BoxRec

How did some of the old fighters im talking about like 1920's How did they train besides Running?

Pretty similar to now I would guess skipping rope, pad and bag work, shadow boxing, sparring and calasthetics. I know a few of them used to do hard physical labour to get in shape too, such as chopping wood or digging ditches.

I have a feeling they did a lot more sparing back then as well.

Plus, since most fighters fought much more often back then than today, I would say that they were never really "out" of shape. Constantly fighting rounds keeps you in better shape than taking three months off, getting fat, then training to get the fat off AND training for a fight at the same time.

A LOT more sparring - by far the best form of training.

It find it astounding when you hear some fighters nowadays say they don't do much sparring.

Plus, many old time fighters fought so often that they were kept constantly in peak condition by the bouts themselves. The downside to this was that many were burnt out very young.

*Alex* wrote:A LOT more sparring - by far the best form of training.

It find it astounding when you hear some fighters nowadays say they don't do much sparring.

Plus, many old time fighters fought so often that they were kept constantly in peak condition by the bouts themselves. The downside to this was that many were burnt out very young.

all very true alex.my dad - as with you grand dad -did a lot of gym work which included a lot of sparring.my dad was lucky as our home is a few mins walk from the main park in Birkenhead and he would do all his running there.its a large place with a road all around it.this was after he had finished work or at the weekend

Hi Rob, My grandfather did a lot of his running in Hyde Park, which was also near-by and pretty handy. When preparing for a fight he'd sometimes spar with three or four different fighters in a single session.

it is really enjoyable to read about the older fighters and what they used to do. thank you keep it up

Thanks for the help guy's

one thing to consider...in days gone by there were no where near the amount of readily available distractions for the training fighter.

BoxBuzz wrote:one thing to consider...in days gone by there were no where near the amount of readily available distractions for the training fighter.

You mean there were no booze and women back then?

zojo, wrote:

BoxBuzz wrote:one thing to consider...in days gone by there were no where near the amount of readily available distractions for the training fighter.

You mean there were no booze and women back then?

well i know that's all you need...but that used to be all there was.

One of my favorite training stories is from modern times. Lou Duva said that when Pernell Whitaker failed to show up at the gym one Monday, he tried calling him all day, before finally reaching him late at night. Wondering where the hell he had been, Whitaker simply said he was tired, and just decided to sleep the whole day. But Whitaker didn't show up the following day either, once again Duva reached him late, and this time Whitaker told him that he decided to play video games with his son all day. Finally on Wednesday, Whitaker showed up and pushed his training partners till they were ready to drop from exhaustion. Gotta like a guy like that.