Changing Times: Shane and Barry McGuigan compare how they train

YOUโ€™VE GOT TO WORK

Times may have changed but one thing remains constant, from Barry McGuiganโ€™s era to the modern age: to get to the top you need to have the right work ethic. โ€œI worked hard. Even after [Eusebio] Pedroza [when McGuigan won the world title], the Sunday after the Saturday I spent 15 minutes in the sauna shadow-boxing and going through my routines. A bit like Bernard Hopkins, I loved to train. If anything, I overtrained, I made myself sick of it. But it worked too, I had a very high level of fitness, I could fight at a very intense pace, which most guys couldnโ€™t fight at,โ€ Barry said.

His son Shane now trains Carl Frampton, another hard worker. But there are areas where modern boxing training has evolved. Shane’s fighters work hard, but in a different way. โ€œIโ€™d say strength and conditioning and nutrition would be the main ones. With strength and conditioning, people are loading up their legs, theyโ€™re getting their legs strong because theyโ€™re using their feet a lot more than they did,โ€ said Shane. โ€œ[You might] think, โ€˜Do your long runs, then do your padwork and your sparring and youโ€™ll be fine.โ€™ The thing about long runs, it slows you down. Youโ€™re doing a repetitive motion all the time. When youโ€™re boxing, youโ€™re never going to be at one pace, youโ€™re never going to throw the same shots all the time. Itโ€™s fighting in bursts and being explosive.โ€

RUNNING ON

There were hints of that approach in Barry McGuiganโ€™s training. He ran at a high pace, saying, โ€œI used to love to burn guys out when I was on the road and I was a pretty decent middle-distance runner.โ€

Shane is scientific in the sprint sessions he lays on for his fighters, frequently varying them. โ€œIf heโ€™s close to the weight heโ€™ll do more power stuff. So shorter distances, slightly longer rest. When heโ€™s further out heโ€™ll do longer distances, maybe 400m with a shorter rest. But theyโ€™re all based around 400m and below. All fast explosive pace, lots of 100s, 200s, 400s.

โ€œYou can do 100m, rest 30 seconds, 100m again, thereโ€™s loads of different
ways but as long as itโ€™s always training that explosiveness โ€“ thatโ€™s the key.
We keep one steady-state run in there, we always do a five-miler once a week, normally on a Saturday, once the sparring, weights and pads are all complete.
Weโ€™ll still run at a six-and-a-half-minute-mile pace.โ€

SPAR QUALITY

Sparring is still paramount. โ€œSparring was and is the most important part of training because it simulates the real McCoy,โ€ said Barry. โ€œI used to spar big guys all the time. What Carl [Frampton]โ€™s doing now is typical. I didnโ€™t pull any punches when I sparredโ€ฆ I sparred hard and all my sparring partners were paid and they hit me as hard as they could, it was the same every time in sparring. It was hard graft. Occasionally weโ€™d spar technically but it was hard graft because it had to simulate the real thing and I sparred really, really good kids.โ€

ADAPTATION

Barry McGuigan would start a typical training day with running at 8.30 or 9am. โ€œI donโ€™t know why people run at six oโ€™clock in the morning when youโ€™re fighting at 10 oโ€™clock at night. I donโ€™t quite understand that methodology,โ€
he said. โ€œAs long as youโ€™re putting the effort in and youโ€™re making your heart work really hard when youโ€™re doing your interval stuff, thatโ€™s what itโ€™s about.โ€

Shane has gone one step further. His fighters have their boxing session in the morning and then in the evening either do weight-training, if theyโ€™ve been sparring, or running. โ€œWe do our boxing training first, thatโ€™s the most important session of the day. Thatโ€™s where they want to be fresh. All the strength and conditioning and the running and the sprints, theyโ€™re not going to be sprinters, theyโ€™re not going to be weightlifters, itโ€™s all for their boxing. First up we make sure we put all our time and effort into the boxing and thatโ€™s normally about 11am,โ€ Shane explained.

โ€œI do a lot of technical work on the pads. Thatโ€™s where people learn, itโ€™s the most realistic movements. We do heaps and heaps and heaps of pads. Carl today he did 11 rounds on the pads with me and then he did one round on the bag to finish off with and then he did three rounds of shadow-boxing.

“A lot of padwork is technique stuff. Get your conditioning from hitting the bag, get your conditioning from doing the pads and your high-intensity skipping and stuff like that. Weโ€™ll start sparring with Carl and then after that heโ€™ll warm up, heโ€™ll get taped up, heโ€™ll spar. We always spar first, we wonโ€™t do our pads first. Then if he spars eight rounds, weโ€™ll finish off with four on the pads, or if he spars six rounds weโ€™ll do maybe four on the pads and two on the bags but weโ€™ll always make up the 12 rounds, even when weโ€™re far out in camp, just because it helps get the weight down.โ€

Where the boxer is at in his training camp or sparring will inform his evening workout.

โ€œItโ€™s all periodised; when theyโ€™re further out we do more circuit-based stuff and then when he starts doing his heavy sparring, [the weight-training] becomes more strength-based, the reps get lower and then the last couple of phases we go a bit more into power. Thereโ€™s always like a deload week, a week, 10 days before the fight, because you need to atrophy the guys [decrease their muscle mass] because they want to get into that weight category, be as light as they can but as big as they can for their weight category. There is definitely a science to it and 10-12 weeks out itโ€™s all planned before they come into camp,โ€ Shane explained.

Barry echoed his sonโ€™s view on the need for a scientific approach to modern boxing training, particularly when it comes to nutrition for weight-making. โ€œStrength and conditioning is becoming a major focus on training. Steady-state running, most fighters are still doing it because itโ€™s easy,โ€ he noted but added, โ€œmaking weight is still the biggest issue.โ€

For the full preview of Carl Frampton’s world title fight in Belfast don’t miss this week’s issue of Boxing News

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