Old-School Soviet Training

[Cypocryphy]

I thought this was awesome. The equipment isn't fancy, but these guys are working hard, harder than I see a lot of guys work at the gym. Enjoy!

[OctoberRed]

I thought this was awesome. The equipment isn't fancy, but these guys are working hard, harder than I see a lot of guys work at the gym. Enjoy!

You want to see old school Russian training... ROCKY 4 brother!

[P to the J]

You want to see old school Russian training... ROCKY 4 brother!

Loooooool

[P to the J]

I thought this was awesome. The equipment isn't fancy, but these guys are working hard, harder than I see a lot of guys work at the gym. Enjoy!

Mate, I ****ing loved this, but I’ve never done boxing training before apart from (only) hundreds of very, very ****ty and technically sloppy rounds on a bag, with no professional input.

Hence, need to understand the purpose of these drills. I’ve often tried to keep a high guard when hitting a bag or shadow boxing, as if in a real fight. These guys don’t, so I’m assuming that I shouldn’t be either?

Also, what’s with the rolling around at the end and beginning of the videos? Cardio, flexibility, or something else??

[Cypocryphy]

Mate, I ****ing loved this, but I’ve never done boxing training before apart from (only) hundreds of very, very ****ty and technically sloppy rounds on a bag, with no professional input.

Hence, need to understand the purpose of these drills. I’ve often tried to keep a high guard when hitting a bag or shadow boxing, as if in a real fight. These guys don’t, so I’m assuming that I shouldn’t be either?

Also, what’s with the rolling around at the end and beginning of the videos? Cardio, flexibility, or something else??

As to the rolling around on the ground with your head, it serves two purposes: (1) to keep the neck flexible and loose and (2) to strengthen the neck muscles. Both of these help prevent knockouts. Today, you have weighted headbands or a weighted harness to help with that. I assume these weren't available back then. Some still do neck exercises like this. The rolling part I'm not too sure except that it's a beginning gymnastic move, usually the first move you learn at a really young age for gymnastics. It's suppose to help loosen the body up and help with building a resistance to dizziness. I'm not sure if that's why they are doing it in the video. Kicking to standing position is just a good core exercise.

As far as "not being defensively responsible" it's based on some very old-school soviet principles, which is to hold your arms out to keep your opponent at a certain distance. You might hear it referred to by many names, but a common one is "long guard." You have to combine pendulum stepping in order to make this effective, and when you do, it is highly effective. You attack and then step back to make the opponent miss and control distance again. You're also able to make your punches (all of them) very heavy, very powerful. You fight on your terms and your terms alone. Someone using a high guard against someone fighting this way is practically guaranteed to lose because the high guard fighter will have to try to close the distance, forcing them out of position, making them easier to counter. It's like fighting a wasp that is stinging you in the face, and then when you try to swat it, you can't because it flies away only to return and begin stinging you again. Eventually, you can no longer fight back because you are mentally and physically worn down.

So that's the reason for that. There's a lot of prejudice against Soviet and Cuban boxing from the Americas, but it's due to their not understanding it, and they associate it with amateur boxing. In my opinion, it's a superior "kung fu."

[P to the J]

As to the rolling around on the ground with your head, it serves two purposes: (1) to keep the neck flexible and loose and (2) to strengthen the neck muscles. Both of these help prevent knockouts. Today, you have weighted headbands or a weighted harness to help with that. I assume these weren't available back then. Some still do neck exercises like this. The rolling part I'm not too sure except that it's a beginning gymnastic move, usually the first move you learn at a really young age for gymnastics. It's suppose to help loosen the body up and help with building a resistance to dizziness. I'm not sure if that's why they are doing it in the video. Kicking to standing position is just a good core exercise.

As far as "not being defensively responsible" it's based on some very old-school soviet principles, which is to hold your arms out to keep your opponent at a certain distance. You might hear it referred to by many names, but a common one is "long guard." You have to combine pendulum stepping in order to make this effective, and when you do, it is highly effective. You attack and then step back to make the opponent miss and control distance again. You're also able to make your punches (all of them) very heavy, very powerful. You fight on your terms and your terms alone. Someone using a high guard against someone fighting this way is practically guaranteed to lose because the high guard fighter will have to try to close the distance, forcing them out of position, making them easier to counter. It's like fighting a wasp that is stinging you in the face, and then when you try to swat it, you can't because it flies away only to return and begin stinging you again. Eventually, you can no longer fight back because you are mentally and physically worn down.

So that's the reason for that. There's a lot of prejudice against Soviet and Cuban boxing from the Americas, but it's due to their not understanding it, and they associate it with amateur boxing. In my opinion, it's a superior "kung fu."

Yo thanks for that, that’s a really informative answer.

(1) I’m aware of the need to strengthen the neck, but never would have guessed in a million years that’s what they were doing! Brilliant stuff; prefer this to the new age method. No-equipment makes you versatile.

(2) I see I was far too hasty making assumptions re:defence. Control of the distance and the footwork to carry this off is as good as it gets, and I saw exactly what you’re saying just now with Bivol’s style.

(3) Never actually realised about this prejudice. From fans? Pros? Or both?

These parts of the world keep churning out the most outrageously talented boxers for a reason. And even if the association with ‘amateur’ boxing is fair, can’t say that’s a bad thing.
Betting on a guy with a long amateur career to beat a guy with long pro career rarely sees you wrong.

[Cypocryphy]

Yo thanks for that, that’s a really informative answer.

(1) I’m aware of the need to strengthen the neck, but never would have guessed in a million years that’s what they were doing! Brilliant stuff; prefer this to the new age method. No-equipment makes you versatile.

(2) I see I was far too hasty making assumptions re:defence. Control of the distance and the footwork to carry this off is as good as it gets, and I saw exactly what you’re saying just now with Bivol’s style.

(3) Never actually realised about this prejudice. From fans? Pros? Or both?

These parts of the world keep churning out the most outrageously talented boxers for a reason. And even if the association with ‘amateur’ boxing is fair, can’t say that’s a bad thing.
Betting on a guy with a long amateur career to beat a guy with long pro career rarely sees you wrong.

Yeah! You bet. As to the prejudice question, I actually see it more from professionals than fans, although fans sometimes label it as "boring" because some boxers are frugal with their punches when fighting this way. Erislandy Lara comes to mind. He's gotten a lot of criticism for this. He's one of my personal favorite boxers, however.

I heard Nonito Donair call Bivol boring and amateurish, which coming from a professional who's been in the game for so long, was bizarre. I've heard this come from coaches like Able Sanchez too. Nonito says that amateur style never works. And Jesse Vargas said it's easy to time. When I heard him say this, I knew he was going to lose to Liam Smith because he seems to not understand the science of it if he thinks it's easy to time. So there's a lot of prejudice out there against it, either out of malice or just plain ignorance. Maybe i notice it more from professionals because I always assume they would know better.

[OctoberRed]

Loooooool

Every time I run I go out of my way to whack the speed bag one time during a lap

[P to the J]

Yeah! You bet. As to the prejudice question, I actually see it more from professionals than fans, although fans sometimes label it as "boring" because some boxers are frugal with their punches when fighting this way. Erislandy Lara comes to mind. He's gotten a lot of criticism for this. He's one of my personal favorite boxers, however.

I heard Nonito Donair call Bivol boring and amateurish, which coming from a professional who's been in the game for so long, was bizarre. I've heard this come from coaches like Able Sanchez too. Nonito says that amateur style never works. And Jesse Vargas said it's easy to time. When I heard him say this, I knew he was going to lose to Liam Smith because he seems to not understand the science of it if he thinks it's easy to time. So there's a lot of prejudice out there against it, either out of malice or just plain ignorance. Maybe i notice it more from professionals because I always assume they would know better.

If your perception there’s accurate, then that is a surprise. More than likely ignorance then, but I wonder how many are saying this after facing a top level amateur vs. all the statements made before??

Really, even more astonished at Abel Sanchez saying this. I’m sure Golovkin was in the amateur game for a long time

[P to the J]

Every time I run I go out of my way to whack the speed bag one time during a lap

They’re the best kinds of rounds on the bag!

One time, I was running down by the canal, and I remembered mid lap that I had to hit that speed bag. So I had to jump in to cross the canal past some angry swans defending their kids, run through some bushes, and the 3 miles across town back to the gym - got my swipe card out first, ofc, then waited for a coffee from the vending machine - ran upstairs for the speed bag, after waiting for the other guy to stop which was another 20 mins, then I…..