RING TACTICS 101  as from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing

There are four generally recognized boxing styles that have been used to define fighters since the early twentieth century. They are the boxer (or out-fighter), the puncher (or brawler, or slugger), the in-fighter (or swarmer), and the boxer-puncher. These terms are broad characterizations of a fighter's style, which may include more nuances within each style type.

Out-fighter

A classic boxer (also known as an "out-fighter") seeks to maintain distance between himself and his opponent, fighting with faster, longer range punches, most notably the jab. Since they rely on weaker punches such as the jab, boxers tend to win by points decisions rather than by knockout, although some boxers have notable knockout records. Boxers attempt to control the fight by using their jab to keep their opponent at range, and using fast footwork to evade any opponent that closes in. They are often regarded as the best boxing strategists due to their ability to control the pace of the fight and lead their opponent, wearing him down gradually, and exhibiting more skill and finesse than a brawler.

Notable boxers include Muhammad Ali, Pernell Whitaker, Roy Jones Jr., Floyd Mayweather Jr., Lennox Lewis, Winky Wright, Larry Holems, Hilario Zapata, Anthony Mundine and Oscar De La Hoya.

Puncher

A puncher (or brawler, or slugger) is a fighter who is noted for his raw punching power, rather than finesse in the ring. A puncher typically has a high knockout rate due to his dangerous single-punch power, giving him a "puncher's chance" against most fighters. Many brawlers tend to lack mobility in the ring and have difficulty pursuing fighters who are fast on their feet. They prefer the harder, slower punches (such as hooks and uppercuts) and tend to ignore combination punching. Their slowness and predictable punching patterns (single punches with obvious leads) often leaves them open for counterpunching.

Famous brawlers include Arturo Gatti, Felix Trinidad, George Foreman, Rocky Marciano, Manny Pacquiao, David Tua, Mike Tyson, Nigel Benn, Diego Corrales and former featherweight champion Naseem Hamed.

In-fighter

In-fighters or swarmers stay close to an opponent, throwing intense flurries and combinations of hooks and uppercuts. A successful in-fighter needs a good "chin" because this usually involves being hit with many jabs before they can maneuver inside where they are more effective.

Notable in-fighters include Shane Mosley, Mike Tyson, Jake LaMotta, Ricky Hatton, Jose Luis Castillo, Julio César Chávez, Joe Frazier, Bernard Hopkins, Roberto Duran, Rocky Marciano, Harry Greb, Jack Dempsey, Henry Armstrong, James Toney.

Boxer-Puncher

As noted, many boxers also possess strong punching power, resulting in high knockout rates. Sometimes, such boxers are called "boxer-punchers" since they may resort to slugging or brawling at certain parts of a fight. The boxer-puncher illustrates how fighting styles are not rigid categories, and a fighter may adopt different styles depending on his opponent or the course of the bout.

Style matchups

There is a generally accepted rule of thumb about the success each of these boxing styles has against the others. In general, an in-fighter has an advantage over a boxer, a puncher has an advantage over an in-fighter, and a boxer has an advantage over a puncher. Naturally, many other factors, such as the skill level and training of the combatants, determine the outcome of a fight, but the widely held belief in this relationship among the styles is embodied in the cliché amongst boxing fans and writers that "styles make fights".

Punchers tend to overcome swarmers or in-fighters because, in trying to get close to the slugger, the in-fighter will invariably have to walk straight into the guns of the much harder-hitting puncher, so, unless the former has a very good chin and the latter's stamina is poor, the brawler's superior power will carry the day. Two famous examples of this type of match-up are George Foreman defeating Joe Frazier and Mike Tyson knocking out Joe's son, Marvis Frazier (in just 30 seconds).

Although in-fighters struggle against heavy punchers, they typically enjoy more success against out-fighters or boxers. Out-fighters prefer a slower fight, with some distance between themselves and the opponent. The in-fighter tries to close that gap and unleash furious flurries. On the inside, the out-fighter loses a lot of his combat effectiveness, because he cannot throw the hard punches. The in-fighter is generally successful in this case, due to his intensity in advancing on his opponent and his good agility, which makes him difficult to evade. For example, the swarming Joe Frazier, though easily dominated by the slugger George Foreman, was able to create many more problems for the boxer Muhammad Ali in their three fights than Foreman could. Joe Louis, after retirement, admitted that he hated being crowded, and that a swarmer like Rocky Marciano would have caused him style problems even in his prime.

The boxer or out-fighter tends to be most successful against a brawler, whose slow speed (both hand and foot) and poor technique makes him an easy target to hit for the faster out-fighter. The out-fighter's main concern is to stay alert, as the brawler only needs to land one good punch to finish the fight. If the out-fighter can avoid those power punches, he can often wear the brawler down with fast jabs, tiring him out. If he is successful enough, he may even apply extra pressure in the later rounds in an attempt to achieve a knockout. Most classic boxers, such as Muhammad Ali and Lennox Lewis, enjoyed their best successes against sluggers.

Ring tactics and strategies are what you will need when you enter the ring with an opponent of a specific physique or style. Although it is difficult to generalize how to deal with all known styles of fighting, the following tactics are generally regarded as the most effective and by no means a full proof replacement for what your individuals coach instructs you to do.

AGAINST A TALL FIGHTER :
You will need to keep moving both ways, draw the lead and slip inside. Once on the inside, switch attacks from head to body with hooks and uppercuts. Care must be taken when trying to get on the inside, you must beware of his uppercuts.

AGAINST A CROUCHING FIGHTER :
Do not work in a straight line, keep moving left and right, side step and work to the sides. Use straight punches and look for openings to use your uppercuts.

AGAINST A PERSISTANT JABBER :
You need to keep pressure on this type of opponent, keep bobbing and weaving and try to slip under the jab. Once inside the jab, work the body with solid hooks and uppercuts.

AGAINST A HEAVY PUNCHER :
You'll need to keep moving against this type of fighter. DO NOT allow him to get set and "plant his feet". Launch unsuspecting attacks. Don't stand and trade punches, circle the ring and in both directions.

AGAINST A COUNTER PUNCHER :
Force him to lead by feinting and try and concentrate on countering his counter. Keep him under pressure and off balance.

AGAINST A SOUTHPAW :
You will need to circle left on the blind side away from your opponents left hook. Use your left hook to cross over the southpaw lead and also use your right hand to head and body.

Ring craft is not a substitute for physical fitness and boxing ability. You must work hard in training and sparring and the ability to solve problems and workout your opponent's strengths and weaknesses will come with experience.

Never stop trying, even though things might not be going well for you in a fight, you must remember that it only takes one well placed punch to turn thing around. Don't be too tense as this will slow down your reactions. Try to appear confident by not displaying signs of tiredness and discomfort, easier said than done but this will come with experience.

Vary your moves and combinations, never use the same move more than twice in succession. A good opponent will notice this and plan for a counter which could be devastating.

Most top athletes agree that psychology plays a key role in sporting performance, but only two out of 20 athletes, including eight professionals and two top amateurs, in a recent American survey had ever consulted a sports psychologist. Asked why people saw sports psychologists, seven said to improve mental approach and six to improve performance. Three cited mental problems and two declared that sport was '50% mental'. Asked if there was a stigma attached to consulting a sports psychologist, 18 said no. They all recognised the potential benefits of sports psychology.

So why didn't they seek help? Five had 'no time'. A further five said that sport was not that important. Ten claimed that money was an issue, even though most of them were investing 10-15 hours a week in sport, plus substantial sums of cash. The report says that, at first sight, the survey, conducted in New York (where one might expect the idea of visiting a 'shrink' to be less problematical than in many other environments!) 'makes no sense'. It adds: 'The resistance at play here is not of a conscious sort. Not one athlete talked about their emotions. They mentioned mental training, focus, concentration, visualisation and improved performance, but no one mentioned any words that would describe their feeling state.

'We conclude that these athletes have an enormous fear of seeing, facing, recognising or experiencing affect of any kind. In retrospect, that should be no surprise. After all, sports are about action and the discharge of emotion through movement rather than through words. Sitting on a chair, or worse lying on a couch, being immobile, and allowing things to come up from the unconscious may, in fact, be terrifying to them. If this is true, it is only after the athlete is utterly despairing, and his or her career is in jeopardy, that they will be willing to enter the psychologist's office.'

The report singles out four factors militating against the use of sports psychology:

Superstitious behaviour and ritual:
this may help athletes to overcome anxiety, but relief is often only temporary and minor.

Drug-induced 'performance enhancement':
some athletes prone to anxiety, depression, pain or fatigue may turn to illicit drugs rather than a sports psychologist. Athletes claim drugs enhance performance, but often they alleviate anxiety.

Eating disorders:
these occur most commonly in sports like skating, wrestling, boxing and gymnastics - sports in which practitioners and coaches appear to show little interest in the use of sports psychology.

Exercise bulimia: athletes may resort to over-training to manage anxiety or poor body image. Exercise bulimia may also be accompanied by steroid abuse.

Why Athletes Resist Sports Psychology.
Thomas Ferraro PhD and Shannon Rush, MA, Long Island Institute of Psychoanalysis.
On Line Journal of Sports Psychology, September 2000

Find your ballance between food and physical activity

by Suzanne Grassel / April 30, 2009

This week's Women's Task Force blog is another exchange between Patrick Borkowski, High Performance Director of USA Boxing, and Coach Christy Halbert, Chair of USAB's Women's Task Force, regarding best training practices for boxing four, two-minute rounds in domestic and international women's bouts.  Specifically, this blog addresses the practice of running for boxing fitness.

CH:  "Roadwork" is a tradition in boxing, but boxers never actually run in a bout.  What is it about running that makes it so beneficial for boxers?

PB: When a boxer, or any other athlete for that matter, trains for their sport they want to make sure every necessary element is developed to their maximal potentials. Specific metabolic demands of boxing include High Energy Phosphates, the Anaerobic or Lactate system as well as the Aerobic system. In order to maximize the potential of each system, an athlete wants to isolate each system during training as well as work a combination of systems. Running is perhaps the simplest modality to pinpoint a specific system and overload that system greater than sport ever would. This is because it is an ingrained motor skill that everyone can do and has the ability for very specific guidelines such as speed, distance, acceleration, etc.

CH:  When thinking of "roadwork", images of long-distance runs of many miles or many minutes come to mind.  Is this type of "roadwork" the best model for Olympic-style boxers who compete in three or four rounds of two minutes?

PB:  There is a time and a place to train all physical demands of boxing, what's most critical is to ask the questions why, when, and how. Boxing is not a "steady state" sport. The intensity of a bout is constantly up and down between extremely high force output exchanges and lower intensity movement and set ups. Intermingled with this are the occasional clinches and various referee stoppages for equipment issues or warnings and cautions. The typical long distance run is a very steady state activity that will only address the lower intensity demands of the bout. This is great during the earlier training periods and will provide a solid aerobic base for recovery between the high intensity activity that makes up majority of the training time approaching competition.

Once you have entered a stage in which you are preparing for a competition, the type of running you do should start to hone in on the specific demands of the sport. If you are boxing four rounds of two minutes, you need to maximize the amount of work you can perform in two minutes as well as you ability to recover and duplicate such an effort. Various interval running drills can address this much more effectively than long distance runs. Additionally, when performing interval work, you can gain performance benefits for both the anaerobic system, during the actual work time, as well as your aerobic system during recovery times when your heart is still racing to prepare you for the next repetition.

CH:  When preparing for four, two-minute rounds, what might be an example of a good running interval routine?

PB:  One of my favorite interval drills for preparing boxers is a shuttle run. While the round is two minutes long, when you really break it down, the athletes are averaging around four to five seconds of hard exchanges followed by approximately eight to 10 seconds of jabbing and set up. A shuttle run can help duplicate this intensity due to its constant stop and go requirements.

To start, I find an open area in which the athlete can run down and back over a given distance, usually about 25 yards, but any distance within reason can work. Have the athletes warm up thoroughly and then perform one trip down and back at maximal speed. Perform three to four repetitions of this and time your athletes every repetition. Ideally you want a down and back trip to be approximately 10 seconds.

After you know your athlete's maximal time for one trip, increase the work demand to two trips and give your athlete a target time of twice their single trip time, plus an additional two seconds. After two sets of this, increase the work to three trips (3x single trip time plus 4 seconds). Continue to follow this pattern until the run takes the athlete approximately a minute and a half to perform. In between sets and reps, vary the recovery time so there is just enough time to fully duplicate each effort. Because you are using times based on the athlete's day of performance, you know exactly what they are capable of. If the work time is 20 seconds or less, give then a minute to recover. If the work time is 20 - 30 seconds, give a minute and 20 seconds to recover. If the work time is above one minute, match the recovery time with the work time.

As a precaution, this is a very difficult workout to match your times on. Younger or more inexperienced athletes will need to start slowly with only a few repetitions. Gradually build as your athletes continue to successfully make the times. Then decrease the amount of time they have to complete each repetition.

CH:  A lot of boxers think "If I run longer than my opponent then I'll get in better shape than her."  Is this accurate?

PB:  You might be in better long distance shape than your opponent, but that doesn't mean you will be in better shape for the bout. It is very similar to our previous conversation. You may be able to box for 10 rounds, but if your opponent can out work you in the first four rounds, they will have won the bout. The goal is to be able to perform the greatest intensity of work for the bout and then be able to recover for the next bout.

Going back to running, you want to be able to run as far as possible in two minutes. Maybe you can run half a mile in that time, but if you go for a five-mile run, your two-minute splits may only be a quarter of a mile. You are exercising at half the intensity then what the competition will demand of you.

CH:  How critical is the rest interval?  Some boxers desire to shorten their rest interval because they think they'll get in better shape.  Is this true?

PB:  As I touch on very briefly above, the rest interval is critical. In order to maximize your work within a given time, you need to train by overloading that time interval on a repetitive basis. If you do not give an appropriate rest interval so that the athlete can duplicate their intensity, then you will actually train them at a much lower level than they require.

For example, if the goal of a training session is to overload the athlete's lactate system, you may choose to do a one minute inclined run. This will maximize the lactate production within the muscle and force the body to adapt and recover. In order to duplicate the same effort, the athlete will need at minimum one minute of recovery before the next repetition. This way, every repetition is targeting the lactate system. If the rest interval is dropped to only 30 seconds, the athlete does not fully recover the lactate system and begins to use more of the aerobic system. They will still get a good workout, but the overall intensity on each repetition will not be as high as it could be. The reason for performing this type of running workout is to force the body to work harder in that one minute then you could during one minute of sparring or bag work. Therefore, the athlete can increase the amount of technical work that can be done in one minute because it is not a strain to the anaerobic system.

CH:  Long-distance running is very popular among professional fighters.  Would running long distances be harmful for an Olympic-style boxer?

PB: Long-distance running, when performed at the right time and under the right goals, can still be very beneficial to an Olympic-style boxers. However, when long-distance running dominates the physical training, the overall intensity of training is decreased below the demands of the sport. Athletes will lose strength, power, speed and agility by overdoing their distance running. All these elements are critical for a boxer at any level.

CH:  Can long-distance running be a good way to manage weight?

PB:  Long-distance running can serve to help manage weight, but ultimately it will always come down to nutrition. If the body is consuming more calories than it is using, you will gain weight. What many people do not understand is that increases in physical activity will increase the hunger mechanism of the body greater than actually needed. The body naturally wants to be prepared, so it will want to store calories. It takes great discipline of daily food intake to manage this.

On average, running a mile burns 150 calories, only slightly more than what is in a sports drink. Too often I have worked with athletes that will subconsciously increase sugary snacks and drinks as they increase their activity level.

Another interesting thought to ponder is this: have you ever seen an overweight sprinter? I have not, at least not a successful one. Sprinters train very specific to their event; at the most, a 100-meter sprinter would run a single mile during base training phases. Yet the intensity at which they run each training session is so high and demanding of the body that they are burning calories not only during their 10-second run, but in the minute or two they spend recovering from that repetition. Ultimately it comes down to the same concept of quality and intensity of training. If they ran long distances all the time, they would not be training at the intensity they need to win a race. As such, a boxer needs to spend the majority of their training at an intensity equivalent to or greater than their competitive needs. Either way will help manage weight if diet is addressed properly.

CH:  What about boxers with acute or chronic injuries that make running very difficult or painful?  What alternatives are there to running?

PB: Especially with today's technologies, there are a number of exercise modalities which can be substituted for running. Such modalities include biking, elliptical machines, cross country skiing machines, stair steppers and step mills. Of course there is also swimming. The same rules apply, create workouts with specific goals and monitor the specifics of each drill.

One thing to remember, though, is that every exercise modality is not created equal. Even if one exercise seems to be harder than another, there are so many factors that play a role, so you can not assume it is a superior activity. For example, you can bike as hard as possible for 10 minutes and never burn the same amount of calories or have the same physical gains as if you ran as hard as you could for 10 minutes. Biking is a non-impact activity that limits the amount of total body muscle used. This does not mean that biking is not a good alternative, but you have to keep in mind that matching a running workout on a bike will require additional work.

CH:  When considering intervals, whether in the gym or on the road/track, is it fair to say we should stay very close to the competition work and rest interval?

PB: There are two different ways you want to train. The first is to maximize each demand of the sport This requires staying within competition work times, give or take a little, but with longer rest periods. This allows a greater intensity over the time of the workout and overloads the athlete's ability to perform in a given period of time. The second is to prepare for the specific demands of the competition, which would require work and rest intervals equivalent to competition. Any time you stray too far away from this, you are failing to prepare the athlete for the demands of the sport.

CH: Thank you, Patrick. 

Boxers can read more training tips and best training practices in Patrick's column in the USAB magazine.

by Suzanne Grassel / April 10, 2009