Summer Youth Training Workshop – Review
Monday 24th August 2015 marked the beginning of a new venture for Boxing Science and Sheffield Hallam University as we launched our first ‘Summer Youth Training Workshop’ – an accelerated sport science program for young boxers. A week long course consisted of practical and educational workshops on how young athletes can apply sport science to their boxing training.
The course was designed to give boxers aged between 11 and 18 the knowledge and understanding of sport science principles to help them be fitter, faster and stronger for their upcoming season and future careers.
Following 17 hours of training and learning, the boxers left the University enthused and motivated to apply their new found knowledge to their boxing training. They left with a certificate of achievement, and their training manual filled in with their new learning’s and reflections from the camp.
Boxing Science will now review the part-funded program, in which it contributed to cut the price of each place by 50%.
Goal Setting with Pete Olusoga
Boxing Science Sport Psychologist Pete Olusoga kick started the week by explaining the importance of psychology and mental skills training in Boxing. The main theme of the workshop was Goal Setting, with Pete teaching the young athletes the SMART method. The boxers then set goals for what they wanted to achieve in the proceeding 5 days of training and learning on the course.
Fitness and Movement Testing
Following on from the workshop with Pete, the boxers completed a series of fitness, strength and movement tests. This was a great transition, as we could provide a detailed analysis of their strengths and areas for improvement. This allows the boxers to set their training towards areas they need to improve on, and turning their strengths into ‘super-strengths’. Using the data recorded and the goal setting methods introduced by Pete, we was able to set new goals for the upcoming season.
Movement Training
Movement and mobility is important for boxing as it promotes improvements in strength, speed, co-ordination and punch force whilst reducing the likelihood of injury (read more here). We introduced the boxers to the Boxing Science ‘DIY program’. A mobility program that requires minimal equipment, meaning that the young athletes can do their movement exercises in the gym, at home or in the park.
The boxers learnt the benefits of each exercise. Then, using the results from movement assessments, each boxer highlighted the exercises that would be beneficial to their development.
INTERESTED IN ATTENDING OUR YOUTH WORKSHOPS?? CLICK HERE
Strength Training
A hard punch requires a number of characteristics, with strength, acceleration and lean muscle mass being the main physical contributors (read more here). There are many ways you can improve these, however, our preferred method is resistance strength training.
We provided 4 strength training workshops across the 5 days, introducing the athletes to the Squat, Deadlift, Pull-ups and Bench Press. However, a young athlete should not just go straight into these big lifts, they require multiple stages of learning the foundational movements for each exercise. Therefore, each workshop focused on 4 different exercises building towards the main lift. The boxers then reflected on areas of the lifts they needed to improve on to highlight the exercises they needed to focus on.
Q and A Sessions
Boxing Science are very fortunate to be working with talented, dedicated athletes and an excellent support team of experienced sport science practitioners. We wanted to share their thoughts, knowledge and experience with the young boxers to add a little inspiration and motivation to the 5 day camps.
We had professional Jordan Gill discuss his boxing career, experience of strength and conditioning and being part of a world title winning camp. The featherweight prospect said “There is no other place in the country doing boxing specific strength and conditioning than here at Sheffield Hallam University” as well as advising “keep a balance between your boxing and school work”
Former national champion and aspiring amateur Callum Beardow talked about his comeback from injury and how he has dealt with setbacks by staying committed to his strength and conditioning program. “Staying on the program has kept me fit and strong, helping me get back to fighting shape much quicker. I have a lot to thank Danny for” says the Boxing Science Ambassador. See more about his recent training here.
Sport Physiologist and Boxing Science co-founder Alan Ruddock talked to the young boxers about the most important aspects of training, Kell Brook’s world title preparations and his experience when spending time in Mayweather and Top Rank gyms whilst in Las Vegas, USA. “These are the best fighters in the world, and they are still doing things wrong without any direction. In sport science terms, we are miles ahead.” Alan then went on to say “The most important aspect to training is preparation. Kell’s title win was a great example. He had 16 weeks of systematic preparation for the Shawn Porter fight and he won with relative ease”. To find out more about Kell’s sport science support click here.
Outdoor Running
As mentioned earlier, we wanted to give these young boxers the knowledge, understanding and the tools to apply sport science principles to their boxing training. Therefore, we delivered outdoor running workshops that they can do in their local park, football pitch or even in a car park (an empty one!). The first was with our very own Alan Ruddock, with the boxers completing a series of different conditioning runs that they can use at different stages of training camps. After we dried off, the boxers learnt the importance of training variation, how to calculate volume loads and structuring their own 8 week conditioning program.
Workshop 2 focused of speed and agility. Danny took the boxers through sprint mechanic, acceleration and deceleration drills before finishing with a series of races between the teams ‘Maggots United’ and ‘Ricky Hatton FC’ ….. Niall is to blame for the weird team names!
Curve Sprints
In our programs, we primarily use the Woodway Curve for running based conditioning. ‘The Curve’ is a ‘C-shaped’ non-motorised treadmill which is powered solely by the user’s legs. With no set tempo or restriction on speed, this promotes maximum effort from users, resulting in improved sprinting speed (click here to see it in action).
We perform a range of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) protocols on the curve, with working sets ranging from 4 minutes to 10 seconds. Our main focus is developing the ability to perform, repeat and endure high intensity bouts. Therefore, we did two workshops on the curve. The first looked at enduring high intensity over 30 seconds, and the other workshop focused on the ability to repeat maximum speed in a series of 10 second sprints.
Radio Sheffield Visit
We were privileged to have reporter Andy Kershaw join us during one of our strength workshops to do a report for BBC Radio Sheffield. Andy’s entertaining and imaginative reporting style made this a fun part to the program and gave some of the young boxers their first taste of talking to the media. Check out the broadcast in the link above.
INTERESTED IN ATTENDING OUR YOUTH WORKSHOPS?? CLICK HERE
Core Training
Core training is very common in boxing gyms. From old videos of Mike Tyson to being prominent in boxing films such as Rocky. But how much of this is structured as part of a program and made specific to boxing?
The core training workshop focused on stability, and the different planes of motion we resist force in. We looked at boxing specific examples before letting the boxers loose in the gym with a range of core exercises in their training manual, letting them figure out the functions of each exercise themselves. Find out more about core training here.
Boxing Assessment
Sheffield City ABC and Yorkshire Boxing coach Brendan Warburton came down to run a short boxing assessment with the young athletes. Joined by level 2 coach Callum Beardow, Brendan based his observations on some of the assessment guidelines used in England Boxing trials, with the boxers performing shadow boxing and pad drills.
Getting a quantitative score for boxing technique is helpful when goal setting, gain an understanding to what England Boxing would be looking for and offers an opportunity to relate improvements in strength and conditioning to boxing technique.
Nutrition and Recovery
Boxing is a sport that requires high training loads whilst losing body mass when ‘making weight’. This makes structured Nutrition and Recovery really important for boxing, however, these sections are often overlooked in young athletes.
Danny introduced recovery methods to ‘eat, sleep, train, box’. Boxers wrote down the importance and methods before assessing their own current use of recovery methods.
Nutritionist Lee Rickards delivered a great workshop on nutrition, providing a nice mix between theory and practical activities. Boxers got their hands on foods looking at nutritional content, before reviewing their current diet and building a new nutritional plan.
Thank you.
The youth training workshop made it a truly fantastic week for Boxing Science. A massive well done and thank you to the boxers and coaches that made the week special.
In 2017, we will be putting on more workshops like this in Sheffield and around the UK. If this interests you, please leave your contact details in the link below.
INTERESTED IN ATTENDING OUR YOUTH WORKSHOPS?? CLICK HERE