Extreme training methods

[hhascup]

What are some of the most rigorous and extreme training methods that you have heard of?

[Mike DeLisa]

chicken chasing

[bodyblow]

John the beast Brown hooked up with some survivalist guy for a while who had him doing survivalist training and wrestling alligators and bizarre stuff like that.

Vasili Jirov's amateur coach used to tie meat to him and set dogs after him to make him run.

I personally think Ali allowing his sparring partners to beat the hell out of him, particularly to the body contributed greatly to his state today.

I'll just mention a couple of unusual methods that I've came across of.

Joe Louis would practice catching flies when training for the Max Baer fight (he actually got pretty good at it too.)

Kostya Tszyu would wear a headband, and attached to it was an elastic band and tennis ball that he would practice hitting. He also liked popping a few coins up in the air and catching them with a single punch per coin (possibly a good precursor before trying Joe Louis's training.)

Ali was one tough customer, but I think their are other ways of achieving that mental toughness without sacrificing your body to do it.

By the way, I heard that some fighters would really practice catching chickens.

[PeteLeo]

Abstaining from sex always seemed pretty extreme to me. PeteLeo.

[10-8]

I remember an old Ring Magazine talking about abstaining from sex before fights and it was noted that Primo Carnera would sleep with a rubber band on his penis to prevent nocturnal emissions (wet dreams).

I believe it was Angelo Dundee who contributed "they could put 8 rubber bands on that guy and it still wouldn't have made him a fighter."

[PeteLeo]

The TV program "Sports Science" (or "The Science of Sports" or something like that) did an investgation into this once widely-accepted bromide with the cooperation of Chris Byrd and his wife (who's something of a looker, by the way). First, their doctors checked Byrd's testosterone levels, blood pressure, reflexes, etc, after Mr. and Mrs. had abstained for a couple of weeks and then compared the results to those taken the day after the couple broke their drought. His "good" levels (hormones and such) were markedly higher and his "bad" levels (like blood pressure) were significantly lower after the romantic interlude. And Chris said that he didn't feel as if he'd "lost his legs" during the recreational activities.

Maybe he should have brought the Missus into the ring with him when he fought Wlad. PeteLeo.

A heard a couple accounts that for the purpose of working on his slipping technique, Roberto Duran would hit the speed bag with his head. He could do it as fast as any pro could do it with their hands.

[bodyblow]

Ive seen Duran work the speed bag with his head and Ive never seen anything like it before or since.

Mike Hunnicut: “The story goes, although I can’t confirm it, that Battling Nelson would shadow box for 40 rounds with a pair of 10lb dumbbells.”

I wonder if that would be under the queensbury rules. Otherwise the story would lose it's zing if a guy would have to come up to him every several seconds and knock his butt into the dirt.

Anyways, here's a nice article on the subject by Mike Casey: http://cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/ca..._OldSchool.htm

[Off The River]

My father told me that hisn father, a reputed hard man in his day (He and his brother used to run rum from New Brunswick to Boston) woould take a page from a newspaper, place it on the table and crumple it up in a ball without lifting his hand off the table. It was done to build hand and forearm strength.

I've seen a video of Duran skipping rope while staying in a squatting position. I've been told that he could also skip rope without his feet leaving the ground, doing a see-saw motion from his toes to heel.

Another exercise from Kostya Tszyu that I saw in his exercise video. Point up to a spot in the ceiling and spin around about 12-21 times. Extreme? Probably not unless you're doing it in a busy intersection, but a little strange no doubt about it.

[Counter Jab]

I'd heard of a Philly journeyman HW about 30 years ago who would punch sides of beef in a meat storage freezer...

Originally Posted by Chris Nagel

Mike Hunnicut: “The story goes, although I can’t confirm it, that Battling Nelson would shadow box for 40 rounds with a pair of 10lb dumbbells.”

I wonder if that would be under the queensbury rules.

Nelson fought only under 3 minute rounds rules.

You think he was a bare knuckle fighter?

[robertk]

Chris Eubank comes to mind of recent fighters. He did everything his own way & the corner was there to hold the spit bucket. He even ate whatever and whenever he wanted. He was also a guy, like Monzon, that didn't believe in sparring.

[Ron Lipton]

Rubin Carter with me next to him in Ehsan's training camp every damn day would do sets of 100 pushups with our feet elevated on a chair, grabbing the ring stool like pushup bars, then immediately 100 ab crunch situps, then the 100 pushups again, until 1000 of each was done.

I saw it, did it and watched him do it, yet some people through the years doubted it, but the sparring partners watched us and could not keep up.
Look at our pictures from then and you know we did it.

We also did the 5-6 mile run on River road every morning at 5AM, plus the sparring, bags, rope etc and chin ups.