Fitness tips for amateur boxing by Apollo’s Boxing, Apollos Boxing in Bolton has a wealth of experience in not just coaching boxing as a way of keeping fit but also coaching amateur boxers and getting them specifically fit for their amateur boxing bouts!
An amateur boxing bout is short in duration with a short rest in between rounds, all amateur boxing rounds are three rounds and depending on age and experience are competed over a different amount of time for example a senior elite amateur boxer would compete over 3 x 3 minute rounds!
All training for any sport should be specific to the event that you are competing in, in boxing rounds the working period is longer than the rest period so training should replicate this.
A common way that we train for this at Apollo’s Boxing is by using drill work with a partner, we set a skill for example defending the jab and split the boxing in half so one boxer defends for half the round and the other throws the jab and then they reverse this.
The drills themselves will get the boxer fit but also get the boxer used to relaxing in front of the opponent, no matter how fit a boxer is if they cannot relax then all your fitness would be drained, imagine a runner who was fit enough to run a marathon but who wasn’t a strong swimmer trying to complete a mile swim. The fitness has to be specific and also you need to be able to relax in your chosen event in this instance amateur boxing.
There are several other ways of getting fit for amateur boxing and just as a way as using boxing as a way to keep fit, interval training in very specific to amateur boxing and can be used in many ways, again at Apollo’s Boxing we like to use bag work mainly for our intervals as you are using all the specific muscles used in an actual amateur boxing bout. You could use any time really for these intervals and it is a good idea to mix up the time of the intervals, a very common we use in tabata training where you work at your maximum effort for 20 seconds and rest for 10 seconds, you repeat this eight times! This is almost identical to a three minute boxing round.
Boxing sparring is also a great way of getting yourself specifically fit for an amateur boxing match but also getting you relaxed in a competitive environment, again the rounds would be specific to the time of your contest so if you was competing over three minutes you would spar for three minutes.
There is always more than one way of getting ready for an amateur boxing match but at Apollo’s Boxing in Bolton we like to use methods similar to the above, to avoid over training we like to alternate days between boxing sparring, boxing technique drill work and also high intensity intervals!
A big part of the training is making sure you get quality over quantity so by the time it gets to fight night the boxer is ready to go, not overtrained and not injured. Doing too much training before the event is as bad or maybe worse than not doing enough training.
Over the years of coaching amateur boxers we have through the process of trial and error worked out a formulae to get our amateur boxers ready without draining them or over using any part of training like sparring or running.
If you are interested in learning how to get fit for amateur boxing or are just looking on using boxing as a way to keep fit then please contact Apollo’s Boxing in Bolton for more information and to get booked for your first lesson!