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Mayweather vs Pacquiao has made the avid boxing fan mind race over the last 6 years, the matter on who would win is a great talking point but it is the clash of styles that makes the mouth water.

Mayweather has tremendous timing and a trademark defensive style which has seen him dominate his previous 47 opponents. Pacquiao has a much different approach, a constant pressure to opponents with wicked combinations and blistering hand speed.

In our second article for our Boxing Science #WeekOfTheCentury, we will be looking at some methods that can help you reach Pacman Speed

Boxing Science - Pacman Speed

The Science Behind The Punch

Essentially, Impulse is the amount of force developed in a short space of time. This is often called the rate of force development, important contributor to running, jumping and throwing performance, as well as… yeah you guessed it, PUNCH FORCE.

In boxing, it’s often the one who hits harder at a faster speed is often the winner, wouldn’t you agree? Well, impulse is a major contributor to that!

For a full catch up, check out our ‘The Science Behind The Punch’ article series.*

Manny ways to get quicker

Excuse the pun, I couldn’t resist.

It is not just simple “move weights quicker”, you need to approach it from different angles. There are many ways that we can train impulse, whether it is for upper, lower or whole body movements. At Combat Conditioning, we structure our programs based on the Force-Velocity continuum.

Boxing Science - Force-Velocity Curve

The curve shows an inverse relationship between force and velocity. This means the heavier the weight you lift (force), the slower you lift it (velocity); conversely, the lighter a weight, the faster you lift it.

The picture above shows the different types of training that occur at different points of the force-velocity curve. Maximum strength is at the top with high force, low velocity movements to speed training with low force, high velocity. The video below shows the range of exercises we use at Combat Conditioning.

A video posted by Danny Wilson (@wilson_sc91) on

Shift the curve to the right

So how does this help boxers?

The desired effect for developing impulse is to shift the force-velocity curve to the right. This means you have to train all the different training types for the curve to keep shape, just train one type then you will lose the shape of the curve.

Furthermore, train all these different training types simultaneously will affect the rate of adaptation for your athlete.

Therefore, shifting the curve to the right and create an explosive boxer requires structuring of the different training types using periodisation.

Boxing Science - Force-Velocity Curve 2

Keep tuned this week for more#WeekOfTheCentury articles… check out yesterday’s post Recover without Money and look out for us tomorrow where we will be telling you how to get the Mayweather Fitness.

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