That makes sense.
A super high level yoga guy has really high strength relative to body weight. So does a gymnast. But the yoga guy doesn’t have the explosiveness of a gymnast, who does all kinds of power oriented moves.
I think that anyone who has read any posts from me knows that I appreciate and embrace all aspects of preparation -
particularly the cerebral and the scientific.
In saying that, sometimes we have a tendency to over-think things.
Before sports science, educated nutrition and modern conditioning fighters fought.
Fights were won and lost, fighters were knocked down or out and prep was always of crucial importance.
Even in modern sports -
Brazil’s favelas are home to the best players, Russian wrestlers traditionally come from nothing, the Mexicans and Filipino’s rule over boxing’s lower weights… even the Thai’s hone their skills in poverty.
These are nearly all third world conditions.
Hunger, passion and the will to win are the key ingredients.
Forget training!
Just listen to the 8 Mile soundtrack and slam MONSTER drinks! Want it bad!
Definitely Donnie; mental toughness, drive, and hunger are crucial components to reaching the top and should never be underestimated or overlooked. In reality though you need both the “science” and the will. You don’t really need to understand the actual Newtonian physics behind generating maximal power to develop it, but doing so will give you a more clear understanding of what should be happening, thus make troubleshooting what you (or more importantly someone you are training) might be missing/doing incorrectly to help maximize your results. People got from point A to point B 2,000 years ago, but that doesn’t mean out ever increasing understanding of physics, chemistry, and other applied sciences doesn’t allow us to do so much more efficiently today.
Also, as has been pointed out many times some people have innate talent which allows them to develop certain attributes more easily that others, but since that talent can’t be transferred to others and understanding of proper mechanics/physics is crucial in being able to help others reach their potential. IMO coaches/people who say that KO power is something you are either born with or not are simply covering up for their own lack of understanding of how to teach proper punching mechanics to others. I see lots of videos on YouTube about punching mechanics and very few of them seem to understand mechanics or be able to clearly articulate them to the viewer. The best boxing/striking trainers (like Roach) do, but not many.
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
Definitely Donnie; mental toughness, drive, and hunger are crucial components to reaching the top and should never be underestimated or overlooked. In reality though you need both the “science” and the will. You don’t really need to understand the actual Newtonian physics behind generating maximal power to develop it, but doing so will give you a more clear understanding of what should be happening, thus make troubleshooting what you (or more importantly someone you are training) might be missing/doing incorrectly to help maximize your results. People got from point A to point B 2,000 years ago, but that doesn’t mean out ever increasing understanding of physics, chemistry, and other applied sciences doesn’t allow us to do so much more efficiently today.
Also, as has been pointed out many times some people have innate talent which allows them to develop certain attributes more easily that others, but since that talent can’t be transferred to others and understanding of proper mechanics/physics is crucial in being able to help others reach their potential. IMO coaches/people who say that KO power is something you are either born with or not are simply covering up for their own lack of understanding of how to teach proper punching mechanics to others. I see lots of videos on YouTube about punching mechanics and very few of them seem to understand mechanics or be able to clearly articulate them to the viewer. The best boxing/striking trainers (like Roach) do, but not many.[/quote]
I 100% agree with all you’ve said there.
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
IMO coaches/people who say that KO power is something you are either born with or not are simply covering up for their own lack of understanding of how to teach proper punching mechanics to others.[/quote]
Absolutely.
Even Tommy Hearns wasn’t a natural power puncher according to Emmanuel Steward, he had to be taught to be as such. The results speak for themselves.
I see the same thing with defense. I think about how a lot of fighters here have been needlessly knocked out, needless brain damage, needless disfiguring of their faces because the only defense they were ever taught was “hands up” and more than likely, as I saw and experienced in gyms early on, their natural instinct to pull back and away from punches was dampened with repeated admonitions, rather than developing that natural instinct into practiced head movement and distance control. “you’re not muhammad ali” as if the ability to pull your head out of range is one of supernatural intervention
^^^Agreed. Defense is one of the least understood, or at least most often incorrectly developed aspects of fighting. Again, the really good coaches understand it and know how to teach it, but I see plenty of people teaching far from ideal (if not downright poor) defensive skills to their students/fighters.
Honestly this is mostly due to incorrect sequencing when teaching fighting skills, incorrect sequencing of developing attributes, and premature exposure to hard sparring as well. If these sequences are not developed in the correct order fighters tend to develop bad habits, lack understanding or purposeful movement in their sparring/fighting, have difficulty dealing with different types of opponents (lack the ability to adjust), and never really develop to their full potential.
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
I really don’t think there is any such exercise as the brain’s neuroplasticity is task specific. So for instance if you were to practice the crap out of the Olympic Lifts I’m sure you would have more white matter in the motor cortex than an average Joe who was mostly sedentary. But you would probably still lack the movement specific skill, coordination, and timing to generate a maximum power punch. Likewise if you practice punching power till you get really good at it you will probably still not have the skill specific timing, coordination and accuracy to be able to hit a 90 mph fast ball out of a major (or even minor) league park.
That said I would expect that the more complex and power oriented the movement the more white matter the body would build due to it. So things like punching, Ilympic Lifts, Track and Field events like Pole vault, and Gymnastics/acrobatic skills would all likely result in considerable white matter adaptation, but that’s just a hypothesis on my part.[/quote]
Pretty much correct. Neuroplasticity is both task specific and global. From the task specific side, we get the concept of “sport specific” training, which is completely valid, and which more or less says that if you want to get really good at transferring general strength and power to your sport you need to practice and improve strength and power in the specific alignment, recruitment, and neural firing patterns that your sport uses.
The global side looks at the ability of the human organism to learn ANY task in general. Taking the physical side of this only, this can more or less be considered the ability of a person to learn and execute many different kinds of movements with many different coordination needs. Essentially much more rapid shifting between “needs”. This is a function of many things and going into that would essentially be too much writing for me and beyond this thread, which I am semi-resurrecting lol.
However, in practice this is what the Soviets recognized as the need of their youth athletes to develop as many different motor patterns as possible in games, gymnastics, tumbling, jumping, etc. and it is also what prompted them to write about the dangers of over-specializing on a sport too early in the athletes career. They noticed significant drop-offs in the accomplishments of these athletes over their career.
I call this term “movement vocabulary”. I consider physical movement and sport to be much like a language, and the wider your vocabulary of learned movements the faster you master new ones when you are challenged with them. Just as you cannot effectively use a language when you know only a few words, you cannot effectively master movements when you only practice a few of them in one particular area of ‘need’ your whole life. Many times, this extended movement vocabulary is what makes us look at a young athlete in middle school and term him a “natural” or “gifted” athlete. As we all know, gifted athletes…when they have the work ethic and stay out of legal trouble…make the most impact in their sports. Genetics aside, there are real factors of neuroplasticity that are being utilized without them knowing it in their developmental stages that set them up for this success.
The two kinds of plasticity go together hand in hand: one is the base and the other is the peak in a directed area of study if you will. When Sento speaks about “innate ability” to use some attributes more than others, this movement vocabulary plays very significantly into this quality.
And of course I agree with everything he’s said about Hearns and others learning to power punch and develop the task specific coordination on these fronts via direct and repeated proper practice.
Aragorn, you’ve been missed around these parts mate.
[quote]LondonBoxer123 wrote:
Aragorn, you’ve been missed around these parts mate.[/quote]
Thank you very much kind sir!
I’ve had a lot on my plate in the past year or so, my posting time is down dramatically sadly enough. Or not, because I really love what’s going on in the outside world for me right now haha. But I enjoy being back to these parts, however briefly–you gentlemen are always thought provoking and fun!
[quote]Aragorn wrote:
[quote]LondonBoxer123 wrote:
Aragorn, you’ve been missed around these parts mate.[/quote]
Thank you very much kind sir!
I’ve had a lot on my plate in the past year or so, my posting time is down dramatically sadly enough. Or not, because I really love what’s going on in the outside world for me right now haha. But I enjoy being back to these parts, however briefly–you gentlemen are always thought provoking and fun![/quote]
Good to hear all’s well, you’ve contributed a lot of great stuff to our little corner over the years.