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Great article and this basically reflects the way I feel about it. I highlighted a good part of it here:
Great article and this basically reflects the way I feel about it. I highlighted a good part of it here:
Focus mitts were incorporated into boxing many decades ago and more – so there are different theories on its origination. Boxing trainers use focus mitt work (aka padwork or mittwork), to give dynamic practice for fighters to work on the things that happen while fighting. It gives a live body to train in front of. It continues to be used today for warming-up a fighter, working on movement, and fine-tuning skills. The problem is the focus of the mittwork; what is a trainer trying to achieve? Boxing trainers are increasingly adopting a cookie-cutter approach to teaching skills. Today, padwork is more for warming up guys or showing-off than for fine-tuning skill-sets. People love the way the Mayweathers do padwork perhaps because it looks so intricate. Other trainers stick to fads like towel slipping and tube punching – useful in some ways and some much less than others – but should not replace good ol’fashioned mittwork – the kind that is almost like sparring. And we don’t replace sparring, right?
The repetitive and fast action of the Mayweather style of mittwork indeed helps reflexes, short punches, and making things second nature, but bad habits may develop from it, too. There are plenty of young non-Mayweathers who don’t have the pedigree or time to become good in spite of paddy-cake padwork. They aren’t sitting on punches, turning their hips, or learning how to improvise within the fundamentals. There is no doubt that Roger, Jeff, Floyd Sr., and Floyd Jr. were each tremendous talents who exhibited those skills, but I think the chipmunk quick mittwork we see for two seconds clips on tv had less to do with it than the amalgam of everything else. Evidence suggests that they spent years touching up on the how’s and why’s before they became known for what many experienced eyes would, and do, call nonsense. But far too many boxing trainers are selling it to kids without the substance.
The repetitive and fast action of the Mayweather style of mittwork indeed helps reflexes, short punches, and making things second nature, but bad habits may develop from it, too. There are plenty of young non-Mayweathers who don’t have the pedigree or time to become good in spite of paddy-cake padwork. They aren’t sitting on punches, turning their hips, or learning how to improvise within the fundamentals. There is no doubt that Roger, Jeff, Floyd Sr., and Floyd Jr. were each tremendous talents who exhibited those skills, but I think the chipmunk quick mittwork we see for two seconds clips on tv had less to do with it than the amalgam of everything else. Evidence suggests that they spent years touching up on the how’s and why’s before they became known for what many experienced eyes would, and do, call nonsense. But far too many boxing trainers are selling it to kids without the substance.
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