Modern Day Mitt Masters

[Cuauhtémoc1520]

you see his technique and power in the fights


the mitts arent improving floyd's technique at this stage. they are getting him sharp


roger mayweather's method of working mitts is tremendously effective at getting floyd ready for a fight and sharpening him. i've always thought of the trainign and methodology in boxing as result based. if it works it works, and it clearly works for floyd's specific purposes (sharpening the planet's greatest boxer and getting him ready for a fight after what's often a long layoff.)


if you watch a full mayweather training session the mitt work is a tiny part of it. it's just the flashiest part that looks the best that they'll put into a 24/7 over and over again



i do agree, some of these guys in the gym "working mitts" look like total clowns and clearly have no idea how to train a boxer.

I'm not going to say that Roger's type of mitt work doesn't or does help Floyd. I tend to think it can help him but in ways that most won't think. For example, hitting the mitts and what you do in the ring are two very different things. It's hard to emulate actual boxing with just hitting mitts but I do think they help him in reactions when countering and hand eye coordination.

At this level though, I don't think Floyd needs help with hand eye coordination and I just think it's part of a routine that he enjoys and feels comfortable with at this stage.

I just think that Goosen's point was that too many trainers rely on just looking good with the mitts when in reality there's a ton of other stuff you need to do to prepare a young boxer to learn to fight.

For me, there's nothing like sparring, sparring, sparring. I want a young fighter to feel like a fish in water when he steps into the ring to spar, to be completely comfortable in there and to execute what we have taught inside the ring.

[outsidethebox]

I agree 100%. When I was trained as a boxer, I never did mitts period. I trained in the old school ways in Mexico and never even focused on mitts or any of those flashy moves.

Out of curiosity, if you didn't do mitts, what drills/methods did your trainer use to build your offensive and defensive reflexes? (E.g. recognizing openings for a jab for offense, slipping punches for defense.)

[Pony Boy]

I started boxing in 1976 or 1977 and they already had punch mitts back then but I've heard from a lot of older boxer who also said that they didn't have punch mitts when they were training ten year before me. I've been told that some trainers us to use sparring gloves to catch punches and I remember my coach having me catch punches for some kids my age using regular boxing gloves. I know that most Mexican trainers used a round punch shield called a "gobernadora," which became obsolete once the punch mitts became popular, and now the punch shield is become more popular. I also heard that the first punch mitts came from Mexico around 1970. I use both and the punch shield is a great tool to develop power. It would be interesting to find out when and where the first punch mitts came from.