Wind Sprint Routines

[Brian]

Hello Everyone,

I believe I may have asked this question before so forgive me when I ask it again but I don't believe that I received any detailed information last time around. So here it is again.

In the past we've incorporated quite a bit of running into the training regimines of our fighters. I've noticed both in myself and in our fighters that with the routine we use (mostly endurance running), we are able to fight for decent time spans but our recovery from sprint type, anerobic type bursts is lacking. We train pretty hard for amatuers, our goal is to out train our competition here locally and use that as a means to out hustling our opponents in the ring.

So what usually happens is we do pretty good throughout the fight, with a solid steady pace but we all seem to come up just a little short when we need that power burst for the Ape $#!T finale that will steal the end of each round for us.

We usually run six days out of the week (3 mile minimum with extra miles for anyone who comes in over 30 minutes... for the newbies). Two out of those six invove intermittant sprints but we've also wanted to replace some of the days (perhaps up to 3 of them) with a short 15 minute warm up jog and then a set of wind sprints.

What are your wind sprint routines and how do you feel they've worked for you personnally and for your fighters.

1: What are the drills (the more details the better here)?
2: How long do you run them for (over the course of 10 min, 20 min etc.)?
3: How long do you let them rest between sprints?
4: What do you make them do during rest periods (stand and breathe, shadowbox, sit down, stretch, pushups, what)?
5: How many times a week do you run these drills?

Thanks for your help.

[SOUTHPAW]

wind sprints

Hi Brian, I will try and answer your question and hope that you find the info usefull. Boxing has been said to be about 70-80% anaerobic and 20-30% aerobic. In order to have the kind of anaerobic endurance that is required for the explosive all out combinations of fighting, one must train in a sport specific manner...that means interval running for fighters. The best way is to use work/rest ratios that mimic that of a fight (2-3 min "rounds" with 1 min. rest between). This might translate to 600-800 meter intervals on the track with a 1 min. recovery jog between hard intervals. The work intervals must be run at a hard pace, approx 90% of max heart rate. The fighter should run one more interval than rounds being fought (5 round fight = 6 work intervals). warm up for about 10 min. with a steady run, stretch, and go for it. cool down with a 400-600 meter jog, some walking and more stretches. If you are running 6 days a week, this should be done on two or three of those days.
It would be good to do true sprints one day a week also (70-100 meters) all out sprints. Jog back to the start and go again immediately, do about 10-12 sprints. This will help to develop explosive power. The other two days could be steady endurance runs. Build up to the work load gradually, especially if the fighters are not used to running intervals...they will be sore. Don't run hard intervals on days you will be sparring. By training your road work in this way, the fighters will have anaerobic endurance and explosiveness throught the round, each and every round of the fight. They will be dangerous fighters in the ring and should be able to "out work" most fighters.
Also, I am curious...are you working your fighters with strenght training or plyometrics too? The more specific your training is, the more benefits you will gain. I hope that helps answer your question, if you would like more info please don't hesitate to e-mail me directly. Best of luck.

[Brian]

SouthPaw,

Thanks so much for the info. We'll be sure to put it to very good use. I was beginning to fear that no one else out there used them or cared enough to share their advice on the subject.

In answer to your question, my answer is yes and no. Could you ask for a more ambiguous response? The answer is yes... we try our best with jump squats and clap push ups and things of that sort for plyometrics. We also use the power bands for knees and punches and also for runs where we have the fighters pull someone around behind them. We have a general weight training regimine but it's on the lower end of the priority scale.

Here is the no part of the equasion. We require the fighters to do some of the less technical aspects of training outside of the studio so we're not always there to supervise. Also we are dealing with amateur fighters who work during the day and commit approximately 2 to 2 1/2 hours in the evening to training. So we don't always have time to fit everything in between pad rounds, runs, timing sparring, reviewing tapes (scouting), bag rounds, prumb etc. Saturdays we usually get in a good tough workout and then Monday nights when our time is not split between the non fighting general public and the fighters.

Thanks again for your time and insight.

Sincerely,
Brian Yamasaki

[SOUTHPAW]

Training to Win

Hi Brian,
I'm glad you found the sprint/intervals information to your liking. It has become a goal of mine to work with young fighters (both amateur and pro) in an attempt to give something back to a sport that has been a part of my life for over 20 years. I am a bit new to Muay Thai but boxing is like riding a bike to me. Anyways, I really think that your guys could benefit from some plyometrics and/or complex strength training routines. I have been training with these methods and have trained some other fighters similarly, with dramatic results as far as explosive speed and power are concerned. If you are interested in more information e-mail me and I would be happy to share some with you. Best regards and train hard!
SP