Nerdcore Boxing

I got some sparring lined up tomorrow night, it’s been a while. Now that I’ve been integrating RossTraining’s infinite intensity training methods, I’ll be curious to see if I get in the ring already in shape.

I’ve been consciously breaking up my skill training from my conditioning and doing short uber intensive conditioning. So far my detailed routine has been:

• 1.5 miles of 100 yard sprints (don’t scrutinize the math too much)
• pyramid boxing rounds: 3×3 mins, 4×1 mins, 5×30secs
• breaking footwork drills up into intensive rotating 30 second intervals

I’ll add some hills and burpees to my routine in the coming weeks too. Stay tuned for an update tomorrow.

Footwork, footwork, footwork. It can always be better, there’s always something to work on. It’s the foundation that everything comes from, punching power, your ability to react and move your head. Even your punching speed is built on your footwork since being in the position to push off the ground accelerates punches.

I love finding new footwork drills to rotate into my routine. Here’s a video of a some drills I found on YouTube (they won’t let me embed the video). My trainer has us do about half of these drills, but I’m going to try some of these new drills and see if I like them.

The trainer in the video is Kenny Weldon. I highly recommend you purchase his set of videos. I really like coach Weldon’s approach to developing fighter’s footwork. Weldon says, “In most gyms they don’t teach rhythm, if you don’t have it they just throw you out.” Then he proceeds to go through drills he puts his fighters through. I also agree with his criticism that too many boxers are fighting off their front foot and he’s very technical in how he teaches punch mechanics.

I was watching a replay of the MMA fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Brett Rogers on CBS last Saturday and noticed Fedor’s seemingly odd strategy in the boxing portion of their fight. Fedor is certainly not the best boxer in MMA, his punching is quite sloppy, but he’s got some decent defense and even though he throws haymakers, they make hay. But upon watching the slo mo replays he consistently anticipated Brett Rogers stepping forward to punch and immediately threw an overhand right.

Fedor’s first overhand right counter didn’t work so well, he ran right into a jab that broke his nose. The 3rd time though he caught Brett Rogers about to throw a left hook and Fedor’s overhand right KO’d Rogers. This kind of reminded me of the Mike Tyson clip, where one of his sparring partners knocks him down with a right hook upon timing Mike’s left hand.

I don’t see this as a common counter, you pretty much need a guy who telegraphs his left hook so you can start your hook first, but I might spend a small period of time working on this.

I’ve been laid out for the past 4 days with the flu. Mostly I’ve been pounding water and vitamins and moping around wondering when I’ll be ready for some hard training.

Good news is I just received two of Ross Enamait’s (of www.RossTraining.com) conditioning programs. I got Full Throttle Conditioning and Infinite Intensity, for only $20 each! Watched the DVD that came with Full Throttle today and I loved it, I’m reading the book now. I’ll post more as I get more into them.