It’s crucial that you and your trainer agree on this choice. Keep in mind that it typically takes boxers new to the sport 4 to 12 months before they sign up for their first match. Be patient and give it some time.
Your chances of making a successful debut increase as you train longer and harder.
However, once you’ve agreed to your first fight, you only have a limited amount of time to be at your best—mentally and physically—in order to triumph in the ring. Continue reading and take notes as we discuss last-minute planning and the weeks leading up.
Table of Contents
A Boxing Training Camp: What Is It?
Some boxers choose to attend a fight camp, also known as a boxing training camp, which establishes a specific training schedule for your boxing regimen. This is where the origin of the name FightCamp comes from.
A brief boxer’s training camp lasts 6–8 weeks, while a lengthy one lasts 10–12 weeks. The number of additional workouts added to the shorter training camps’ schedules typically does not exceed two spikes. Longer training camps, however, will gradually up their training volume to 2-3 spikes.
Ultimately, you need to include workouts and exercises that concentrate on endurance, stamina, and strength if you want to adequately train for a boxing match, are simply curious about how boxers train, or if you want to get in shape. The best exercises for a boxing routine include running, HIIT, mitt work, sparring, shadowboxing, strength and conditioning, weightlifting, and boxing drills.
Boxing Workouts Are Holistically Effective
A good fighter is composed of 4 attributes:
- Physical fitness
- Mental toughness
- Emotional resilience
- Spiritual determination
These aspects cannot be properly developed and trained for separately.
The same exercise that strengthens your body’s ability to withstand blows also helps you focus so you can remain alert even when you’re tired and gives you faith that nothing will harm you.
Since each area builds on the others, everything develops simultaneously.
In the paragraphs that follow, I’ll do my best to explain how the qualities of a good fighter are developed during preparation for a fight. It’s critical to keep in mind that they don’t evolve independently from the previously mentioned factors.
One of these traits hardly ever gets better at the expense of another, even though a fighter’s development is frequently uneven. A rising tide, on the other hand, typically causes all boats in the harbor to rise.
Even if the rate of improvement is noticeably different, improvement in one area inevitably leads to improvement in another.
The Physical Side Of Boxing Training
The physical side of boxing is simple to understand. We see the sweat, blood, and tears that accompany the delivery and reception of heavy punches.
Everyone is aware of the numerous miles of running and thousands of sit-ups that go into fight preparation thanks to the Rocky movie series, but there is more to it than that. Excellent coordination, agility, and footwork are essential for a fighter.
The motto of the sweet science may be to “hit and not get it”, but the reality is that when two people meet who have spent hours working on:
- Punching combinations and techniques on the focus mitts
- Hand-eye coordination and speed on the double-end bag
- Hours of shadowboxing and calisthenics
The impact will fall on someone. Even Floyd Mayweather, arguably the best defensive and evasive boxer of all time, receives 16% of the punches that are directed at him. If one of the best boxers ever still gets hit by approximately once for every six punches thrown at him, then most other fighters get hit *quite* a bit more.
This means that you need to be skilled in both the delivery and the reception of damage.
The Unique Demands Of Boxing
Being able to perform short bursts of activity for a lengthy fight is essential for the physical demands of boxing, which are unique in that they call for both aerobic and anaerobic abilities. In general, a fighter needs his anaerobic capacity for offense and his aerobic capacity for defense.
Just as a good fighter is strong on offense and defense, separating the two is impossible. The training is designed to make a good fighter a hybrid of an explosive and endurance athlete.
Distance runs, sprints, and rope skipping are used to train general endurance and explosive power.
My personal training program called for me to run 2-4 miles five days a week while maintaining a pace of less than 7 minutes per mile. I would run on the treadmill for three minutes at a 9–10 mph pace if it was too chilly or rainy to exercise outside. I would sprint eight to ten times for 100 meters at the track, taking a 30-second break between each sprint.
The Role Of Strength Training In Boxing
Weight lifting is typically frowned upon in the boxing community, with the exception of the cruiserweight (175-200 lbs) and heavyweight (201+ lbs) divisions. The attitude toward weightlifting will vary from coach to coach, even within those weight categories.
The advantage of having more muscle is unquestionable, but coaches frequently object because it takes time to build muscle, time that could be better spent honing skills. It’s an issue with opportunity costs.
Even though boxing is a physically demanding sport, fighting is not decided by size. Ability and physical prowess do. In fact, having more muscle actually has a cost because it puts more stress on your heart.
However, calisthenics and exercises that utilize body weight as resistance are generally viewed favorably by coaches. The effectiveness of push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups as strength-building exercises is undisputed. This is probably because doing them increases your endurance and decreases the likelihood that more muscle will grow, which would require more blood and oxygen.
The muscle density and endurance you develop from performing these exercises not only prepare your body to withstand the energy demands of the sport, but also improve your ability to absorb injury.
A boxer must also be trained to carry out particular boxing moves repeatedly for a long period of time at high intensity. A fighter will put in countless rounds of various types of bag work to train for this.
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Punching Speed Vs. Punching Power
Both the heavy bag and the speed bag can be used in bag exercises, and each has a different function.
Punching technique development takes place on the heavy bag. The speed bag helps you maintain your arms up by improving your hand-eye coordination and upper-body strength.
Both exercises, when performed correctly, are also fairly effective at increasing your cardio and getting you into fighting shape.
I would use the same amount of force on the heavy bag as I would in a fight for 10 to 12 rounds, three to four days a week. Not just the routine was being followed here. I had to train my anaerobic and aerobic systems to punch as hard and as long as I could. This meant that in addition to reaching my heart rate’s maximum, I also had to be able to maintain it for multiple 3-minute intervals.
This type of training made sure I would have the physical stamina to fight, but it didn’t make sure I wouldn’t get tired. Mental training is the key to overcoming the exhaustion that comes with a fight.
Shadowboxing And Using Your Imagination To Train
Shadowboxing is the practice of sparring with a fictitious foe.
Shadowboxing is the best way to get ready for a fight if done properly. It might not sound like much. The best way to get your body ready for a fight outside of sparring is a deep meditation. The best part is that you can do it every time you work out in the gym, unlike sparring, which you shouldn’t do.
The transition from attacking passive stationary targets (punching bags and mitts) to active, aggressive mobile targets (other skilled fighters) is a significant challenge in combat. It’s disappointing when you execute your jabs and uppercuts perfectly on a heavy bag but they don’t work in real combat. This transition is made smoothly by the use of shadowboxing.
You can slow down or speed up the action, refine the fundamentals, and even practice your more complex moves when shadow boxing. Fighter performs more effectively in the ring when they are comfortable during their shadowboxing routine.
This boosts self-confidence, which is perhaps the most crucial component of combat.
Your physical fitness is meaningless if you don’t have the right attitude. Even the most determined fighter can have his courage and willpower tested. Because of this, it’s critical to develop emotional fortitude as well.
The Emotional Side Of Boxing Training
A fighter must have confidence in his abilities. It doesn’t matter if he has the abilities or the training if he doesn’t think he can succeed. Sparring is the only way to cultivate this inner strength because it gives you the ability to perform while you’re worn out and in pain.
Prior to a fight, practicing your skills against a live, moving, and potentially combative opponent serves two crucial purposes. By doing this, it fulfills the other purpose, which is to boost your self-confidence.
A fighter needs to be confident because there will be times when he may start to doubt himself. Up until a fight, confidence is gradually increased during camp. If this procedure is skipped, the fighter is more likely to succumb to these moments of uncertainty than to fight through them.
For instance, a fighter will doubt himself in sparring if he never pushes himself to make it through rounds without needing a break. He will doubt himself during the actual fight if he does so during sparring, and that is the *least* place you want a fighter to be doubting himself.
A fighter only gets to practice being hit during sparring, which is another crucial aspect of training.
The Mental Side Of Boxing Training
Despite the fact that the fatigue is real, I have learned to maintain my focus while under it thanks to my intense physical training. I knew that if I kept my focus, I would be better able to handle the pain as well as keep up my intensity during the fight.
Most people are unaware of the fact that every exchange in a boxing match is painful.
You must be able to endure pain despite receiving a body shot or, worse, suffering a broken jaw or bruised kidney in order to be a fighter. You can continue to fight if the punch does not knock you out or severely damage your central nervous system. Although it will hurt, handling it requires mental rather than physical fortitude.
A lot of fight preparation involves both physical and mental conditioning. It was not unusual for me to hit the heavy bag as hard as I could for 60 to 90 minutes or to work on my focus mitt technique with my coach. Yes, I improved my physical stamina, but I also learned how to push past fatigue mentally.