight ratio is important to maintain or improve ideally. In the case of boxing I think that although training has made huge inroads there is still more of this left than in most other sports. Not sure if this is true in this particular instance but something to consider.

So Mc, are you saying that the advice is essentially misguided?

I would reccomend that 2 days a weeks focusing on explosive movements would really help punching power, core strength and footwork.

 

[Madcow2]

So Mc, are you saying that the advice is essentially misguided?

I would reccomend that 2 days a weeks focusing on explosive movements would really help punching power, core strength and footwork.

I'm not really saying it is or is not. Depends a lot on what a given boxer needs at a point in time. Certainly more strength and power is always good, but there's a lot of other stuff needed that can be a lot more important. The point I was making is that boxing is about hitting hard to a degree but conditioning, technique and a whole lot of other factors weigh in. A lot of older traditional coaches avoided weightlifting as they thought it made someone slow or big and bulky - this is without knowing about strength to weight ratio etc... Obviously boxing has come a long way but from what I've heard (and I don't partically follow boxing) there is still some prevalence of this view - moreso than other sports anyway. So I don't really know what was going on or what the motivation might have been. Could be an ignorant coach, could be a really smart coach. Can't conclude much.

 

[fortunatesun]

I think madcow is on the money. When someone begins training at the high level your friend is, he can't necessarily waste time with things that aren't sport specific. It's analagous to asking chess students to not play rapid chess in the park. What seems all to the good might disrupt not just physical skills but the total mindset needed to acheive success.