BoxRec

What was the training techniques of the prize fighters.
It might seem obvious but did they hit a bag and what other things were incorporated?

I ask because on TV last night there was a documentary about Bill Richmond, and I know they over do things on TV but they had him hitting the pads and using the medicine ball.
Now didn’t Muldoon claim to invent the medicine ball some 50 years later?
And Cribb was said to practice hitting the bark off trees to toughen the hands so wouldn’t the actual tree be his punch bag as such?
Prize fighting was miles away from the boxing we know today so did they have totally different methods of training?

As you say it would be quite interesting to find out more of the type of training those guys did and I suspect it would be very funny to read about what they did. Punching the bark of trees is one of the most comic in some ways. Can you imagine the howls of protest if someone did that today. Save our trees from these fistic thugs.

I find this one to be very funny

Jem Mace 1896

Moderation in all things is the secret of
the whole business moderation in eating,
drinking, exercise and sleeping. An athlete
in training should never he permitted
to crave for a glass of ale a cup of milk,
an apple, a. mild smoke or for any fruit or
beverage. It won't do him a hit of harm,
its effects can be. worked out of the
system by exercise. When a man craves
constantly or persistently at intervals for
milk or fruit or sugar or any such thing,
you can depend upon it there is a waste in
the system somwhere which requires attention.
To deny the boxer or other athlete
in training any such comfort as he
yearns for does him a lot of injury.

Something I always find interesting, though I admit alot of it may be ring folklore, is the idea that as these men lived in the age of manual labour their various professions added particular attributes to their fighting style.

Fitzsimmons always said his abnormally powerful sholders were the result of his days as a blacksmith. I also remember reading that Joe Choynski worked in a sweet factory pulling toffee (Taffy if your American) this kind of "resistance training" helped him devope good punching muscle as opposed to bulk. At just 160lbs he ko'd Jack Johnson in 3 took corbett 26 rounds and hit Jim Jefferies so hard in the mouth his lip wedged between his teeth and has to be cut free.

Even in the modern era many believe Joe Fraizer's left hook may have it's origins in the fact his father had no left arm and in the fields when he was a child Joe had to be his fathers left hand so had to get used to using his left arm.

I know these examples are not from the period you're talking about but I think it is just as true for the pre-gloved era. For instance some of the earliest prizefighting champions such as Jack Boroughton were "water boys" essentially people who spent all day rowing the Themes and must have developed tremendous upper body strength.

[quote="J-C"]


Even in the modern era many believe Joe Fraizer's left hook may have it's origins in the fact his father had no left arm and in the fields when he was a child Joe had to be his fathers left hand so had to get used to using his left arm.

quote]

Didn`t Frazier put his left hook down to him breaking his arm and it not setting properly(slightly crooked)??

I`m sure they thought some of these things really helped, and they probably did, in so much as giving them a little more confidence.

Jack Dempsey would chew pine gum straight from the tree, and his elder brother Bernie would slug him in the jaw to test if it was helping...brotherly love

from what i heard, frazier and his dad, who only had one arm, would chop trees wiht one of those long saws that require 2 people to be on each side, and he would have to use his left arm, while his dad used his right