A boxer has to put in his time to keep up a high level of performance in the ring. Fighters must maintain excellent overall physical conditioning. This will help give them the endurance needed to box and move around the ring. However, they also have to work on basic skills: punching accuracy, punching power and the ability to defend themselves and attack an opponent with precision punches.
Boxing Road Work
In order to get in top condition for stepping into the ring, boxers work on their overall conditioning. One of the things they do is distance running—called roadwork—which helps them find the endurance they need to box for 3 minutes at a time for several rounds. Most boxers run 3 to 5 miles per day, four times a week, when they are in training. They do this road work early in the morning and it sets the standard for their training day.
Punching Accuracy
One of the greatest tools for learning how to punch accurately and stay sharp in your preparation is the speed bag. This tool helps a boxer develop a crisp, quick and accurate left jab. This is the punch that you will use to set up all your other punches and combinations. When the speed bag is hit in the correct way, it will rebound off a backboard and come right back at the fighter. A well-timed punch will allow the fighter to hit the bag in a rhythmic manner and develop a very dependable left jab.
Punching Power
Boxers need to lift weights to get stronger. However, strength alone will not make a fighter punch harder. Power punching is about timing and rhythm and using the entire body. Power punches start out from the feet, go through the legs, travel through the core muscles and the back, and into the shoulders, arms and fists. Hitting the heavy bag will help you throw punches with your entire body. Hit the heavy bag for 5 minutes, take a 1 minute break and then hit it for another 5 minutes to develop punching power.
Sparring
Sparring is the best test for any boxer. Although you wear protective head gear and boxing gloves with added padding, when you get into the ring for a sparring session you are trying to punch and hurt your opponent and he is trying to do the same to you. It heightens your reactions and reflexes and helps you learn how you will handle yourself in the stressful situation of a fight. It is best to go into a sparring session with a game plan of establishing your left jab and then throwing your other punches in a logical manner.
History
Great fighters do not let themselves go when they don't have a big fight on the horizon. The greatest boxers in history prepared for fights by training rigorously in the weeks leading up to a big fight, and then routinely at all other times. Great champions like Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard and Manny Pacquiao get to the gym regularly when they are not training for a specific fight. "You can't let it get away from you," Leonard said in a 2000 HBO interview. "You always have to realize you are a professional and you have to keep on training. It is your job."
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