10000 hours to master boxing

[BuakawBanchamek]

So I have recently read a little about the book 'Outliers' where a psychiatrist talks about one needing roughly 10000 hours to master a field.

It got me interested and overlooking my overall training,
I 'only' train about 2 ½ hours a day 6 times a week (as an amateur, 17 years old).

Managing school, part time job AND training each day is a challenge already but adding 2 training sessions a day seems hardly undoable, at least 6 times a week.

Which leads to my question:

Is there a way to increase your training time which you can do without getting into a 'real workout state' where you get tired?

Like doing 'dry exercises' / slowly throwing punches, does that help?
`

EDIT:

I don't know if you get what I mean, so I will simplify it:

Pretty much I have no time for 2 sessions with proper recovery between workouts like pros do, so can exercises which are not tiring as the named throwing punches slowly or maybe playing with a reaction ball have a positive training effect or are they obsolete if they are not tiring your body out?

[Mr.MojoRisin']

So I have recently read a little about the book 'Outliers' where a psychiatrist talks about one needing roughly 10000 hours to master a field.

It got me interested and overlooking my overall training,
I 'only' train about 2 ½ hours a day 6 times a week (as an amateur, 17 years old).

Managing school, part time job AND training each day is a challenge already but adding 2 training sessions a day seems hardly undoable, at least 6 times a week.

Which leads to my question:

Is there a way to increase your training time which you can do without getting into a 'real workout state' where you get tired?

Like doing 'dry exercises' / slowly throwing punches, does that help?
`

EDIT:

I don't know if you get what I mean, so I will simplify it:

Pretty much I have no time for 2 sessions with proper recovery between workouts like pros do, so can exercises which are not tiring as the named throwing punches slowly or maybe playing with a reaction ball have a positive training effect or are they obsolete if they are not tiring your body out?

I read that book too, good read. Matter of fact I was thinking about the 10,000 hour thing in relation to boxing too.

Imo those dry exercises will hinder your boxing ability. By throwing slow punches in shadowboxing you will notice your speed decrease.

Sorry if that doesn't answer your question.

[zenspeedster]

I think 10,000 hours is just a mild exaggeration of what they mean, which is a lot of time and experience. Everybody is different, so it will take different amounts of time to get something down. I think what they are saying is to keep practicing, because mastery won't just happen in 1, 10, 100, or 1000 hours.

The irony about time is that some people can learn something in 1 hour and others may take 10 hours. I think it's a matter of the perspective you have as you do it. I'd say nosedive into studying your boxers and boxing theory, see what works and doesn't, ask questions, and keep working on it. Someday, something will just click. And I guess you could call that mastery. But you don't ever truly master anything, you just understand more situations for it.

And if you really do wanna add more time, I'd say look into managing your time both in general and during your training sessions. Similar to making a workout program, see how you can maximize your gains.

[bigjavi973]

So I have recently read a little about the book 'Outliers' where a psychiatrist talks about one needing roughly 10000 hours to master a field.

It got me interested and overlooking my overall training,
I 'only' train about 2 ½ hours a day 6 times a week (as an amateur, 17 years old).

Managing school, part time job AND training each day is a challenge already but adding 2 training sessions a day seems hardly undoable, at least 6 times a week.

Which leads to my question:

Is there a way to increase your training time which you can do without getting into a 'real workout state' where you get tired?

Like doing 'dry exercises' / slowly throwing punches, does that help?
`

EDIT:

I don't know if you get what I mean, so I will simplify it:

Pretty much I have no time for 2 sessions with proper recovery between workouts like pros do, so can exercises which are not tiring as the named throwing punches slowly or maybe playing with a reaction ball have a positive training effect or are they obsolete if they are not tiring your body out?

it is a karate proverb:

[Citizen Koba]

So I have recently read a little about the book 'Outliers' where a psychiatrist talks about one needing roughly 10000 hours to master a field.

It got me interested and overlooking my overall training,
I 'only' train about 2 ½ hours a day 6 times a week (as an amateur, 17 years old).

Managing school, part time job AND training each day is a challenge already but adding 2 training sessions a day seems hardly undoable, at least 6 times a week.

Which leads to my question:

Is there a way to increase your training time which you can do without getting into a 'real workout state' where you get tired?

Like doing 'dry exercises' / slowly throwing punches, does that help?
`

EDIT:

I don't know if you get what I mean, so I will simplify it:

Pretty much I have no time for 2 sessions with proper recovery between workouts like pros do, so can exercises which are not tiring as the named throwing punches slowly or maybe playing with a reaction ball have a positive training effect or are they obsolete if they are not tiring your body out?

It's a interesting figure and may seem overwhelming, but think about it - say 15 hours a week 50 weeks a year - what's that? 750 hours a year? So a little over 13 years to 'master' the sport maybe (whatever that means - I think guys never stop learning in boxing or other fields, but the rate must slow). Most top flight elite fighters started boxing in their early teens and are expected to peak maybe in their late twenties by which point their skills are close to fully developed yet they are in their physical prime, so that 10,000 hour figure actually matches fairly closely with what we see in the sport. Take heart though - as with all learning curves the start and end are shallow and the steepest gradient lies in between. Furthermore the structure of the sport means you'll tend to be matched with guys at a similar point on their own 'curve' at least - ideally. You looking at pro or am, just out of interest? And do you have a trainer? - what's their take? A lot will depend upon what your ambitions are and what they think - honestly - of your native ability and commitment.

[Furn]

Its not just a matter of putting in the hours, you need to be doing "deliberate practise".

To do this you need to be in a zone juts outside your comfort zone e.g. things you can already do well but not so far out that you are in your panic zone which is where you try too much too soon.

It would be hard with boxing as its not like golf or something where you can just go a practice you're putting for 4 hours a day, maybe some sort of visualisation exercises where you picture boxing in your one and how you would react in certain circumstances.

Also just watching fights can help. I got a lot better at soccer by watching games and playing fifa despite not playing from 15 to 26.

[AddiX]

I read that book too, good read. Matter of fact I was thinking about the 10,000 hour thing in relation to boxing too.

Imo those dry exercises will hinder your boxing ability. By throwing slow punches in shadowboxing you will notice your speed decrease.

Sorry if that doesn't answer your question.

This makes no sense. Shadowboxing trains your technique, and by doing thousands upon thousands of reps, you gain muscle memory, which makes it easier and quicker to throw punches.

[Mr.MojoRisin']

This makes no sense. Shadowboxing trains your technique, and by doing thousands upon thousands of reps, you gain muscle memory, which makes it easier and quicker to throw punches.

Speed will not increase. Yes, you will be able to do things off of muscle memory but speed will not increase. If anything it will decrease. The only way to increase speed is to punch faster. Not slower with more volume.

[AlexKid]

fuking unnatural and hard boxing

im defo a hard gainer not sure if some find it easy?

[BuakawBanchamek]

Speed will not increase. Yes, you will be able to do things off of muscle memory but speed will not increase. If anything it will decrease. The only way to increase speed is to punch faster. Not slower with more volume.

I think what he meant is that you improve your technique by throwing punches. It does no matter really if thrown quickly or slowly. And an improvement in technique allows faster execution of the punch.


My question was never to replace any speed drills with slow shadow boxing but adding exercises like slowly shadow boxing to increase training volume, as I have not the chance to train twice a day really without neglecting regeneration.